When Harry Met Harry

Lantern Church

August 4 and 6

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/03/320-when-harry-met-harry

 

Well, it was bound to happen. I didn’t think I could go an entire Fringe Fest without sitting through a play where people were laughing hysterically and I was stone-faced with boredom. It seems When Harry Met Harry will be my head-shaking, “how can people think this is funny” play this festival.

The show is a one-man comedy about an obsessively efficient, prissy and anti-social office worker named Harry who is ordered into an interpersonal skills workshop after his boss, Mr. Herbert, receives complaints about his conduct.

Before Harry is sent for training, we are introduced to his various strange behaviours. He will not answer the phone before 9am (the opening hour for the business) and ends a call abruptly at noon for the lunch break. Harry clocks his calls to see how efficient he has been and then awards himself points based on his performance. He gains rapture from the office forms he has created and when no one is looking fondles and rubs them up against his body. Similarly, in a show of abject love for timeliness, Harry licks his desk clock several on several occasions in the privacy of his office.

None of this is subtle. Not the writing or the physical performance by Allan Girod who uses his tall and lanky figure in an overly demonstrative way that borders on slapstick.

Then the audience participation kicks in. Or rather the bringing of “volunteers” into the play begins. An audience member is pulled on stage to play Harry’s junior assistant and is used as a foil to further show Harry’s inability to manage others and his petty feelings towards anyone who he thinks may show him up. The “volunteer” is excused after a while but is referred to for the duration of the play.

When Harry gets the call from Mr. Herbert demanding that he attend the workshop, Harry tries to get out of it by stepping in front of a moving car in order to injure himself, but the car misses and Harry is unharmed. He tries this only after going through his “book of excuses” that contains such original jokes as “my dog ate  it” and “my grandmother died”, which he realizes he can’t use because he’s already employed that excuse three times before.

At the workshop, Girod takes on the character of Rodney, the over the top and overly acted seminar facilitator. Rodney, a parody of the stereotypical touchy-feely human resources expert takes the audience through a series of “communication” exercises, once again calling on volunteers from the audience to participate. Eventually Harry is called upon to participate and is woefully inept at all the challenges. With his fear that Mr. Herbert his boss is watching, Harry tries to put on a good show, but his personality failings are just too much and he gets fired. In an effort not to finish on a down note, the end of the play brings some kind of “learning  moment” when Harry, now unemployed and forced to look at his failings, takes a baby step towards change.

The storyline was fine I suppose and had it been handled with more subtlety in both acting and writing (l give you the TV show The Office as an example) I might not have found the humour to be so mundane and obvious. I have nothing against loud, boisterous, physical comedy, but for me When Harry Met Harry left me without so much as a giggle.

RATING

For the guys – Maybe it’s a Three Stooges kinda thing. And maybe if you like them you’ll like this show. MAYBE SEE IT

For the girls – I suppose it’s not any worse than most mainstream comedies on Network TV. MAYBE SEE IT

For the occasional audience – It’s been well received both here in Calgary and at other festivals. So obviously people like it. SEE IT

For the theatre junkie – I don’t care if other people like it. I cannot in good conscious recommend this to you. SKIP IT

6 Guitars

DaDe Gallery

August 3, 4, 5 and 6

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/02/341-6-guitars

 

6 Guitars is the only show I’ve seen at the Fringe so far that got a standing ovation. This is not to say that other performances didn’t deserve one, but 6 Guitars is the kind of really good, really funny, really interesting show that makes people want to jump up at the end of the play and clap.

Armed with only a guitar and speaker, Chase Padgett portrays 6 different characters, each a musician of a different genre, as they talk about their particular type of music, play some songs and tell stories of what drew them to their style of playing.

Tyrone is an 87-year-old blues guitarist who is funny and flirty and frank about his simple views on life. Michael is a 20-year-old keener heavy metal guitar player who writes songs about the devil but is really a sweet mama’s boy. Emanuel is a classical guitarist from Mexico who talks a mile a minute and speaks in magical metaphors about his craft. Rupert is a country guitar picker who turned to music when he fell off his roof playing football with his family.  Wesley plays jazz guitar and is both vainglorious about the fact that jazz is too complicated for most people to understand and a little pissed that so many people don’t get his type of music. Finally, Peter is a 50’s hippie folk guitarist that is just so happy everyone is all together sharing in the music. In other words, Padgett gives us the perfect stereotypes of each musical genre.

To juxtapose his characters, Padgett morphs from one into the other throughout the play often using his brief musical interludes to segue the change. His playing is sound and his acting is strong. But this show wouldn’t have gotten people on their feet if all that was offered was a little music and a few impersonations. What makes this show so good is the writing and the humour, both improvised and scripted, that are utilized to get the show’s point across – namely that no type of music is better, they are just all different. For example – Tyrone remarks that the blues are really only about 4 things – hard times, look at my car, that woman is hot and let’s go get messed up. He then goes to point out that rap is about the exact same 4 things, just with someone shouting “what” every 2 minutes. In a later segment Rupert talks about all country music being about 4 things, hard times, my Ford truck, that hot woman’s cut off shorts and how they are going to drink until they are messed up.

Padgett has performed these lines many times at many festivals and he’s gotta know the audience loves it. What he hasn’t done many times is the improvisation he injects into the show. To prove the point that a heavy metal song can be about anything, Michael picks out a guy in the front row, asks him his name, some info about him, spends a fair bit of time having a laugh with the info. He then launches into an impromptu rock song using all the info gleaned the moment before. It’s fresh and funny and you can tell that Padgett is having a blast doing it.

My only negative comment on the show has to do with Peter, the hippie folk singer, who was played as a very effeminate man. Yes, folk singers were sensitive and emotional, but the gay vibe Padgett chose to portray just seemed odd as opposed to the stereotypical hippie flower child I would have liked to see.

That said, 6 Guitars is a near perfect show in its ability to entertain, make you laugh and teach you something about different genres of music. Be warned though, all online seats are sold out for the remainder of the Fringe, so get there early to snap up the door tickets. I arrived 30 minutes before the show and there was already a line up.

 

RATING 

For the guys – What guy doesn’t love a guitarist? How about 6 talented and funny ones? SEE IT

For the girls – You’ll learn more about music, you’ll laugh and you’ll  love the characters. SEE IT

For the occasional audience – It doesn’t matter what genre of music you like personally, you will love seeing all the guitarists and it will keep you laughing all the way through. SEE IT

For the theater junkies – Not everything has to be deep, dark and meaningful. Go, listen, laugh and I promise you will enjoy. SEE IT

In a part 2 of what to see at this year’s Calgary Fringe Festival, I’ll be back on CBC Eyeopener this Thursday at 7:45 ish with my latest picks and a heads up about what I’m looking forward to seeing.

For those of you who listened this morning, thanks for tuning in! I’ll try to post the clip online once it becomes available for those of you who missed it.

In my second Eyeopener appearance, we are hoping to spend a little more time discussing each play – so tune in to hear the reviews!

And don’t forget to get out there and Fringe!!! Lots of good stuff to see!

Dying Hard

Venue 1008

August 2, 4 and 5

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/01/316-dying-hard

After seeing Dying Hard, I was looking through my notes in preparation to write my review when I realized that I hadn’t really taken any. This is was not because I didn’t have a strong reaction to the play or many things to say about it. Truth is I was so fully engrossed in the performance I had a hard time looking away long enough to jot down my thoughts. Dying Hard is not only a must see for the Calgary Fringe Festival, it is a performance that could hold its own on any professional stage and compete with  bigger and more lavish productions in terms of emotional engagement and impact.

The play examines the plight of the fluorspar miners in 1960’s Newfoundland as they deal with the ravages of industrial disease brought on by years of working in the mines. Delivered as a one-woman performance, Mikaela Dyke opens the play by appearing on stage as herself explaining to the audience that what we are about to see are 6 verbatim archived interviews of the women and men whose lives and bodies suffered because of the mines.

What happens next is both jarring and wonderful. With no more than the putting on of glasses and sitting in a chair, Mikaela begins the first interview monologue belonging to an old man with a Newfoundland accent as thick as tar. The transformation is so quick and so realistic that it takes a few minutes to reconcile the Mikaela we just saw to the actor now performing for us. And as usual with accents, it also takes the ear a minute or so to acclimate to what is being said. But once the shock wears off, the joy sets in. This is not simply an impression. Mikaela Dyke actually becomes the older man with the wheezes and the verbal tics and the particular patter that he would have had. And all this is done from a chair without any other movement to help her characterization. The man talks about his experience in the mines and the friends and colleagues he’s lost to mining-induced diseases, all with the stoicism of a man who isn’t afraid of hard work or hard times. But the pathos of the damage done and the price paid is powerful.

At the end of his story, Mikaela pauses, returns as herself and introduces the second interview. Jarring again to be sure and perhaps even more so because after watching her do the first character I couldn’t fathom that she could outperform herself. Boy was I wrong. With the donning of a new shirt and standing up this time, Mikaela transforms into a younger glass-half-full miner who, despite being diagnosed with a lump “this big” on his lung, still finds ways to laugh and joke about times underground. From him we hear about the “compensation” from the government and the strike the miners went on to try and get the company to look after their heath. In direct proportion to this character’s way of laughing things off, the audience feels the burn of how unjust the health conditions were for the miners.

There are several more transformations and knock-out performances including the wife of a miner dying of silicosis, a disease when mining dust damages the lungs to the point of suffocation, a man who not only has lung issues but was crippled by a fall in the mine, an ex-miner who spent 17 years underground and says that “he wouldn’t have spent 17 seconds if he knew what was down there” and finally the widow of a miner. Each character under Mikaela’s care is poignant and heartbreaking and breathtakingly well-acted. I always like to say that the best acting is when you don’t see the acting at all and in none of the characters did I feel I was watching a performance. Instead it felt as though the stories of these poor souls were being channeled on stage for us and Mikaela just happened to be the vessel.

My only concern with the production was the lack of context given. While Mikaela does describe the play’s setting at the start, she does it so quickly that she doesn’t adequately prep the audience to experience the full breadth of the character’s stories. For example, I would have liked to know what fluorspar was (it’s a non-metallic ore is used in things like aluminum, glass and Freon) and what silicosis was (as explained above) and that the “gas” in the mines that caused cancer was radon and that “compensation” was worker’s compensation given to those who grew ill because of the mines. The last one became obvious as the play went on, but at first I was confused and wondered if “compensation” meant welfare.

However none of this took away from my enjoyment of the play as it was happening and my confusion and/or curiosity was easily sated by a quick Google search of the history and issues. I do recommend that you read about it either before or after the play as I believe it will enhance your enjoyment of the performance. Here’s the link I found useful – it’s a quick read, but you’ll get the info you need. http://www.heritage.nf.ca/society/industrial_disease.html

Dying Hard isn’t an easy play to watch, but once you start to look, you will not want to look away.

RATING

For the guys – a woman who does a better characterization of hard-working, salt of the earth men then you yourself could ever do. SEE IT

For the girls – regardless how foreign the men may seem to you, you’ll become attached to every character and the women will break your heart. Bring Kleenex for the widow scene. SEE IT

For the occasional audience – The accent will give you trouble for a while. Bear with it and see one of the best performances around. SEE IT

For the theatre junkie – For all the reasons above and because you will appreciate how brilliantly simple the staging and directing is. SEE IT

Take A Bite

Artpoint Gallery

August 1, 3 and 5

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/05/332-take-a-bite

 

Have you ever gone to a restaurant and had a magnificently delicious meal followed by a mediocre and flavourless dessert? You can’t really say that the dessert ruined the meal for you as the main dishes were wonderful. But somehow that letdown at the end of the meal leaves you with a niggling sense of disappointment that you just can’t shake.

This is how I felt seeing Take A Bite. A solid 99% of the play delivers a creative story with interesting ideas and fantastic acting. The end however let the air out of the balloon.

The play opens with two strangers, Vera and Dion, locked in a room together without knowing where they are or how they got there. Dion, an 18-year-old coming down off and acid trip and covered in blood assumes they are in jail and for lack of any other explanation, Vera, a 33-year-old ex-teacher agrees.

With nothing else to do but wait till their release, the two start talking. Or rather Dion starts talking rather frenetically about sex and girls and anything else his stream of consciousness speaking patterns allow. He tells Vera that the girl he sleeps with, Tonya, is actually dating a big and violent man named Steve who beats her regularly.  He figures the blood on his shirt is Tonya having a nose bleed on him mid-coital and that having sex with Tonya is the last thing he remembers before waking up in the cell. He tells her about his sex-ed class in school where he witnessed a condom being put on a banana and subsequently thinking a man needed a banana to have sex. He also tells her about his cheating father and how his mom used to bake gingerbread for him. It all comes out in a scattered but sweet and often funny rant made even kookier by the malapropisms that Dion tosses in. The situation is iconic instead of ironic, his was given corporeal punishment at school instead of corporal punishment and Vera seems inhabited instead of inhibited. Some of these word switches Vera corrects, but neither she nor the audience is really sure if Dion does them on purpose, making them even more amusing.

Vera eventually opens up to Dion, explaining that the reason she is wearing a sexy nightgown is because she was at her boyfriend Eric’s place before waking up in the cell. She also tells Dion that she has never felt pretty or desired and hints that there are problems between her and Eric, but recoils when pressed about what they are.

Finally through his un-ironic praise of Vera and laying bare his own background, Dion is able to coax Vera into telling him her story. It’s not what the audience expects and I was grateful for the clever twist which was neither farfetched or melodramatic but rather interesting and introspective.

Since I am going to ruin the ending of the play for you (stop reading here if you don’t want to know) I will not ruin the best part of the play for you. The part leading up to the end. All I will say is that Take A Bite takes an existential turn and makes the plot utterly believable and surprisingly not weird in the slightest. Up to this point, the script is brilliantly written, the story moves along perfectly and Liana Shannon as Vera and Isaac Andrew as Dion give near flawless performances.

Then the dessert. It was all a dream. Not only did the story not happen, Take A Bite goes ones step further and rubs in the fact that it was only a dream with dreadfully corny last lines of dialogue. I shook my head. Why after such intelligent story telling did the playwright choose to wrap things up in a tidy mundane package? Of course I’ll never know, so I’m just trying to focus on the 99% of the play I really liked and hoping the ending won’t give me indigestion.

 

RATING

For the guys – It’s weird and funny and cool. SEE IT

For the girls – Vera’s story will move you and you will and you will find yourself liking Dion like a lost and somewhat smelly puppy. SEE IT

For the occasional audience – It will be one of the fastest hours at the Fringe you will spend. Time flies when things are good. SEE IT

For the theatre junkies – I will feel your pain at the ending. But go for the rest of it. SEE IT

A Stroke of Malice

Alexandra Centre Society

August 1, 2, 4 and 5

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/05/328-a-stroke-of-malice

 

In the Calgary Fringe Festival brochure, A Stroke of Malice is described as “A story…..that exposes the horror and malignancy of elder abuse.”  To my mind, the only thing that was truly abused in this play was my time spent watching it.

Based on a true story, the play tells the tale of a post-stroke older woman named Hazel who has come to a social worker’s office seeking some kind of ambiguous help. Hazel presents as a fairly senile, rambling, critical and self-deprecating senior citizen who is suspicious of social workers and is reluctant to talk about personal matters. After several forgetful moments however, Hazel, with the prodding of the social worker, finally tells her story with the mental acuity of someone who not only does not have memory problems, but is pretty much in control of all her mental faculties. In other words, a character switch that is more than a little jarring.

Hazel’s story turns out not to be the account of elder abuse so much as the story of an ex-husband screwing his physically handicapped ex-wife out of all her possessions and finances. It’s a horrible story to be sure, there is violence and rape and verbal abuse and the story could have really elicited a deep emotional reaction from the audience. But for me the story fizzled for a whole number of reasons.

Right from the start I was totally put off by Sydney John’s portrayal of the social worker, Rose.  John played her as sarcastic, compassionless and impatient and did so with a high-schoolish delivery. I don’t mean to suggest that all social workers are Mother Theresa, but surely a social worker specializing in the elderly and who sincerely wants to coax a story out of Hazel would have been more professional. To cut John a break, the lines didn’t leave her much room for great acting. Upon hearing Hazel’s atrocious story of abuse, Rose comments “The horror of what you went through is so horrible, how did you get through it”? I was not the only person in the audience who groaned at that one.

Carrie Schiffler as Hazel brings some light to the production with her elderly shuffle, semi-paralysis and dizzying patter. But as good as she is, she cannot outpace the script which piles one awful event on top of another without enough room to digest. Hazel talks non-stop for the last 45 minutes of the play when what were really called for were some silences.

The play ends with a surprise, and I will not spoil it here except to say that while I didn’t see it coming and even if it is true, it felt false and implausible due to the its rushed nature and awkward acting all around.

Dark and disturbing is a tough genre to pull off. It requires great acting and a solid script. The way I experienced it, A Stroke Of Malice had little of either.

RATING

For the guys – A poorly configured play about an elderly female stroke victim being raped and swindled will most likely not float your boat. SKIP IT

For the girls – You’ll feel sorry for Hazel, but you won’t emotionally connect with her or the story. SKIP IT

For the occasional audience – There are WAY better plays about abuse at this year’s Fringe. Go see Spitting in the Fact of the Devil instead. SKIP IT

For the theatre junkies – Frustration at what could have been an interesting play is no fun. SKIP IT

This Is Our Youth

Alexandra Centre

August 2, 3, 5 and 6

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/08/02/324-this-is-our-youth

There is no more fitting way to signal that a show is to be set in the 1980’s than to play audio of Ronald Regan’s speech on upholding traditional family values while the audience shuffles in to take their seats for the performance. This Is Our Youth opens in the Upper West Side apartment of a too cool for school, loud-mouth drug dealer named Dennis. His buzzer rings and to Dennis’s aggravation, it’s his friend Warren, a rich-kid burnout pothead that has finally pushed his father too far and been thrown out of the house. Not only does Warren arrive wanting to stay at Dennis’s place, he brings with him a suitcase of his prized possessions consisting of retro toys and electronics, a collector’s item baseball cap given to him by his grandfather and the $15,000 Warren has stolen from his father.

What to do with the money, questions of if they should give it back, the repercussions if they don’t and finally a plot to use the money to buy cocaine, snort some of it, resell the rest at a profit and return the money to Warren’s father becomes the narrative for most of the play. Added into the plot is a courtship story of sorts when Warren finally gets the chance to “date” Jessica, the girl he is pining for. The two meet at Dennis’ apartment when Dennis goes out to buy the coke and the pair argues, talks and eventually hooks up only to erode shortly after, leaving Warren rejected and alone as usual.

Nothing wrong with the story itself, but some of the dialogue and the props threatened to derail the show right from the start. Let’s start with the ubiquitous joint that Warren and Dennis smoke throughout the performance. It is HUGE and plastic and white and allows the performers to exhale smoke after inhaling. I appreciate the affect…but I had to giggle every time I saw it. It looked as though they were toking on a big white spit ball tube. It was a minor problem, but I found it bothersome. More concerning however was the whole 80’s setting. At the risk of dating myself, I remember the 80’s well and was probably around the age the characters were meant to be in the play in that infamous decade. Other than a turned up polo collar shirt, oversized bomber leather jackets, high-waisted jeans and the buying and doing of coke, I failed to find any real 80’s vibe or reference in the dialogue. Where was the “gag” or the “gnarly” or “psych” or “dweeb” or “lame”…..I could go on but I’ll stop there in case it becomes catchy. Frankly, without the lingo, the story could have taken place today and it would have been just as effective. Without a solid 80’s immersion, the setting felt half-baked to me.

All this could have been forgiven if the acting was strong all around. The relationship between Dennis and Warren is the centre of the narrative with Dennis hurling verbal abuse at Warren all the while claiming to be his friend. It’s a belittling that Warren for the most part takes and counters with his oral diarrhoea and filter-less spewing of thoughts and opinions. The two are very charged and wordy with each other and ultimately were unequally matched in acting chops. Geoffrey Brown as Warren is a joy to watch. Channelling a geeky-cool, semi-insecure persona, Brown is by far the standout of the play. When the dialogue failed and the plot drifted, I found myself happily watching him and his ability to fully embody a character even when the attention wasn’t on him. Randy Burke as Dennis by comparison often projected a try-hard energy that felt overacted at times and amateur at others. Burke did have a glimmer of brilliance in a monologue he delivers at the end of the performance where he describes himself as “stoned with fear” after the death of his drug source, but by that time it’s too late to put himself on par with Brown. Cassidy Warring gives a good enough turn as Jessica and does manage to hold her own with Brown’s verbal sparring, but still falls short of Brown’s immense talent.

In the end, This Is Our Youth failed to wow me. The story has potential and I was delighted to be introduced to Brown’s acting ability, but the bright spots just didn’t justify the 1.5 hour timeframe or the narrative commitment.

RATING

For the guys – There are drugs, and chasing women, the threat of violence and guys sassing each other. The testosterone is high if not the quality of the play. MAYBE SEE IT

For the girls – If you want to see a good 80’s story, go home and rent any of John Hughes’ movies. SKIP IT

For the occasional audience – The energy is up the entire play, there is a distinct story and arc to the plot and the actors do a good enough job to make it move along. MAYBE SEE IT

For the theatre junkie – Write down Geoffrey Brown’s name. If you ever hear of him in another performance, run to see it. SKIP IT

Spitting In the Face Of the Devil

 Artpoint Gallery

July 31 &August 1,3,4 and 6

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/07/30/321-spitting-in-the-face-of-the-devil

 

“When I got the phone call that the Devil was dead, I felt nothing.” At hearing this first line of Bob Brader’s one man performance, Spitting In The Face Of The Devil, we the audience feel nothing as well. But within minutes of the play’s highly charged dialogue, it becomes apparent that soon we will feel anything but nothing for the Devil in this play – Bob’s repugnantly abusive father.

The drama of what transpired between Bob, his father, his family and certain of Bob’s friends is shown to us through Bob’s running monologue in what feels like a series of short but achingly powerful stories. We hear about the physical abuse he suffered as a child when his father would whip him for wetting the bed, the verbal abuse as his father belittled his every accomplishment and claimed to be embarrassed by Bob’s lack of talent and the discovery of his father’s predatory sexual abuse and pedophilia.

Heavy material to be sure. Material that could have been melodramatic or self-pitying or even clichéd. But Spitting In The Face Of the Devil is none of these things. Instead Brader uses a matter-of-fact delivery in combination with volcanic sized energy and hints of humour throughout the play to allow the audience to follow along without getting bogged down in the sorrow of the story.

And then there’s the impressions. In telling the personal vignettes, Bob take on the personas in the dialogue playing his mother, his teachers, his doctors, his girlfriends and even the Devil himself. But it’s Bob’s impressions of himself as a toddler, a young boy and a teen that are the standouts here. Using both voice and physicality, Brader transforms from the adult on stage to the ages he talks about in the dialogue. The scene where Bob as a teenager dishes to his friend about his first breast fondle  is itself worth going to see the play for and one of the necessary funny reprieves from the central theme of the show.

The Fringe blurb describes Spitting In The Face Of the Devil as a “daring, uplifting and comedic solo show”. After seeing the play I find this somewhat misleading. The play is daring – Brader certainly lays himself and his family bare in the play. But uplifting and comedic? Sure there are humourous moments, some quite funny, but I would in no way call this performance comedic. In fact I found many of the “funny” bits rather sad and pathetic in the way I think Bader intended them to be. As for uplifting, well that I don’t get at all. This is a play without a happy ending or a neat resolution. It’s a true story that is messy and fraught with contradictions. An authentic, horrific, real slice of life. And that’s what makes it so good.

RATING

For the guys – Hopefully you can’t relate to the story, but you will most certainly empathize with the struggles of a boy and young man trying to navigate a tragic upbringing. SEE IT

For the girls – He doesn’t ask for your pity, but your heart will bleed and you will be rooting for Bob and his mother the whole way though. Even if they disappoint you. SEE IT

For the occasional audience – Solo shows without any action are often hard for this group. But Bader’s high energy performance and gripping story will wow you. SEE IT

For the theater junkie – Some of the vignettes could have been edited out and there were notable holes in the story line. However this will not take away from your appreciation of the superb acting job and compelling script. SEE IT

 

Bedlam

Alexandra Society

June 29, 30, August 1, 2, 4 and 5

http://see.calgaryfringe.ca/events/2011/07/30/322-pretty-bird

I’m embarrassed to say that I broke the #1 rule of fringing on the first night of this year’s Calgary Fringe Festival – ALWAYS get there early!!! I had planned on seeing This Is Our Youth this eve, but by the time I showed up, the play was sold out and not even my fancy-shmancy media credentials could help me worm my way in. Serves me right! And good for This Is Our Youth!! I’m delighted the production is a solid draw and I will for sure show up in plenty of time to catch tomorrow’s performance. Reviewer’s honour!

So, after scrambling around to find another performance that tickled my fancy, I settled on the one man show Bedlam, described in the program as “the true story of the father of modern lobotomy and his horrific quest to end mental illness”. A heady subject for sure (pun intended) but it certainly sounded interesting and relevant and as those of you who read me regularly know….I like the dark stuff. Fortunately for me, my mistake earlier in the evening paid off. Bedlam is an interesting and disturbing slice of history told with tense dialogue and barely-there staging.

Alexander Forsyth who wrote and stars in the play as Dr. Walter Freeman, the doctor infamous with brining lobotomy to America and then tweaking the procedure to make it his own, gives a strong one hour performance that is full of audience discomfort in all the right places.

The play opens with Dr. Freeman reading from medical files describing his psychiatric patients and how drug and therapy cures have resulted in no long-term cure. Freeman reads these histories without any empathy or compassion. Instead, he’s frustrated that he isn’t able to overcome these medical obstacles and create a name for himself. I instantly took a dislike to him. And then became worried as to how I was going to watch this cold-hearted unpleasant character for a solid hour. But once I settled in and understood the characterization Forsyth was projecting, it all made sense to me. I wasn’t supposed to like him. Dr. Freeman was (in this play) a careerist who was smarmy, bitter and ultimately after his own glory.

Freeman goes on to explain his discovery of lobotomy, his retoling the procedure, his minor successes and all the failures and wrecked lives he caused, including his disasterous operation on Joe Kennedy’s daughter Rosemary that left her comotosed.  All this while claiming to be the only one who truly cares about the mentally ill and their suffering. It’s difficult to listen to, but fascinating at the same time. Like staring at a car crash, I couldn’t help but be engrossed in the gruesome details of the operations including a very nauseating and graphic description of his orbital lobotomy procedure.

This type of ghastly curiosity only works because Forsyth is telling a true story. A slice of history that is important to hear about for anyone interested in the medical and mental health fields. Frankly, I think it’s an important story about the nature of human behaviour and how we treat each other…but I’ll leave the preaching to someone else.

The play also works due to Forsyth’s strong acting. Bedlam is a wordy play with little to no action and Forsyth does an admirable job of characterization to keep the audience tuned in. At times the script gets away from him in a jumble of overly technical phrasing, the story can feel shallow and repetitive in moments and the downfall ending felt a little flat. But blips aside, Bedlam is a solidly written and acted play that both teaches and intrigues.

RATING

For the guys – Is it manly to listen to stories about digging around in someone’s brain? Whether it is or not, you’ll like the science and the medicine and find the lack of bedside manner thought-provoking. SEE IT

For the girls – The absence of patient empathy and the gory descriptions might not be to your taste. SKIP IT

For the occasional audience – Not a lot happens, there is no set to speak of and it’s a heavy script. Probably not for you. SKIP IT

For the theatre junkies – Fresh story, well-written and strongly-acted. Well worth your time. SEE IT

Quick post to let everyone know that I will be a guest on CBC Eyeopener for the Tuesday, August 2nd broadcast. I’ll be talking about the Calgary Fringe Festival, what I’ve seen, what I’ve liked, what fell short and my picks for the rest of the fest.

See you all on the radio!