by Andrew Moodie, directed Katherine Kaszas
The Canadian Stage Company, Bluma Appel Theatre,
March 31 to May 2, 1999
A Stage Door GUEST Review by Kent Paris

After viewing the play "A Common Man's Guide to Loving Women" this past Saturday night, I felt compelled to write a common man's feedback on the content and the performance. On the whole, the play was interesting. The theatre was cozy, the set was appropriate and the cast put on an entertaining show.

The plot moved along fairly well for most of the play. One part I felt was awkward was when Robin (Andrew's character) started to talk about his childhood trauma about being raped. The context of that discussion, in my opinion, seemed to detract from the storyline. The depth of emotional transgression, at that moment seemed out of context with the rest of the story. (i.e. it got much too deep for a comedy about man's view of women). It was, to me, similar to gratuitous sex or violence
without the proper context.

I certainly understand the point of the personal struggle that Robin was trying to convey to Chris, but for a comedy about man-women relationships, it was a particularly awkward moment for the audience. Once Robin's discourse was finished the dialogue continued on a higher-level emotional plane as it had before. I would recommend to substitute another storyline experience of Robin's into that spot. (the analogy of his pre-marital sexual intercourse encounter with his wife at his parent's house would just as easily fit the bill at this moment).

The group of people that attended the performance with my wife and I also shared this view. We also felt that an appearance of a woman (the woman they were waiting for) would have made a nice break in the tension. Perhaps this could even go at the ending (since I really can't remember much of the ending, anyway). It needs to be stronger on the finish.

Other than that, the performance was very good. I particularly enjoyed watching Andrew Jason Wade as "Greg". He seemed to have a great deal of fun with his role, and that made for an enjoyable performance. Derwin Jordin as "Chris" also shone with good range of emotion and dynamics. Conrad played the "bitter young man" part fairly well, however it would have been nice to seem some diversity. His moping around got to be a bit much.