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by Stephen Adly Guirgis, directed by Jonah Allison

Column 13 Actors Company, Alchemy Studio Theatre, Toronto

May -June 1, 2008

Column 13 Actors Company is presenting an ambitious programme of two plays in repertory by red-hot American playwright Stephen Adly Guirgis--remounts of Our Lady of 121st Street (reviewed in Eye Nov. 6, 2007) and, on alternate nights, In Arabia We’d All Be Kings.  Together the two productions reveal a company with a grasp of powerful ensemble acting equal with the best in the city.  In In Arabia director Jonah Allison again proves his ability to galvanize his entire cast to deliver strong, vibrant performances.

Though never stated outright, In Arabia (1999) is about the effects of then mayor Rudi Giuliani’s push to “clean up” Times Square.  Guirgis focusses on one seedy bar and its denizens of prostitutes, junkies and criminals.  The play opens with Lenny (Luis Fernandes), just released after six years in prison, venting his pent-up anger at a harmless crackhead he names “Skank” (Andrew Badali).  Lenny is disturbed that most of his favourite haunts have changed or been torn down.  He thinks he and his girlfriend Daisy (Monique Moses) can pick up where they left off, but she’s already taken up with the bar’s owner Jake (Scott Walker).  Worse than that his macho sense of self has been destroyed by the gang rapes he endured in prison.  Meanwhile, Skank’s zoned out prostitute girlfriend Chickie (Angela Hanes), ignorant that Skank turns tricks with men to pay for his habit, tries to teach Lenny’s unbalanced, gun-toting sister Demaris (Jenny Westoby) how to street-walk to earn money to take care of her baby.  Even Charlie the bartender (Brandon Thomas), the most normal-seeming of the bunch, thinks he is a Jedi knight.  Through all this the bar’s all-day resident drunk Sammy (Christian McKenna) functions as a kind of incoherent comic chorus, in constant fear of his wife’s approach and pining for the lost Puerto Rican love of his life.  Guirgis charts the gradual disimprovement in all the characters’ lives except for the gay entrepreneur Greer (Brendon Smith), who plans to buy and gut the bar.

The lives of these dwellers at the outer fringes of society are not pretty and the cast does nothing to take the edge off their fiercely etched portraits.  Yet, though friendships are only provisional, we see that these down-and-outers ruefully recognize themselves in each other.  The coming loss of their mutual hang-out means the loss of the one communal centre in their lives.  In Our Lady (2002) that centre has already been lost.  What shines through the bleakness of both plays is Guirgis’ sympathy for the lowest of the low, blindly repeating past mistakes, suffering helplessly with rage and humiliation.  If you missed these two compelling, clear-sighted productions last year, see them now.                   

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2008-05-23.

Photo: Luis Fernandes. ©Column 13.