The Passionate Playgoer

At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Written by Ins Choi. Directed by Weyni Mengesha. Designed by Ken MacKenzie. Lighting by Lorenzo Savoini. Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne. Starring: Clé Bennett, Ins Choi, Esther Jun, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Jean Yoon.

Produced by Soulpepper Theatre Company

The charmed life of KIM’S CONVENIENCE continues. Ins Choi’s beautifully written play ran at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival where it won the Best New Play Award, the Patron’s Pick and one of the Best of the Fringe spots. It opened Soulpepper’s 15 season earlier in the month.

KIM’S CONVENIENCE celebrates the travails, hopes, dreams and humour of the immigrant experience, in this case the Korean immigrant’s experience. But it could be anyone from another country who comes to Canada seeking a better life.

Mr. Kim and his family have owned and run a convenience store in Regent’s Park since they arrived in Canada years before. He knows his customers. He knows about their families and they know his.

The area is set to be re-developed and Mr. Kim is faced with being bought out or passing the store to his daughter Janet. She doesn’t want it. She is a trained photographer and wants to lead her own life. There is a son name Jung who left years before when he had an argument with his father that landed the son in the hospital.

Mr. Kim is an angry, obstreperous, blinkered, prejudiced man with no sense of humour but is absolutely hilarious and touching in his anger, obstreperousness and prejudice. He tells Janet who is likely to steal from the store and who is not. She tries to reason with this bull-headed philosophy. Sometimes she wins and sometimes she doesn’t.

The combination of playwright Ins Choi’s turn of phrase and Paul Sun-Hyung Lee’s (as Mr. Kim) fractured accent and pronunciation make Mr. Kim endearing, exasperating and noble. Pau Sun-Hyung Lee gives a full-bodied, open-hearted performance that is makes us both wary and charmed. As Janet Esther Jun has the body language of a character who belongs in her own world—easy, confident, proud. Her Janet stands up to Kim with feistiness and love. In various parts from a cop to a young jiving man who steals from the store Clé Bennett shifts from character to character with ease and conviction. As Mrs. Kim, Jean Yoon is often irritated with her husband, but totally supportive of both her children—her daughter who stayed and her wayward son who she sees on the sly. And as Jung Ins Choi is that wonderful combination of a man who is lost but is brave enough to know where he has to go to find his place again. All give lovely performances.

Director Weyni Mengesha directs with a sure hand that keeps the balance between the irascible Mr. Kim and the more touching, emotional moments. There is a lot that is moving about the play but Mengesha doesn’t go for the easy emotionally manipulative stuff.

Ken MacKenzie has designed the perfect convenience store, complete with the lack of logic in product placement—the Pringles are not in the same row as the bags of potato chips; nor are the nuts and other snacks you would think would be all together. I checked my local (Korean) convenience store. Darned if the Pringles are not in the same row as the bags of chips. Not to be too minging though, I would expect that the open boxes of chocolate bars in the front would not be so perfectly full. It would seem that Mr. Kim didn’t have any customers who bought things. And we know he did.

In his program note, Ins Choi says that KIM’S CONVENIENCE is his love-letter to his immigrant parents and all 1st generation immigrants who came to Canada for a better life. It’s a beautiful tribute. See this play.

KIM’S CONVENIENCE plays at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until February 11.

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The following reviews were broadcast on Friday, January 20, 2012 CIUT Friday Morning, CIUT, 89.5 FM. THE PENELOPIAD, at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre. THE GOLDEN DRAGON at Tarragon Theatre and AVENUE Q at the Lower Ossington Theatre.

Damon Scheffer is the host of the show.

(DAMON)
1) Good Friday Morning.

Lynn Slotkin, our travelling theatre critic and passionate playgoer, has returned from London and is here to talk about theatre she’s seen since she got back.

Hi Lynn

What have you seen this week?

(LYNN)

Three plays. First Margaret Atwood’s epic play THE PENELOPIADbased on her wonderful book of the same name, is produced by Nightwood Theatre.

Then THE GOLDEN DRAGON, by Roland Schimmelpfennig, an absurdist, metaphoric play that takes place in a Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese fast-food restaurant, and is about the people who work there, live in the neighbourhood, and eat there.

It’s at Tarragon Theatre.

And finally a production of AVENUE Q, an edgy musical for adults about a group of young people trying to find their way in the big city, using puppets.

It’s at the Lower Ossington Theatre.

(DAMON)
2) As we usually do, let’s go in order. What is THE PENELOPIAD about?

(LYNN)
Margaret Atwood takes THE ODYSSEY, about Odysseus’s heroics in the 10 year Trojan War, and his long 10 year journey home, and skewers it.

Atwood looks at the story from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’s patient, faithful wife and what she had to endure for the 20 years it took him to return home.

The PENELOPIAD is about Penelope’s trials and tribulations waiting for him, her loyalty to him as suitors came from far and wide to try and win her hand, and her wiliness in keeping them guessing and at arm’s length.

She was aided by 12 loyal maidens. Penelope promised to pick a suitor but first she tells them she has to weave a shroud for her father-in-law.

She would weave all day but at night she and the maidens would unravel what they did and begin again. Until one terrible day when the suitors figured they might have been tricked. They took their vengeance on the maidens by raping them. The women never revealed the secret though.

By that time Odysseus came home and killed the suitors, but he also had his bull-headed revenge on the maidens.

(DAMON)
3) Sometimes Atwood’s writing can be rather dense. How does the book translate to the stage?

(LYNN)
Beautifully.

I found the book of THE PENELOPIAD to be unlike any Margaret Atwood novel I’ve read. It’s funny, cheeky, pointed, certainly perceptive and just puts such a spin on society’s attitude to women, and women’s attitude to each other.

As director Kelly Thornton says in her program note: “THE PENELOPIAD shines a bright light on the voicelessness of women in history, in myth and in culture.”

Rather than being two dimensional, Atwood’s characters are full bodied and vibrant. And of course it portrays the matcho and grand Odysseus in a less than flattering light, as an adventure seeking, skirt chasing man who expected his little woman to wait patiently for him at home without complaint.

We learn all about this as a flashback from Penelope as she spends her time in the underworld because she’s dead and looking back on her life.

So we start with a wonderful epic book which has been dramatized by the author. And it’s given an equally epic production in its spareness, vividness, imagination, and compelling theatricality by director Kelly Thornton and her splendid cast.

(DAMON)
4) How does Thornton take this huge story and put in on the stage?

(LYNN)
She does it with incredible imagination and a terrific set and costume design by Denyse Karn. The stage is bare except for a circle outlined on the floor. A platform represents Odysseus’s ship that he sails to take Penelope home after their wedding. He stands proudly on his boat. He wears a cape. A character pulls the cape back until it looks like a triangular sail and holds that pose.

Billowing blue material suggests waves and water. A sheet held up represents more water and gloved hands peeking above that with their fingers tight together touching the thumb and releasing, looks like ducks with their beaks opening and closing, letting out quacks as they go.

Thornton’s production if full of images that take the breath away and just make you smile in delight and even gasp in horror.

The cast of 13 women is composed of some of the finest actresses in the country beginning with Megan Follows as Penelope. She is demure, thoughtful, resigned, regal, wiley and charming.

Kelli Fox is a wonderful actress and plays Odysseus and it’s full of swagger and quiet arrogance. Fox doesn’t do a caricature, it’s a full bodied guy. The whole enterprise is terrific.

Don’t miss this.

(DAMON)
5) Now THE GOLDEN DRAGON. What’s the story of this one?

(LYNN)
This is the latest collaboration between German Author, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Canadian director, Ross Manson.

The play takes place in the Golden Dragon a Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese fast-food restaurant, where five Asians work in the kitchen preparing the food.

The youngest worker is an illegal immigrant who has a terrible toothache and screams a lot, but they can’t take him to a dentist because he’s an illegal alien.

But the tooth must be attended to and they do it in the most primitive manner. When the tooth is pulled out by pliers it flies through the air and lands in the soup of a customer.

The immigrant has left his family in China to come and look for his sister who seems to have disappeared.

In the restaurant are two stewardesses who are ordering food. One of them finds the tooth, in her soup.

In the neighbourhood of the restaurant are an old couple; two old men who are friends; a young woman and her old grandfather. Various characters order food; the recipes of the dishes are recited; people bicker; get drunk; hear bad news and leave their loved ones.

Interspersed in the various vignettes of characters is the telling of the fable of the ant and the cricket. An industrious ant prepares for winter by gathering food etc. The cricket is happy go lucky, doesn’t do anything and is totally unprepared when winter comes. The cricket asks the ant for help and gets a lecture instead. It ends very badly for the cricket.

Later the cricket will become a young woman who is brutalized by one of the two old men who are friends.

It soon becomes clear that nothing is what it seems in this play.

(DAMON)
6) How so.

We’re told that the five kitchen workers are Asian, except that none of the actors playing them is really Asian. Two are white, one is black, one is Indian and one is a mix of Asian-white. This sets up an amusing visual joke. Male characters are played by women. Female characters are played by men. Old characters are played by young actors etc. So we have a young man play a grandfather, and an older woman play his granddaughter.

And it’s obvious the play is loaded with metaphors and symbolism. Perhaps the fable of the ant and the cricket represents the innocent woman who is then brutalized by the more experienced older man. Perhaps that young woman was in fact the restaurant worker’s missing sister. The lost tooth perhaps represents displacement.

The play deals with important ideas of displacement, finding ones home being protected and being taken advantage of.

But I found that Schimmelpfenning deals with them in those murky metaphors and dare I say it, smothering pretentiousness. I found the play mystifying,

(DAMON)
7) Fighting words. How do you mean?

(LYNN)
The play is translated from the German by David Tushingham.

It’s a mix of actual dialogue and the actors also verbalizing the stage directions, with the verbalized stage directions taking up the brunt of the dialogue.

So the cast would announce, “Five Asians worked in the Golden Dragon a Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese fast-food Restaurant.”

Hearing that description once is funny. It’s repeated all through the play. This technique isn’t new, and it does wear thin after a while.

And as for the metaphors, the play should be able to tell me what it means to be. I shouldn’t need a long meandering director’s note to clarify matters and we have that here.

All these stage directions don’t give much opportunity to ACT but this cast of five does Herculean work. The cast is hugely talented and often rises above the stilted format of mixing verbalizing stage directions, and acting.

Especially impressive is Tony Nappo in many roles. He has an easy smile that covers danger. This is a dangerous actor, full of mystery, charm, swagger and humour.

And Anusree Roy a gifted actress, plays the young man with the tooth problem and others. She can change from character to character on a dime, from a man howling in pain, to an old South Asian man mortified at his violent friend, to other completely different types.

It’s directed by Ross Manson who uses music and lighting effectively. The staging is fluid.

But the appeal of Schimmelpfennig as a playwright escapes me. I find his plays cold, emotionless and obvious in their intent to be important.

(DAMON)
And now for something completely different AVENUE Q done by a non-Equity company. You tend not to review those. Why did you change your mind here?

(LYNN)
I changed my mind because I got a dandy e-mail from the publicist saying that the cast are recent graduates from various performing arts programs, are very
talented and needed and wanted to be considered professional even though they might not have the magical Equity card. That sold me.

(DAMON)
9) And were you glad you went?

Very. This is a tricky show. A celebrated Broadway musical. Music and Lyrics by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx. Book by Jeff Whitty

It’s about a group of young people trying to find their way in the big city. One is named Princeton who doesn’t know what to do with a BA in English.

Kate Monster is a teacher who wants to open her own school. There are others with their own problems, especially Trekkie Monster –no relation to Kate-who loves to watch porn all day.

And all the characters are played by hand-held puppets. We see the various young actors holding and manipulating the puppets while acting the parts—so that actor and puppet soon become one.

It has nothing to do with the Muppets, but if you insist, it’s like the Muppets but with attitude. It’s well directed by Seanna Kennedy, and beautifully acted and sung by a talented cast especially by Adam Proulx who plays Princeton and Rod and Kira Hall plays Kate Monster and Lucy (who is a floozy). They have charm for days, talent, optimism.

The show blew me away.

I do have a problem….Popcorn. They sold popcorn in the lobby to take into the theatre. Why do that to a hard working cast?

What is that..the need to graze at all times? It’s not a sporting event. Or the movies. These people trained to do theatre. Keep your noisy food outside. I don’t want to hear snapping pop cans or munching popcorn during a show.

So there.

(DAMON)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s blog at slotkinletter.com

THE PENELOPIAD plays at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre until January 29.

THE GOLDEN DRAGON plays at the Tarragon Theatre until February 19.

AVENUE Q plays at the Lower Ossington Theatre until
February 9.

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THE GOLDEN DRAGON By Roland Schimmelpfennig. Directed by Ross Manson.

At the Tarragon Theatre until February 19, 2012.

THE GOLDEN DRAGON is the latest collaboration between German playwright, Roland Schimmelpfennig and Canadian director Ross Manson.

It takes place in the Golden Dragon Chinese-Thai-Vietnamese fast-food restaurant, where five Asians work in the kitchen, preparing the meals. The youngest, an illegal immigrant, has a terrible toothache that has to be attended to.

A fable of the ant and the cricket is told in great detail.

Various characters order food; bicker; get drunk; hear bad news and leave their loved ones.

Important ideas of dispacement, finding one’s place, being protected and brutalized are dealt with in murky metaphor and dare I say it, smothering pretentiousness.

The cast is hugely talented and often rises above the stilted format of verbalizing dialogue and stage directions.

Full review on Friday, on CIUT Friday Morning, CIUT 89.5 FM from 9 am to 10 am.

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THE PENELOPIAD: Written by Margaret Atwood. Directed by Kelly Thornton.

At Buddies in Bad Times Theatre until January 29.

Produced by Nightwood Theatre.

I was in England last week and missed the opening of THE PENELOPIAD. I’m making up for lost time here.

Margaret Atwood takes THE ODYSSEY, Odysseus’s heroics in the Trojan war and his long journey home, and skewers it. She looks at the story from the point of view of Penelope, Odysseus’s patient, faithful wife and what she had to endure for the 20 years it took him to return home.

Atwood’s play is epic. Director Kelly Thornton’s production is too in its spareness, vividness, imagination, and compelling theatricality. The cast is splendid.

Don’t miss this one.

Full review on Friday, Jan. 20 on CIUT Friday Morning, CIUT, 89.5 FM from 9 am to 10 am.

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Reviews: Next Stage Theatre Festival continued

The Next Stage Theatre Festival continues this week until January 15. I saw these five shows over last weekend: Living with Henry, Loving the Stranger, Modern Love, Morro and Jasp in Go Bake Yourself and The Washing Machine.

LIVING WITH HENRY, music, book and lyrics by Christopher Wilson. Directed and choreographed by Donna Marie Baratta.

Michael is a sweet man who is looking for a meaningful relationship. Sometimes a quick pick-up in a bar is a nice fill in until Mr. Right comes along. He does meet someone and they have several days of passion before the guy tells Michael that he’s HIV positive. This certainly puts a damper on the relationship. Michael is conflicted about what to do. He confides in his best friend Jenni, then his understanding and worried mother. The relationship breaks up when Michael’s Mr. ‘Right’ is offended that Michael is upset he wasn’t told about the HIV positive situation earlier.

Michael then does meet another Mr. Right. They marry. Michael is told he is now HIV positive. Michael names this presence in his life Henry. Again, there is conflict when Michael’s partner is upset that the disease is taking over their lives. Michael decides not to take his drugs and nearly dies. His mother, best friend and Henry stand watch over him until he revives and decides to live as best as he can with Henry.

When I first saw this musical at The Best of the Fringe, I thought it was certainly ambitious on the part of Christopher Wilson. The story is obviously close to his heart. He has written the play, the lyrics and the music. That is a huge undertaking. I felt that there was the sense of ‘therapy’ about it—nothing wrong there. Both Wilson and his director Donna Marie Barata (in their program notes) certainly indicate how the subject has affected them. Initially I thought the effort was noble. On second viewing at the Next Stage Theatre Festival a more critical eye is observing, and the show comes up short.

I had to wonder what it was about the musical form that made Mr. Wilson decide to write his show as a musical, and not a straight play. It seemed to me that there would be a short bit of dialogue followed by song after song that went on to express a thought or conflict that could be as easily expressed in a little dialogue. Characters who were not developed properly had songs to sing without the background to be worthy of them. Even some of Michael’s medications had a song. Having HIV be represented as a living character takes ‘cloying’ to new heights.

Ryan Kelly as Michael is sweet and full of conviction. And many of the cast, at least those who can hold a tune, are good. But on the whole I had a head ache after the show from gritting my teeth so hard with the unnecessary songs with generally the same tempi, the preciousness of the piece and the busy and obtrusive direction by Donna Marie Baratta.

LOVING THE STRANGER, or how to recognize an invert, written and directed by Alistair Newton.

The story is about artist Peter Flinsch and how he lived and survived as a gay man in German and certainly during the rise of Nazism. Flinsch was imprisoned because he was gay; survived and eventually moved to Montreal.

Alistair Newton’s text is culled from actual interviews and documentary sources, giving the piece a sense of authenticity. He reproduces songs from the 1920’s with a gay theme to underscore his play. And there are many scenes with Flinsch as he is being interviewed by an unseen interviewer. These are particularly effective because Hume Baugh is so good as Flinsch. The accent is slight, the delivery understated and forthright. It’s a touching performance.

Again, I found this production ambitious with its mix of projections, music, dance and choreography. It is also interesting to see the slow progress of gay rights coming into its own but certainly not without a price. While same-sex marriage is a fact in Canada and ‘only’ seven States, the fact that hate crimes has doubled in Canada puts a pall on the gains. It makes one wonder if the gains were worth it. I appreciated the production for making me think of the question.

MODERN LOVE, written and performed by Jessica Moss, directed by Eric Double.

Jessica Moss has written a play that asks the questions: “How can you feel alone when you have 600 (Facebook) friends? When you carry everyone you know in your pocket, why is it so hard to connect? There used to be loneliness I could only feel in crowded rooms, and now I feel it all the time.”

She taps in the question to her 600 Facebook friends asking if anyone wants to go to a movie. She receives no replies. Later she does meet a friend for a coffee but her friend is busy texting someone on her cell phone while apparently having a conversation with her. Connection is what Jessica Moss wants. Disconnect and silence is what she gets until she ‘meets’ Charlie Brown on line. They ‘talk’. He is bright and funny. He writes in full sentences with correct spelling and I don’t think an ‘lol’ is in sight. Such a connection after such ‘distance’ is daunting for her. How will she cope? Will they meet?

Moss is an energetic, winning performer who makes us root for her character. She is full of depth, contradiction and confliction about the computer world and this guy Charlie Brown. The conversation she has with Charlie Brown is projected onto a screen.

Jessica Moss has written a funny and perceptive piece about life in our modern world. And the question is so of the moment—how can you feel alone when you have 600 friends. Many shows tap into the computer world, commenting on its immediacy without intimacy and connection. Moss brings both to her play with natural charm and emotion.

MORRO AND JASP: Go Bake Yourself. Created and performed by Heather Marie Annis and Amy Lee. Directed and dramaturged by Byron Laviolette.

I must confess that clowning is not my favourite kind of comedy. The effort seems so great for such a small return. I had seen Morro and Jasp in a previous show, which I loathed. But I went to see MORRO AND JASP: Go Bake Yourself with an open mind, and perhaps to see what I was missing.

Morro and Jasp would be ‘baking’. I was warned about the splatter zone of the first row and sat at the back. Jasp is the calmer, clearer thinking of the two. Morro is the more kinetic, the one more likely to splatter batter around the room and onto the front row. Jasp spent a lot of time keeping Morro in gear.

Many ingredients went into a bowl, some eye-brow-knitting. Cayenne pepper, corn flakes, chocolate, coke, salt, that kind of thing. An unsuspecting man in the front row was hauled up to taste it. The audience tried to suppress its giggles at the hapless taster. Jasp then went off with the guy leaving Morro to fend for herself, but came back later. I found that their dealing with the audience member in this case was rather gentle compared to the previous show I saw, and was grateful for it.

Heather Marie Annis as Morro and Amy Lee as Jasp have that disarming open-faced look that warms an audience and the stuck on red noses are always good for a smile. I still don’t understand the appeal of clowning, but I’m glad I saw this group.

THE WASHING MACHINE, written by Radha S. Menon. Directed by Sasha Kovacs.

Isabelle comes back from England to India her childhood home, a plantation. She has been recently widowed but she is having an affair of sorts with James, a boyhood friend who has been taking care of the plantation.

She has brought a washing machine with her. It’s a metaphor for the modern age to be used by the main servant, Ayah. Ayah doesn’t see it that way. She sees it as a means to diminish her presence in the plantation. Ayah takes pride in her work. She has done this work for years. This is what she does. But she now perceives a struggle to maintain that position with Isabelle’s ‘gift’.

THE WASHING MACHINE is an interesting take on being true to one’s promises to maintain traditions; the caste system in India; the power of secrets and how it comes back to haunt the people who keep them.

Playwright Radha S. Menon has written a complex story, sometimes confusing and dense with metaphors and symbolism. A strange character named “Mummy” sits drinking tea outside the main action but watching. She is an echo from the past we learn later in the play. Trying to keep track of all the secrets and threads of the story and who is related to whom is also challenging. But it is a noble effort by all concerned.

Of the nine shows I saw during the Next Stage Theatre Festival I had already seen LIVING WITH HENRY (as one of the Best of the Fringe) and LOVING THE STRANGER (at Summerworks). But wanted to see them again to see how they progressed to the “next stage” as it were.

I’m finding “Next Stage” might be a misnomer. I’m not really seeing a progression or development to ‘the next stage’ in what I originally saw. Perhaps performances are tighter, but problems with the writing or direction have not really been addressed.

I’m fascinated with how many playwright and director’s notes are in the programs explaining the story, the intension, the point, the symbolism and why they needed to tell the story. Surely the play should speak for itself, or am I being picky?

And giving us a detailed and convoluted mission statement of why a company was formed (to change the world through theatre, or to give a contemporary spin on issues, for example) is just pretentious. Please don’t put it in your programs. One assumes you want to do good theatre that communicates with your audience. That’s all we need to know.

The Next Stage Theatre Festival continues to Jan. 15 at the Factory Theatre.

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The following review of four shows at the NEXT STAGE THEATRE FESTIVAL was broadcast, January 6, 2012, CIUT 89.5 FM Friday Morning Show: Next Stage Theatre Festival. On at Factory Theatre until Jan. 15/12

(DAMON)
1) Good Friday Morning, it’s time for a little theatre with Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer.

Good morning, Lynn

You’ve been to the Next Stage Theatre Festival. Tell us what it is.

(LYNN)
The Next Stage Theatre Festival is the winter version of sorts of the Fringe festival held every July.

Billed as 12 Days of the Best Indie Theatre in Canada. It runs from Jan. 4-15. It’s composed of one act plays chosen by a jury. Some of the plays were in the “Best of The Fringe Festival, held this past summer. One played at the Summerworks Festival last August. Some are from companies across the country.

All are ready for the next stage, to have another go at production, to hone the work etc. And the Next Stage Theatre Festival gives them the opportunity.

It’s an eclectic group of 10 plays that play. The plays vary in theme to bikinis and beaches, love, sex, money, personal history, cooking with clowns, identity, living with HIV/AIDS and off the wall lunacy for example.

(DAMON)
2. Ok. What have you seen and how were they?

(LYNN)
First up LOVESEXMONEY written and directed by Kat Sandler.

Three plays, about love, sex and money, but really about sex make up the evening. In the first one a woman has advertised on the internet to sell her virginity to the highest bidder. The winner, not the highest bid but the one who wrote the best letter, is an older man who wants the event to be romantic. He brings wine and a nice plant.

The next playlet is about a man who buys a life sized doll robot who looks like his ex- girlfriend. He thinks she’s real with a bad wig and a dull voice like a robot and she’s playing
a joke on him. Is she real or is she Memorex?

The last one is about the office stud and the office hard nosed woman who are drunk and in a hotel room after a party and sex is not far off. But philosophy and talk about loneliness and intimacy are closer.

I think playwright Kat Sandler has a way with a phrase and funny line. But I thought the stories could be shorter and tighter.

The first one I thought was a tease—neither seemed to want to go through with the bargain. That’s frustrating for everybody. And I think the title is a misnomer. It’s really about sex, so let’s leave it at that.

TOMASSO’S PARTY is next and goes along the same theme of sex but with a quirky edge to it.

(DAMON)
3) How so?

It’s written by Jules Lewis. It’s about a couple. It’s perhaps the middle of the night.
Hugo sits on the side of the bed talking to the naked back of his sleeping girlfriend Madeleine.

Hugo is obsessing about many things. The title of the book of Poetry by Madeleine’s
boss Tomasso who is having the party. He is obsessing about whether or not Madeleine is really asleep, if she wants to go to the party; how she looks in high heels; and if Tomasso is gay.

Madeleine, who is finally awake, obsesses and teases Hugo about her slim legs, the dress she should wear; that Tomasso is straight and all manner of things.

It is the conversation of people on the edge; obsessive and grating.

Hugo is played by Simon Bracken who has a flat, monotoned voice. He used the same tone in another play and after these two plays I wonder if he can express himself in any other way. He’s funny but it’s limiting and wares thin quickly.

All the while Madeleine’s bare back is facing us. Leah Doz plays her expressively just by answering Hugo with her head on the pillow and only her left arm raises, flips, falls and
expresses everything she says.

It’s interestingly directed by Nigel Shaw Williams.

And of course all we want if for Madeleine to turn around.

Then for something completely different: HYPNOGOGIC LOGIC by a company called
Uncalled for, from Montreal.

(DAMON)
4) How is it completely different?

(LYNN)
The group, UNCALLED FOR and is a comedy troupe that’s been together for 11 years and been very successful.

It’s a kind of off the wall, stream of consciousness stuff that deals with that state between awake and sleep—Hynogogic.

So a man falls asleep reading the paper and his dreams are free flowing, dealing with singing groups that come from no where; suspended animation, illogical connections.
And lots and lots of loud declaiming and earnestness, with the occasional spitting of wine in various cast member’s faces.

Comedy is a personal thing. It varies with people. HYPNOGOGIC LOGIC isn’t funny to me.
It’s deadly, unfunny and at 75 minutes it’s about 60 minutes too long.

(DAMON)
5) OUCH. What was the last play you saw? I hope it was better?

(LYNN)
It was a short treat called LOVE IS A POVERTY YOU CAN SELL—a Cabaret Homage to the Music and Musical influence of Kurt Weill.

Seven songs, beginning and ending with Weill; “THE BALLAD OF MACK THE KNIFE” from Threepenny Opera, began it and “WHAT KEEPS MANKIND ALIVE” also from Threepenny Operaends it.

The songs deal with the darker, more cynical moods and attitudes of mankind of course so beautifully expressed by Weill

And these attitudes are also expressed in songs from Sweeney Todd by Stephen Sondheim, Cabaret by John Kander And Fred Ebb, and even a song from the play Bent,with music by Philip Glass and lyrics by Martin Sherman who wrote the play.

There is an edge to the songs, and they are all song wonderfully by the ensemble. It’s produced by Soup Can Theatre who also did a production of MARAT/SADE that I saw last year and it was terrific.

The director then and now is Sarah Thorpe who also provided the choreography. She is smart. Stylish serves the music and the mood of the piece and I want to see more of
her work.

For example, I notice a brooding man, in a white shirt and red tie—leaning against the door well as we file into the room. This isn’t a guy waiting for his late date. He’s part of the show, creating the atmosphere
immediately.

This is Alex Dault, quietly forbidding when he sings “MY FRIENDS” from SWEENEY TODD; he’s almost bright eyed when singing “SEPTEMBER SONG” from Knickerbocker Holiday . Christian Jeffries is arresting in full drag as he sings “STREETS OF BERLIN” from Bent. The whole cast was terrific.

The bridging dialogue by Justin Haigh is right for the piece. The band is accomplished. And I loved the whole of it.

And over the next two days I’ll see five more shows of the Next Stage Theatre Festival.

(DAMON)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s bog at www.slotkinletter.com

The NEXT STAGE THEATRE FESTIVAL continues at Factory Theatre until Jan. 15/12

www.fringetoronto.com

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For the first time in all the time that I’ve been going to Shaw Festival and Stratford Shakespeare Festival opens, both festivals have scheduled an opening on the same day. Helen’s Necklace opens at the Shaw Festival at 8:00 pm on August 11, and Elektra opens at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival at the same time on the same day.

I wonder how that happened since they both seem so careful not to step on each other’s openings?

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At the Toronto Centre for the Arts. Book by Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer. Music by Green Day. Lyrics by Billie Joe Armstrong. Set by Christine Jones. Costumes by Andrea Lauer. Lighting by Kevin Adams. Sound by Brian Ronan. Video/Projection Design by Darrel Maloney. Choreography by Steven Hoggett.

Part of the DanCap season. Plays until January 15, 2012.

AMERICAN IDIOT is a blast—angry, raucous, poignant, but in sum, a blast. The musical opened on Broadway in 2010, and is based on Green Day’s 2004 Grammy Award winning album of the same name. Toronto is the first city of the show’s North American tour.

It concerns three friends from boyhood—Johnny, Will and Tunny–each floating through life without purpose, and vaguely searching for it. They are all angry and raging, but the reason is blurry. They dream of leaving the suburbs and going to the city to seek their fortune? Future? Something? They all manage to get the bus fare—Johnny, the most excitable and damaged of the three, brags that he robbed a convenience store for the money; then says he really stole the money from his mother; and finally admits that he borrowed the money from her. That journey to the big city marks the beginning of huge changes in their lives.

Will is about to leave with his friends when his girlfriend tells him she’s pregnant. He stays, not out of responsibility, but because he can’t make any other choice. He’s trapped. He offers no support to her even when the baby is born, choosing to strum his guitar while she does all the parenting.

Johnny is a kind of narrator, listing off the dates of the milestones in his and his friends’ lives, beginning with February 2011. He falls in with a bad crowd and becomes addicted to heroin and alcohol. He believes what his stepfather said about him, that he’s a loser and would amount to nothing. Being in a drugged haze is what a loser like him would do, is his thinking.

Tunny through some patriotic sense, joins the armed forces and goes overseas to fight in Afghanistan. He comes back with all his illusions shattered, but he is not destroyed by the experience.

September 11, 2011 changes their lives again and in one way or another they come home. Will takes responsibility as a parent. Johnny comes back damaged, fragile, lost and thinks a desk job might set him straight. Tunny has to cope with various issues both mental and physical. It is not a sweetness and light ending, It’s sobering and apt.

The music of Green Day and Billie Joe Armstrong’s lyrics give this show a throbbing, blaring sense of urgency and immediacy. Whether it’s the loud, furious “American Idiot” which sets the tone, mood and decibel level of the show, or the touching “21 Guns” or the haunting “Wake Me Up When September Ends,” AMERICAN IDIOT captures the latest generation of disaffected youth.

Every generation seems to have its musical that speaks for it. There is HAIR (1967) that expressed that generation’s anti-Vietnam sentiments for the whole decade of the 1960s. RENT (1996) the late Jonathan Larson’s modern take on La Bohème, focuses on a group of young artists and musicians who left their comfortable lives to live, work and make art in the East Village of New York City. Their bond with each other, no matter the social strata, is intense. SPRING AWAKENING (2006) set in 19th century German (and based on the 1890 play of the same name by Frank Wedekind) is about the sexual oppression and obsession of teens in a repressive society. In that case the music is modern rock, thus making a story, more than 100 years old, immediate and totally of our time. AMERICAN IDIOT is a natural continuation of SPRING AWAKENING. These youth are not repressed. They are free to rage and be angry without knowing why or to whom.

It’s no coincidence that both the musicals of SPRING AWAKENING and AMERICAN IDIOT have such a vivid, throbbing, compelling presence, because they were both directed by Michael Mayer. For AMERICAN IDIOT he and his cast and design team have created a world of rage, grit, dazzle and all the stuff that we are bombarded by to get our attention.

Characters are delineated slightly. As Johnny, Van Hughes has the flashiest part, jerking almost uncontrollably around the stage while he is under the influence of drugs; singing such soul searching songs as “Boulevard of Broken Dreams,” and “When It’s Time.” As Will, Jake Epstein broods on the couch, playing his guitar for solace. And as Tunny, Scott J. Campbell is a contradiction of strong-chinned resolve and fragility.

Christine Jones’ set for AMERICAN IDIOT involves simple furniture, a mass of scaffolding, and a wall with more than 30 television screens. Those screens are full of Darrel Maloney’s video projections of everything from product names and brands, images, and phrases going at warp speed. And the image of thousands of papers floating upwards takes the breath away. It’s all we need to see to know that the Twin Towers were coming down. Kevin Adams’ lighting bombards us with effects that dazzle and disorient (appropriately). Steven Hoggett’s choreography is controlled mayhem. The cast stomp, stamp, writhe and march to a different drummer.

I have a quibble. After what is thought is the final bow, the curtain goes up on the whole cast, holding guitars, ready for one more song to send us on our way. The sight is funny. The song is about hoping we had a good time. It’s up beat and lively. It’s a cheat. AMERICAN IDIOT does not have an upbeat ending. It is appropriate and thought provoking. To end with this upbeat encore diminishes the show and doesn’t give us credit for being able to deal with something that is both rocking and serious.

Quibble aside, AMERICAN IDIOT is a blast.

It plays at the Toronto Centre for the Arts until Jan. 15, 2012.

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The King Edward Tea Society (KETS) Awards for 2011 were compiled on Friday, Dec. 30, 2011, during high tea in the Sovereign Ballroom of Le Meridien King Edward Hotel, Toronto.

The jury members were Paula Citron and Lynn Slotkin.

THEY BROUGHT GLORY TO THE STAGE CATEGORY

The Coalminer Meets Ballet Award:
BILLY ELLIOT (directed by Stephen Daldry, produced by Mirvish Productions)

The First Arab Spring Award:
HALLAJ (directed by Soheil Parsa, produced by Modern Times Stage Company)

There’s More to Kitchener than RIM Award:
THE LAST 15 SECONDS (directed by Majdi Bou-Matar, produced by MT Space and Theatre Passe Muraille)

Beware the Help Award:
THE MAIDS (directed by Brendan Healy, produced by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre)

Sorry, Did You Say Something? Award:
NAME IN VAIN (directed by Richard Rose, produced by Tarragon Theatre)

The Truth Shall Finally Be Revealed Award:
OUR CLASS (directed by Joel Greenberg, produced by Studio 180 and Canadian Stage Company)

The Paper Roses Award (Neither Cuts Nor Thorns):
PAPER SERIES (directed by Nina Lee Aquino, produced by Cahoots Theatre Company)

The Mail Finally Got Through Award:
THE POST OFFICE (directed by John Van Burek, produced by Pleiades Theatre)

Someone’s Junk is Someone Else’s Gold Award:
THE PRICE (directed by Diana Leblanc, produced by Soulpepper)

The Off-the-Wall/Death Can Be Fun Award:
RIDE THE CYLONE (Directed by Britt Small and Jacob Richmond, produced by Theatre Passe Muraille, Acting Up Stage Company and Atomic Vaudeville)

THE ÜBERTALENTED THESPIAN CATEGORY

He Can Teach Us All a Lesson Award:
JOHN CLELAND (Edward The Crazy Man, produced by Workman Arts)

She’s Everywhere and Is Always Good Award:
DIANE D’AQUILA (The Maids, produced by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, and Saint Carmen of the Main, produced by NAC and Canadian Stage Company)

His Greatness Award (A Tie):
RICHARD DONAT (His Greatness, produced by Independent Artists Repertory Theatre;
JIM MEZON (Red, produced by Canadian Stage Company)

More Bang For Your Buck Award:
DAVID FOX (The Price, produced by Soulpepper)

The Salty Broad Award:
KATE HENNIG (Billy Elliot, produced by Mirvish Productions)

The Cross Dressing Award (A Tie):
RON KENNELL (The Maids, produced by Buddies in Bad Times Theatre);
SPIRO SCIMONE (La festa, produced by Spotlight Italy, Canadian Stage Company)

There Always Has To Be A Yanna McIntosh Award:
YANNA MCINTOSH (Ruined, produced by Obsidian Theatre and Nightwood Theatre)

They Caught Our Eye Award:
JESSIE AARON DWYRE (The Ugly One, The Cherry Orchard)
GREG GALE (His Greatness, Highway 63: The Fort Mac Show)
GREGORY PREST (Ghosts, White Biting Dog, A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
GEMMA JAMES-SMITH (The Glass Menagerie)

ARTISTIC DIRECTORS WHO ARE MAKING A DIFFERENCE CATEGORY
BRENDAN HEALY (Buddies in Bad Times)
MATTHEW JOCELYN (Canadian Stage Company)
JACKIE MAXWELL (The Shaw Festival)
ANDY MCKIM (Theatre Passe Muraille)
GUY MIGNAULT (Théâtre français de Toronto)
ARKADY SPIVAK (Talk is Free Theatre, Barrie ON)
JOHN VAN BUREK (Pleiades Theatre Company)
ROBERT WINSLOW (4th Line Theatre, Millbrook ON)

GOOD STUFF – STRATFORD SHAKESPEARE FESTIVAL CATEGORY

He Can Make Bad Productions Look Good, and Good Productions Look Better Award:
BEN CARLSON (Twelfth Night, The Misanthrope)

Free Trade Import Award:
AARON KROHN (The Homecoming)
CLAIRE LAUTIER (Titus Andronicus)

Heartache Award:
IRENE POOLE, THE ACTING ENSEMBLE, AND DIRECTOR CHRIS ABRAHAM (The Little Years)

A Standout In Atrocious Productions Award:
TOM ROONEY (Twelfth Night, The Merry Wives Of Windsor)

She’s Fulfilling Her Promise Award:
BETHANY JILLARD (The Little Years, Richard 111)

GOOD STUFF – SHAW FESTIVAL CATEGORY

A Fresh Take for the 21st Century Award:
DEBORAH HAY, BENEDICT CAMPBELL, PATRICK GALLIGAN, THE ACTING ENSEMBLE, AND DIRECTOR MOLLY SMITH (My Fair Lady)

The South Shall Rise Again Award:
JIM MEZON, GRAY POWELL, THE ACTING ENSEMBLE, AND DIRECTOR EDA HOLMES (Cat On A Hot Tin Roof)

There’s More To Australia Than Kangaroos Award:
THE ACTING ENSEMBLE AND DIRECTOR PETER HINTON (When The Rain Stops Falling)

Unearthing A Treasure Award:
DRAMA AT INISH – A COMEDY BY LENNOX ROBINSON (as executed by Thom Marriott, Corrine Koslo, the acting ensemble, and director Jackie Maxwell)

ODDS AND ENDS CATEGORY

Classiest Tribute Award:
THE ED MIRVISH THEATRE (renaming The Canon Theatre)

The Kid’s Got a Future On The Other Side of the Footlights Award:
ADAM BRAZIER (director for Assassins)

She Makes Us Think Award:
ANUSREE ROY (Brothel #9)

Laugh Out Loud Award:
THE PHOTO SHOOTS (Calendar Girls)

Is It A Bird? Is It a Plane? What The Hell Is It? Award:
LUMINATO FESTIVAL

ROAD KILL CATEGORY

Comatose Award:
ANDREW MOODIE (Like The First Time)

The Bullet Was For the Wrong Guy Award:
BULLET FOR ADOLF (by Woody Harrelson and Frankie Hyman)

They Shouldn’t Do Shakespeare Award:
SOULPEPPER

Self-Indulgence Award:
(RE)BIRTH: E.E. CUMMINGS IN SONG (Soulpepper Academy and music director Mike Ross)

Keep It As A Book Award:
DIVISIDERO (written by Michael Ondaatje and directed by Daniel Brooks, produced by Necessary Angel)

Why Would Anyone Go To This Theatre? Award:
SONY CENTRE (the dangerous wrought iron cup holders and the no-hold-in-the-hand programs)

Is The Director Deaf? Award:
ACTORS WHO ARE NOT PROJECTING (Liisa Repo-Martell, Pamela Sinha, Michelle Monteith, Moya O’Connell)

The Smoke And Mirrors Award:
DES MCANUFF, ARTISTIC DIRECTOR AND DIRECTOR (Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

Over-Rated Award:
LASZLO MARTIN, DIRECTOR (a Soulpepper favourite)

THE JURORS AGREE TO DISAGREE CATEGORY
1001 NIGHTS (produced by Luminato)
RED (produced by Canadian Stage Company)
JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR,
RICHARD III,
TITUS ANDRONICUS (produced by the Stratford Shakespeare Festival)

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