Review: Zip & Wick #72: Endings (Podcast)

(Photo from the Fringe 2011 production of Zip & Wick)

A Little Less Super

A Fringe show doesn't fly well for C'est La Vie

by Rachel Zuroff

Zip & Wick #72: Endings is this season’s final production by the podcast theatre group C’est la vie. It is the story of the apocalypse as told by two superheroes waiting for the end of the world in Paris. The story of Zip & Wick remains primarily a conversation between the two title characters. As Zip and Wick wait for the end of the world, they alternately bicker, reminisce over the past and discuss their lives from childhood, to falling in love, to saving lives, to whether any of it is worth the trouble and heartache it has caused. While waiting for the end, Zip and Wick further discuss what it is like to be a superhero, the responsibilities and privileges entailed by such powers, their own ontological status and their relationship to humans.

Nor did their philosophical reflections strike me as insightful or thought-provoking.

Normally, I’ve enjoyed the C’est la vie podcast productions. I’ve appreciated the simplicity of the medium and its ability to focus and purify the emotions and images of a play by eliminating extraneous distractions. However, I did not like Zip & Wick. Its story was boring and its philosophy trite. I never grew to care about the characters; there was no reason for me to mourn their passing. Nor did their philosophical reflections strike me as insightful or thought-provoking. They merely made me think the playwright was trying too hard.

Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this play, but if you do wish to listen to it, Zip & Wick is available on the C’est la vie website and free for download on iTunes

Read also Janis Kirshner's review of the Fringe production