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by Jacob Richmond, directed by Michael Kessler

Jack in the Black Theatre Inc., Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto

November 28-December 16, 2001

“The Qualities of Qualities”

"The Qualities of Zero" marks the debut in Ontario of an exciting new playwright.  This, Jacob's Richmond's first play, had a trial run in Montreal in 2000 which earned it the Montreal English-Speaking Critics Award (MECA) for Best New English-Speaking Play.  It is at once an hilarious satiric farce and an exploration of the conflict of intellect and emotion in the pursuit happiness.  It shares some of the same themes as British playwright Terry Johnson's "Hysteria", but, though it could stand further revision, Richmond's play is ten times funnier, more engaging and much more inventive.

"The Qualities of Zero"  traces the experiences of neurochemist Dr. Roland Welby as he attempts to comes to terms with the death of his mother.  He is a highly self-conscious genius whose hyperrational view of the world prevents him from telling or understanding jokes without explaining them.  At career day at a kindergarten, Welby, still stricken with grief, strays from his topic to explain why happiness is impossible to beings who must die.  His summary equation is T + EOE = PD, that is "Time plus expectation of euphoria equals perpetual disappointment".  The fiasco at the school leads him to test a new drug he has developed on himself.  The drug can completely block the emotional highs and lows produced by the limbic system, "happy-mad-sad land" as he calls it, thus allowing him to feel "zero" when confronting the  world around him.

Madness and attempts to cope with it imbue every aspect of the play.  When Welby's father died his mother became an alcoholic and opened a Christmas store to live the happiest day of the year year-round.  Welby's brother Rideau is a schizophrenic obsessed with Charlemagne's cheese-consumption who decides to go off his thorazine after leaving a mental home.  Welby's boss fantasizes that he is a Spanish pirate and when Welby's research proves that his life's work is worthless, he goes berserk and seeks revenge.  The boss's wife and CEO of the company both work for is dangerously unhinged after divorcing her husband and throws herself at Welby.  The lab partner Welby is attracted to despite the drug's control is a death-obsessed vegetarian who buries all the deceased lab animals in her back yard.  Welby's dope-smoking neighbour has a theory about the unity of all religions and harbours a terrible secret.  Although Welby's drug controls his emotions, it cannot protect him from those of others and by the end when his supply has been cut off he is entangled in the web his interactions with others has created.

Richmond's script could still use revision.  It often seems more like a series of interrelated skits than a full-fledged play.  It probably is not necessary to show us the before and after every time Welby injects himself since we do gather what the drug's effect is after its first few uses.  The characters of Welby's boss and his wife the CEO could do with more depth without sacrificing the humour of their personalities.  And the momentum of the first act seems to die out before the intermission.  I am also unsure about the locus of the prologue and epilogue.  Attention to these points along with a general tightening of the writing would make the play even more enjoyable than it already is.

As actor and commentator on his actions Scott McCord as Welby is so perfect one would think the part had been written for him.  It is a set of variations on emotionless-hyperintellectual-confronts-embarrassing-situation, where Welby is compelled to evaluate everything, even sex and death, in term of advantages versus disadvantages.  McCord's makes Welby's non-comprehension of anything that is not strictly logical a rich fount of humour.  It's easily the best comic performance I've seen so far this season.  As Welby's brother Robert Tsonos avoids cliché and gives Rideau a real warmth and sense of underlying wisdom.  Carly Street puts in a winning performance as Welby's potential girlfriend lending her a shyness and sensitivity that make sense of René's funerary proclivities. 

The other five roles are really caricatures.  Rodger Barton is very funny both Welby's boss Tom and his foul-mouthed landlord Smelsh.  Barton probably could do more to make his continual outrage more varied.  Barbara Gordon is excellent both as the too-prim Teacher whose class Welby disrupts and as her opposite, the sex-starved CEO.  John Cleland makes Welby's zonked out neighbour Danny all too real.

A play like this could easily be ruined by a director who did not trust it and tried to make it funnier.  Fortunately, Michael Kessler, in his professional debut, has realized the best way to make this play work is for the characters to take themselves and what they do as seriously as possible.  Much of the humour lies in the odd rhythm of the script that continually requires Welby to catch onto things several beats after everyone else.  Still, taking this into account, the overall pacing and scene changes could be snappier.  The set is grey and very basic as befits the mostly institutional settings.  Kessler makes good use of a digital projector to show titles for each of the scenes or "Observations" as Welby calls them.  Joanne Dente's costumes are always appropriate and are especially witty for the more stereotyped characters .  Given the plain set, Rick Banville's precise, inventive lighting and John Mounsteven's atmospheric sound are crucial in establishing mood and location. 

Before the show begins, the projector displays significant quotations from Einstein, Santayana and Pascal all indicating the futility of Welby's experiment.  The one by Einstein could be the motto for the whole play: "Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."  A farce that is both intelligent and funny is a rare thing and Richmond's play, with a few adjustments, has so many good qualities it deserves wide currency.  I look forward to his next.

©Christopher Hoile

Photo: Jacob Richmond and Celine Stubel in the Atomic Vaudeville production. ©2001 Atomic Vaudeville.