Reviewed by Nathan Clark
The greatest part of the Fringe festival is the fact that performances that wouldn’t otherwise draw the same crowds as mainstream theatre get equal billing with musicals and stand-up acts. The real fringe acts.
Even among its practitioners, slam poetry is often seen as a stepping stone to ‘real’ writing. They want to be playwrights or novelists or songwriters. Carbon copies shows us that slam
poetry is more than just practice, it can be just as powerful as any other storytelling.
Props and costume changes signify that Carbon Copies is going for a different feel than most poetry slams. The performance is framed with prerecorded video segments projected onto the backdrop, setting up the key concept that drives the play.
A discarded roll of film becomes a window into the lives of six people, but who are they outside of the frame? When a photographer captures a moment, emotions are frozen in place.
Is the photographer doing them a service, or robbing them of release?
You have one last chance to see Carbon Copies, Sunday, July 27th at 9 pm. at Mills Hardware, 95 King St E, Hamilton.
