Statistically speaking, it was bound to happen at some point.
asserted
it → speak → point
You see, dear reader, despite being a critic who sees well over a hundred shows each season, I had somehow escaped being dragged through the fourth wall and up on stage to participate in a production I was reviewing.
asserted
I → see → production
Mind you, I’d been completely content with that; I much prefer sitting in complete darkness to standing in the spotlight.
asserted
I → mind → spotlight
But it finally happened.
asserted
it → happen → ?
Yours truly was finally initiated into the brotherhood on Thursday night.
asserted
Yours → initiate → night
And it was with a pair of balding, celibate (yet sex-starved) monks.
asserted
it → starve → monks
I won’t reveal exactly what went down.
asserted
what → reveal → ?
Doing so would only spoil some of the cockamamie tomfoolery that’s in Veronica Hortigüela and Annie Lujàn’s “Monks,” the hit clown comedy from the 2024 Toronto Fringe Festival that’s now reincarnated at Tarragon Theatre’s Extraspace.
asserted
that → do → Extraspace
The last I checked, the Toronto Star is also a family paper.
asserted
Star → check → ?
And now that I’ve been inducted into the monastery as Brother Josh, I really don’t want to break my oath of secrecy.
asserted
I → induct → secrecy
So let’s just say that I got roped into some asinine shenanigans, with a hard emphasis on the first syllable of that first word.
asserted
I → let → word
“Some asinine shenanigans” could actually serve as an appropriate tagline for Hortigüela and Lujàn’s creation, which I somehow missed when it premiered at the Fringe and also when it was subsequently remounted at Crow’s Theatre and the Theatre Centre.
uncertain
it → serve → Theatre
Whatever premise there is to this off-the-rails farce is ludicrous: We’re in a Spanish monastery during the Middle Ages, where two monks (played by Hortigüela and Lujàn) have been assigned the laborious task of counting lentils.
asserted
monks → be → lentils
But they suddenly find themselves with a free day when their abbot makes a trip into town.
asserted
abbot → find → town
So what do these naughty hooligans do?
asserted
hooligans → do → what
It’s broader, infantile and often vulgar — the kind of mischief you’d expect from a pair of eight-year-old boys who’ve been left unattended by their mother on a snow day.
asserted
who → ’ → day
If you’re sitting near the front of the theatre, you’re bound to be pelted with lentils, sprayed with water and co-opted into the unholy hijinks.
asserted
you → sit → hijinks
There’s also a sly sense of no-goodery to everything these monks do.
asserted
monks → ’ → everything
Oh, do they know that they’re up to no good, but they also know that ol’ trick of whipping out those sweet, innocent seal eyes when their abbot does return.
asserted
abbot → know → eyes
Occasionally, the humour in “Monks” overstays its welcome.
asserted
humour → overstay → welcome
If the best full-length comedies like to pull the rug out from under their audience every few scenes, Hortigüela and Lujàn’s material merely changes the window dressing.
asserted
material → like → dressing
In terms of the material alone, the 75-minute show would probably work better as a tight 10- to 15-minute skit in a Second City-style set.
asserted
show → work → set
But 90 per cent of comedy lies in the delivery, and that’s where Hortigüela and Lujàn excel — not only by fully committing to the bit but also by quite literally throwing themselves into barrels of lentils.
asserted
Hortigüela → lie → lentils
It’s a brand of buddy comedy that makes Harold and Kumar look like uncorrupted saints.
asserted
Harold → ’ → saints
Yet as broad as their humour is, Hortigüela and Lujàn also execute this physical comedy with razor-sharp precision, along with facial expressions — wide-eyed, cross-eyed, petrified — that shift faster than images in a stop-motion flick.
asserted
that → execute → flick
There’s an ease, too, in how they interact with the audience.
asserted
they → ’ → audience
On opening night, they addressed all the critics in the room, each as Brother Critic.
asserted
they → address → Critic
They also actually broke bread with some of us.
asserted
They → break → us
(In my case, I received a pretty large hunk.)
asserted
I → receive → hunk
For the most part, “Monks” is filled with this trivial nonsense.
asserted
Monks → fill → nonsense
But in its closing moments, the show’s tone shifts into something far more serious and rather unexpectedly moving.
asserted
tone → shift → something
Its boisterous, extroverted energy finally relents, and the play’s focus turns inward.
asserted
focus → relent → ?
Hortigüela and Lujàn, stepping out of their characters, ask us to reflect on our relationships with those closest to us and what it really means to spend time with these individuals.
asserted
it → step → individuals
I wish Hortigüela and Lujàn had better massaged the transition between this touching closing and the rest of their comedy — or, at least, foregrounded it a bit more.
asserted
Hortigüela → wish → it
Still, I appreciate their sincere attempt to bring gravitas and heft to an otherwise trivial piece of entertainment.
asserted
I → appreciate → entertainment
Who knew that some asinine shenanigans could turn out to be so much more?
uncertain
shenanigans → know → ?
The Aporia
