Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
✭✭✭✩✩
by Daniel MacIvor, directed by Mark Lonergan
Rat-A-Tat-Tat Theatre Company, Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto
January 11-28, 2001
“Silent MacIvor”
"Jump", a one-hour, wordless play by the much-acclaimed Daniel MacIvor, is the debut production of the Rat-A-Tat-Tat Theatre Company, who is giving the play its first production of since it first appeared at the Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace in 1992. The wordless play most Torontonians are familiar with is "The Overcoat" by Morris Panych and Wendy Gorling, which had such a successful run during the Canadian Stage season last year. But "Jump" antedates that supposedly "innovative" work by five years and, in my view, is far superior.
In a series of very short scenes, "Jump" presents a satire on the rituals of weddings from bridal shower and stag party to wedding banquet and dance. The rituals of weddings are a rather easy target for fun and have featured in drama since at least Petruchio wed Kate. What sets this satire apart is the sheer theatricality of its presentation. It is as if we were seeing a wedding presented by the Cirque du Soleil. The characters--the bride and groom, the twin sister bridesmaids, the mother of the bride, the wedding planner and the handyman--are all generic figures and the wedding rituals are shown in such contextual isolation that they appear inherently absurd. Where "The Overcoat" had the pretence of being a kind of live silent movie, the conceit in "Jump" is that all of the characters are aware that they are on stage in public view. MacIvor thus neatly uses the theatrical metaphor to reveal the wedding for what it actually is--a public show more valued for its form than what it represents.
This is an early work by MacIvor and it is not flawless. The various interludes involving the twin sisters of the bride add little to the play until very near the end, and the anger the bride and her mother feel toward the groom's flirting with one of the twins dissipates all too rapidly. What continually impresses, however, is the immaculate production itself.
Director Mark Lonergan has assembled an excellent cast. In this kind of comic nonverbal theatre, precision and timing is everything. In this the cast is flawless. Whereas in "The Overcoat" each scene seemed to end with a self-congratulatory "See, we all finished in time to the music", in "Jump" that ability is taken as a matter of course and the number of cues the cast must respond to--lights, video, moving props, and a wide range of musical styles--is much greater.
The most remarkable performance comes from Shaw Festival regular, Severn Thompson. Still as radiant as ever she successfully makes the incredible jump, so to speak, from the highly verbal works of Shaw to purely physical comedy. Her wonderfully expressive face conveys a wide range of all types of happiness, disappointment, resolve and aggravation. In a neat bit of casting, Thompson's real-life mother, Anne Anglin, plays the mother of the bride--apparently the first time both have ever appeared on stage together. Anglin expresses more comedy through expression, gesture and posture alone than most actresses can with words.
As the groom, Scott McCord makes his character a delicious combination of narcissism, sleaze, dimwittedness and cowardice and is as limber as Ray Bolger's Scarecrow. Clinton Walker as the balletic wedding planner is the most like a Cirque du Soleil master of ceremonies-a very agile, dapper clown whose unctuous hospitality only thinly disguises a sense of malice. Much of the fun of watching Aviva Chernick and Sarah McDonald as the twin sisters is in seeing how, despite their visual similarity, their personalities diverge. This is probably meant to counter the ritual union of bride and groom, but it is a pity MacIvor did not give them more of interest to do. Brendan Wall is the handyman whose surly matter-of-factness comically undercuts any sense of glamour or sentiment in the proceedings.
"Jump" is the first play to take place on the stage Steve Lucas has redesigned for the Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace. It is now has a very handsome proscenium arch with red velvet curtains--quite a surprise in a black box theatre. Lucas has also designed the sets and lighting for this production as he did in 1992. The stage is made to look like an elegant vaudeville house with a row of footlights enhancing the effect. His witty lighting includes the flashes in the hilarious wedding photo session to the mirror-ball effects for the dance. Wendy White's delightful costumes mischievously capture both elegance and and vulgarity at the same time. All the characters, excluding the bride, are clad in various combination of red, black and grey, thus blending in with the colour scheme of the set. This causes the bride, all in white, to stand out even more and to seem like a sacrificial victim to social convention. The actors' pancake make-up and the women's Kewpie-doll lip paint further the aura of old time melodrama. Tom Walsh is responsible for the clever and amazingly eclectic musical score whose constantly varying rhythms and styles give the cast far more to interpret than did the uniform use of Shostakovich in "The Overcoat".
Reading the press kit only after seeing the show, as is my wont, I was pleased not to have perceived the political slant dealing with government cutbacks that Lonergan claims to have given the piece. The play works perfectly well as an inherent critique of wedding as theatre without the narrowing futuristic programme Lonergan outlines for it. Nevertheless, he deserves kudos for bringing off with such panache a piece consisting entirely of stage directions.
At only an hour, "Jump" should be approached more as you would an appetizer rather than a main course. For a full evening, "Jump" might usefully have been paired with one of MacIvor's verbal one-acters to show the range of his abilities and those of the actors. But as everyone knows, a good appetizer can be scrumptious and can be the highlight of an evening. Anyone interested in a deliciously staged piece of pure theatre need not hesitate.
©Christopher Hoile
Photo: Severn Thompson
2001-01-14
Jump