Reviews

'GO' - LA Weekly

'Critics Pick' - Backstage Magazine

“Aren't we lucky that this little performer landed in Winnipeg this summer? With the slightest movement, a raised eyebrow or a shift of the hand, Cara Yeates goes from impressionable to confident to smarmy to elegant as a host of colourful characters. This fantastic one-woman show has to be the stand-out production of the festival. Her use of puppets, her skilled transformations and her creative use of multimedia come together in a well-oiled machine that is firing on all its comedic cylinders. Don't miss Bombay before it says "bye-bye."”                                      * * * * * Uptown Magazine – G.B.


 “Bye Bye Bombay is the first treasure I have seen at this year's Fringe Festival.  Cara Yeates gave a tour-de-force.  She incorporates puppetry, dance, singing, lip-synching, mime, and the effective characterization of approximately a dozen characters…Yeates is a revelation from the beginning to the end.  Bye Bye Bombay is one of the best shows at the Fringe…Do not miss Bye Bye Bombay!”
–     * * * * * CBC Saskatoon - Jason Dubray



This one-woman show puts the multi into multimedia, running the gamut from ancient puppetry to YouTube videos. Gori (Cara Yeates) is a Canadian of Indian ancestry; given the Bildungsroman storyline that unfurls, it's hard to resist the notion that Yeates's performance contains more than a smattering of autobiography. Poking around in her attic, somewhere in deepest, darkest Canada, Gori discovers the face of her mom beaming out from a vintage Bollywood poster. Feeling some cultural stirrings, she promptly heads off to sunny Mumbai to dig up her roots. Yeates either plays or holds the strings for a variety of characters, from an Indian woman with a clipped British accent (who rescues her from tourist hell) to Raul, a lecherous man who tries to apply a pot of nipple balm to her chest. At a fancy party, a guy offers to sweep her off to a Bollywood film studio, and she agrees to meet him the next day at McDonald's. ("I am loving it.") Memorable costumes abound, including an outfit that looks like it's fit for intergalactic warfare; in one beautiful (and instructive) sequence, Yeates folds herself neatly into six yards of white sari.
                     - * * * * TIME OUT MAGAZINE, New York City

“Yeates narrates the journey like a dark fairy tale or a big adventure, using music, dance, animation, and puppets. Most ingenious is the use of video—projected recordings help to fill in the bustle and color of India, and YouTube videos of the young heroine's travel journal serve as an arresting commentary. The multimedia approach serves the piece well, and Yeates comfortably navigates transitions between these various elements… Bye Bye Bombay is successful as a journey; through an intense multi-sensory experience, Yeates brings us with her halfway around the world and back.”
-New York Theatre.com

“Brava to actress Cara Yeates for stitching a gorgeous sari of a show from the simplest components. I was utterly absorbed in her fascinating tale, which mixes truth and fiction so fearlessly that what is real and imaginary blend into brilliance…This whole hypnotic hour of power is an absolutely intoxicating introduction to the magical, mysterious muddle that is India.”                                                - Vancouver Sun, Peter Birnie
 
“One of the best things about the fringe is all the places you get to go…Bye-Bye Bombay does the transporting better and more effortlessly than most….
                       - * * * * * Calgary Herald

“Honest, thoughtful and original.  Bye Bye Bombay is both well-written and well-executed; as touching as it is funny.”     
- * * * * EYE WEEKLY - Chris Bilton

“Yeates proves it doesn't take an hour of introspective dialogue to pull off a captivating transformation…Yeates has a spunky comic timing and delivery, but she's even better at physical characterization. She goes from elegant tour guide to smarmy director without blinking.
                – * * * * Times Colonist

“Writer/performer Cara Yeates delivers a fast-paced, passionate retelling of her experiences in the Bollywood film industry.  The versatile Yeates gives definition and weight to almost a dozen characters, all without confusing her consistently enthralled audience.  Using an array of techniques from animation to puppetry, she creates a detailed, accessible world that still feels grounded and personal.”
             * * * * Now Magazine, Barry Hertz

“This show, from Cara Yeates, is wonderful to watch. We follow a young woman as she travels to Mumbai and accidentally starts working in Bollywood. The show is full of wonderful movement, character shifts, puppetry, music that becomes part of the show, all in all a very engaging 60 minutes. Yeates is a treat to watch. Word of mouth is a powerful thing in this festival, so I'm betting this one is going to start selling out soon, so if I were you I'd book your tickets early.”
–    Blog TO, Megan Mooney

 “Good writing by Yeates and a strong one-woman performance, combined with crisp direction by Jonno Katz, excellent sound design and some clever…visual projections make Bye Bye Bombay well worth seeing.“
– * * * * The Westender


"...Terrific coming-of-age comedy...a smart and engaging show about self-discovery, Bollywood and mothers... If you haven't been part of that audience yet, you should be. Yeates plays multiple parts, from the teenage heroine whose journey to India is also an internal travelogue to a series of lecherous men and film industry hangers-on. Funny, poignant and energetic, her performance includes multi-media elements, a couple of marionettes and an elegant lesson in how to dress in a sari."                                     

- Ottawa Citizen, Patrick Langston