Toronto Star Review of “The Red Queen Effect”
15 Jan
Highly Recommended
This one is guaranteed to blow your mind on a variety of levels. It’s an exploration of the troubles a young woman can still find in the glass-ceiling world of business, but it’s told through the framework of Alice in Wonderland, complete with Red Queen, Mad Tea Party and all the rest.
That’s enough to be intriguing, but then add Kelly Staughan’s inventive staging – which keeps tipping from stylized movement into dance and then back to reality – and couple with the fact that the script combines the freshness of ensemble creation with polish (thanks to editor Rachel Blair), and you have something well worth an hour of your time. No, it’s not perfect yet and some of the observations about piggish men, dried-up spinsters and ambitious women are a bit obvious, but the breezy pace and the smart, sassy cast make it work.
Monica Dottor is a briskly attractive Alice and Nicholas Campbell brings an air of 110% reality to his role as an offbeat business executive. I hope this show goes places and I can’t wait to see it again when it does.
– Richard Ouzounian
Photo Credit: Michelle Bailey, Nerdy Girl Designs
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