Reviews: PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES and NEXT TO NORMAL

by Lynn on June 16, 2012

in The Passionate Playgoer

The following two productions were reviewed on Friday, June 15, 2012 CIUT FRIDAY MORNING, 89.5 FM CIUT. PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES at the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre until June 17; NEXT TO NORMAL at the Tarragon Extra Space until June 17.

Rose Palmieri was the host.

(ROSE)
1) Good Friday Morning. There’s a lot of theatre out there. We are in the middle of the Luminato festival. The Fringe Festival will be starting in more than a week. There are all sorts of indie productions popping up around town. And Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer is here to sort it all out for us and tell us what to see, or not.

Hi Lynn. What have you got for us this week?

(LYNN)
I’ve been to Luminato and an indie show. So I’ll talk about the latest show by Robert Lepage: PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES. And a musical called NEXT TO NORMAL given a terrific production by a spunky indie company named Clearwater Theatre.

(ROSE)
2) Anything by Robert Lepage is highly anticipated. Let’s start with PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES. What’s it about?

(LYNN)
Robert Lepage, our master theatre creator, and his collaborators use playing cards and in particular the rules, procedures, folk-lore and the individual suits of playing cards, namely: spades, hearts, diamonds and clubs, to tell the story. Lepage directs and also had his hand in the writing. There will be four parts—each suit representing a part. Each part “exploring a universe inspired by the asset the suit represents.”

In SPADES the program note says that the focus explores war. It is set in about 2003. It takes place in two deserts. One is in Iraq, the other is in Las Vegas. The juxtaposition of war with the excesses of Las Vegas, makes your eyeballs roll and your eyebrows knit.

In PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES I think there is a slight connection between this sordid world of Las Vegas and war. At one point two soldiers doing manoeuvres do go to Las Vegas to enjoy some R and R. They meet a woman who offers them a good time. One soldier seems introspective and moody. The other is game for a good time.

(ROSE)
4) Does the writing do justice to the exploration of War?

(LYNN)
No. The actual written story has always been a weak point in a Robert Lepage production. Often he writes the shows himself and he overwrites but doesn’t focus on the point. In the case of SPADES it’s worse because he has co-written this with seven other writers, six of whom also act in it. There are references to Arab mythology; mysticism, the problem of illegal aliens in the US, specifically Las Vegas; the difficulty in getting good medical care; gambling addiction, drug addiction, homophobia in the army; political comment about George W. Bush and his war on Iraq. In other words there are 8 million stories in the naked city and Robert Lepage and his writers felt they should put them all into SPADES. No thank you.

The show is composed of several scenes about many and various things but doesn’t come close to exploring the idea of war clearly. For example the first scene takes place in a kind of underground bunker, in which are several soldiers, with the sound of a military helicopter hovering above. Are the soldiers waiting for the enemy, guns at the ready? No, they are having a grand time playing strip poker. Is this really how you want to start a play about war? And if war is a metaphor for the personal wars of all the sordid and the sad people who are in Las Vegas, then it doesn’t do a good job exploring that either.

(ROSE)
5) But a Robert Lepage production is always technologically impressive. Is SPADES?

(LYNN)
Oh yes. The production is full of dazzling Lepage images and visions. The playing area is in the round with various scenes appearing from the depths of the stage—from full gambling tables; to a swimming pool; to various bars loaded with drinks; to hotel room with doors rising up and lowering into the floor. A round section is suspended above the stage.

Screens with projections lower and rise up into that. Jean Hazel’s set is wonderfully efficient like a Japanese puzzle. Although there seems to have been a lot of noise in the many intricate scene changes. And the cast of six play several roles. You get the sense of what actor wrote what part by the amount of self-indulgent writing involved.

There is possibly an interesting 1 ½ hour show being bogged down and choked by this bloated, self-indulgent, noisy, sloppily written three hour dazzling extravaganza. I hope in time they can refocus what the intention is and re-write.

(ROSE)
6) And how about NEXT TO NORMAL? What’s the story?

(LYNN)
It’s a musical about Bi-polar disorder and depression. It is a pared down version of a big albeit unusually Broadway musical with music by Tom Kitt and Book and Lyrics by Brian Yorkey. It won many awards including the Tony Award, the Pulitzer Prize. It is a fascinating, inventive piece of work.

It’s about a loving family in crisis. The mother, Diana is the person who is bi-polar and suffers from depression, but her husband Dan and daughter Natalie are certainly affected. There is also a mysterious character named Gabe, who is vivid in Diana’s memory. Diana has had this problem for 17 years; is on all kinds of medication and has had a battery of doctors, and matters are not getting better.

(ROSE)
7) It sounds depressing.

(LYNN)
Surprisingly it’s not. There is that kind of humour that comes out of tough times. That family does love and support each other. And their problems in dealing with the issues are handled so well in the writing by Brian Yorkey and his deeply felt, thoughtful lyrics that you are drawn into the story rather than alienated by it. The characters are struggling, but they are also moving forward towards a resolution that is right and not just slick. And Tom Kitt’s music is rich, melodic and soaring. I heard lots of sniffling at the end.

(ROSE)
8) How do you get a musical into the small Extra Space of Tarragon.

(LYNN)
Very carefully. I think director Kate Stevenson and her creative team have done wonders. The set by Rachel Forbes is very spare: a back wooden wall, a black raised platform, a small table and three chairs with some kitchen stuff to the side. There is a band of four musicians. The staging is efficient and brisk. Stevenson establishes the relationships very well.

One should be especially mindful of how she manoeuvres Gabe around the set. Diana sees him. Do the others? Stevenson establishes this mystery very well. The cast of six are accomplished but in some cases with a roughness that works for characters going on an emotional rollercoaster ride.

As Diana, Kathryn Akin is all smiles and bravery trying to cope with a world that is crashing in on her. As Dan, her husband, Jay Davis, is that caring husband, anxious for his wife, eager to help and support her, patient. And as Natalie, almost a forgotten daughter, Sara Farb is engaging, conflicted, certainly unhappy because her mother doesn’t notice her as she should.

The cast sing unmicrophoned—hallelujah but the band of four is micked and they drown out the singers. I so wish that the acoustic stuff could be unplugged if possible. The throbbing and pounding is the only sore point in an otherwise splendid production.

(ROSE)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s blog at www.slotkinletter.com

PLAYING CARDS 1: SPADES plays at the Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Opera Centre until June 17. It’s part of LUMINATO: www.luminato.com

NEXT TO NORMAL plays at the Tarragon Extra Space until June 17. www.clearwatertheatre.com

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