✭✭✭✭✭

by Kristen Thomson, directed by Chris Abraham

Tarragon Theatre, Toronto

January 12-February 17, 2002

"Child Wonder"

Kristen Thomson's one-woman show "I, Claudia" richly deserves all the plaudits it has received.  After premiering at the Tarragon in April 2001, it went on to receive Dora Awards for Best Performance and Best New Play.  This year its second run at the Tarragon sold out soon after tickets went on sale.  Now word comes that it will be the only English-Canadian work at the international World Stage Preview at Harbourfront this April.  How has Thomson's funny-sad portrait of an "official pre-teen" won such unanimous acclaim?

The most obvious answer is through Thomson's absolutely truthful characterization of a schoolgirl trying to cope with puberty, her parents' separation and her father's impending remarriage.  It's simply the most accurate and detailed portrayal of  a child I've ever seen on stage.  The awkward gestures, the speech rhythms, the experimentation with new vocabulary, the conflict of wanting the comfort and protection she is used to as child with the desire to rebel against the hypocrisy of adults, all this complexity Thomson captures in text and performance and renders as completely natural.  She shows the child uncomfortable with becoming a woman, the pre-teen who outfacing adults but inwardly is riddled with self-doubt.  We see Thomson change costumes and don the half-mask that makes her Claudia, yet she so fully inhabits her character that she instantly calls forth memories in us of that awkward time of life we thought was forgotten. 

If Claudia were the only character Thomson played, the show would be tremendous enough.  But her assumption of three more fully realized characters makes it amazing.  We first meet Drachman, the custodian at Claudia's school, who allows her to keep her sanctuary of saved objects in the boiler room.  He was a theatre manager in his homeland of Bulgonia and has made Claudia's hideaway into a kind of theatre.  We also meet Claudia's grandfather Douglas, lonely now as he cares for his bedridden wife.  Finally, we meet Leslie, the business manager who wants to marry Claudia's father.  Her hard-edged party-girl persona hides her fear that this marriage is her last chance to prove to herself and her parents that she's got her life together despite her doubt and their ridicule.  Thomson gives each a distinct voice, rhythm and gestural repertoire from the heavily-accented Drachman, to the incredible slow Douglas to the hyperactive Leslie.  As with Claudia, the humour comes not merely from what they say but from the accuracy of Thomson's portrayal.  Unlike so many new playwrights, Thomson has left it up to us to see the parallels among this group.  Like Claudia, Drachman and Douglas are coping with the loss of home and youth; like Claudia, Leslie is undergoing a major change in her life.  All use self-deprecation as a form of self-defence.  The three help to universalize the Claudia's own crisis by suggesting that transformation is part of living.

Thomson wrote "I, Claudia" by transcribing hours of improvisations she did using copies of four masks from a set of 26 introduced to the National Theatre School by famed instructor Pierre Lefevre.  These beautiful masks also universalize the action and are linked to the underlying theme of the play of individuality hidden by perceived stereotyping.  All aspects of the Chris Abraham's insightful production support this.  Behind the flimsy red curtain of Julie Fox's set is what looks like a pile of miscellaneous junk.  This pile, like Claudia's own secret box, is in fact a treasure trove where all the props for the show are magically produced or hidden.  Thomson's change from one costume to the next is not instantaneous, but the fact that we see her change in front of us underscores the theme of transformation.  Rebecca Picherack's lighting can spot-light symbols like the goldfish bowl or appear from hidden sources like the junk pile or inside a hat. 

One could say that the play's main images--a butterfly, fish in a bowl, a rainbow--are hardly new.  But those are images Claudia uses to express her situation and they are new to her and she makes them new to us.  Claudia would like things to stay the same, but time and circumstance are forcing her to leave behind the life she knows.  We have more faith than she does that she has enough spirit and good humour to cope with this change no matter what hurt she may feel now.  The show is heart-warming in the very best sense.  You will never have felt so protective of a character on stage as you will of this plucky little girl facing so much disillusionment. 

There are no tickets to be had for "I, Claudia" for the rest of its run at the Tarragon.  But it can be seen next as part of the World Stage Preview at the du Maurier Theatre Centre April 17-21 of this year.  If you have not seen this wonderful show, don't miss it in April.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Kristen Thomson as Claudia. ©2002 Tarragon Theatre.