Reviews - Fringe 2009

I'll Always Be There To Kill You

By Tom Mackan
Published July 26, 2009

By Sophie Tonneau
Translated from the French and Produced by Genevieve Trilling
Directed by Patricia Marceau
Featuring Genevieve Trilling and Christian Smith

An almost full house gave last night's performance rapt attention, much hearty laughing reaction, and a rousing ovation at the end. We had a lot of fun, very surprising for a story about an unlikely killer and his beguiling and charming very likely victim.

It's the way it is with the French and their disarming insouciance concerning human misbehaviour. Only they can skim lightly through the bad stuff while still keeping the tension and suspense of the subtext alive and beating.

It's contemporary, somewhere in a simple and secluded country house in France. She lives alone and her name is Helen. (Not Elene, it's French and she hates the French of it). Pretty in pink, she is, child-like but quite grown up. His name is Simon. He's answered her ad for household helper, and luckily enough he has all the handyman requirements as well as being a hunk.

Let's not spoil this by telling you what secret mission Helen has in mind for Simon. In a less Gallic story there'd be this "I'll Be Back Before Midnight" plunked in our laps. No, from her first entrance, actor Genevieve Trilling is the French for sly and impish ingenuousness.

Whatever she is, she is not a bad person, and we are soon enjoying her plot. Her performance is a jewel of creative skill. Christian Smith makes the most of his role as the device in the story while matching Trilling's ingenuity with his own well-practised expertise.

The play will be performed in English on Sunday at 12 N.

TNgM

Tom Mackan is Publisher and editor of NEWZY BITZ, an online Community Theatre newsletter in the GHA, with over 200 subscribers. He is a Member of the Board, Theatre Burlington; an actor and director in GHA Community Theatre for fifty years; winner of over 25 awards and citations in the Western Ontario region and beyond; recipient of 2007 City of Hamilton Arts Award (Theatre); a Graduate of Canadian Theatre School (Sterndale Bennett) Toronto, 1955; and a retired teacher of English and Drama in public and private schools in the GHA and abroad.

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