If you’d rather laugh about problems than cry about them (and who wouldn’t?), then Dancing With Rage will strike just the right chord. The indomitable Mary Walsh takes on the absurdities of politics, the frustrations of everyday life and true, heart-wrenching tragedies with laser-sharp humour that breeds belly laughs over tears.
The 90-minute one-woman show is peopled by some of Walsh’s most beloved characters, from the ball-clutching, misogynistic Dakey Dunn to delightfully cranky Eulalia Turpin.
But there’s no doubt that Dancing With Rage belongs squarely to Marg Delahunty and her fearless warrior princess alter ego. By exploring the beginnings of these two characters, the show reveals just how humour can be born of sorrow and how rage can protect a tender heart.
This show is visually engaging, making great use of projections that set the scene and allow the stage to be peopled by several characters at once. It’s also highly entertaining to watch Walsh transform himself, stripping down to some nifty, shifty undergarments, teasing her hair and applying her in-you-face green eye shadow.
Dancing With Rage is part of Eastern Front Theatre’s Stages Festival that continues until June 9. For information about other shows visit easternfrontheatre.com
This article appears in May 30 – Jun 5, 2013.
I just wish she would run for public office so she could experience the abuse she inflicts on those she accosts..
Joe, the taxpayer is already underwriting her ego. Why would you want to reward her more?
Is she still considered funny by those who thought she was funny?
Can’t even imagine what it would be like to sit through 90 minutes of that.
Ivan – I wish she lived in Nova Scotia and was running as an NDP candidate down the South Shore trying to explain why salmon farming, school closures and loss of the Yarmouth ferry are good for the area.
We’d see her on Rick Mercer Report being run out of town with a microphone stuffed up her arse. She can dish it out, but can she take it ?
Sun News could create a hilarious, loveable character called “The Witchfinder General” and show up at her home with a mock auto-da-fe.
Cranky – it would be somewhat akin to cauterizing your piles with a curling iron while listening to Rosie O’Donnell bellow a Vagina monologue into your ear in a bad Irish accent.
As Krushchev said of nuclear war – “The living would envy the dead”
Awesomely funny and true show. Mary Walsh is brilliant and acerbic and speaks for so many of us. So glad I went.