Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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by Erin Fleck, directed by Shari Hollett
Theatre Passe Muraille, Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace, Toronto
October 11-29, 2011
“Sex and the 14-Year-Old”
Erin Fleck’s solo play Those Who Can’t Do... concerns an important question--how should parents and teachers deal with the fact that teenagers barely into their teens are having sex. Problems with the writing, acting and direction, however, tend to undermine the play’s overall effectiveness.
The play focusses on Lillian Campbell, a 27-year-old teacher who specializes in English and Ancient Civilizations, but who is enlisted by her school principal to teach the course on “Health”. The course, to be taught only to the 14-year-old girls of the school, is really about sex education, and Lillian is dismayed to find that the class textbook from 1999 recommends only abstinence as the way to avoid pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. But what does she do when she finds that for her pupils abstinence is not an option?
The actions breaks down into three plots. The main plot concerns Lillian’s efforts to meet the educational needs of her students without taking on the role of friend or parent. This is difficult since many of her students find that she is the only one who will listen to their problems. Meanwhile, Lillian privately tries to cope with her feelings of inadequacy in teaching the subject since she herself remained a virgin until age 24. Flashbacks to her past try to reveal why this was so has why Lillian has never had a boyfriend.
The other two plot concern Lillian’s students. On the only hand, there is Nora and her 16-year-old boyfriend who are in a loving, sexually active relationship that they have to hide from their parents for fear of their reaction. Though the couple’s families are not feuding, frequent reference to Romeo and Juliet reinforce the idea that all-consuming love at that age is not a novelty. On the other hand, there is Taylor, who is part of a sex scandal (based on a real incident) that rocks the school. She along with eight other girls in Lillian’s class is the founder of the Fellatio Club who regularly service boys on the senior hockey team. When one of the boys takes photos of Taylor in action and posts them on the internet, the parents blame the school for not doing enough to prevent such a thing.
As a writer, Fleck is excellent at exposing the impossible position that teachers face caught between rules imposed from from on high about maintaining a distance from students and parents who have left the role of parenting, including discussions about sex, to the schools. Lillian’s principal informs her that in any dispute, “The parents are always right”. Where Fleck tends to fails is in not creating distinct enough voices for the ten characters she plays. Many speak in exactly the same multi-clause sentences that Lillian uses.
As an actor, this is also where Fleck falls down. Very little distinguishes how Fleck plays Sharon, Lillian’s principal, from Lillian, Lillian’s mother or, surprisingly, from Nora. Fleck uses greater changes of posture and voice to distinguish the three male characters--the coach of the hockey team, Taylor’s father and Nora’s boyfriend--but with one exception the female characters are far too similar. That exception is Taylor, whose two long speeches are the most riveting in the play. In the first she chillingly exults in the status and power the Fellatio Club gives her. In the second she wonders, rather too late, why everyone calls her a slut. With Taylor, Fleck gives us a fascinating insight into motivation and later a strange feeling of sympathy for a youngster we might otherwise too easily condemn.
The play’s most obvious strength is its well-observed comedy of an unprepared teacher awkwardly teaching a difficult class, but even with the Nora and Taylor subplots, Fleck never develops a sense of dramatic tension or urgency. This is partly due to director Shari Hollett’s over-deliberate pacing. Having each new character sign in on the blackboard after erasing the previous character’s name may keep up the school theme but it repeatedly stops the action dead. Hollett should encourage Fleck to switch from character to character without the name-writing. Other solo-show performers can make new characters clear through context, voice and gesture--and so should Fleck. Transforming from one to the other without the blackboard stint would shorten the 80-minute running time, make the show punchier and more theatrical and would force Fleck to make greater use of her acting skills.
Those Who Can’t Do... performs a useful service in encouraging parents and teachers to understand teen sexuality and not to retreat from teens at the time when they need the most support. Yet to have greater impact, it needs to be more theatrical, more engaging and performed with greater verve.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Erin Fleck. ©2011 Aviva Armour-Ostroff.
For tickets, visit www.passemuraille.on.ca.
2011-10-12
Those Who Can’t Do...