Stephanie Morin Robert has a couple of tricks she’d like to show you.
I watched this show online but, when it ended, I clapped anyway. Stephanie Morin Robert’s autobiographical solo is about growing up with a glass eye — and turning that perceived vulnerability into a superpower. Formally, Blindside is taut and inventive. Directing her own monologue, Robert keeps shifting the frame. When it starts, we see her off to one side, speaking into a camera; the projected image of her face takes up most of the screen. Then we see her without this device as the camera views her full body in a straightforward recording of her performance. And she flips into dance sequences: “You didn’t think the dance section would happen just once, did you?” The material combines vulnerability and resilience, with wit forming the bridge between the two. We hear about her violent parents — “For some, throwing a microwave across the kitchen seems like a good way to cope” — and about the chance encounter at summer camp that allowed her to fully access her defiance. Once she has passed that point, she pushes audience members’ potential squeamishness, daring us not to embrace her reality. This gets a bit repetitive, so I could have done with a little less of it, but it does contain a jaw-dropping “puppet” sequence. Blindside is worth watching.
Vancouver Fringe Festival online. Available until September 19. Vancouver Fringe Festival tickets.
Agreed! This has been my favourite so far.