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by Jonathan Garfinkel, directed by Richard Rose

Tarragon Theatre, Tarragon Theatre Mainspace, Toronto

May 6-June 3, 2009

House of Many Tongues is a play written by someone who thinks he is clever and daring but , sadly, is neither.  Author Jonathan Garfinkel, who has travelled to Israel and the West Bank, realizes the difficulty in the subject as he states in the programme, “How do you write a play when the theatre that surrounds you is the ultimate drama?  An answer: let the surroundings speak.”  Unfortunately, that is exactly what Garfinkel does not do.  Instead, he concocts an unengaging, highly artificial story peopled by undeveloped characters and laden with clichés and pointless gags.

In a metaphorical action, a former Israeli general Shimon (Howard Jerome) claims an empty house in Old Jerusalem as his own after the 1967 war.  Forty years later the house’s former owner Abu Dalo (Hrant Alianak) shows up to claim it as his.  You don’t have to guess what the house represents because everybody tells you over and over.  In fact, Garfinkel decides to personify the House in the form of Fiona Highet, who welcomes both men as long as they take care of her.  To give the House someone to talk to, Garfinkel introduces a Camel (Raoul Bhaneja), an otherwise unnecessary character.  While both older men possess dark secrets only to be revealed in Act 2 (of course), Garfinkel tries to liven up the proceedings with Shimon’s 15-year-old son Alex (Daniel Karasik), who says, “You’re a liar,” when speaking to Shimon or “I want to perform cunnilingus on you” when speaking to a woman.  From these phrase’s incessant repetition, we gather that Alex is alienated from his father and wants to perform oral sex on a woman.  When Abu Dalo’s estranged teenaged daughter Suha (Erin MacKinnon) turns up and meets Alex, the play might as well end because we can predict exactly what will transpire from then on.  

Alianak and Highet give the most assured performances, but all the others do well enough considering what little Garfinkel has given them.  Teresa and Maya Przybylski and Andrea Lundy provide an intriguing video-enhanced visual design far more sophisticated than the play itself.  Abu Dalo and his toilet fetish, Alex and his cunnilingus fetish, Suha ventriloquizing through a dead pigeon, a talking house, a talking camel--it’s all so wannabe quirky it’s tiresome.  If you want a rich, fascinating, dynamic play about the Middle East, be sure to see Wajdi Mouawad’s Scorched returning to the Tarragon in June, a play against which Garfinkel’s House pales in comparison.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2009-05-08.

Photo: Howard Jerome, Erin MacKinnon, Fiona Highet, Daniel Karasik, Hrant Alianak.