Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✭✩✩
written by Brad Fraser, directed by Braham Murray
Factory Theatre, Factory Theatre Mainspace, Toronto
September 30-October 31, 2004
Brad Fraser’s latest play Cold Meat Party has no swearing, no nudity, no simulated sex. Those watching the play for Act 1 and half of Act 2 could easily think they had stumbled into a second-rate farce at one of Ontario’s lesser summer theatres. There’s a bizarre, non-farcical revelation in Act 2--rather like finding an eyeball in a box of Timbits--but no explanation as to why it’s there, unless Fraser is up to his game of shocking simply to shock.
Three college friends gather in a Manchester B&B where the fourth of their group, Keith, has died at age 45. Nash (a compelling Sarah Orenstein), a feminist filmmaker, has brought Nancy (the delightful Erin MacKinnon), her teenaged daughter by Keith. Marcus (Ross Manson, playing gay with two limp wrists), a washed-up ‘80’s pop-star, has brought his partner Brynn (an unconvincing James Gallanders). The third friend Dean (an intense Ron White) has since become a virulently homophobic politician. “This is so Big Chill,” Nancy exclaims.
Acknowledging the comparison doesn’t prevent Fraser from creating a similar mix of nostalgia and sentimentality written in the artificial barb-for-barb style of sitcoms. Into this fluff Fraser has Dean drop his bombshell seemingly to illustrate the ultimate unknowability of the individual. Yet, Fraser never makes it plausible that the uptight, non-artistic Dean could ever have joined let alone remained in his friends’ circle so long especially given his rightwing leanings. Even more improbable are the series of coincidences that bring Dean’s secret to light.
Fraser proves he can shock without profanity, but this still leaves behind a derivative, only fitfully amusing play. Braham Murray, who also directed the British premiere, has encouraged a very broad acting style suitable to the twisted sitcom the play is rather than the cold glimpse into reality it thinks it is.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-10-07.
Photo: Ross Manson, Sarah Orenstein and Ron White. ©2004.
2004-10-07
Cold Meat Party