Flesh-Coloured Crayons

Absolute Zero—The Cinematheque

I remember the “Flesh” crayon, as well as the “Indian Red” crayon and looking back now, those descriptions are so offensive. Thus, based on the title and description, I expected a satire on culture and racism. This theme only appears in smatters and by no coincidence, those are the best parts of this show.

This troupe has five actors and it doesn’t take long to appreciate that their talents range from quite strong to very weak. One of the actors should not be on stage as she has no talent for improv and her storytelling lies a league below average. The stand-up gigs go from so-so to good but most of the improv skits fail.

I saw so much potential when the actors appeared as Princess Jasmine, Tiana, Mulan, Pocahontas and Anna. The starting jokes were fresh and funny. I hoped to see the humour continue with a social
statement of why white is good, black is bad, and everything in-between is gradient. Instead, the exploration ends and show jumps to an inane girl-talk having nothing to do with “flesh.” If they take some time and effort to focus on the theme and dump the other clutter (and the weak link), this could become a superior show—as is, this looks like a haphazard hotchpotch that someone hastily threw together with no cogence or coherence.

Ray Yuen