Fire in the Meth Lab

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Fire in the Meth Lab

Playwright/s – Jon Bennett

Production Company/Theatre space – An independent touring show curated by the theatre, in conjuncton with (but not officially part of) the the Fringe Festival. @ 14^th Ave and 2^nd Street SW.

Length – One Act, 80 minutes (no intermission)

Genre/s – Storytelling Black Comedy

Premise – A man recounts deeply personal stories from his dysfunctional childhood musing on the cause of his older bully brother substance abuse disorder, poor parenting, abuse from the church, the biker gang, going to jail….

Why this play? Why now? – Between 12% and 21% of the population meet the criteria for substance abuse disorder and the rest cannot escape be affected. Addiction is on the rise and so inquiries into its origins are sadly topical.

Curiosities – When will we turn away from faith based “cures” for addiction and turn towards proven science-based treatments? How were the rights for the videos acquired? What would the brothers one person show look like?

Notable Moment – Parishioners and ministers surrounding and beating a child to the floor with bibles on behalf of a god and no sane adult intervenes this horrific child abuse.

Notable writing – One of the mistakes new playwrights make is not telling stories about people’s worst days. This is not the case. Here there are so many worst moments it’s hard to discern but I’d pick not being able to alight the car (pun intended). This was the strongest image. We were offered different length options for the show and ended up with 80 minutes which had a few moments that seemed like padding but not many. The story has a chronological (this happened, then this happened) structure rather than the stronger choice to create a dramatic plot leading to the inevitable explosion of the fire in the meth lab. The ending devolves somewhat into a “let me impart knowledge moment” which is as flaccid as a formerly described paternal penis sticking out of tighty whiteys.

Notable performances – Jon Bennett is instantly likable and very engaging. He is the adult child who has survived trauma and has found humour in the pain. He interacts with the audience with the casual knowledge of an ol’ pro making it impossible for us not to laugh.

Notable design/Production – This production relies on a slide show to illustrates the story, from real family photos to doctored comic images. There are also letters from jail, clips from The Wonder Years, a 1970s music video, and a progressive list of the brother’s five addictions. (No doubt this is also a tool to keep track of the sequence of events and jokes.) The surrounding detritus of empty liquor bottles and a few plastic test tubes seemed superfluous to needs. 

Notable direction – Self-directed.

One reason to see this show – You’ll cringe, you’ll laugh.