Heretic (Victoria-Vancouver Reviews)
ARCHIVE EDITOR'S NOTE --- The following Heretic reviews (and one promo) are in connection with Niki's performances during both the 2003 Victoria Fringe Festival held August 22 to September 1 in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada and the 2003 Vancouver Fringe Festival held September 4-14 in Vancouver, B.C. Reviews/comments, listed in reverse chronological order, are taken from online media sources.
THIS YEAR, WE WON HIM OVER --- Remembering McCretton's Worm-Hole, which she presented last year, I went in prepared to loathe Heretic, but the show won me over. The barely futuristic story is about the last Christian, who is exiled to the Moon by an ultra-rationalistic secular regime. She must fill a fish tank with tears of regret before she is allowed to return to Earth. The theological discussion is rudimentary, but the pain of maintaining individuality at the torturous price of loneliness is palpable. And the vision of the imagined future is complete, deftly achieved with the help of video footage and still pictures. My favourite joke: instead of The Ten Commandments, the exile's liberal tormentors suggest that she recite The Ten Suggestions.
(Colin Thomas, Theatre Critic - The Georgia Straight - Preview for Vancouver from the Victoria Fringe - 3 September 2003)
FRINGIEST THING HE'S SEEN --- Remember last year’s Niki McCretton show, the charmingly-weird Worm-Hole? Well, she’s back again this year with Heretic - a part-dance, part-spoken-word exploration of faith and isolation which is mostly just plain weird. Excommunicated from Earth, the title heretic has been imprisoned on the Moon until she has stripped away her religious zealotry and filled a fish tank with her tears. (No, really, I’m not making this up.) There are some moments of simple beauty here - like when McCretton is "swimming" in her dreams - and the entire production is most definitely imaginative, but from the sand shower and speed catechism to the projected film clips, visiting spaceman and naked-in-the-fish tank climax, Heretic is definitely the Fringiest thing I’ve seen yet. One tip: read the program synopsis before the lights go down: it’ll definitely help you understand just what the hell is going on.
(John Threlfall - Monday Magazine - 3/5 Stars - 28 August 2003)
GET THEE TO A MUMMERY! --- Just a few more chances for you heretical types to be converted! Niki McCretton performs Heretic just three more times in Victoria. She bubbles! She babbles! She raves! She rants! She slices! She dices! She dances! And she bares much, much more than her soul! Don’t be a Doubting Thomas or Thomasina! Visit the Heretic section of her official website to read the Word according to angelic fans and critics! Don’t miss it! Or you’ll be filling your own tank with tears for the rest of your life!
(Robin Chase - Shameless Self-Promotion - The Craig - Victoria Fringe Audience Review Publication - 27 August 2003)
DEFINITELY FRINGE --- This is the Fringe, for sure. After seeing the play, I thought it was an anti-Christian polemic. My companion thought it was the ravings of a religiously-obsessed madwoman. The Times-Colonist reviewer, who did some research, said the actress-creator’s website maintains it is about a woman exiled to the Moon for her Christian beliefs, which was not clear to him from the performance. Nor was it clear to us. Is it worth seeing? Maybe, if you have theological interests. Some of the acting and stage effects were strong. I am not sorry I was there. My companion was.
(Robert Florida - The Craig - 27 August 2003)
PERFORMER'S PASSION WINS PUZZLING PLAY'S DAY --- Niki McCretton is a British performer who won the Best Physical Theatre Production award at the Winnipeg Fringe Festival. Her award-winning piece, Heretic, is a challenging and often puzzling look at a woman engaged in a life-or-death struggle with her religious ideas. Using dance, music, monologue and film, McCretton plays a woman literally banished to the Moon because she chose to retain Christian beliefs in a futuristic society that's outlawed them. As penance, she must fill a glass tank with her tears - something the badly dehydrated outcast finds impossible. Tears (and her lack of them) are the work's most prevalent theme with McCretton sometimes drawing chuckles as she repeatedly and furiously tries to make herself weep. Given that the performer is also surrounded by plastic water bottles, Heretic appears to make direct reference to Psalm 56: "Thou tellest my wanderings: put thou my tears in thy bottle: are they not in thy book?" Heretic is energetically played out, boasts a strong atmosphere and is replete with powerful elemental imagery (moon, bread, water, tears, etc.). Its main flaw is that McCretton's storyline does not come across in a particularly comprehensible fashion - certainly not as clearly as outlined here. Overall, it's obtuse and at times tough-going. In fact, I understood Heretic's premise only after reading her website. Nonetheless, adventuresome theatregoers will find the show is worth a look. McCretton's absolute passion and conviction as a performer ultimately win the day. If nothing else, who can resist her shower scene (using sand instead of water), her saucy trips to an onstage toilet and her final in-the-buff dunk in an aquarium?
(Adrian Chamberlain - Victoria Times-Colonist - 3.5/5 Stars - 24 August 2003)
Back to Heretic Home Page
Webpage Last Updated 14 May 2007
