"Gibbs'
performance as the witless and self-deprecating Barnaby
is near flawless. His martini-dry wit is characteristically
sharp, in both script and performance, and his comic timing
is beautiful."
Review by Joff Schmidt, CBC
Chris Gibbs is Barnaby Gibbs, a Victorian would-be detective
- though he's more clueless Cluseau than sleuthing Sherlock.
The monologue is Gibbs' tale of his friendship with the
mysterious Antoine Feval - a private detective who bears
a curious resemblance to a certain cat burglar... Gibbs'
performance as the witless and self-deprecating Barnaby
(who describes himself as a man of "ample limitations")
is near flawless. His martini-dry wit is characteristically
sharp, in both script and performance, and his comic timing
is beautiful. A solid recommendation for anyone looking
for light laughs at the Fringe, but show up early - Gibbs
handily sold out his Saturday performance in the undersized
Venue 11.
(4 STARS)
Clueless,
guileless and absolutely priceless.
Review by Liz Nicholls, Edmonton
Journal
Perplexing, really, how the man from Baker Street gets all
the hype when there's a detective with more impeccable credentials
in probing the criminal mind, with a bumbling, worshipful
assistant who makes Dr. Watson look like a veritable Aristotle
in the deduction department. The former is the mysterious
Antoine Feval. We meet the latter, one Barnaby Gibbs, in
the London of the late 1890s in a clever, sly little solo
charmer by the Brit-born comic Chris Gibbs. The last time
Chris Gibbs (apparently Barnaby's great-great descendent)
was in town for the Fringe, he was espousing "the power
of ignorance" in a helpful lecture. This time he's brought
a witty narrative about witlessness, a subtle and highly
amusing demonstration in strict deductive logic that arrives
at preposterous conclusions. After an extensive preamble
in which Barnaby reveals, in self-deprecating fashion, his
aimlessness in life, he chronicles a memoir about finding
his true calling, as an aide to a little-known genius detective,
for whom he has unlimited admiration. He discovers the great
man when he stumbles across him in a London house late at
night, dressed in black, stuffing jewels into a bag -- and
instantly concludes that the man must be a detective. It's
this knack for keen observation and logic that sets our
entirely guile-free Barnaby apart. What follows, in high
Sherlockian style, is a case in which he "assists" with
multiple misapprehensions. This is an exquisitely cock-eyed,
elaborately double -- no, triple-- show, laced with judicious
anachronisms about an obsessive comic named Chris Gibbs
who's at the Fringe. And we have the fun of being in on
the joke, smarter than our protagonist, a specialist in
credulity. Sherlockians will be in heaven. Everyone else
will be here, laughing hard.
(4 STARS)
"Arguably
the year’s most perfect script."
Review by Paul Matwychuk, Vue
Weekly, Edmonton
Chris Gibbs is such an effortlessly natural, off-the-cuff
comedian that it’s easy to overlook what a superb playwright
he is. Like his previous Fringe hit The Power of Ignorance,
Antoine Feval takes a simple comic premise (in this case,
a dimwitted 19th-century Englishman who becomes the Dr.
Watson-like sidekick to a brilliant detective, not realizing
that his new partner is actually the master thief who’s
been robbing the city blind) and masterfully executes it
all the way through to the end. Arguably the year’s most
perfect script.
"full
of twists, turns, and gadzooks moments."
Review by Kate Pedersen, Now
Magazine, Toronto
Clueless good guy Barnaby Gibbs eagerly recounts his adventures
with Antoine Feval, an incomparable detective who is more
than he seems. Actor Chris Gibbs wins the audience by effortlessly
riffing on everything from the lack of air conditioning
at the Glen Morris to an audience member's dropped purse,
all while telling a story worthy of a funnier Arthur Conan
Doyle, full of twists, turns, and gadzooks moments. He makes
it look so easy and enjoyable that all the kids will be
clamouring for a look at the boxes of papers from Gibbs's
attic that inspired this play, if those papers exist at
all. Hopefully, Gibbs will be back with more adventures
of Antoine and Barnaby in future Fringes.
NNNNN
"hilarious
and quick-witted"
Review By Dave Jaffer, The Hour,
Montreal
Antoine Feval star Chris Gibbs is impossible to ignore in
this one-man show about the best detective you've never
heard of. Narrated by Feval's doltish sidekick Barnaby,
the show is hilarious and quick-witted, unafraid of improvised
tangents and digressions from the narrative, and even prepared
for sleepy audience members (Venue 8 is a sauna). Sharp,
funny and quick on his feet, wily Brit Gibbs is an incredibly
generous performer, and his characters are lively and inspired.
(5 STARS)
"a
masterpiece that manages to be both ridiculous and intelligent"
Review by Peter Birnie, Vancouver
Sun
Don’t miss this wonderfully wacky and absolutely accomplished
piece of playful fun. Chris Gibbs has honed a masterpiece
that manages to be both ridiculous and intelligent, mocking
so many facets of old-fashioned “footlights” theatre that
it’s almost an archival relic of Victorian melodrama. But
no, Gibbs is busy unleashing an entirely subversive agenda
beneath the surface of his Sherlock Holmes spoof. There’s
a “rhyming burglar” afoot in old London, and his encounter
with a man possessed of shockingly few brain cells leads
to a friendship where one side can’t believe his good luck
— and the other hasn’t a clue about what’s going on. The
British street performer, now transported to Toronto, has
a gift for going off on tangents that pop up from, say,
a very strange young woman trying to find her way out of
the theatre. Gibbs spent so much time having fun like this
on Saturday night (not to mention dealing with another of
the festival’s constant “Sweet on the Fringe” fundraising
segments by performing outrageous feats of gymnastics) that
he actually had to rush things along at one point. No matter,
we gave him a standing ovation for having taken the time
to craft such a sweet treat.
"a
highly skilled, confident comic actor whose writing is unrelentingly
clever and whimsical"
Review
by Adrian Chamberlain, Victoria Times Colonist
Toronto's Chris Gibbs has regularly
delivered clever, beautifully-performed comedies at the
Victoria Fringe Theatre Festival. Antoine Feval is yet another
home run — if you mean to see just a few shows this season,
add this one on your list. The solo comedy is about a pea-brained
Englishman, Barnaby Gibbs, who serves as well-meaning but
dull-witted Dr. Watson to a fellow named Antoine Feval.
Feval is a thief, but pretends to be a Sherlock Holmes-like
detective in order to bilk his hapless sidekick of his inheritance.
Barnaby is a dumbo par-excellence — a combination of Bertie
Wooster and Hugh Laurie's addle-brained aristocrat from
the Black Adder series. Gibbs also plays a full cast of
well-defined characters, flipping back and back with a conjurer's
deftness. Gibbs is a highly skilled, confident comic actor
whose writing is unrelentingly clever and whimsical (in
a way that, at times, recalls comedian Eddie Izzard). His
75-minute show is a bona fide tour de force. If you want
to see a fringe theatre professional at the top of his game,
this one's a sure bet.
(5 STARS)
Review
by Judy Unwin, Global News, Edmonton
This was one of the funniest hours I have spent at the fringe.
Chris Gibbs is an engaging story teller and dynamite at
ad lib. When a horrendous bell clanging cellphone went off
in the middle of the production twice, he didn't miss a
beat but turned it into a very funny part of his show. His
story of Antoine Feval will keep you laughing for the whole
hour.
(5 STARS)
"one
of the most cleverly written and performed shows I've ever
seen at the Fringe."
Review By Christopher Hoile,
Eye Weekly, Toronto
This show is a delight from beginning to end. Set in 1896,
we meet Barnaby Gibbs (Chris Gibbs), a kind-hearted but
thoroughly dim-witted young man whose hero is Sherlock Holmes'
companion, Doctor Watson. He thinks he finds his Holmes
in Antoine Feval, a criminal whose every act Gibbs misinterprets
as part of sleuthing. The irony of this first-person limited
narrative is deliciously funny, and the enthusiasm Chris
Gibbs gives the painfully naïve Barnaby is infectious.
Gibbs' observations on the show-in-progress add further
layers of irony, making this one of the most cleverly written
and performed shows I've ever seen at the Fringe.
(5 STARS)