The Times Colonist

Many performers attempt to create comedy that's whimsical and bizarre. It's a difficult trick to pull off, and few succeed.
Enter Australia's Jonno Katz, who absolutely nails this theatrical form. Katz's CACTUS - created with Mark "Sabotage" Chavez - is a stream-of-consciousness yarn that feels more like a dream than anything I've ever experienced in theatre. One idea drifts into another in that peculiarly surreal manner we've all experienced in the Land of Nod...although CACTUS is anything but a snooze.
This may read like a recipe for "let-me-out-of-here" self-indulgence. Believe me, in this case it's not. Katz possesses the wit and risk-taking acting ability to pull it off. We follow him through a sweltering trudge through the desert. Sweating under his pin-stripped suit, he converses with Yuri, a scar faced Russian, and Eric, a writer of man-to-man love poetry.
Elsewhere, Katz relives his drunken loss of virginity as a teen, recites a weird poem about bugs, and - believe it or not - attempts to make love to the audience.
The script is liberally peppered with funny, subtle lines, such as "I was born before I knew it" and "I'm definitely on my deathbed, dying."
Still not convinced? Take my word for it, CACTUS is a must-see. Jonno Katz is brilliant.

- AC ****1/2

Monday Magazine

Rubber faced and mesmerizing as a snake charmer, Australian Jonno Katz takes us on a brain-twisting walkabout in CACTUS, a one-man slice of surrealism that transpires during a trudge through the desert. Initially alone, Phil is soon joined by two companions, ambulatory hallucinations that provoke shifting realities, both external and psychological. CACTUS was co-written by Katz and Mark Chavez (one-half of Fringe fave Sabotage), so fans can probably guess that process trumps content, in a Mobius-strip storyline held together by a remarkable, always amusing performance. Call it Beckett goes Bonkers; call it definitely worth seeing.

- RM ****