Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
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by Terence McNally, directed by Rod Ceballos
BirdLand Theatre, Jane Mallett Theatre, Toronto
September 14-26, 2004
Terrence McNally’s Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune is an insubstantial play that bears little close scrutiny. Yet, it received rave reviews when it first appeared in New York in 1987 and when revived there in 2002. Do Americans really view life as kind of sitcom or did the New York productions have a zing the current Toronto one lacks to make audiences overlook its improbabilities and clichés?
The story is simple and simplistic. Co-workers Frankie (Zorana Kydd), a waitress, has brought home Johnny (Peter Van Wart), a short-order cook, for a one-night stand. She’s ready for him to leave once sex is over, but he wants to stay, not just the night but forever, because he is convinced he’s finally found the right woman. For the next two hours Johnny attempts to persuade Frankie that she must decide that night to marry him. Why that night? Johnny’s reason--that chances like this come along only once and you have to grab them when you can--makes no sense since they see each other every day.
Kydd is good at capturing Frankie’s anger and despair at Johnny’s unreasonable request, but she needs to suggest earlier on that she has secretly fallen for Johnny to make the action plausible. Van Wart makes a very funny, likeable Johnny, frustrated one moment, rhapsodizing the next, but he doesn’t give him the charisma it takes to catch us up in his fervor. Besides, director Rob Ceballos is too much a realist, underlining too rather well what the future sources of discord will be should the two ever live together.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-09-23.
Photo: Peter Van Wart and Zorana Kydd. ©2004 BirdLand Theatre.
2004-09-23
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune