Toronto Fringe Review: The Kid Was A Spy

No one deserves the title “Fringe veteran” more than Jem Rolls, whose The Kid Was a Spy, a late addition to the Toronto Fringe, marks his 20th Fringe tour. 

As always, the tall, lanky performer knows how to capture an audience’s attention with his wit, attention to detail and confident storytelling style. His tale here concerns Ted Hall, a brilliant New York-born scientist who, after graduating from Harvard at 18, was hired to become a physicist at Los Alamos, contributing to the Atom bombs that would be dropped on Japan. 

Unlike the more famous Oppenheimer, however, Hall actually was a spy, passing along information about the Manhattan Project to Soviet intelligence. Near the end of his hour-long show, Rolls asks us whether he did the right thing. 

There’s a lot of information to impart, and many characters, including Klaus Fuchs (another spy), Saville Sax, Hall’s Harvard roommate who recruited him for the Soviets, and Ed Hall, Ted’s older brother and mentor. There’s also Joan Hall, Ted’s wife; both were Communist supporters and activists, and as Rolls points out, that may have made him less suspicious – would a real spy be so public with his attitudes towards Communism?

A large screen erected behind Rolls remains blank, which is a shame. Some audio-visual aids would have helped illustrate his story. And why not mention Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster film and the fact that Hall isn’t in it?

Rolls’s writing and delivery becomes repetitive, and at the performance I saw the performer occasionally lost his way, which didn’t help matters.

The Kid Was A Spy is now on until July 13 at the Fringe. Show times and tickets.