Something in the Water

S.E. Grummett—MTC Up the Alley

Engaging, entertaining, essential and eminent.

Upon receiving the “souvenir” as I entered the theatre, I wondered what was going on. After all, this is Fringe where anything can happen. I went to shows where I ended up eating cake, drinking shooters, tasting ethnic food, and who knows what else. My immediate fear was that we’d all have to eat squid. I
hate squid. But wait! There must be vegans in the audience who would refuse to eat! I won’t be the only non-squid eater! On the other hand, I never want to be one of the people who don’t participate.
What’s going to happen?

The show started peacefully at the subject’s very origins, and soon took off with foot on the floor, zero to 100 in seconds. Before long, everyone fell into the societal expectation of normative polarisation. The high-energy takeoff resembles that of a rocket escaping the earth’s gravity, then after we broke free, calm and introspection set in. Turbulence and chaos speckled the remainder of the journey, until we finally landed, hopefully a little bit more aware, a little bit more engaged, and a lot more tolerant.

Although this run was fun from start to finish, it covered a lot of critical topics, sometimes seriously, often jestingly. While considering what to write here, I reran all of the issues that were brought forth and with no exaggeration, I could write an entire dissertation on what Grumms covered in this hour.

And I didn’t have to eat squid.

Ray Yuen