✭✭✭✩✩

by John Osborne, directed by Bernie Henry

C.D.T. Company, Toronto Fringe Festival, 488 Euclid Avenue, Toronto

July 4-13, 2003

Osborne's famous 1956 "kitchen-sink" drama, heavily abridged, receives a hyperrealist production in the real kitchen of a real house.  Taken out of the theatre the 13 spectators become voyeurs of a slightly dated reality show.  Undermining this fascinating concept is the decision to have the central figure, Jimmy Porter, the pattern for the "angry young man," played by a woman Irene Huljak.  While the other three actors are excellent, Huljak is neither word perfect nor has drained her acting of histrionics to suit the small space.  Why anyone would choose to live with Porter, a  jealous, abusive misogynist, the director never makes clear.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-07-10.

Photo: Toronto Fringe Festival logo.