Ogrot succeeds without trying
Rating: 5
We am Legend
KC Fringe Festival
"We Am Legend" is one of the sloppiest plays I have ever seen, and I laughed my butt off through the whole thing. It's slacker theatre as an artform, if only Ogrot were ambitious enough to rise to the level of art. They're not. Their raw magic is effortless – not that they make it look easy, but that they aren't even trying. Real theatre takes work, and that's not Ogrot's style. Yes, the actors laugh as they say their lines. Yes, the dialogue is delivered with metronomic pacing. Yes, the blocking is shabby and the attempts at acting, when it is attempted, is beyond pathetic. Yes, the actors are striking the set before the audience is done clapping. They don't play with theatre conventions – they don't even ignore them. They just can't be bothered. While campy theatre goes to great effort to make things seem like everything's going wrong, with Ogrot you wonder how they get anything right. But they do, because they have charming, unpretentious charisma and a witty, raunchy script that plays to their advantage. The worse they are the funnier it gets, with zinger lines that work no matter how poorly delivered. The show might be too raw for most people, but while other theatres keep polishing a turd hoping it'll stop smelling, Ogrot just leaves the toilet unflushed and lets you deal with it. One of the most entertaining hours I've ever had at Fringe.
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