My overall impression
Noel Olken can tell a good story and has a lot to say. There is a great framework in “No Boundarys” to explore the questions of reality and grief inherent at this specific time. The first half of the show, however, could spend more time setting up who he is and more of the role his father played in his life, so that any change means as much to the audience as it does to him. The revelations near the end just don’t play, because we don’t have any real sense of what he was fighting against or for in the first place. With some wonderful images and Jeff Gardner’s (always) illuminating sound-scape, the possibilities are all there; Olken now just needs to take the leap and show us more of the demons or questions at the beginning that prompt the camping trip in the first place. I hope he continues sculpting this journey, because after meeting him for our Let’s Fringe! interview, it’s clear he has an amazing heart and some pretty deep ideas on the topic of reality that deserve to be heard.
