One-Woman Show

By Marco Timpano, Daniel & Steven Shehori. Directed by the Shehori Brothers. 

 

 "A savage, often hilarious deconstruction of the clichés of solo confessional plays." — Eye Weekly

 

"Reward yourself with One-Woman Show, where Marco Timpano expertly sends up other performers' narcissism. 

Material about mom, maternity and men will never sound the same." — The Toronto Star

 

LATEST OWS NEWS:

 

September 10, 2008: Check out the brand new Eye Weekly for a cheeky One-Woman Show interview with Marco & Steve. Here's the linky: 

www.eyeweekly.com/arts/features/article/39181

 

September 4, 2008: One-Woman Show is heading back to the Diesel Playhouse! Take a look at the funky poster to your right for dates & show times.

  

July 24, 2008: One-Woman Show gets full marks from The Women's Post! Yep, we kid you not. they called it "funny, brash and smartly written." Scroll down below for the full review.

 

July 17, 2008: Hola! Here are the dates for One-Woman Show's run at the Diesel Playhouse's 'Best of the Fringe' festival   (56 Blue Jays Way at King St.):

Wed, July 23 @ 7:30pm

Thurs, July 24 @ 7:30pm

Friday, July 25 @  9pm

Saturday, July 26 @ 9pm 

Tickets are $15 at the door, online at www.dieselplayhouse.com, or by calling 416.971.5656. True story.  

 

July 16, 2008: NOW Magazine has named One-Woman Show one of the official 'Outstanding Productions of the 2008 Fringe Festival'. Whoo-hoo!

 

July 11, 2008: One-Woman Show is one of a mere 7 shows (out of 145) to be selected for the annual 'Best of the Fringe' festival at the Diesel Playhouse. This means there will be 4 more performances in addition to the 'Patron's Pick' date listed below! The boys had previously received this honour in 2006 for their hit production Swiss Family Guy Robinson.  

 

July 10, 2008: One-Woman Show has won the 'Patrons' Pick' award at the 2008 Toronto Fringe Festival! As a result, a bonus performance will be added on Sunday, July 13th at 9:15pm.

 

July 9, 2008: One-Woman Show has made Eye Weekly's prestigious 'Best of the Fest' list for 2008!

 

July 2, 2008: One-Woman Show is on the cover of this week's issue of Eye Weekly! Plus, there's a big ol' preview article about the production, featuring a sassy interview with Daniel, Steven & Marco. Here's the link, y'all: http://www.eyeweekly.com/browse.asp/features/article/32602

 

  

LATEST OWS REVIEWS:

 

NOW MAGAZINE (4 stars + 'Critic's Pick'!) 

"He's not in drag, but Marco Timpano plays Eileen Louise Kennedy, a 30-something female actor struggling with relationships and the kind of personal growth issues discussed on shows like The View. The script, written with the Shehori Brothers, is flooded with uproarious one-liners and makes surprisingly fresh comments on topics like the book He's Just Not that Into You and Christopher Hitchens's famous Vanity Fair essay on women and comedy. Timpano  lampoons womanhood and solo shows with total commitment and you-go-girl energy, and we grant him license to do this just because he tells us he's a woman. What he gets away with is amazing — as is the ending."

— Debbie Fein-Goldbach

EYE WEEKLY (4 stars + 'Best of the Fest' list!)

"Empowered women might cringe at the prospect of a New and Improved Female Monologue — Now With More Penis! But the Shehori Brothers’ latest success — which casts a man, Marco Timpano, as self-involved actress Eileen Louise Kennedy — doesn’t attack women, only trite one-woman shows. Feminists will undoubtedly agree with the production’s take on subjects like Cosmopolitan (“Celebrating 40 years of setting the women’s movement back 40 years”) and the belief that women aren’t funny (a myth Eileen debunks with an outraged dramatic monologue)... The versatile, likeable comedian delivers on the material’s promise."

— James Simons

 

THE TORONTO STAR (Listed as 'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED')

When three heterosexual males decide to lampoon the genre of one-woman shows, it helps to play it straight.

One-Woman Show, written by Fringe veterans the brothers Shehori, and actor/writer Marco Timpano, isn't likely to find itself under siege by hard-core feminists seeking to vent copious amounts of moral indignation.

 

It's smarter than that, with a sense of humour that is also self-mocking even as it takes us through the laundry list of feminine foibles. It starts with the nicely-detailed set, including stand-up mirror, dressing table, window seat and coat rack (bearing a slinky dress) and some friendly pastel-coloured lighting. Our hostess is Eileen Louise Kennedy — Timpano, in typical male Saturday afternoon leisure wear, with five o'clock shadow and barefooted — who expounds for 45 minutes or so on a range of subjects of the gyno-centric variety. Wisely, his portrayal is straight and unaffected. No lisping or mincing.

 

Particularly cheeky examples include the "fat pass" — "once you've given birth, no one's going to bug you about your weight for five years," the 200 or more symptoms of PMS — "extreme tearfulness" among them — lesbians, one-night stands, glass ceilings and a whole bunch more. Perhaps out of a sense of fair play, Timpano — with the aid of a false mustache — briefly morphs into the belching, couch potato version of himself. And while much of the humour trends towards edgy, the show succeeds because it doesn't feel mean-spirited or chauvinistic, with women in the audience enjoying its self-parodying style as much or even more than the men."

— Bruce Demara

 

TORONTO LIVING

“A non-stop laugh riot, One-Woman Show hits all the predictable notions of female angst without belittling the people actually experiencing them. The parodies of actual solo shows hit their mark, and Marco Timpano’s enthusiasm for his character is infectious. Guaranteed fun for both sexes.” 

— June Morrow

 

THE WOMEN'S POST

"Last night, I had the pleasure of attending “One Woman Show”, which is technically a one man show. Confused yet? I certainly was, and it was this curiosity that convinced me to accept the invitation from one of the shows creators, Daniel Shehori. Daniel and his brother Steven wrote the play and directed it, while Marco takes the lead, er, only role, as Eileen Louise Kennedy. 

 

Eileen is herself an actress, veteran of the solo performance genre. She muses over just about every female stereotype out there, including the stereotype of women being attracted to one-person shows in the first place. Most of what she says is funny, if not witty and presented in such a way that everything ads to the satire. When discussing Cosmopolitan magazine (“celebrating 40 years of keeping the women’s movement back...40 years”) Eileen lies on a yoga mat, propped up on her arms, feet crossed behind her, like any good Comso-reading, cosmo-drinking, sexually-enlightened gal should.

Other highlights include a walk through the crazy math women do in their heads when figuring out what to tell a man concerning their “number.” Just in case you can’t keep up, Eileen puts the whole lesson on a blackboard (this is math I certainly didn’t learn in school).

 

Overall, it’s an ambitious, deep look at the psychology of the female sex, asking questions that aim to explain why females even exist as such. Ha. No, not really. But it’s funny, brash, occasionally crude without being so crude it’s no longer funny, and smartly written."

 — Justine Connelly

 

CURTAIN RISING MAGAZINE

"Parody can be a beautiful thing, and this one is gorgeous. There is a good chance that you either have an impression of what a bad one-woman show is like, or have actually been unfortunate enough to sit through one, but either way, this send-up of the “genre” will delight you.

 

The brilliant thing about it is that it is in fact a one-man show; Marco Timpano plays mediocre actor/performer, Eileen Louise Kennedy, not in drag or using falsetto, but purely by embodying her character in dialogue and mannerisms. In fact, Timpano comes off visually as semi-jocular, sporting a 5 o’clock shadow and a sweat shirt. It’s only one of the many touches that imbues this show with such an abundance of straight-faced irony.

 

What is even more remarkable is that Timpano and co-writers, the Shehori brothers (who were also behind “Swiss Family Guy Robinson”), manage to create such sharp humour without resorting to misogyny. The jokes are really at the expense of self-involved actor/performers and the gender bending is just an added twist. This production is clever, likeable, and based on a great concept."

— Justin Haigh

 

THE VARSITY (4 stars)

"Playing with the conventions of, oh, 30 percent of the current Fringe lineup, was the Shehori Brothers' ('Swiss Family Guy Robinson') satire of the old theatre standby: the empowered female actress' realization that self-acceptance is the greatest gift of all. Playing 37-year-old Eileen Louise Kennedy was Marco Timpano, clad in Mark's Work Warehouse and noonday scruff, with a flutter of the wrists and a lithe gait... Timpano's delivery and the whip-smart writing did Gloria Steinem proud. Full marks!"

— Ms. Chandler Levack

 

blogTO / MOONEY ON THEATRE (Listed as 'HIGHLY RECOMMENDED')

"Unbelievably fun... While playing the role of Eileen, Marco Timpano does everything right. He does things the way we're taught as actors, but can be hard to pull off. He plays it straight. He doesn't mug for laughs, he is committed to the character and treats her with respect, which is why the audience can laugh instead of cringe.

 

It was a wonderful decision to avoid dressing Timpano in drag, having him put on a high voice or change his body language to something more feminine. Honestly I can't exactly say why, but to do so would have been offensive for me and certainly distracting.

 

As it was, I didn't find this show offensive at all. The audience loved it. This is absolutely a highly recommended piece. Check out one of the two remaining performances if you can. The audience was big for this one, so I'd suggest booking tickets in advance."

— Megan Mooney

  

CLASSICAL 96 FM 

"One Woman Show, another hit from the Fringe Festival, was part of the Diesel Playhouse’s Best of the Fringe. The production is the brain-child of comedy writers Daniel and Steven Shehori and Marco Timpano. The very straight guy’s guy Timpano portrays Eileen Louise Kennedy, a supposed female actor who has a string of solo shows to her credit. The idea of a man spouting the intimate secrets of a woman without any female mannerisms is a brilliant conceit. It places her words about PMS, the Fat Pass and Cosmo magazine into an entirely different context. As a woman listening to Eileen’s monologue, I felt a real sense of recognition coupled with a squeamish feeling that men could delve into the feminist mystique with such effrontery."

— Paula Citron