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by Lea Daniel & Gary Kirkham, directed by Kim Blackwell

Lost & Found Theatre, Registry Theatre, Kitchener

April 21-30, 2016

Dave: “We’re number 2!  We’re number 2!”

Lost & Found Theatre is currently presenting the world premiere of Pocket Rocket, a comedy by Lea Daniel and Gary Kirkham.  The play follows five friends, all hockey lovers, growing up in Southern Ontario over a period of 30 years.  In Act 1 we meet them in the summer of 1967 playing street hockey.  In Act 2 we glimpse them again in 1981 and 1995.  It’s a wise and gentle comedy that shows how the experience of playing a game together gradually turns into an unbreakable friendship.  Those aged 60 and over will have a direct experience of the historical times that Daniel and Kirkham conjure up so well.  Those younger will have a chance to see how teenagers used to interact and see the difficulties and rewards of making friends face to face.

Daniel and Kirkham subtitle their comedy “ A Play in Three Periods”.  The first period is the summer of 1967 and climaxes on Canada Day.  We first meet four of the five friends, all 14 years old, who are sad that their fifth player is moving away.  Steve (Andrei Preda) is the most self-confident and the most self-obsessed of the four.  Cindy, who insists on being called Sid (Hannah Ziss), is the practical-minded tomboy who plays goalie.  The other two boys, Paul (Mark Kreder) and Dave (Matt White), both look up to Steve but also get annoyed by his air of superiority. 

Finally, a new family moves in and the boys look forward to playing in teams again.  The new by, also 14 years old, is Iftikhar, whom the kids call Ifty (Suchiththa Desilva).  The only one of the four who shows any signs of prejudice is Steve, who may simply resent the fact that the spotlight has shifted off him.  Ifty has never played ice hockey before, but has played field hockey and only has a field hockey stick to use.  Steve thinks this disqualifies him, but as the others point out while they may imagine they are playing ice hockey, they really are

playing street hockey without ice, a puck or skates. 

Act 1 consists of a long series of vignettes as we see how Ifty becomes integrated into the group as Paul’s partner while Dave becomes Steve’s.  The hockey scenes are interspersed with scenes about the lives of 14-year-olds in general.  There are very funny episodes where Sid teaches Paul how to kiss and where the four boys peruse a Playboy magazine hidden in a copy of The Hockey News. 

The title has more than one meaning.  First, it refers to Henri Richard, Rocket Richard’s younger brother, the player Dave most identifies with.  In a very Canadian way he finds it too difficult to identify himself with the number one player.  Since the combination of Ifty and Paul has proved unbeatable, Steve comes up with a strategy to help him win.  His secret play is nicknamed “Pocket Rocket” and when Steve wants to put it in action he calls out the name to Dave. 

In Act 2, Periods 2 and 3 representing 1981 and 1995 are not so broken up.  In fact, Period 2 is very cleverly written as one continuous scene as the characters help Dave move objects from a moving van into his house and happen to find themselves in twos and threes during the process.  Some have realized their dreams, some have not and some have had life-changing experiences.  Period 2 ends without all the friends reconciling themselves to each other or to themselves.  That does not happen until Period 3 and you should not be surprised if you find yourself laughing and tearing up at the same time.

The play requires fine ensemble work from the cast and that is exactly what it receives under Kim Blackwell’s expert direction.  The cast is delightful at capturing the gawkiness, enthusiasm and petulance of 14-year-olds.  By Act 2 they have all matured but we can still see remnants of their younger selves under their adult façades.  Desilva masterfully meets the added challenge of progressively losing his accent in the two periods of Act 2.  In Act 2 Hannah Ziss is wonderful at communicating Cindy’s unspoken wishes and Mark Kreder gives a moving performance as a young man afraid of losing his best friends.  Andrei

Preda’s supercilious Steve and Matt White’s Dave, outwardly jolly but with an undertow of sadness, are clear developments of their earlier selves.

The play is not perfect.  With all its blackouts between short scenes, Act 1 is rather hard on the eyes.  It also seems rather baggy and could easily be tightened to match the tautness of Act 2.  The writers seem to be making some point about Dave’s unhappiness at unrealized ambitions, but they don’t really give us enough information to help us understand his difficulties.  In Act 2 Cindy’s throwing herself at Steve and Steve’s acceptance of it aren’t believable and seem manufactured mostly to allow the men to break out into a fight.  In Period 3 the mystery of who will arrive last comes off as unfair toying with the audience, when up until then, the play has admirably straightforward.  Just as a side note, if the ball/puck of Period 3 is really what they say it is, it would have to be much larger than the prop used on stage.  

Daniel and Kirkham’s set design of a projection of the neighbourhood as a kind of illustration from a children’s book perfectly suits the nostalgic mood of the play.  Helen Basson’s costumes capture all the time periods, especially the 1980s, with knowing but subdued touches.  Paul Braunstein’s hockey choreography is very imaginative and the cast enacts it in slow motion with real grace.        

Pocket Rocket is a wonderfully warm-hearted play.  Its depiction of being young and facing adulthood in Ontario rings true and should appeal to people anywhere who have felt the camaraderie of youth.  Daniel and Kirkham’s play, starting as it does in 1967, also provides its own answer to that ancient question, “What makes us Canadian?”  They suggest that it all comes down to a shared experience and a way of reacting to change that are not the same as those of our neighbour to the south.  When the authors have Dave shout out without irony, “We’re number 2!  We’re number 2!” you know that you’re seeing an insightful portrayal of the Canadian psyche where life offers more choices for success than number one or nothing.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive. 

Photos: (from top) Matt White, Mark Kreder, Andrei Preda, Hannah Ziss and Suchiththa Desilva; Andrei Preda, Mark Kreder and Matt White; Hannah Ziss and Suchiththa Desilva. ©2016 Tom Vogel.

For tickets, visit www.lostandfoundtheatre.ca.