What I liked
I liked Thug Tunnel a LOT. This show had a huge amount of heart and no small amount of time put in to make the music energetic, the characters resonate, the dialogue funny, and the story have meaning. I was laughing throughout this performance; never bored, never wondering when a scene was going to end, and continually engaged from start to finish. Now before anyone calls me out on this, I do have a pretty arguable bias since I was the poster designer for this production, BUT I was going to see this show long before ever being asked to be their illustrator and have been a fan of Robot Teammate’s performances for some time now, and for good reason…. these folks are talented, hard-working, witty people. It’s really amazing what improvisers can do when given more than an instant of time to produce a stage production. Last year’s Timeheart was as ambitious as it was full of sci-fi spoofs. Very inventive and clever with how the story played out across both space and time until its epic finale at the heart of creation. Thug Tunnel, by contrast, is a more focused and straightforward story. A clear setting, with very clearly set up characters that can still surprise you with the arcs and turns that happen by narrative’s closing. Stabby Rick is a fun villain, very clearly identified by the almost pirate like knife that has merged with his left hand, but is puppeteered by his love, Breakin’ Necks Becky whose real motivations are made clear as the play progresses. Panther’s obsessively one sided, love stricken’ remarks for Petunia are perfectly balanced by his Snake Plissken cool attitude. He is a character which satirizes the bad ass dude archetype of action movies, but is made relatable by the nobility of his efforts to help the one he loves, despite his own wants.
What I didn't like
Though not a fault of the show makers in any way, it would be nice to have a bit more in terms of set design if they are given the budget to make this show on a bigger scale in the future. Though this is a minor nitpick and arguably irrelevant since the story takes place inside a tunnel the whole time and is easily left to the imagination of a theater going patron. It is just difficult not to compare the look of this to the surprisingly grand set efforts of Timeheart at last year’s Fringe.
My overall impression
I am very happy with seeing Thug Tunnel, and highly recommend making it one of your choices for Fringe 2016. You’ll enjoy the music as it lampoons Jim Steinman-esque 80s tropes, standard musical theater, and even a bit of opera in describing its characters. There are plenty of laughs and great one-liners (something missing from a lot of plays and films nowadays). There’s enough drama to give the humor an appropriate weight, but the show never takes itself too seriously and the sadder elements are used appropriately to balance the stakes of the narrative. This is a team of hard workers, help keep em going so that they can continue to produce more great musicals in the future.
