"Vancouverites (BC) James Long (Theatre Replacement) and Marcus Youssef (Neworld Theatre) are longtime friends and theatre artists who have been performing this show since 2012. It is a testament to their maturity, professionalism, and the strength of their friendship that they are still at it. What begins as a couple of friends nattering wittily and discursively gets serious and, finally, brutal. There is no comfort here but it’s about as exciting and engaging as theatre gets.

Response by Tessa Hulls and Eric Olson.

Like much of what Artistic Director Lane Czaplinski brings to the stage of On the Boards, Winners and Losers is avant garde, deconstructed, and artistically potent.  It was refreshing to experience a live performance piece that utilized a seemingly simple structure to highlight the complexities of the two performers’ lives. There was not a “setting” to speak of.  Canadian actors Marcus Youssef and James Long held a ninety-minute-long conversation (sometimes with the audience) seated at a folding table in the center of the stage.

Leaving I am only mildly, politely concerned about how much of this is scripted. I muse in the lobby about ‘what does the second night look like?’ Are we talking an outline, full on script, or what?

But to be honest I don’t care. 

What I care about is mankind's favorite topic, the self. This relationship, is one I have.  It is one you have. It is frustrating and magnetizing for all the same reasons.