The Root of all Squares

 

"Clever and funny..The Root of All Squares is certainly worth a look. It has a great message and it leaves you with something to think about."
SmartTix

Tickets: $14

Dates
Times
Saturday 3/10
1pm
monday 3/12
9pm
Wednesday 3/14
730pm
Friday 3/16
6pm
Saturday 3/17
830pm
Sunday 3/18
4pm

 

Taking it on the road for the fourth time (first time in the US), Canadian director Dave Dawson and his company Black Sheep Theatre brings Root of all Squares to the first ever Frigid New York.

Winner of the 'Best New Script' award at the 2001 Toronto Fringe Festival, Root of All Squares is a curious comedy on the nature of property rights and the value of persons, played out on a bare stage in the confines of a taped-off square.

Sleeper hit of the 2003 Edmonton Fringe and Winner of the 2001 Toronto Fringe's New play contest. This "zippy philosophical comedy" has been described as "Abbot and Costello meet Logic 101 and Economics 202", bringing into the discussion such things as irony, material worth, and pointy sticks.

"Waiting for Godot, with a different set of concerns"

**** - Edmonton Journal

CAST and Crew

Dave Dawson

DAVE DAWSON (Director)

Dave Dawson is a director, playwright, performer, and teacher from Ottawa.
He’s an 11 year veteran of the Canadian Fringe festival Circuit, as a performer and director.
Recently he has directed touring productions of Tom X. Chao’s Can’t Get Started, John Patrick Shanley’s The Big Funk, and Sterling Lynch & Sam Varteniuk’s The Root of All Squares, as well as Ottawa productions of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Morris Panych’s 7 Stories and Shanley’s Danny and the Deep Blue Sea. His plays Cabin Fever, and Snacktime for the Uninitiated have received readings at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Canada. Black Sheep Theatre heads out again this summer to tour Six festivals on the Canadian Fringe Circuit.

Ray Besharah

RAY BESHARAH (Worker)
Ray has been performing for over a decade for such companies as St. Lawrence Shakespeare Co., Third Wall Theatre Co., Vision Theatre, Sock'n'Buskin Theatre Co., and Eddie May Murder Mysteries. For the past four years, he has toured the Fringe Festival's Canadian circuit with Black Sheep Theatre and has started writing, performing, and touring his own plays.

Anne Wyman

ANNE WYMAN (Stan)

Anne is an accomplished member of the improv circuit in Winnipeg. She travelled to the Canadian Improv Games national competiton for three years in a row. Anne has also coached a team to the National Competition as well as performing longform improv with her troupe Scriptless in Seattle. She co-wrote and performed Stuck at the 2006 Winnipeg Fringe. She directed the one-woman hit In Between at the 2005 Winnipeg Fringe. Look for her this summer in six different Canadian Fringe Festivals. Anne has been teaching and performing with Prairie Theatre Exchange in Winnipeg for three years in such shows as Edward Bond’s Narrow Road to the Deep North, The Consequence of Sound, and In Tolerance. If you’re ever in Winnipeg come see her murder mystery dinner theatre show Rehearsal for Murder, but for now be sure to check her out in Tom X. Chao's Can't Get Started, also at FRIGID fest.

Previous Press Quotes

THE ROOT OF ALL SQUARES (2003 & 2004 Fringe Tours):

“Imagine the comic, social action possibilities of Bud Abbot explaining capitalism to Lou Costello, and you begin to get the drift of this tight, canny work... Appropriate to the task at hand, here is a smart, engaging, well acted and directed production... Unlike many shows, you also get a sense that this piece will have a longer shelf life than usual...”

Alan Kellogg - Edmonton Journal

“The Root of all Squares is likely one of the smartest scripts at this year’s fringe. The Black Sheep Theatre production directed by Dave Dawson gives this canny tale its due.”

Catherine Lawson - The Ottawa Citizen

A great excursion for casual fringers.

Vue Weekly (Edmonton) August 21, 2003

Smart fun... It's a zippy philosophical comedy... Waiting For Godot with a different set of intellectual concerns.

- Now Toronto

Sam Varteniuk and Sterling Lynch's The Root of All Squares is an idiosyncratic, funny and clever play...
The smart, snappy dialogue is a treat.

- eye review (Toronto)

PREVIOUS PRODUCTIONS:

2005: THE BIG FUNK - A CASUAL PLAY by John Patrick Shanley

This fast paced and uniformly well acted pre-Millennium comedy will make you think and laugh, and feel good about serious theatre again.

Al Rae, CBC WINNIPEG

“The 90 Minute comedic drama is helmed by a universally impressive five-person Ottawa cast than brings Shanley’s ideas of connectivity, neurosis, and compassion to life.”
“The ensemble works together beautifully, showing both camaraderie and conflict in a way that further illustrates Shanley’s message”

Jill Wilson, WINNIPEG FREE PRESS

2006:
CAN’T GET STARTED
by Tom X. Chao

Best in Venue - Ottawa Fringe Festival

“Playwright Tom X. Chao's little gem is a definite sleeper hit”

Steve Tilley - Toronto Sun

“It’s self-referential in a surprisingly funny way. In their attempts to create art, Tom and actor Sarah touch on themes of love, sex, fixation, and why only boys like King Crimson. It’s very clever, thought-provoking, very funny, and very nicely executed. Both are strong performers, who wring the most out of Chao’s script, particularly in finding laughs less-skilled performers would miss. If you’re like me, and you like your Fringe shows extra-fringey, you’ll thoroughly enjoy Can’t Get Started.”

Joff Schmidt - CBC Winnipeg

“Sparkling dialogue, provocative debate and rich comic setups... this play can't lose”
* * * * (We love it)

Pat St. Germain - Winnipeg Sun