Snake Oil

Theatre Dance Centre—John Hirsch Mainstage

Hosting one of the largest casts in the entire fringe, the wild west comes alive through dance and gun fights. This silly and fun family show follows three gullible ‘village idiots’ and one not so scary bad guy as they try to outsmart the townsfolk and get ahead. The cast was on the whole very strong with tremendous comedic timing. The main villain had me belly laughing quite a few times. There are also some wonderful whole-cast dance numbers and an epic slow mo fight scene. While the dancing and jokes landed, several elements did not. The show is very hokey and looked, quite frankly, cheap. There were gun shots in effect but they were very quiet and also did not really sound like gun shots. The set looked like they ran out of time to finish it. There were many very awkward transitions and unintentional moments of silence. While the cast is undeniably talented, It is very hard for me to treat this as a legitimate play when you try to pass off children and teens as adults, especially when they are acting alongside actual adults. A little more time and polishing was needed to turn this into a good play, but it is  good one to take children and families to.

Kaitlyn Kriss