Fatboy... Hard to Describe... Harder to Stop Laughing...

I took in the ridiculous and excessive Fatboy by John Clancy (not to be confused with the author of The Hunt For Red October) directed with controlled abandon by Dave Horak and presented at Theatre Network by the Edmonton Actor's Theatre. This is not a show for the faint of heart. It's rude, and bawling and lusty and violent and irreverent and full of more curses per minute than any of show I have seen in my life. I will admit, at first I wasn't sure what I was watching.  The show starts with a belligerent bang of a shouting match between Fatboy (Frederick Zbryski) and his extremely buxom wife, Fudgie (Melissa Thingelstad). It's over the top - not in a Broadway musical kind of way - but in a nightmarish, twisted circus of lechery and violence.  Once acclimatized to the phenomenal patter of cursing interspersed with cries for Sausages!! and Pancakes!! I just held on and went for the ride. They are joined by a multitude of characters played brilliantly by Ian Leung, Tim Cooper and Mathew Hulshof.  The entire cast is incredible.  This kind of piece only succeeds with 100% commitment to the choices and, boy, do they commit.  There were so many times while watching that I marveled at how good they all were.  The world was so complete and there was never a glimpse of the real person beneath the white pancake make-up on their faces. It was as though they had been doing this show for years.  Zbryski's patter is both frightening and hilarious. Thingelstad is marvellously brash.  It's all complimented by a delightfully tilted and distressed set designed by Scott Peters and costumes that are whimsical and macabre designed by Melissa Cuerrier.

The tale is a twisted reinterpretation of the scandalous Ubu Roi (1897) by Alfred Jarry - famous for opening and closing on the same night and causing a riot in the theatre. A comment on the excess of our world, and on the inherent selfishness of humankind, particularly those in power.  It's a little mind-blowing at the end.  I am personally not quite as cynical as the play is in it's final moments.  I can't see the world quite in the way that is suggested by the wrap up.  What can I say? I'm an idealist. But after the roller coaster of violence and ridiculousness is over, the closing comments are what you'll be talking about with your friends for hours afterwards. Depending on where you sit on the spectrum of political and social belief, I think you will come away from this with a completely different reaction. It's really whether you can see Fatboy in Kim Jong Il or perhaps  Rob Ford or your Next-door-Neighbors or even yourself that will tell just how you see the world.

I'd say this is a must-see for those that can handle the language and violence (the violence is all very comical, but for the faint of heart...).  If you are an Edmonton theatre aficionado you simply
have no excuse.  If you are a drama student at either of the two Universities I would be appalled if you missed it. It's a masterclass. Give yourself permission to laugh, and buckle-up for the ride!

Photo credit: Ryan Parker

Midsummer (a play with songs) - A Wild, Hilarious Ride!

I have been so busy this week I haven't had much time to reflect on Midsummer (a play with songs), that I saw at the Roxy this past Thursday.  Starring Clinton Carew of the amazing voice and the smart and beautiful Elena Porter as a mismatched couple who tumble through a crazy weekend in Edinburgh on a Midsummer solstice night, it is a belly-laughing show that whizzes by like a roller coaster.  I went in to it knowing nothing about it, really.  It popped up in my radar only a week or so before and I put it on my list because I love to watch Elena onstage (she's so sharp) and I love to hear Clinton speak (Best Voice on the Edmonton theatre scene - I have said this before - AND in this one he has a Scottish accent and sings!).  Anyhow, It was so much fun.  I'd rather you experience like I did, with nothing to prepare you.  It's one of those 'anything can happen' kind of stories and the two actors attack it with gusto and absolute commitment.  It has one of the funniest sex scenes I have ever seen (second only to the one in last year's Let the Light of Day Through) and I have been recalling the music on and off ever since I heard it (I was making up new verses to the hangover song this morning in the shower).  Check it out - it's totally worth it!

I also saw the invited dress rehearsal for Long Day's Journey Into Night.  So, so good. I can't wait to see it again this Wednesday night.  I am blown away by how strong it was in Dress Rehearsal, but with that cast and that script I probably shouldn't be surprised.  It hit me like Death of a Salesman did a few years ago. You could tell that the cast and artistic team was really serving the masterpiece that it is.   A night off tomorrow for me and then I shall see it again!

I Can Tell I am in the Right Job...

Because I like doing it, and even have brought work home not because I had to, but because I really wanted to finish something up.  Today was great.  I was a little worried because part of my job involves the Opening Night invitations of VIPs.  It is complicated and there is not enough information written down about how to do it, but I figured out a system that will work for me and that I can refine on-the-go and for-the-future.  What was so cool was how many people responded with excitement over seeing the show - not any show - but this show.  So many people said that it was one of their favorite plays and that they couldn't wait to see the cast we had doing it.  I knew I was in the "Long Day's Journey" Club, but I didn't realize how big it was!  Even for the declines, there were many mentions of seeing the play later in the run.  Of course, they could have just been polite, but it all felt very sincere to me.  In any case, it made me happy.

I am dying to see some theatre though.  Fringe feels too far away.  Luckily I am going to the new Workshop West/Brad Fraser play, Kill Me Now, this weekend.  I was supposed to go last weekend but I couldn't stop coughing and didn't want to be that person in the audience that everyone wishes was somewhere else.  So I decided to be somewhere else that night.  So I will see it this weekend and I am really looking forward to it.  I have some other things on the calendar (Warhorse, Long Day's Journey Into Night, The Daisy Theatre) and on my wish list (Midsummer[a play with songs]) so I am anxious for the rest of the month to get a move on!

Where the Blood Mixes at Theatre Network - Humanizing the Issue

Saturday night I took in Where the Blood Mixes at Theatre Network.  I needed to take a little time before I wrote about it though, because I was challenged by the piece. Overall it was a very thought provoking night of theatre, but I had to balance my reaction as a theatre goer with my reaction as a human being.

As a theatre goer, It was challenging for me because there are many beautiful artistic things about this production that I appreciated, but it was also flawed so I was frustrated by it dramatically.  The images of the skeletal creatures floating above Cory Sicennes' gorgeous set were magic and combined with Dave Clarke's sound design conceptually the production was exceptionally strong.  Lorne Cardinal, as the angry and frequently drunk Floyd, is brilliant.  He is such a  phenomenal talent - a true Canadian treasure.  His moments of realness in both anger and shame were heart-breaking and so very, very real.   My major issue, however, is with the script. Individually, the scenes are well-written and poetic, sometimes funny, sometimes angry and often sad, but as a whole, the structure of the piece was confusing.  To me it felt like it was and should have been Floyd's story, but the trailing bits of the other characters diminished the whole of that.  A song in the middle, though beautiful, felt misplaced and kind of stopped the flow of momentum.  Many emotional reveals were just yelled, despite them being things that the characters have been unable to talk about for years.  I wanted more layers, more levels, more interesting choices.  I don't know... it confused me as a whole. I know... because I write, I get caught up in things like arc and character journeys and "who's story is it?" - perhaps it wouldn't bother someone else as much.  The rest of the audience did not seem to mind as there was a healthy 2/3 standing ovation. But I really had to sit there to think about what it was trying to say.

Now that I have had a few days to think, as a human being I appreciated what this play tries to do - put a human face on those that suffered and continue to suffer from the effects of residential schooling and also point out a direction for moving forward from it.  Floyd becomes much more than just a drunken, broken man.  His breakdown at the reunion with his long lost daughter is grounded in emotions of shame, fear, and loss that everyone could understand.  It has been a hard year for me trying to understand and learn about a lot of the topics touched on in the play, but I felt that this is where the play succeeds.  Floyd's greatest pain is that he feels that he has failed his child, and it is the forgiveness granted that allows him to move forward.  It made me realize how important forgiveness is in being able to heal and move forward from the past.

At least that is what I got from it.