Can I tell you how much I love Polly Polly? Of course, you can’t love the play without also adoring its creator/actor Jessica Moss – and I do. I came late to this party, not getting to the box office line fast enough during its Toronto Fringe run, but catching last night’s closing performance on the closing night of The Best of Toronto Fringe. Better late than never.
Written and performed by Moss, and directed by Naomi Skwarna, Polly Polly takes us on an epic, fast-paced one-woman journey of self-discovery. Polly Eschfield’s blissful daydream of a life, one in which she’s the star of her own movie, is thrown into chaos when a narrator’s voice enters her life. Narrating her life! Then, while at her horrible office job, the plot thickens during a phone conversation with mysterious stranger who knows an awful lot about her. Because the stranger is her!
Moss’s script and performance is a quicksilver marvel – but loses none of the thought, expression and emotion along the way. The opening monologue of famous movie lines alone reveals a range of expression and emotion that carries throughout the show, even as Moss plays multiple characters, including Polly’s narrator and the mystery woman. Extremely witty and poignant, Polly Polly is a vulnerable, gutsy and heart-felt turn of soul-searching. Polly feels like she’s going crazy as she deals with that voice and struggles to find herself. And while she may be unhinged, she’s never undone. Polly is an inspiration everywhere for those who daydream of love and a better life, for whom beloved music becomes a personal soundtrack, and for all who love escaping into the world of the movies.
A one-woman powerhouse in Polly Polly, as well as her earlier one-woman show Modern Love, Jessica Moss is definitely a performer/playwright to watch.
What did you see at The Best of Toronto Fringe this year?
life with more cowbell 