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by Carole Fréchette, directed by Leah Cherniak

Tarragon Theatre, Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto

March 24, 2007

In previous works like Elisa’s Skin or Helen’s Necklace, Carole Fréchette has dealt with the old question of the interaction of reality and illusion in elegantly simple stories that grow in resonance long after they are over.  Unlike these, her latest play, John and Beatrice, now receiving its English-language premiere, is extremely contrived, bludgeons us with its themes and outstays is welcome by at least half of its 90 minutes.

The play begins as a kind of modern-day fairy tale in which Beatrice (Caroline Cave), cloistered on the 33rd floor of a downtown tower, has advertised for a man “to interest, move and seduce” her in return for a “substantial reward.”  Bounty hunter John (Rick Roberts) responds to the challenge.  Sadly, once these three trials are over, the show loses cohesion and devolves into a series of pointless role-playing games.  With growing lack of interest we come to realize the play is really an allegory with John representing Reality in both love and theatre while Beatrice is Fantasy.           

Roberts and Cave make an heroic effort in deploying a full arsenal of dramatic technique to try to make this inert material come alive.  Yannik Larivée’s optical illusion of a set is very clever, but if there is a way to make this play engage us, director Leah Cherniak has not found it.                 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2007-03-01.

Photo: Caroline Cave and Rick Roberts. Photo by Cylla Tiedemann.