The following two reviews were broadcast on Friday, November 8, 2013, CIUT FRIDAY MORNING, 89.5 FM, Moss Park at Theatre Passe Muraille until November 16, and The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble at the Factory Theatre, Mainspace until December 1.
The guest host was Phil Taylor
(PHIL)
Good Friday morning, and a perfect time to talk about theatre with Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer.
Hi Lynn
(LYNN)
Hi Phil. I know you usually say it’s theatre fix time, but in light of what’s going on at City Hall, that might seem insensitive… So let’s talk about theatre.
(PHIL)
What caught your interest this week.
(LYNN)
Two plays. One is Moss Park by George F. Walker, one of our most prolific playwrights. It’s playing at Theatre Passe Muraille. It’s a play about teenage angst; being young and poor and parenthood.
And the other play is The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble by Beth Graham, at the Factory Theatre, Mainspace.
(PHIL)
Let’s start with Moss Park and teenaged angst. Always a timely topic.
(LYNN)
It’s by George F. Walker, one of our best chroniclers of people in tough situations. His characters are usually on the edges of society; marginalized but functioning, recognizable, but kept at a distance. Always funny, sometimes frightening.
It’s a combination that has made Walker’s plays and characters so compelling for more than 3 decades.Theatre Passe Muraille produces theatre that is edgy and tells our stories. Green Thumb Theatre has been developing and producing original Canadian plays that deal with and explore issues relevant to young people. It seems a perfect fit for both playwright and these two theatre companies to join forces to produce Moss Park.
Moss Park concerns Bobby and Tina, an on-again, off-again couple trying to find their way out of what seems a hopeless situation. Bobby is sweet, but dim. He can’t keep a job for more than a day it seems. He’s full of bluster. His grasp of right and wrong seems a bit hazy.
Tina is much sharper. She sees through all of Bobby’s excuses, is often frustrated with him, but obviously loves him. Together they have a two year old daughter.
Tina got pregnant at 19. Because Bobby is such an unreliable man, he couldn’t take care of them. Tina and their daughter have to live with her mother, who is also fragile. And they have just received an eviction notice.
Everybody seems to be hanging on by a thread in Moss Park.
(PHIL)
So the angst is palpable.
(LYNN)
So is the frustration of both of them wanting something better and not knowing how to get it. Tina is perceptive enough to know how to identify a problem and how to solve it. But she also has the child-man Bobby to contend with. His naïve optimism leaves one limp in one’s seat because his solutions are so simplistic. He sees nothing wrong with thinking a life of crime might be the ticket. Like a clear-thinking parent? Adult? Tina questions Bobby on his motives and solutions until even he sees the folly of his ideas.
The beauty of Walker’s writing and the gripping, muscular direction of Patrick McDonald is that they both put us right in the middle of that tenuous world. We might initially wonder what Tina sees in Bobby, but for most of this intense and hilarious production, we see past the question and take on faith that she seems plenty to love.
There is a moment though, late in the play when I think Walker is going down a path that seems so against everything that Tina has shown she is about. But Walker, ever the master of tight situations, finds a way out and back, and a wrong road is averted.
(PHIL)
Tell us more about the production.
(LYNN)
In the production we have two actors who gently, delicately take us by the back of the neck and bring us forward into their characters’ world. As Bobby, Graeme McComb is gangly, quick-talking, slow thinking, a sweet bumbler. And he has disarming charm. As Tina, Haley McGee is quick witted; always thinking on her feet; always asking the right question that doesn’t necessarily put Bobby down, but coaxes him into thinking a bit harder. Together both actors have a tingling chemistry. They riff off one another and the dialogue crackles. They both play everything seriously, of course, everything IS serious for these two, and the humour just flies.
Moss Park deals with the world of teenagers or people in their very early 20s who have nothing; dream of something better; struggle, grasp o get out; try, and have a serious sense of humour. It’s a world that often is miles away from our own. The beauty of the play and production is that it opens up that world to us; envelopes us in it for a short time and gently lets us go to think about that world, and Bobby and Tina, long after it’s over.
(PHIL)
And now the intriguingly titled play, The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble. Who is Bernice Trimble and why does she have this pull?
(LYNN)
Bernice Trimble is recently widowed. Her husband of 32 years died several months earlier and she’s coping as best as she can. She has three adult children who rally around her: Peter, her taciturn son; Sara who is bossy, argumentative and always right; and Iris, sweet, always second guessing herself and the narrator of the piece. Bernice calls a family meeting to tell them that she has been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. General shock at first, but then Sara bulldozes her way into saying that’s not true.They need a second opinion as the family doctor is a fool.
Sara takes her mother to get tested and it’s true, Bernice has Alzheimer’s disease. Bernice’s mother had it and died an undignified, horrible death. Bernice doesn’t want that. Her intension is clear and that causes alarm in the family and another reason for Sara to go off on a raging tear and get into a fight with Iris and her mother.
(PHIL)
So what is the gravitational pull that Bernice has?
(LYNN)
Beats me.I’m not being flippant. I think Bernice might have a bond or pull with Iris who is the closest person she has to one who understands her.The others are on their own planet. Peter lives in another city and when he visits he says little and usually avoids confrontation at all cost. Sara is that impossible character who is never wrong and argues with anyone who disagrees with her.These know-it-alls are tiresome in life and deadly in drama although they obviously exist in drama….as in this play. And besides Sara is too busy thinking about herself at all times and how she will be affected by Bernice’s illness to really give a thought to her. But I think the title is clever but confusing in this case because Bernice doesn’t really have much of a pull. She has a desperation that is palpable, but gravitational pull? No.
(PHIL)
How does it do as a play?
(LYNN)
Poorly. The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble is a very small play about a big subject—a family dealing with Alzheimer’s Disease.They obviously went through hell watching Bernice’s mother go through the disease. Yet when Bernice shows the same signs they seem surprised and shocked.They know it might be hereditary and diet and chemicals might be involved but outside of that these characters seem rather stupid about it. I think that’s damaging. Playwright Beth Graham’s dialogue is so clichéd for too much of it, interspersed with some lines that are very poetic, but not enough that would elevate the dialogue from the mundane.The character of Sara is so negative and her closed mind is so impenetrable that her dialogue, especially with Iris, is little more than ever increasing screaming.
(PHIL)
Does the production help in elevating the play?
(LYNN)
I think the production tries very hard to work with this weak material. The set of shelves and shelves of Bernice’s neat collections of salt and pepper shakers and other knickknacks speaks volumes about the neatness and ordered life of Bernice. As Bernice, Karen Robinson brings dignity and grace to the role. And she is heartbreaking when she must reveal that she’s forgetting things and she’s frightened. As Iris, Alexis Gordon is quivery-voiced, always grappling with her character’s uncertainty, but has her own resolve.
In the impossible part of Sara, Lucinda Davis has that arrogance and smugness that is right for this character. And as Peter, Peyson Rock does well in this underwritten part. It’s directed with style and an interesting insight by Philip Akin. He doesn’t add sentiment where the playwright hasn’t written it. One would expect one of these children to comfort their mother when she reveals her concerns, but they don’t. Kudos to the production.
I really disliked this slight play.
(PHIL)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s blog at www.slotkinletter.com
Moss Park plays at Theatre Passe Muraille until November 16.
The Gravitational Pull of Bernice Trimble plays at the Factory Theatre, Mainspace until December 1