> Sarvin Esmaeili *
The speed of Jon Bennett’s storytelling left me open-mouthed.
He starts by casually chatting with the audience. Then he subtly shifts into the heart of his show with the question, “How many of you have missed your plane before?… Well,nobody can beat my number. I’ve missed my plane 14 times during the years!”
From there, Bennett tells us about his childhood, puberty, and first love, all of which culminates in his inability to express his affection in public. He refuses to hug anyone, which interferes with his relationships.
I love how Bennett has no boundaries with his audience. He asks an audience member to zip up his shiny pink dress, picks someone to play the role of his granny, and asks someone else to hold a cup for him to pee into.
And I love how he evoked his relationships by showing pictures of his exes on-screen along with nicknames—including Boring Kelly.
Maybe Bennett is such a speedy storyteller because he has so much to say in just one hour.
Remaining Performances at Waterfront Theatre on September 14 (5 p.m.) and 15 (4:20 p.m.)
* This is a guest review.
Sarvin Esmaeilicurrently studies at Studio 58. She is a passionate 19-year-old theatre artist who cares a lot about diversity, inclusion and creating her own theatre and music. Sarvin is fluent in three languages: Farsi, English, and French. She loves reading, travelling, writing and going to the theatre. She is a co-playwright/performer of One of a Kind at the 2018 Vancouver International Children’s Festival and Doors of Choice and Identity at Vancouver Youth Theatre. She has done community theatre at Evergreen Cultural Center, Place des Arts and Pinetree Secondary’s Treehouse Theatre.
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