A roller coaster crash. A headless teen. Autotuned pop. Mechanical fortune-teller. Space cats. And one of the most hilarious, heartfelt, and earnest musicals to hit the Saskatoon stage in a long time.
Saskatoon Summer Players’ production of Ride the Cyclone is, simply, great. Great acting, great singing, great artistic design, great directing, and a great example of how damn talented theatre artists in this community are.
When it’s described to you, Ride the Cyclone sounds completely (no pun intended) off-the-rails. Six teenagers who died in a Uranium City roller coaster crash are given the opportunity to compete for one chance to return to life by Karnak, the mechanical fortune-teller (Catlin Hogan). The catch – the vote must be unanimous.
That’s the premise out of the way – which serves as the broad framework for a kaleidoscope of the human condition and existential dread played out by a phenomenally talented group of young performers.
This eclectic group of young actors playing even younger characters had a lot of strength from top to bottom. There were a couple particular standouts, like Winslorbless Lumapas’ performance of the type-A, borderline narcissistic Ocean, bringing a powerful pop-edged voice and thoughtful acting to the evolving teen; and Marz Giommi’s Constance, the quiet, oft-apologetic “nice girl” who serves as both perfect comedic counterpoint to Ocean and delivers the emotional gut-punch with delightful nuance that sends the show careening towards its conclusion.
But hats (and heads) off to Sydney Kelln as the beheaded Jane Doe. Forget for a moment the incredible herky-jerky physicality and locked-in deadpan acting she had to main for the 90-minute, no intermission performance. In a show full of talented singers, Kelln stood out for her top-notch vocal prowess. Or as the person sitting next to me in the theatre put it: I could listen to Kelln sing the phone book and walk away impressed and entertained.
Director BJ Dyck has done an absolutely stellar job of putting together a great cast for this show and putting them in a position to succeed. The show uses the whole stage of the Broadway Theatre well, even bringing the show right out into the audience and adding lights and projections against the Broadway Theatre screen.
And again – despite the insane premise, the quirky Saskatchewan-focused plot, the wide range of musicals styles and songs (I am still getting over the phenomenal swap from autotuned hip-hop stylings to heartfelt traditional melodies from Ukrainian bad boy Mischa Bachinski, played by the talented Kayden Horvath), and the bright colours of the design, this show hits home.
There are way too many scripts that claim to be comedy-dramas or drama-comedies and can never actually accomplish both – or either. Ride the Cyclone, conversely, nails the absurdist comedy and, in this production on Friday night, drives home the poignant message with a level of earnestness and emotion that you’ll forget this show starts with a monologue about death and rats from a mecha-fortune-teller.
A few microphone snafus in the performance and some issues here and there with levels were not nearly enough to derail an excellent show.
Great shows can make you laugh out loud. The best shows can pack humour and heart into one package and encourage you to experience the whole range of human emotions. That’s Ride the Cyclone – a show that is undeniably worth the watch.
You want to get on this roller coaster ride.
The SSP production of Ride the Cyclone runs Nov. 12 to 15 at the Broadway Theatre. Tickets can be purchased online at saskatoonsummerplayers.ca.
