jem rolls MAXIMUM CRUSOE

4 responses to “jem rolls MAXIMUM CRUSOE”

1. From Matt Palm, Orlando Sentinel.

   “Where were you when the world shut down in 2020?” might be approaching the end of its lifespan as a show concept, but don’t discount it just yet. In “Jem Rolls: Maximum Crusoe” ), Rolls tells of his time spent on the coast of India during the COVID-19 pandemic with a rat-a-tat style that doesn’t flag.

   This isn’t a high-concept show about the meaning of life or the value of human interaction or how to make the best of an unfathomable situation, and yet, with Rolls’ amusing anecdotes and sharply drawn characters, that’s exactly what this sketch of a moment in time becomes.

   And because he’s a poet, expect lots of nifty turns of phrase: He had gone to India to “pursue idleless as an extreme sport,” Fringe vet Rolls tells us. He found so much more.”

2. Jem Rolls’ MAXIMUM CRUSOE, straight from the U.K. His tale of being stranded on an Indian beach during the Pandemic is the first Fringe show that I got to see this year.

   Tall and very British, barefoot and bearded like Tom Hanks hanging with Wilson in Cast Away, Mr. Rolls cuts an imposing figure. Looking like a mad artist, he has an intense stare, hawk eyes; he resembles a bearded Jeff Corey. And, bathed in a sole spotlight, he exudes so much charisma and likability as he uses the entire stage to dive into his tale.

   “How was YOUR 2020?” Mr. Rolls asks at the top, and we all titter as we submerge into our own memories of that fateful time. But they are nothing like his true story of spending 656 days as the only atheist on the Indian beach during the pandemic where “every day is like Sunday…Same, same, but the same.” We flashback to that scary time where the world was frightening and we weren’t guaranteed a tomorrow. Or, as Mr. Rolls puts it, “The future has now been abbreviated and is now the F.U.”

   Mr. Rolls is a powerful writer, his words poetically swim at us… from holy pilgrimage sights to Lord Shiva and the great Ganesha with an elephant head. Mr. Rolls tells of the goodness of so many souls and even passes on a guide for living: “A laptop, bank card, and passport…that’s all you need in life.”

   After the show, I was shocked to learn that an entire hour had flown by; I thought it had just been a half hour or less. But that’s proof that we’re under the spell of a master storyteller.

   MAXIMUM CRUSOE is Maximum Entertainment. Namaste!

   https://www.broadwayworld.com/tampa/article/Review-Jem-Rolls-MAXIMUM-CRUSOE-at-the-7th-Annual-TAMPA-FRINGE-FESTIVAL-20230513?fbclid=IwAR2fFVG75mjYF8GjEgIob-J9tAPPhYHwse2J10Lzcwh-NrQ4FODItKo0XKE

3. Fringe Review: jem rolls MAXIMUM CRUSOE – Bruce Burwell, Apartment 613

4. Finally, a pandemic tale celebrating life’s bizarre twists of fate.
   Exiled (sort of) to an idyllic Indian beach with the barest of necessities,
   and nothing but time to contemplate life’s quirky mysteries as the world
   stopped spinning, Fringe fave Jem Rolls recounts his half year of surreal enlightenment.

   Eschewing the usual historic lectures of festivals past, but thankfully with the expected witt and bouncy prose in tact,
   Jem instead looks inward for a personal snapshot of the most puzzling collective moment in our recent time.

   A stage force sans props or bombast, armed with a sole spotlight, Jem uses his extraordinary, flowy words to enrapture for a
   very swift hour. A talkie, but a goodie.

   – hipCRANK