I think it’s safe to say that not everyone will love Hypnogogic Logic, but personally, I loved it.

Kind of hard to describe it exactly, one audience member said: “If you like Monty Python, you’ll probably like this.”  I suspect that’s true, although, it isn’t particularly reminiscent of Monty Python, other than having elements of “weird”.  It’s sketch comedy, but smoother, surreal and absurd.  The surreal and absurd make a heck of a lot of sense since it’s billed as “trip through the world of dreams”.

One moment that disappointed me was the audience participation bit.  The person chosen said “no”, but was pressured to come up anyway.  It was funny, but not cool.  It seems to me that it’s important to respect an audience member’s wish to not be dragged into the show.  Some people just want to observe, let those people do that.  There are laughs to be had from the willing, and those ones wouldn’t leave such a sour taste in my mouth.

But really, with that aside, I loved the show. Hypnogogic Logic is smart and funny and bizarre, a winning combination really.

As with all sketch comedy, not every sketch resonated with me the same way, but there were some fantastic moments.  I won’t catalogue them here though, because they’re such a joy to discover, I wouldn’t want to ruin that.  Plus, as is the nature of these things, the sketches that resonated with me may not be the ones that would resonate with you.

One of the things that sets this apart for me from other sketch comedy I’ve seen are the transitions.  The segues don’t makes sense, they aren’t a logical next step (nothing in this piece is logical), but they’re smooth and seamless.

Put it all together and you get 75 minutes of good nonsensical fun.  I really recommend this.  I might even be looking into babysitting to see it a second time.

Details:
– All Next Stage Theatre Festival performances are being held at Factory Theatre (125 Bathurst)
– Tickets for all shows are $15 for Evening Performances (7:00 and after start time), $12 for Afternoon Performances (6:59 or before start time) and $10 for Ante-chamber performances
– Showtimes for Hypnogogic Logic are:
JAN 5 / 5:00
JAN 6 / 7:15
JAN 7 / 9:15
JAN 8 / 7:15
JAN 10 /5:45
JAN 12 / 6:45
JAN 13 / 9:15
JAN 14 / 4:45
JAN 15 / 9:00