Lord, what a title: Sex T-Rex Presents Watch Out WildKat: Yer Dealin’ With The Devil! opened tonight at the Toronto Fringe Festival, promising a rootin’, tootin’, whiskey-swillin’ good time. Dime-novel sensation WildKat MacReady sets out to avenge her father’s death, and she’ll do whatever it takes to get the sonovabitch who killed him — including making a deal with Lucifer himself. But when she comes face-to-face with the only man dangerous enough to cheat the devil, how can she possibly win?
The best things about this show, hands down, are Kaitlin Morrow as WildKat and Conor Bradbury as Satan: not only do Morrow’s unlikely swagger and Bradbury’s all-around goofiness delight on their own merits, the two combined are a remarkable comic team who positively ooze with chemistry. These two performers play off each other extremely well, and the effect is most rewarding. Josef Addleman, Julian Frid, and Seann Murray round out the cast as various villains, nuns, mooks and woodland creatures, all played with zeal and aplomb.
Trouble is, this show often needs that zeal to keep itself going. In my judgement, they could have cut 15 minutes off the runtime, and the show would have been better for it. A small number of songs go on a little too long, and while I’m pretty sure the woman next to me laughed so hard she peed a little, several jokes hit the stage with a resounding thud. Sex T-Rex’s last Fringe show, 2013’s Callaghan!, showed that this company can handle tight writing and snap-snap-snap pacing; this one often felt sluggish and a little wobbly by comparison.
That being said, Sex T-Rex’s trademark brick jokes return, as hilarious and rewarding as ever, and they still find innovative and often downright magical ways to do the most impossible and incredible things on-stage — WildKat‘s horses alone are a treat.
As for the obvious comparisons with Peter & Chris’ western-themed show running just along Bloor, I’ll leave those to the reader to sort out.
Details
Sex T-Rex Presents Watch Out WildKat: Yer Dealin’ With The Devil! plays the George Ignatieff Theatre. (15 Devonshire Place, inside Trinity College. Near Bloor & St. George.)
Performance Dates
July 05 at 09:15 PM
July 07 at 03:15 PM
July 08 at 08:45 PM
July 10 at 09:45 PM
July 11 at 04:00 PM
July 12 at 04:00 PM
Tickets for all mainstage productions are $10 at the door, cash only. Advance tickets are $12, and can be purchased online, by phone (416-966-1062), or from the festival box office at the Fringe Club (rear of Honest Ed’s, 581 Bloor St. West). Money-saving value packs are also available if you are going to at least five shows; see website for details.
LATECOMERS ARE NEVER ADMITTED TO FRINGE SHOWS. To avoid disappointment, be sure to arrive a few minutes before curtain.
Photograph of Kaitlin Morrow provided by the company.
I attended this play last night, every person in my area including me did not stop laughing. This show was a non-stop ride of fun. I don’t remember any of the jokes “hitting the stage with a resounding thud”. The highs were pure gold and it ended with a standing audience. I would definitely suggest this play to anyone at the fringe who is looking for an awesomely fun time and lots of laughs.