Freeze is an allegorical comedy play that dramatizes the Great Ice Storm of '98 as a metaphor presaging “cooler” more inclusive times in Quebec compared to the separatist firestorms of earlier decades. Five quirky Montrealers, trapped in a power-outed duplex, butt heads in candlelight over love, language and politics, provoking us to ponder with laughter whether Montreal's “two solitudes” of the past has become a stereotype in this new century?
In the midst of this dark hour, I sensed that a bigger story was passing through us. It was an extraordinary moment in history, when all Québecers, no matter their race, religion, language, birthplace or work, became “pure laine” to the core, as we collectively faced the wrath of nature.
Orlov has written some very funny lines … The folks sitting behind me roared with laughter throughout.
Montreal.com, Janet Coutts
You couldn’t imagine a story closer to the heart of Montreal.
The Gazette, Mark Abley
For those of us who lived through the Montreal Ice Storm of ’98, we … shared an unexpected rite of passage and nothing after would be as it was before. With
Freeze, Stephen Orlov has captured that time and place with remarkable insight and great humour in a play that will tickle your funny bone on the way to your heart. Everything in the given circumstances of this play is accurate and insightful. And, as with all good plays, the specific speaks to the universal and therefore, to audiences everywhere.
Gordon McCall, former Artistic/Executive Director of Centaur Theatre, Montreal.