CanadaHub @ King’s Hall

Four stars

Neil Cooper

“Am I not allowed to say that?”,  writer/performer Adam Lazarus asks at one point towards the end of Daughter, his solo exploration of toxic masculinity and the mess it spews out. By this stage, Lazarus has taken a discomforting leap from goofy dad sporting butterfly wings and carrying a hula hoop, to something shocking. What follows in Ann-Marie Kerr’s production is a timely portrait of everyday misogyny hiding in plain sight.

What initially looks like a post-slacker piece of gonzo stand-up theatre double bluffs us into thinking the best and then the worst of Lazarus, an electrifying performer who has constructed a meticulous narrative provocation. Co-created by Lazarus with Kerr, Jivesh Parasram and Melissa D’Agostino, it lays bare a litany of barely suppressed everyday fear and loathing which becomes more truthful the more you recognise that it’s not a personal confessional. Or is it? Either way you look at it, this is hardcore.