Fringe 2012: Of Mice and Morro and Jasp
Photo by Alex Nirta.
Up Your Nose and In Your Toes Productions
Thursday, July 5, 6:30 p.m.
Friday, July 6, 10:30 p.m.
Sunday, July 8, 4:45 p.m.
Tuesday, July 10, 5:15 p.m.
Thursday, July 12, 5:45 p.m.
Friday, July 13, 5:15 p.m.
Saturday, July 14, 11:30 p.m.
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace (30 Bridgman Avenue)
Morro and Jasp are the the current rock stars of their field, as evidenced by the screams and cheers as the lights started to dim, before the duo had appeared onstage.
Their tweaking of John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men is a brilliantly simple vehicle for their Joey and Auguste style of performance, with Morro (Heather Marie Annis) playing a version of the dimwitted Lennie, and Jasp’s (Amy Lee) know-it-all persona easily taking on the role of George. When it turns out that Morro hasn’t read the whole story, Jasp is given further license to place her younger sister in all sorts of humiliating situations to “advance the plot,” though the two both have hilarious crow (and other things) to eat, and get to play up how clowns are mistreated by society (a concept the two have explored before).
The show closed with a last surprise, this time for the performers themselves: a contingent from the Toronto Alliance For the Performing Arts came onstage to present Lee and Annis with their Outstanding Performance Dora award in a belated ceremony. The night did end in copious tears—neither of laughter nor the tragic variety, but of surprise and gratitude from Lee and Annis themselves.
