Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✩✩✩
by Erika Hennebury, Greg MacArthur, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Clinton Walker
Les Vaches and House of Slacks, Buddies in Bad TimesTheatre, Toronto
May 15-June 1, 2003
Four friends sit around an oversized table between the main course and dessert in moderately humorous conversation. At the end of the show's 50 minutes we see that all four, though in each other's company, are mentally elsewhere, lonely, involved in their own concerns. Other dissections of social occasions--Ionesco's The Bald Soprano, Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Pinter's The Birthday Party, Mike Leigh's Abigail's Party--accomplish what Stem does but go far beyond it to resonate with philosophical, mythic or political implications. Stem merely shows the divide between public and private self and is over.
Greg MacArthur keeps checking his messages hoping to hear from a guy he's attracted to. Erika Hennebury longs for the peace of being alone creating art. Clinton Walker craves a smoke. And, in case we didn't get the point, the host, Ruth Madoc-Jones, repeatedly plays "Are You Lonesome Tonight" on a tape recorder. Unlike the plays above, Stem doesn't fully explore the tension that ought to be generated between individual and group. Three may gang up on one, but soon they're back to pleasantries. A recurring series of remarks about when coffee will be served is an attempted imitation of Beckett, but the topics of dance classes in gym, famous people you'd sleep with and Pete's Dragon don't bear that weight.
As one might hope, the four actors are quite good at playing themselves, though one wonders why the personalities of Walker and Hennebury are less well defined. With no plot or relationships to explore, the show relies heavily on J.P. Robichaud's lighting and Neal Hall's sound design for its theatricality. On opening night the greatest laughter was unplanned. The cast exited through a side door only to run into an actual street person. Perhaps they should make him part of the show.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-05-22.
Photo: Clinton Walker, Erika Hennebury, Greg MacArthur and Ruth Madoc-Jones. ©2003 Esther Choi.
2003-05-22
Stem