Fringe Festival Review: New Talent

By: Ryan McGreal
Published: 2008/08/22 (Category: Reviews - Fringe Festival 2008)

The emotionally harrowing tale of a young woman driven by circumstance into the escort business, New Talent is simply a tremendous performance.

Interweaving a personal tragedy with a public disaster, this play, written and directed by Brian Morton, packed Venue 1 with a breathless audience.

Perhaps most remarkable, all three of its characters are sympathetic: the nervous, insecure escort (Caroline Concordia), the needy, socially maladapted john (Brad Young), and even the slick but earnest manager (Ian Rayburn), who after all recognizes the business sense in protecting his 'girls'.

The play is graphic at times but always tasteful; look elsewhere for salacious thrills. Christine is as beautiful as she is vulnerable, but her exchange (so to speak) with the john is far too awkward and cringeworthy to be lewd.

Yet it is in their clumsy fencing that we discover their humanity - their pain, their emptiness, their burning desire for something real.

This is simply a must-see performance.

Ryan McGreal, the editor of Raise the Hammer, lives in Hamilton with his family and works as a process and service analyst, web application developer, writer, and journal editor. Ryan volunteers with Hamilton Light Rail, a citizens group dedicated to bringing light rail transt to Hamilton. He is also is the city editor for H Magazine. Several of his essays have been published in the Hamilton Spectator.

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By Carrick
Posted 8/25/2008 9:53:41 AM

Agreed - fantastic play! I came out with chills running down my spine. I thought the pimp was a little smarmy, but I guess pimps ARE a little smarmy so maybe that was OK.

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By chris.shaver
Posted 9/4/2008 8:35:13 PM

Definitely one of the top five or the twenty-one fringe plays i saw that week - Low Lifes, Camoflage, I Am NOT Neil Young, and Because I Can were also excellent... Can you guess which one was the Most Disappointing?

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