Four Angles – Josh Freed, Bowser and Blue, Aislin – create COVID show

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Many probably think that the COVID-19 pandemic is not the funniest topic out there. But Josh Freed, George Bowser, Rick Blue, and Terry Mosher, aka Aislin, would agree.

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Like everyone else, these four prominent Montréal residents went through difficult times over the past year and a half as a result of the health crisis. But they believe the time has come to take stock of this unusual experience and have a little laugh along the way.

That’s the concept behind Four Anglos Surviving the COVID Apocalypse, a new show that premieres this weekend at Théâtre Lac-Brome in Knowlton and then hits the stage in Montreal with a two-week performance at St. Jax Church in Ste-Catherine St. W. starting Wednesday.

“People have been through it for two years, but they have suffered from it for two years,” said Freed, who just published a book from his Montreal Gazette COVID columns titled Pandemic Postcards: Our Covid Crazy Years. “I think they have earned the right to take revenge on COVID and laugh at it. People have been through a massive life experience. Time to get over it. We thought we could make Montréal laughs and remember COVID with a laugh, not a chill. “

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But Mosher is quick to add that the show isn’t just a litany of jokes and songs to hit Bowser and Blue’s knees.

“We are emphasizing the humor, but Bowser and Blue have written 20 new songs and many of them are tremendously serious, reflections on being alone and this and that,” Mosher said. And I found many, many cartoons in that sense. Stirring things up from Iran, from China, from everywhere. So don’t think this is just a laugh-a-minute production. “

Mosher reviewed 3,000 cartoons from around the world to choose around 300 cartoons from 38 countries that are shown in production. Many of the show’s cartoons are included in her recently published book, Aislin’s Favorite COVID Cartoons From Around the World.

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Bowser and Blue have some serious songs, but of course there is also a lot of typical Bowser and Blue wit at work.

“My personal favorite is No Gigs at All because that’s what happened,” Bowser said. “Then we made a song about the dark side, about people who cannot see their relatives when they are dying. We have a song called One More Day, which is pretty sad but I think it’s honest. I like The Red Zone, which is Rick’s song about all the places in Montreal you can’t go to. I like Date Night, which is about when you can’t leave the house but you have to make the night special for the one you love, which I do when I pass out in front of the television. “

Freed participates in Zoom’s joint interview to say that his favorite of the new Bowser and Blue songs is Santa is a super spreader .

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Blue notes of the most serious songs that are popular songs and “some of the best popular songs in history are about disasters, like The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald.”

Director Ellen David adds, “Take the journey and relate to our experience, the good and the bad. We recently had a workshop and people were laughing, but they were also crying. It has made us reflect. “

The message of the program according to Mosher is: “We survive!”

“We all share a collective experience,” added Mosher. “This is not a funny show about Quebec. This is a show about humanity going through this damn thing. But we get through this. We’re celebrating the fact, we stumbled, we made mistakes, but the four of us got through it somehow. “

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Freed thought it was a brilliant idea when Mosher proposed joining forces to create the show.

“When Terry called, he had been living with COVID for eight months,” Freed said. “I was obsessed with it. I had been quarantining my newspaper from Tuesday until Friday. He led a strange life. The thing about this piece is looking back and seeing what an incredible experience it was. See what we learned, what we laughed at. Then we can all come out the other side. We hope that Montréal can celebrate that they survived, that they will return downtown to see the play and celebrate the fact that we all worked so hard together here to get through it. Anglos, Frankish, allophones, xylophones, we all work together wonderfully. So we want to celebrate. “

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TAKE A LOOK

Four Anglos Surviving the COVID Apocalypse is at Théâtre Lac-Brome until Sunday and then at St. Jax Church, at 1439 Ste. Catherine St. W., for two weeks starting Wednesday.

Visit the websites: theatrelacbrome.ca

stjax.org

[email protected]

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