Andrew’s Reviews - FringeMTL 2026
One Too Many…
No, that’s not an alleyway, that’s Laval. Yes, there should really be a street sign. Follow the rugged terrain up the block (I swear it’s not an alley), and you’ll find the door for White Wall Studio across from Emile-Nelligan Park.
When I arrive, a group of people are doing Tai Chi in the grass as Fringe goers are instructed to remove their shoes inside, and are offered plastic shoe coverings as an alternative. White Wall Studio is an expansive space, one that feels bigger on the inside, up a single flight of stairs. A dance studio with, you guessed it, white walls, and towering ceilings.
The set is simple, functional, and no doubt cost-effective. An easel stands upstage, paint waiting beside, with multiple cardboard boxes taped together into various geometric shapes, and a small box as the only other set piece. Being a non-traditional theatre venue, White Wall Studio isn’t equipped with stage lighting, but the daylight pours through the windows into the space, and attending the 6PM show, that was all that was necessary. I’m definitely curious, though, how the production is lit at night.
LLOTS Productions is an ambitious new local company focused on artist-driven work in cinema and theatre. With their first production, One Too Many…, founders Lyne Louis-Jean and Li Fauchoix have written a sitcom-style semi-farce with plenty of laughs, and LLOTS of heart (see what I did there?). Anna (Naomi Wark) and her fiancé Jake (Tyler Dezso) have just moved into a new house, and Jake makes it known that he wants to have a baby. Anna does not. She very much does not. They fight, and she kicks him out, setting off a chain of events that leads to broken friendships, broken hearts, and three pregnancies. The cast is appropriately small, limited to five talented actors. The remaining three characters, Sandy (Sana Buchanan Hutchinson), KC (Noriane Girard), and Vanessa (Lydia Larabée), each somehow connected to Anna, encounter Jake as he spirals.
It’s clearly a talented and well-trained group, and the majority of the 40 minutes had the audience fully engaged. The pacing never waned, and the physical comedy was on point. However, the directors have a tendency to position characters to face out, to deliver their lines staring just over the audience, at the horizon. This is okay for an aside, common for a monologue, but often this happens in the middle of a scene, with two characters in dialogue. This creates a disconnect, as the character still in the scene mostly disengages, as though they’re suddenly alone. It was used appropriately at times, yes, but the overuse was unfortunately the only real thorn in the side of this production.
I did find it curious, and sometimes distracting, that outside of the walls of an institution, away from theatre school (where often you’re assigned a role outside your type) the writers chose to position the characters as older than the actors themselves. It’s independent theatre, you’re free, so it baffled me why these early 20-something actors were playing roles with seemingly established careers, like a cop, a doctor, or a small business owner. This piece could have easily worked in a college setting, or something placed just after.
That being said, One Too Many… is a quintessential Fringe production. The performances are high energy, keeping the audience watching, listening, reacting, throughout. The set, rounded out by simple velcro and chalkboard signs to establish location, is changed repeatedly and quickly by the actors, and the hard-working Stage Manager (Eleftheria Lazaridis, who is also the costume designer). The audio cues are spot-on, completing the picture in each scene. The play, with a clever script and an explosive ending, is a triumphant first outing for LLOTS Productions, and a must-see in this year’s festival.
