★★★

Mind the gap and get on board! Set all neurotypical conventions aside as the ensemble of Mind the Umbrellas invites you to immerse yourself into their absurd yet heartbreaking reality. Stepping into the public eye for the first time, The Purple Stage showcased this highly interpretive piece devised entirely by the 5 artists showcased onstage, each with varying and complex disabilities. 

Performers Devin Harrington, Kyle Leung, Melvin Sanches Caba, Mitchell Daw, and Robin Chase made their mark on the Toronto Fringe stage, charming their audiences with their energetic personalities, and genuine love for being on stage. The heart of the show lived within them as their dreams became our desires. Audiences bore witness to the love and trust that they had for one another. Directed by Jordan Campbell, Steph Crothers, and Eliza Martin, the show leans into its highly interpretive style employing clear soft plastic umbrellas to build the world of the show; the perfect blank canvas. Personally I read the umbrellas as being containers for potential, as well as possibility of what could be. That, in itself, became a constraint, which I found very moving.

This performance was a concoction of vignettes framed as “stops” along multi-city subway lines. It was an adjustment for me to gear-shift into hopping from London to Toronto to New York on a whim. However, there were memorable standout moments along the journey. Kyle Leung orchestrated the piece through his violin, which allowed me to slow down and breathe in the beauty of this theatrical offer. His narration paired with this musicality acted as a meaningful glue for the show. While the cued sound design was often evocative, it led to moments of confusion as I didn’t always understand where I was geographically. The show opened with cued TTC noises, but later we heard Kyle smartly play a note resembling the sound of the London Tube as it begins to power up. For me, this was a much more immersive and meaningful depiction of letting us know where we were. Part of me wondered what it would look like to have all the sound onstage be made from Kyle’s violin. Sound design, otherwise, throughout the show helped paint the hopefulness and the heartbreak of each scene – however often bordered as being a little on the nose. I invite this company to continue exploring potential for sound design in the next iteration of this show. 

The section that felt the least integrated into the thesis of the show was the “Union” stop, surrounding a character named Olga. She presented herself with a grey wig, but was endowed with being 10-years-old. This unfortunately left me confused, and thinking that wardrobe was an afterthought. Similarly, later in the scene, each of the ensemble members played different animal characters, with one explaining they were a cat, though wore mouse ears. While the characterizations were energetic and fun, they could’ve been better supported by the wardrobe design.

Though, I want to make mention of a standout, emotional monologue performed by Mitchell Daw highlighting his desires to play Dorothy on Broadway. This led to a humorous cascade of props and objects being thrown at him, followed by the heartbreaking realisation that in order for him to achieve his goals, he must reframe his expectations. It was gorgeous, and my only suggestion would be to shorten it to help clarify and hone in on the thesis of that section of the piece. 

While it is unfortunately too late to catch Mind the Umbrellas at Fringe, theatre companies like The Purple Stage who are making their public debuts at Fringe are who we, in the Toronto Theatre Scene, should look to be engaging with beyond Fringe. I feel very lucky to have been able to see this show and I believe it is a necessary first step towards championing more disabled led/created work on our Toronto Stages.