Review: JACK AND DIANE VS. TECHNOLOGY at the Ottawa Fringe Festival

Jack and Diane vs. Technology, produced by Joint Puddle Productions, is a quirky adventure story where the title characters use newfound technology intended to make their lives easier – and it ends up doing anything but.

The play is broken into three short segments. In the first, Jack (Josh Sparks) and Diane (Karine Charland) tackle an increasingly annoying and intrusive virtual personal assistant named AVA (Jonathan Morel). Then, they head off to Maui and take its infamous Road to Hanna in a rental car with too little insurance and an obnoxious GPS (Chelsey Price). Finally, our heroes are sent unwilling to a technology-free camp run by the peppy Candi-with-an-i (Chelsey Price). Lighthearted and fun, with some voluntary audience participation, the show is entertaining for all, but perhaps especially for those of – ahem – a particular age group, like me, who will appreciate the humour on a personal level, as Jack and Diane’s characters are extremely relatable.

The cast is clearly having a good time, especially Charland, who is already in character as the audience begins to take their seats. Zooming around the stage with impressive energy, she is the yin to Sparks’ Jack’s yang, as his calm demeanour makes Diane seem even more eccentric.

For more background information on Jack and Diane vs. Technology, read my interview with Karine Charland, Creator, and Stephanie Haines, Director here.

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