The Toronto Fringe Theatre Review: Mixtape Projects’ Iris (says goodbye)
By Ross
It’s all about endings, and a possible chosen beginning, spun out with an astounding, authentic clarity and emotional invention, determined to engage with the fascinating pull of being alive. There’s a flatline reframing of the first scene, where bags are packed, but the movement is on hold. Purgatory, it seems, is an airport in Mixtape Projects‘ powerful and absolutely captivating new musical, Iris (says goodbye), and I was floored by its musical brilliance. It’s a fantastic reworking that evokes epic Sondheim vibes from their very first Company ‘being alive’ crescendo to the last, but mix-taped with the deathly sweet abstraction of “Heaven Can Wait.” It messes beautifully with our heads quite magnificently, as everything clicks into place in its own strange way— pulling around all of our baggage while waiting, for what seems like eternity, to board a plane and fly off to our next destination. To heaven, if you’d like to think that way, but here in this new musical with a strong book by director Margot Greve and music & lyrics by Ben Kopp (Mixtape Projects’ Killing Time: A Game Show Musical), Iris is being offered the rare gift of another chance, to return to the land of the living and have another go at it all. But before she can return, she must choose which life she would like to live, and in those wildly, wonderfully crafted options, a magnificent musical is found and mixed together, where you might never have thought there would be one, let alone an endless construction of unique mini-framings.
Surrounded by bland airport-lounge modernisms, beautifully crafted by set and costume designer Alessia Urbani (Mixtape Projects’ Killing Time…), with a strong, subtle assist by lighting designer Mathilda Kane (Common Boots/Parlous’ Insert Clown Here) and sound designer Olivia Wheeler (Coal Mine’s Infinite Life), the three red-clad souls that each play a future possible Iris; Madelaine Hodges 賀美倫 (Shakespeare BASH’d’s The Two Noble Kinsmen), Sydney Gauvin (Shifting Ground’s Merrily We Roll Along), and Luca McPhee (Thaumatrope’s Alice by Heart), step into the renewable Iris reframing for the bewildered Outside Iris, strongly embodied by Michelle Blight (A Front Company’s Morning After), to see and take in. Fabulously choreographed by Alli Carry (Off the Nose’s Zeitgeist), this 90-minute wonder unpacks 8 different options for Outside Iris to choose from, yet there are 20 different ones laid out before us. Each option has a song and dance story folded within, effortlessly unpacked by a strong ensemble that includes Nick Dolan, Ben Yoganathan, Jameson Mosher, Justan Myers-Chapman, Brooke Mitchell, Claudia Nigro, Ineza Mugisha, Maggie Tavares, and Brynn Bonne, each and every one delivering the options forward with superb style and substance.
In this gigantic, endless airport where souls wait for their name to be spoken one last time, the options are dutifully rolled out, selected from a prop list of twenty by an audience member in a lively gameshow style. Once plucked up from the floorboards, the chosen ones are highlighted on a call board, and the objects are handed out to the members of the ensemble to center themselves around the idea and construct. What this means is that every time this musical is performed, it becomes a completely unique experience in an endless, always-rearranged formula that is both awe-inspiring and completely energizing. Iris is thrown into a looping that is fascinating and utterly compelling, while also being somewhat disturbing for Outside Iris: “There’s nothing comfortable about watching you die,” over and over again, no matter how clever and how creative this musical can get. And this show is so completely clever, constructed with a strong inventive concept, fascinatingly organized around the sharpest and most beautifully sing-song ways.
“Pick one!” she is told, after the last option unwinds itself before her. And we hold our breath, waiting to see what this Outside Iris is going to say and do. They want her to feel like she has some agency in the process, but “What does it really mean?” you might ask, alongside Outside Iris. That’s one of the many really delicious dimensions of Iris (says goodbye). It leaves you leaning in, as breathless as one might get, wondering if the flight you have been anxiously waiting for is being cancelled or if this is just another gate change announcement for a destination unknown. Iris (says goodbye) was the last show of a really compelling Best of Fringe weekend brought to life by TO Live and the Toronto Fringe Festival. Every seat was taken for this last performance, and I can completely understand why this Best of flight was full. It really is that good! Saying goodbye to Iris is the most grand and gorgeously high way of ending this festival, and I’m pleased as punch to find myself waiting alongside her for the Company formulation to uncover its eventual fate and destination.
