Brendan McLeod‘The Big Oops’ – Reviews from Winnipeg
Congrats to Cara Yeates for a successful first run of ‘The Big Oops’ in Winnipeg. The reviews are in: 4 stars from the CBC, the Winnipeg Free Press, and an ‘A’ from Uptown Magazine. Read them all below. Next stop – Edmonton!
Winnipeg Free Press – 4 stars
Children’s entertainer Sammi Sam could charm the birds out of the trees. Her singsong mantra is “Yay to life, yay to fun, yay to everything under the sun.” But when a grown-up boo-boo pierces the façade of her perfect life, the pig-tailed people-pleaser is forced to put on her big-girl panties and finally learn how to put her own needs first. Vancouverite Cara Yeates is irresistible as the star of this not-so-innocent kiddies’ show, which uses Sesame Street conventions (live-in boyfriend, Ben, is portrayed by a sock puppet, and there’s a musical teaching moment about condoms) to tackle complex social mores.
Make no mistake about it: The Big Oops (directed by fringe superstar TJ Dawe) is unabashed fun and full of life, but it’s also a pregnant pause that delivers a surprising amount of poignancy.
CBC – 4 Stars
Do children’s performers really act so peppy all the time? Sammi Sam does. In fact, her performing life is indistinguishable from life at home with her boyfriend Ben, who is very convincingly played by a sock puppet. Cara Yeates is bubbly perfection in Brendan McLeod’s play, which was directed by TJ Dawe. But all can’t stay happy in Sammi Sam’s world. As we go to the Destination of the Day, learn in Science Time and do Vocabulary words, her two lives start to clash. A message for kids about how stealing is wrong is juxtaposed with one that is more grown up – the importance of using condoms. Watching Yeates take her character through the evolution is both funny and touching, especially when her accompanying cheery soundtrack gets in the way of a tough decision.
Uptown Magazine – Grade: A
Sammi Sam (Cara Yeates) is a cheery pigtailed kid’s entertainer, with a sock puppet boyfriend and a great life, who dreams of one day becoming the next Raffi. In Sam’s line of work everything is about lessons (“graffiti is for lower-class miscreants” and “hippies don’t pay taxes”) — and bouncy songs to go along. Even though Sam likes to play by the rules, she makes a mistake — and a pretty big one at that. While following the format of “lessons of the day” and “learning, yay!” Sam steers through her big oops and tackles grown up stuff in a way that’s educational (“Did you know that a condom can hold six litres of fluid? That’s a lot of semen!”). Yeates is funny, charming and a fine actor, too.
http://www.uptownmag.com/2010-07-15/page6219.aspx
http://www.uptownmag.com/2010-07-15/page6219.aspx
- Jul 21, 2010 | 0 comment(s)
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