It’s a difficult task for anyone to hold an audience’s attention for an hour, let alone sans props, other actors or set. Allan Girod, a six-foot-nine introvert-turned-performer, manages it armed with nothing but stories.
The first incarnation of Girod’s storytelling show Absolutely,sold out much of its run at Fringe Summer Nights at the Blue Room Theatre in 2014, and though 2015’s run of the show has made its home in the harsher venue of Jimmy’s Lair, that doesn’t really matter. It’s pretty easy to forget where you are in Girod’s company. He was a teacher completing his first posting in a wheatbelt town, when a decision to join the drama club catalyzed a career change. As an actor, he’s held parts in touring drama productions, TV and short film productions, and, a few years ago, as the Giant Clown in a Cirque du Soleil production touring Europe. More recently, he’s turned to storytelling, winning the Barefaced Story Battle last year and tweaking it for this year’s Fringe. Absolutely is the tale of how all this happened, told with great texture, gesture and grace.
Girod has created a convincing caricature of himself, established early on with stories of high school and home life. One early image stayed with me the whole performance: of a young Allan standing for hours in a toyshop with a model plane in a box, dreaming of the possibilities in its construction before carefully putting it back. He is established as both dreamer and naysayer, swiftly shutting down his fantasies when they threaten to take on tangibility. His dreams are more aggressive than this, however, and somehow manage to push through his inherent introversion to take him to some pretty incredible places.
Though the willful naivety of his character is perhaps stressed at times, Absolutely’s story is well constructed enough to diffuse any overplayed elements. The early scenes initially appear as exercises in teasing out an hour timeslot, but are soon established as important constructions of character and theme development. Girod is a skilled storyteller, and all content is relevant.
He is also a master of detail, and it’s these that build Allan’s world far more intricately and fantastically than could have been managed with set and props. It’s problematic that Allan himself is the only truly memorable and thoroughly constructed character, and perhaps contributes to occasional audience losses at points, but Girod’s elegant transitions, well-built central character and ability to wind his audience up before sliding into the next topic make for a thoroughly absorbing show.
