Reviews 2007
Reviews 2007
✭✭✭✭✩
by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Jonah Allison
Column 13 Actors Company, Alchemy Studio Theatre, Toronto
November 2-10, 2007
If you want to see a fascinating play bursting with powerful performances make a beeline to the Alchemy Studio Theatre to see Our Lady of 121st Street by Stephen Adly Guirgis, one of the most exciting new voices in American drama. Guirgis’s play, zigzagging between comedy and tragedy, is set in a Harlem funeral home where a varied group of former pupils, friends and relations have gathered for the wake of the feared and revered Sister Rose. The only problem is that someone has stolen her body along with the pants of a man holding a vigil.
The play, however, is not a whodunit but rather a study of the twelve people who have arrived. There is no overarching plot but rather ten sizzling but loosely connected scenes focussed on conflicts between groups of two three characters. Each scene is like a piece of a jigsaw puzzle surrounding the key symbolic piece that is missing. For most Sister Rose was the one person who seemed to give their lives meaning and purpose. Now left on their own they flail about in pain, fear and disgust, attacking each other in their bewilderment. Yet, there is some hope. They have, after all, set aside time to honour that woman who made them feel wanted and all long to regain the peace they once knew.
Jonah Allison’s incisive direction has drawn committed, truthful performances from the entire cast. Brandon Thomas gives an outstanding performance as Edwin, a good man torn between love and anger at having to sacrifice his life to care for his retarded brother Pinky (a sympathetic Jesse Ryder Hughes). Christian McKenna is excellent as Balthazar, the alcoholic cop investigating the theft of the body, who drinks to numb his personal pain and his rage at the world. Jennifer McEwen is frighteningly believable as Norca, a hopped-up self-centred prostitute who strikes out at others when she’s in the wrong. As Sister Rose’s niece, Angela Hanes is both comic and sad, a neurotic who manipulates others because she doesn’t understand herself. An intense Luis Fernandes is convincing as a priest who has lost his own faith, angered when others turn to him for guidance. Richard Stewart plays the important role of Rooftop, a big time radio DJ, who comes to confession for the first time in decades. He has the attitude down but he speaks so rapidly he’d be more believable as an auctioneer than a DJ.
The set made up of a few tables and chairs is minimal but effective and Alaina Perttula’s is key in establishing mood. What comes across most is the sense that the entire cast is working with the same fierce unity of purpose, fired up by a play that rages against the loss of dignity, trust and faith in a heartless world.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-11-06.
Photo: (L-R) Angela Hanes, Mark Fraser, Jennifer McEwan, Richard Stewart, Beryl Bain, Luis Fernandes, Jesse Ryder-Hughes, Andrew Badali, and Christian McKenna.
©Amy and Terry Talbot.
2007-11-06
Our Lady of 121st Street