Fringe Review: Dear Jax

Dates: Aug 21, 2024 - Sep 1, 2024

Location: VCM Wood Hall (Fringe Venue 2)

Artist: Stephen Maclean (Montréal, QC)

Duration: 37 mins

Rating: Ages 16+

Genre: Dramedy, Storytelling

⭐⭐

Dear Jax is a story about grief. Stephen Maclean lost his mother to dementia, and this is his account of the difficult final years before she passed away, slowly losing her ability to speak and understand the world in which she had once been a powerful communicator. In the aftermath of her death, Stephen discovered a number of letters that she wrote to Jax, a spirit that she would write to for advice, and the pragmatic responses from Jax which she would channel.

While Stephen delivered a heartfelt performance (a drama more than a dramedy as it is billed), this show felt underdeveloped on a few levels. First, even though the subject is the artist's mother, Susan Maclean, we walked away without a real sense of who she was; we got to know her deterioration in detail, but it would have been nice to have a glimpse of the woman behind the illness. Second, the letters to Jax present a super interesting insight into Susan, but this goes largely unexplored. Third, the drama relied heavily on the pathos of losing a parent, even delving into scenes that felt too private to be shared on a stage—at least without a more fleshed out narrative to provide additional thematic commentary and context.

This show could be eye opening for younger Fringers who have not assisted a parent or loved one in their end of life. For those who have, Dear Jax didn't seem to add anything to the conversation about death and dying—and yet it could. The letters to and from a therapist spirit could be the foundation for a powerful show that is more than a public display of bereavement. What was missing, ultimately, was the memorialization of the woman lost.

Workshop notes

• The opening preamble of the doctor's diagnosis was well acted but felt too long. Same thing with the audio montage of Stephen's to-do lists regarding his mother's decline and passing.

• With a runtime of 37 minutes, there is much opportunity to delve more deeply into Susan's character, accomplishments, her relationship with family (with Stephen in particular), and her correspondence with Jax. Stephen does a good job of bringing some scenes to life, like the visit to the sugar bush—it would have been great to "see" Susan in similarly immersive scenes that weren't merely about her illness.

• We both felt discomfort around the presentation of intensely private moments, like when Stephen helps Susan in the bathroom. And from there, zooming out, the entire show seemed to involve some level of exploitation of Susan in her final, fragile, and personal moments. If the show was more about the relationship between mother and son and less about the son's redemption as a caretaker in Susan's most vulnerable stage of life, we probably would have felt more connection to Stephen's journey.

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The Victoria Fringe Festival, presented by Intrepid Theatre since 1986, has become a cornerstone of the city’s arts scene, known for its unjuried, anything-goes approach to performance. For Carmunist and Septimus, Fringe is the highlight of the year. We’ve been involved as volunteers for more than a decade, and more recently, we’ve opened our home to performers as billets. Reviewing Fringe shows is something we’ve talked about for some time, and now we’re putting our experience as fiction editors and theatre stans to work, offering our thoughts and workshop notes for as many performances as we can attend.

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