TORONTO – This Friday’s performance of local independent thespian Grant Issac’s one man Fringe show The Dollarama Dialogues was attended by one audience member.
The play sees Issac perform fifty-seven individual characters, all conversing with their dead fathers, regarding the rising cost of living in the Canadian Prairies. It is billed as a comedy.
Isaac has been frustrated by the show’s lack of success at the Toronto festival.
“The show crushed in Montreal, Edmonton, and Regina. But these Toronto snobs wouldn’t know real theatre if it punched them in the dick,” he said. “I’m up there baring my soul: doing all the voices and putting on wigs. I make at least one joke every seven minutes. What more do they want from me?”
Lone audience member Jake Relsh described the forty-seven minute show as unintelligible and long.
“I read online that the Fringe was happening and my dinner plans canceled, so I thought ‘why not take a risk on something new?’ When the show opened the actor had a mop on his head and was crying to an acoustic cover of Fleetwood Mac. I wanted to leave but it seemed like he really needed someone to watch,” Relsh noted.
“I don’t normally go to the theatre. Is it all like this?
Isaac has four more performances left in the run of his play. While he’s hoping for a larger crowd for the remaining shows, the performer believes Friday’s show was special.
“You always hope for a big audience, but I got to say I really captured the lone audience member on Friday. I know it’s something he’ll never forget.”
