Reviews 2011
Reviews 2011
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created by Florence Gibson and Shawn Byfield
directed by Conrad Alexandrowicz
Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, Toronto
April 7-30, 2011
“Tapping Science”
After a sold-out run in 2007, i think i can by playwright Florence Gibson and choreographer Shawn Byfield returns to the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People. It is a high-energy work of physical theatre that tells its story primarily through the medium of tap dancing. Fans of tap need know no more since 70-minute tap shows are so rare. More than this, the show has a nice complexity in mixing themes of science with those of schoolyard bullying.
The show follows the lives of eight students. Seven of them get along both in and out of class and happily include Tip (Tosh Sutherland) despite a disability that makes him drag one foot when he walks. The primary problem the seven must deal with is fellow student Biow (David Cox), who is both intelligent and anti-social, and mercilessly bullies Tip until Tip’s friends intervene. The problem is aggravated by the students’ Teacher (Melody Johnson), who constantly misinterprets what she sees and holds Tip to blame for what Biow has done.
Parallel with this plot is the effort of the Teacher to inspire in her students the ardent love of science that illuminates her life. She hopes to have her class place in an upcoming science fair. As it happens, Biow’s contribution of a catapult, which demonstrates the power of a fulcrum, is the most likely to help them win.
Fundamental to the work’s conception is that the student only communicate through dance while the adults--the Teach and Tip’s Father (also Johnson)--use speech. The main difficulty with Gibson’s story is her insistence that Tip’s disability involve his leg and foot. This leads to the contradiction that although Tip drags his foot when he walks, he can somehow tap dance perfectly well. This distinction could be explained as Tip’s “speaking” versus Tip “not speaking”. Unfortunately, Gibson confounds the issue because she also suggests that Tip is better at spinning than the others because one foot is stronger. It would have less conceptually confusing if Tip disability were communicated through a withered arm than through his leg. Gibson could have looked to Matthew Bourne’s 2005 ballet Edward Scissorhands as a precedent where, indeed, the title character has scissors for hands. To dance with his beloved both he and she must find ways to get around the fact that he cannot touch her with his hands. Bourne’s use of a disability in dance is consistent and become beautiful in its own way, while Gibson’s messages are muddled.
A second flaw is to have the seven classmates get into a brawl at the science fair and destroy each other’s projects. Gibson must think this is necessary for her plot, otherwise, why would she have these seven who have previous gotten along perfectly well suddenly flare out at each other with no motivation. If she wants to show that everyone is a potential bully, she should have set up some preparation for this incident. On the other hand, she could easily have avoided this inconsistency. Since Biow and his machine can’t appear, the seven need only have decided what they could do to work together to create something better. Fighting among among them is unnecessary and doesn’t fit in with what has gone before.
These flaws aside, i think i can continually astonishes with its inventiveness. Byfield has given each character signature tap steps and peppers the show with a wide-ranging variety of rhythms. The two dancers who stand out the most are naturally David Cox and Tosh Sutherland. It’s a bit too bad that Cox is the villain since we can never fully applaud his astonishing athleticism, rapidity and accuracy. Sutherland’s role requires more nuanced acting than Cox’s in often having to appear as if things are fine when we know they are not. He accomplishes this and is also a fine dancer. If one ignores the improbability of it, the tap duel between Tip and Biow is the dance highlight of the show.
In other roles, Tangara Jones shows a flair for comedy as Frufie the cheerleader who is so self-satisfied with her own accomplishments. Kyle Brown and Jennifer Stewart are a great team as siblings Alexander and Belle. Tammy Nera also provides humour as the easily upset Faraday, while Jamie McRoberts is suitably kooky as the class goth Joule. Matthew G. Brown certainly has talent but Gibson has not really given him much as Newton to set him apart as a character.
Playing the only adults, Melody Johnson is a hoot. The Teacher with her heavy Scots accent and obsession with science is clearly intended as a grown-up nerd. Costume designer Julia Tribe has given her enormous clown shoes to emphasize both her role as a non-dancer and to underline how the students must view her. When Johnson plays Tip’s father, Tribe has given her a grotesque mask and pot-bellied costume that allows Johnson to show her abilities in physical comedy.
Lover of tap will be so fixated in following the dancers’ footwork that Jacob Niedzwiecki’s projections, though clever and often beautiful, tend to distract. In contrast, Bradley A. Trenaman’s ingenious lighting, sometimes using travelling squares of light on key dancers, keeps our focus on the dancers and their feet.
Gibson and Byfield separately link the seemingly immiscible themes of physics and bullying to dance--both dealing with the effects of force, energy and mass. Nevertheless, the two themes are not conceptually linked to each other. How does the irrationality of bullying relate to the rationality of scientific thinking? How is science related to any form of bullying except if we think of its misuse, which Gibson never brings up?
All in all, i think i can is still a highly enjoyable show as long as the fuzzy thinking behind it doesn’t trouble you. Yet, children want to have logic and consistency in a story. Just few alterations would go a long way to fixing some of these flaws, but since the show has already won the Dora Award for Outstanding new Musical, changes are unlikely. That’s too bad since a story for kids told through tap is a great idea. Let’s hope Byfield finds stories that inspire him to create more tap shows.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Jamie McRoberts, Tammy Nera, Matthew G. Brown, Tangara Jones, Jennifer Stewart and Kyle Brown. ©Daniel Alexander.
2011-04-08
i think i can