Good afternoon, everyone.

I recently saw Same Boat Theatre’s production of Whale Fall at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in Toronto. I like the Red Sandcastle – it’s kind of weird and quirky, and there’s haunted-house-esque decor in the bathroom. It’s a good time.

Whale Fall is an award-winning Fringe Festival show about a woman, Rebecca (presumably based on a real person), and her journey to connect with her father, save the whales, and find herself. The show has 2 actors – Stephanie Hope Lawlor and Ray Louter – and it’s about 45-50 minutes long. It jumps from being surrealist and poetic to heartfelt and grounded to educational and presentational. And look, I’m always down to see a grown man fully commit to making whale sounds and whooshing around a stage.

Jokes aside, I enjoyed this piece. This is well-executed underground/Fringe/indy theatre/performance art (whatever you want to call it). The production is quite stripped down – i.e. limited set/props/costumes and no fancy tech, but it has more substance than some other similar-style shows I’ve seen.

The acting is excellent – the connection Stephanie and Ray have to each other and to the material is inspiring. I was somewhat surprised to find out that Stephanie was not a writer-performer in this show. I was also very impressed by the pacing of Whale Fall, as there was a lot of material to memorize (especially for Stephanie), and neither actor missed a beat. I liked the emotional build-up to the final scenes, and I felt that they were earned.

I appreciate the educational components to this show – I walked out actually learning something about whales. For example, when whales die, their carcasses can provide food for entire ecosystems at the bottom of the ocean for months or longer (‘whale fall’ – get it?). #whalefacts.

I was also grateful that this show is political without grouping together every cause under the sun (what a Jagged Little Pill that would be), and effective at making me care about a cause without its feeling overtly preachy.

I also liked the vibey whale/ocean inspired music and sounds. To quote the eloquent Jacob (husband of the blog/my date to this show), the music was “great.” I couldn’t find a natural place to put that commentary in the paragraphs above.

If you’re interested in hipster two-person plays and want to learn about whales, check out this piece.

Thank you to Eldritch/Same Boat for the invite to this show! Whale Fall is playing at the Red Sandcastle Theatre in the east end of Toronto until Nov. 26, 2023 (the anniversary of my Bat Mitzvah lol). You can purchase tickets here.

Featured image: Stephanie Hope Lawlor and Ray Louter, by Stephen Near. Sameboattheatre.com