Um, please go see Devon More‘s Flute Loops.
It is an amazingly good music-based play running at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse for the 2018 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Here is a list of some of the best things this show features:
- Music made on the spot with live sampling/playback, improvising with the audience and building on just about anything we do or don’t do
- General physics nerd stuff combined with music nerd stuff (especially a treat for me!!)
- A delightfully charmingly awkward and funny character who uses well-placed puns
Flute Loops has made my job as a reviewer easier because I can sincerely say that you need to watch it. It has also made my job harder because I have to explain why. And as much as I need to articulate my feelings in an organized fashion, I want to gush incoherently. Sadly, I have to explain myself.
Flute Loops is a concert within a play. More plays a delightfully awkward and existentially fraught Physics PhD helping out at her boyfriend’s concert. Secretly, she’s also a classical music nerd, and tries to explain to the audience – we play the role of concertgoers – the entirety of physics through a musical lecture.
More goes from the formation of the atom to Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle, all the while endlessly quoting “Our Lord and Saviour” Stephen Hawking with the exact voice. Trust me when I say it’s wonderful.
More‘s performance is incredible. Her character is delightfully awkward and being an utter klutz, knocking things over right from the start. But she also improvises in character and genuinely reacts to the audience.
More hands out a survey for the audience to fill out then, after collecting them, talks about the results, entirely within character. At another fantastic moment, we spontaneously applaud one of her songs, and she is really taken aback.
Her compositions are beautiful, and it’s thrilling to see how she executes live sampling on the spot, incorporating themes from Mozart to Ravel. The music isn’t strictly rock, hip-hop, or any other genre. It is a mix.
This artist really deserves to be seen by as many people as possible. I guarantee you with every fibre of my body that Flute Loops is an incredible show.
Details
- Flute Loops plays at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse. (79 St. George St.)
- Tickets are $13, including a $2 service charge. The festival also offers a range of money-saving passes and discounts for serious Fringers.
- Tickets can be purchased online, by telephone (416-966-1062), from the Festival Box Office at Scadding Court (707 Dundas St. W.), and — if any remain — from the venue’s box office starting one hour before curtain.
- This venue is wheelchair-accessible.
- Be aware that Fringe performances always start exactly on time, and that latecomers are never admitted.
Performances
- Wednesday July 4th, 8:15 pm
- Saturday July 7th, 5:15 pm
- Monday July 9th, 1:00 pm
- Tuesday July 10th, 6:00 pm
- Thursday July 12th, 8:00 pm
- Friday July 13th, 11:00 pm
- Saturday July 14th, 1:45 pm
Photo of Devon More by Heather Dawn Sparks