Fugly (The Janes)

Edmonton Fringe Festival

2 Stars

According to the company’s website, Fugly: [D]eals with the struggle to be authentic in a world that values quite the opposite.  This show is stylish, satirical, and yet so personal.

It’s an Alice-In-Wonderland metaphor.  They do a good job of making that clear.  And the props and sets are quite clever.  But aside from that…

It is not satirical.  It is hit-you-over-the-head with a message that has been already written about and much more cleverly satirized thousands of times in music, theatre and writing.  Personal?  Not really.  The one-dimensional characters and unnatural, stilted dialogue (made even more unnatural by the stiff, over-enunciated delivery) removes any relatability.

It’s the sort of flog-you-with-a-social-message melodrama that one expects to see in a high school drama class.  Not in a forum where world-class artists perform.

It is clear to see that these women firmly believe in the message, and in this show – and that’s a start.  But it is in desperate need of some good directing, and they need to realize that subtlety drives home a social message much more successfully than this overtly allegorical play.