Vancouver International Fringe Festival

Author: 
Sarah Hyde

CJSF volunteer, Sarah Hyde, reviews Mr. Fox at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival, a play about that ubiquitous Vancouver radio mascot...

MR. FOX

 Under no circumstances must you ever take off the head – those instructions will make you a really bad guillotine operator or a really great mascot.  

Mr. Fox is a one man play and it is full of the dos and do nots like this.  

The play is about Greg Landucci’s time working as the Fox, at C-FOX.  

He wants to be a radio jock and thinks being the Fox is his foot in the door.  

Greg is just one man but he plays dozens of different characters from a drill sergeant type coach, to tweed wearing sports historian, to a flirtatious girl in a night club and all this without a single prop or costume change.  

Greg’s physicality was amazing he did all the mascot moves: lead the wave, did silly victory dances, and fell over in classic slap stick style.  

But for me there was another level of humor.  

While Greg was being the Fox he was also going to the B-C-I-T Radio program.

I'm in that program and the teachers he played were just like my teachers.  

I thought the instructor character talking about moving to a small town to find radio work hilarious but my non-B-C-I-T friend only gave a supportive chuckle so I wouldn’t be embarrassed about my laughing. 

 Ultimately I think this play transcends its slightly B-C-I-T-centrique humor with its universal message.  

Greg wanted to be a morning radio show host, but ended up Mr. Fox because that was the opportunity that presented itself.  

He lost sight of his goal, which makes sense since it has to be pretty hard to see through those mesh mascot eye holes. 

If you missed it at the Fringe you can watch Mr Fox at the SFU theatre this Friday at 12:30 or Sunday at the Kay Meek centre in West Van at 8pm.  

  • Posted on: 18 March 2016
  • By: Administrator