Toronto Fringe Review: 107

Photo by Ross Davidson featuring Eden Reshef, Haley Kriz

Len Cuthbert’s award winning play 107, and its wonderful cast of emerging actors, has all the right ingredients to make a journey through the metaverse delightfully fantastical, but elements were just a little off kilter for me.

We first meet nerdy Lennox (Eden Reshef) and cooler kid Morgan (Haley Kriz), as estranged cousins and adversarial high school students, out on a hike. They make an unexpected discovery which eventually invites Agent Smith (Fynn Cuthbert) for a surprise house call. The rest is a series of amusing, winding plot twists and turns that leave me with questions.

These questions, however, revolve more around the characters and their relationships than the plot. Why is Lennox every nerdy stereotype, wrapped up into one cloying character at the expense of consistency? One minute she’s terrified to touch a bag found in the woods, the next she’s manipulating law enforcement? Why does Morgan remain so committed to denying that they are related rather than just accepting she has a nerdy cousin who annoys her? Why is nerdy Lennox so determined to win her cousin over when Morgan overtly rejects her? And I have questions about Agent Smith, but they involve spoilers, so I will simply note their existence.

Overall, the cast does an incredible job bringing these characters to life. Their timing and connection to one another feels easy and natural —it’s clear they are enjoying the show and have acting chops. My only wish is that they were written with a bit more of a third dimension, with more organic feeling interactions rather than seeming like devices to advance a plot. Or perhaps lean much more heavily into the the two dimensionality and the use of plot devices to the point of absurdity? Where it is right now, it’s a cute play with everything it needs to be a really great little sci-fi YA comedy, it’s just not quite there yet.

All that being said, 107 is worth the watch as it is. It’s a well performed, fun concept that takes many unexpected turns — this isn’t your run of the mill storyline even if the characters are!

107 is on now until July 17 as part of the 2022 Toronto Fringe Festival.
Find show times and tickets here.