Fringe Review

Amsterdam Fringe 2011 Life is Too Good to be True

Genre: Drama

Venue: Castrum Peregrini

Low Down
Lies, we are told, have become a necessity of contemporary society. The truth, we are told, can be dangerous. But what happens if even our dreams are made out of a whole pack of lies? Positive thinking, we are told, will get us through the rough times and help us cure our bodies of disease. But what happens if we are incapable of thinking positively? Everything these days, is seems, is geared up to being popularised and commercialised, even on our death beds we are offered branded objects in an attempt to hide the truth and rid us of our pains. So how would our lives look in reality? Gable Roelofsen has managed to write and perform a script which features the life of Stephen Glass a journalist who attempts to live a life without lies.

Review
With the audience placed in a semicircle, making it easy to see each others faces, we get the feeling of sitting in a group therapy session, which is the exactly the aim of the first part of the show. A discussion is started by Stephen Glass a young American journalist on the topic of how lies affect our daily lives, focusing on his own life, built on the vast amount of fabricated articles he has written. The quick and impressive rise in his career is followed by a fast and aggressive fall. This monologue moves into the topic of positive thinking, his character then transforming into a successful female scientist. She was once diagnosed with breast cancer and is the author of many books on the subject. This new character tells us about the lies and fabrication she had to face during this difficult time, and her personal crusade to eradicate those lies.

of how lies affect our daily lives, focusing on his own life, built on the vast amount of fabricated articles he has written. The quick and impressive rise in his career is followed by a fast and aggressive fall. This monologue moves into the topic of positive thinking, his character then transforming into a successful female scientist. She was once diagnosed with breast cancer and is the author of many books on the subject. This new character tells us about the lies and fabrication she had to face during this difficult time, and her personal crusade to eradicate those lies. With this cleverly written script, which speaks about a very common aspect of our lives the everyday lies the performance manages to deliver its message effectively to the audience. Although the staging isn't very rich in elements, there is the key colour, pink, used in the design, suggesting the perfect happy lives that we want and that we are constantly lying about in order to attain. Gable Roelofsen proves himself to be a very talented, skilled young actor, who captured the audiences attention with his energetic and joyful acting. This was emphasised in the smooth flowing change from one extreme character to another, which he achieves by an unsuspected change of outfits. He passes from the casual loose suit of a journalist to the pink curly hair and some sparkling pink high heels of an eminent and eccentric scientist! Roelofsen has certainly created an interesting character, which he didn't betray for a second in the whole performance. Although he stutters occasionally over his lines, he still managed to deliver a clear, logical and well phrased narrative, making the whole performance very entertaining. His message is brought across perfectly, emphasising just what might happen if we all started telling the truth. Everyone, including those people in superior positions, may spiral into a pathological craziness, where we are all singing songs by Lady Gaga. I watched the show with interest and I really felt I was transferred into the characters story. His monologues certainly awoke something within me and made me think again about how we all tell lies out of pure politeness, and how we lie to ourselves every day in the vain belief that if we only think positively, we can accomplish everything we desire. At the end of the performance, when Stephen was singing Gagas Speechless in a sad and exhausted way, he managed to play, more or less, on some of the sensitive strings of our souls. And this was evident in the tears welling up in some of the eyes around me. By making the audience laugh, weep and question itself about the effects of truth and lies on our society, Gable Roelofsen deserves appreciation and the standing ovation, as well as winning his place as one of the best Fringe performances.
Reviewed by Cristina Rotariu 5 September 2011