Reviews

“Despite the elaborate set – the faux skating rink takes up the entire stage – the play feels intimate.”

“The play doesn’t shy away from Fleury’s life, instead faces it head on and handling it with a moving combination of raw vulnerability and humour.”

“As you watch him sweat and spit and cry his way through more than two hours worth of pure monologue, all the while whizzing around across the glossy white surface, you begin to feel you’re in the presence of greatness and it’s a bit like witnessing a piece of Canadian history in your own backyard”

“There is just the right amount of special effects to make it feel magical, without taking away from the main event: Smyth’s performance.”

Source: BWW Review: PLAYING WITH FIRE: THE THEO FLEURY STORY at Centaur Theatre

 

“As directed by Ron Jenkins, it crackles with kinetic energy. Every minute of the story is either funny, shocking, sad or fascinating. The highs are precipitous and the lows profoundly dark”.

“The play doesn’t pretend we don’t know about the abuse. It goes there quickly and without equivocation but doesn’t dwell on it, either.”

“The rink set is perfectly rendered, the skates real and the “ice” totally convincing when you see Smyth skating and shooting. A huge screen is used for video clips of various real-life game moments in addition to stats and hockey cards of the various players who pop up in the story”

“The bad habits put Fleury on the sharpened edge of self-destruction, lending the play no shortage of suspense, even if you think you know the story”

“It’s an amazing accomplishment not just physically, of course, but emotionally. You’d forgive him if he just survived the play night after night but Smyth isn’t just good in the role but bloody fantastic”

Source: Review: Actor shoots and definitely scores in Fleury bioplay | Saskatoon StarPhoenix

“Playing With Fire comfortably straddles the no-man’s-land between theatre and sport.

“I have sports-loving friends who wouldn’t go to the theatre to save their lives … but they’d love this show if they could only be convinced to give it a go”

“Hey all you jocks. You’d swear you’d been let inside an athlete’s mind and on his ice for 90 minutes.”

“Beautifully acted”

Source: Playing With Fire, The Theo Fleury Story at the Citadel Theatre: Jocks and their artsy girlfriends will both love this show – Review by GRAHAM HICKS

“I can’t remember an opening night like the one we had. The ecstasy, the screaming,” says Vanessa Porteous, the artistic director of Alberta Theatre Projects. “It’s a hit”

“Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story is being described as a landmark achievement by local reviewers;”

Source: Theo Fleury play marks Calgary’s cultural coming of age | National Post

On the same night that Centaur opened its 2017/2018 season with Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story, the Montreal Canadiens opened their season with a game against the Buffalo

“Smyth’s performance cannot be praised enough. He is instantly believable as both a macho jock and a vulnerable victim.”

“Playing with Fire is a riveting one-man play”

“Set and lighting designer David Fraser deserves much credit as well for the creation of one of the most impressive set pieces in recent memory”

 

Source: The dark side of the good old hockey game | Arts | thesuburban.com

 

Source: Playing with Fire: The Theo Fleury Story – Review | Applause! Meter

For the guys – Seriously, you need to ask? You’ll love every minute of it. And if you are worried that the abuse parts are too much to handle – let me assure you it is discussed with class and intelligence. SEE IT

For the girls – There were LOTS of female hockey fans in the audience – but regardless if you like hockey or not, this is a fabulous character story that will have you rooting for Theo despite his many flaws. SEE IT

For the occasional audience – Foul language, some uncomfortable story elements and a two act monologue may make you wary. You shouldn’t be. This is great theatre that will make you laugh and cry and tell you a great story. SEE IT

For the theatre junkie – This show is a fourple threat (I just made that word up). The writing, the acting, the directing and the set will rival some of the best theatre you’ve seen. SEE IT 

Smyth’s portrayal of Theo imitating and occasionally mocking everyone from Don Cherry to team owners to the players he fought make for some of the biggest laughs I’ve had in the theatre in a long time.”

Source: Colin MacLean: Playing With Fire: The Theo Fleury Story is outstanding | Edmonton Sun

“You want to stand and cheer. And at the end of this electrifying evening of theatre that plays with your emotions as Fleury used to play with the puck – you will probably do just that”

“The play gives us, in wrenching detail, Fleury’s losing battle with his demons and his (long) descent into hell.”

“The mesmerizing Smyth constantly, and without overplaying the inherent heart-break of the lost kid, tears back the layers until we see the damaged man behind the pint-sized pistol on the ice.”

Theo Fleury story scores big win on Citadel stage

“The production isn’t about showing, it’s about embodying, in full physical invention. The stage is a rink, with boards (and product placement banners) and hockey lighting and the Zamboni at intermission, rockin’ classics full-volume. Ah yes, and video that shows an eerie resemblance between Fleury and the actor who becomes him”

“Smyth, who never takes off his skates, ricochets around the ice at furious speeds, smashing pucks, crashing into the boards, changing jerseys when Fleury gets drafted or traded”

“This is dynamic, up-on-its-feet storytelling, as one engaging guy on (real) skates conjures his world.”

Source: Theatre review: Theo Fleury story scores big win on Citadel stage | Edmonton Journal

“Shaun Smyth in the one-man virtuous performance of a lifetime, the multi-award-winning Playing With Fire”

“Audiences don’t need to know a thing about hockey to love the exhilarating, heart-breaking, and triumphant true story of courageous Canadian hockey legend,”

Source: PLAYING WITH FIRE, THE THEO FLEURY STORY Opens Centaur’s 49 Season

Playing with Fire – Based on Fleury’s best selling memoir of the same name, a recall his life and career from his beginnings

“I never thought seeing a one-man play about the turbulent life and career of a former professional hockey player could be just as fast-paced and thrill-a-minute exciting as watching an actual NHL game. But that is what I experienced”

“Shaun Smyth perfectly echoes Fleury’s life and emotions in an unforgettable performance (which earned him four curtain calls at the show’s opening night).”

Source: “Playing with Fire” scores a theatrical hat trick – Montreal Times – Montreal’s English Weekly Newspaper