Russel and Gillian Bennett have delivered several "Pick of the Fringe" pieces

This is not to say that Crude Love doesn't drive home the angst of downtrodden Mother Earth. Instead it shows how environmental crusading can come at too dear a personal cost.

The one most hurt by all the protestation in Crude Love is Phyllis McCormack, a woman dump truck driver from Newfoundland who is reunited with Abbie Waxman - they met originally as youngsters playing the married lodestar Stella and Stanley in Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire - when he tethers himself to her vehicle.

Claiming to be an eco-terrorist (even Greenpeace wants nothing to do with him at this point), he is there to protest the environmental Armageddon that is quickly resulting from the profit-seeking Albertan oil industry.

At first Phyllis wants nothing to do with him as well, but his sheer earnestness and their shared love of geese eventually wear down her reserve.

Together in the wasteland of the Alberta tar sands, Phyllis learns to love her man - and also sandwiches made from kelp, grains and sprouts - while Abbie, in turn, cannot settle down into anything as bourgeois as a long-term relationship. He cannot resist the pull of 15 minutes of fame.

Crude Love's husband and wife team, Russell and Gillian Bennett, met while at theatre school in New York City 10 years ago. Previously, they delivered several "Pick of the Fringe" pieces including Reefer Man and Self-Storage.

They are head and shoulders above most Fringe fare. They can act! The writing has pace and flow. There are laughs to be had, and it wraps up just before you begin to get bored.

As Fringe goes, Crude Love is not to be missed, and it need not be: The Bennett are travelling to eight cities' Fringe Festivals: Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Victoria and back home to Vancouver.

Crude Love
Premieres June 22, 9 p.m.
@ Academic Hall (133 Séraphin-Marion, University of Ottawa)
Cost and further show listings @ www.ottawafringe.com
 
 

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