Fortunate Son at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival 2011 (review)

I attended the Saturday afternoon presentation of Fortunate Son, which we previewed last week. Given how Raul had enjoyed previous productions from the same company, I was expecting something a bit more interesting than what I was given.

If you forgot, the play is about the first few hours after Pierre-Elliot Trudeau’s funeral, as lived by his eldest son Justin Trudeau and Trudeau’s best friend Cal. It’s not a bad idea in itself, but the text could have used a few more drafts. It was clunky and repetitive at some points, and could have used a bit of editing.

Québecers have a complicated relationship with Trudeau. He started the Révolution Tranquille and then imposed the war measures law during the FLQ crisis. My mother tells me about the tanks roaming the streets of Montréal when she was a teenager, and I understand why most of us are reluctant to consider him a “great” Prime Minister.

That was a long preamble just to say that I found the text overly glorifying. Justin couldn’t help himself but admire and glorify his absent father, despite a lonely childhood. It might pass for Trudeau-ites, but it became bitter in my mouth. The text was a bit too heavy on emotions and tried hard to pull on the viewers’ heart strings. The play got the opposite reaction from me as it tried a bit too hard.

There were bits of French put in here and there, as an afterthought it seems, unfortunately so badly pronounced that it made me cringe. I can’t blame the actor for this, but it could have done away with it altogether. This kind of lip service to bilingualism bothers me–either do it or don’t. Weirdly, there were also more mentions of Vancouver than either Montréal (where the play happens) or Ottawa.

On top of an overly saccharine script, the acting was competent at best, especially on the part of Drew Stanilard, who played Justin. It might have been the text or the fact that he was playing someone who’s alive and publicly active, but I felt there was something forced about the performance. Michael Armstrong as Cal fared a bit better, but overall I didn’t find their dynamic really convincing.

Overall, the play left me a bit bored. Yes, it’s an interesting subject, but it really felt glorifying to me. There was almost no criticism of Trudeau’s reign, only a vague feeling of anger from his son who felt abandoned all his life. It seemed that the play sinned through too many good intentions: it wanted to work through both the personal and political consequences of Trudeau’s death for Justin, but these two topics didn’t work well together and we’re left with a clunky mess of factual exposition and emotional reactions.

Fortunate Son might be a play to see if you’re interested in the history of Trudeau’s reign and the values of the Liberal Party. But there are some things you just can’t be objective about: for me, I can’t swallow having Trudeau thus glorified for his political life. As for Justin, his ultimate fate in the play left me cold; we all know he just got elected for the second time as the MP of the Papineau district on May 2nd.

Disclaimer: Hummingbird604.com was personally invited to see the play and Anabelle got in with a Super Pass courtesy of the Vancouver International Fringe Festival 2011 organizers. We were not paid to write a review, nor was a positive one expected. Raul maintains editorial control at all times.

Read all of our Vancouver International Fringe Festival 2011 coverage here.

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