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Culture Theatre

Fringe review: Peaches On A Cherry Tree

PEACHES ON A CHERRY TREE by Colin Sharpe (CujoLemieux). At Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. July 5 at 10:30 pm, July 7 at 7 pm, July 9 at 4 pm, July 12 at 12:45 pm, July 13 at 8:30 pm, July 14 at 1:45 pm. See listing. Rating: NN


Writer/director Colin Sharpe returns to the Fringe two years after Murder In The Cottonwoods with another macabre tale that mines disturbing comedy from beneath a homespun veneer. But this one doesn’t work.

When Viv (Alexandra Hurley), a cow farmer in a small town, is diagnosed with a terminal illness, her wife Rose (Kyah Green) insists that they kill themselves together whilst locked in a romantic embrace. Frustrating their pre-meditated Shakespearean denouement is Dr. Shelley Nesbitt (Christy Bruce), who refuses to tell the couple the name of the disease that will apparently take Viv’s life. Meanwhile, Shelley’s estranged husband Harold (Lloyd Boyd) appears in a series of soliloquies pining for her to return home.

It’s instantly clear David Lynch is a key influence when the opening music dissolves into an ominous, reverb-y drone. But the iconoclastic filmmaker’s shadow extends beyond the music cues (which sometimes drown out the actor’s voices), with the improbability of the story emphasized through exaggerated and understated acting, abrupt transitions between scenes and deadpan humour.

But this hour-long play lacks a compelling perspective and is uneven in tone. The ideas in the script about relationships are underexplored and the main twist doesn’t pay off thanks to performances that are either stilted or rushed. A bit about an old woman and cows runs on too long. Green, in the most emotive role, stands out thanks to a show-stealing number in which Rose ingests all manner of toxicity. It’s Peaches On The Cherry Tree’s most successful metaphor.

@kevinritchie

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