Interior Design (Tarragon Theatre)
The first play in this week’s roundup features the most complicated exploration of the myriad ways we terrorize each other as it centers on a quartet of friends who presumably (reportedly, ultimately) do love each other. Rosa Laborde’s script about four old friends fighting (or not) to stay friends is a tad overwritten, specifically in its direct address moments, but it’s also brimming with the sort of hyper-personal anecdotal honesty that feels like a personal attack (that’s a compliment). Rong Fu’s performance as ‘the negative one’ is a little forced, her meanness not nearly casual enough to be convincingly thoughtless, and the overplaying of a key emotional moment blocks the audience from fully feeling their own reaction to the revelation but Sara Farb, Meghan Swaby, and Anita Majumdar balance the ensemble well with characters who ably walk the line of archetype without losing their complexity.
What the Constitution Means to Me (Soulpepper & Nightwood with Necessary Angel & Talk is Free)
Heidi Schreck’s hit play about the American constitution needed quite a bit of tweaking to fit a Canadian audience and never quite makes the connection. Though Amy Rutherford, Damien Atkins, and especially future Prime Minister/current highschooler Gabriella King prove a winning trio, the play suffers from the attempt to substitute the charter of a very different place in for the constitution of the most powerful country in the world. Timely programming on its surface, this admittedly affecting though somewhat tiring piece preaches to the choir as it tells us what we already know about both countries, their glory and their terror.
Dead Broke (Lost Dreams Collective)
Removed from the context of its original Fringe Festival run, it’s hard not to focus on the dramaturgical flaws in playwright/performer Will King’s muddled script about a squatter who runs into some supernatural turbulence. Executed far above Fringe standard, the charm and ambition of the genre-bending play gets it pretty far but it doesn’t benefit from a second look. In the more professional context of the Theatre Centre’s BMO Incubator, the production needs more polish, stronger effects, and tighter pacing but, most pressingly, the script needs clarity. Too many horror tropes are floated then never examined and, with the supernatural element being introduced fully halfway into the short runtime, there’s no time to delve into the mystery or mythology of the terror let alone the emotions behind it. While there was definitely promise in the Fringe run, Dead Broke could still use a lot of development for a bigger stage.
Jekyll and Hyde (Doctor Bird Productions)
A still-young but incredibly ambitious community theatre company, Doctor Bird Productions bills their one-weekend-only shows as “musicals in concert”. The label frees them up from the pressures of elaborate design and stage effects but it also somewhat undersells what they’re doing. Jekyll and Hyde is, at absolute minimum, semi-staged with the full company off book and costumed (by Rachelle Bradley), a fair amount of blocking, and a dance chorus (choreography by Emilia Ballester) who capably add visual interest to key scenes. Though there are obviously still some rough edges (without mics the chorus strains to be heard on solo lines, the hyper-literal juxtaposition lighting is a little much, the horn section needs work) and the performance level acting-wise isn’t up to professional standard, the voices in the principal cast are superb and the overall effect of the production far exceeds expectations. Jekyll and Hyde has a deeply flawed book and lyrics but the music is both beautiful and really really hard so the level at which it’s executed by Doctor Bird’s impressive orchestra and stars Carlos Bastarrachea, Emma Bergin, and Maren Richardson is a real coup for the fast-growing company.