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Winnipeg
Fringe Festival 2000 / CBC Manitoba July 26, 2000
- Robert Enright
Take the title at face value. Shannan Calcutt is back and she
is better than before, however difficult that may be to believe.
Last year she brought Izzy the clown to the Fringe in "Burnt
Tongue" and this year she returns with the intention of entering
a convent. It's her way of rejecting a world filled with guys
who have rejected her. But getting her cloistered away proves
difficult; her early hesitations to even go on stage where a
formidable portrait of a nun guards the holy gates, is only
the first of her many indecisions. She is all scurry and hyper-
ventilation. But don't worry, Izzy is in no danger of really
leaving us for a cloistered life, anymore than she is willing
to part with her beloved suitcase. The Izzy of "Burnt Tongue"
was fragile and vulnerable; Izzy here is a benign stalker, still
vulnerable after all these years, but with a bossy edge that
is hilarious. Calcutt's work with the audience is brilliant,
and the riffs she runs on her journey into and then away from
the religious life are inspired. The show I saw was flawless,
both in writing and, especially, in performance. At one point
Izzy says about the convent, "but here I'm loved and we're all
better when we're loved." She's right again but not about the
convent. She means the Winnipeg Fringe where she is indeed loved
and where she has indeed become better. Don't miss Izzy; she
could make humour a religion. Get thee to her nunnery.
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