The following reviews were broadcast on Friday, March 7, 2014, CIUT FRIDAY MORNING, 89.5 FM LUNGS at the Tarragon Extra Space Until March 30 and THE WANDERERS at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, produced by Cohoots Theatre Company until March 23.
The guest host was Phil Taylor
(PHIL)
Good Friday Morning. It’s time for your theatre fix with Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. Hi Lynn
(LYNN)
Hi Phil
(PHIL)
What’s up this week?
(LYNN)
Two intriguing plays. One is Lungs about a relationship that is tested. And the other is The Wanderers that tells of the immigrant experience and the myths and mystery of Afghanistan from the point of view of a person who knows those worlds intimately.
(PHIL)
Don’t leave us breathless—tell us about Lungs.
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Written by British playwright Duncan Macmillan Playing at the Tarragon Theatre, Extra Space. Macmillan’s characters are called simply W (for woman, I assume) and M (for man). M has picked the most inappropriate place and time (the check-out line at IKEA) to suggest to W that they have a baby. She is so mortified she is breathless. They worry endlessly about the responsibility of bringing an innocent person into a world with war, strife, climate change, pollution, carbon foot prints etc.
When they aren’t fretting about their world, they are discussing the minutiae of the many and various decisions they have to think about: Whose parents should they tell first if news is to be told? Does her mother really hate him? They fret. They worry. They love each other.
(PHIL)
How’s the writing?
(LYNN)
As Macmillan writes him, M seems the more grounded, supportive of anything W is experiencing. He is there to hold her and tell her it will be ok and that he loves her. She tells him much later that she loves him too. She is the more flighty, fragile minded. They endure rocky patches and joyful ones. Truth to tell, after all that obsessing over details, what kind of parents would they be? He seems good father material. I wonder if she would drive the kid crazy with her examining of every question from every side, including sides that don’t even exist. Macmillan even gives us the answer gradually, naturally, perfectly.
(PHIL)
With only two characters, how is this play, played out?
(LYNN)
Playwright Duncan Macmillan is very specific that Lungs be played on a bare stage with no scenery, no furniture, no props, no mime, no costume changes when the scenes change, and no light or sound cues to indicate a change in time and place. After that there are no stage directions at all. The actors and director are on their own for this journey. The words give them context.
In 75 minutes Macmillan paints a detailed picture in small, perfect strokes of a relationship that is built on tiny moments of trust, love, confusion, anger, hurt disappointment, affection and understanding. Macmillan’s dialogue is a careful construction of unfinished, interrupted sentences that are heard and reacted to by the other.
W and M are often two characters at odds played by two actors in total synch. In spite of all of the interruptions a conversation results. We know exactly what they mean because Lesley Faulkner as W and Brendan Gall as M are wonderful together. The flow of the whizzing dialogue is seamless; never an awkward pause in the pickup unless the playwright intended it.
Faulkner is like a hummingbird of kinetic energy and gushing dialogue and a constant effort to balance all the options of W. As W matures Faulkner assumes an ease, maturity, grace. As M, Gall is quietly charming, always supportive of W, always wanting to accommodate her.
When she tells him bad news for both of them he says quietly: “Oh Honey” that expresses heartache for both of them. It leaves you breathless and gasping at the same time.
This spare, exquisite production is directed with sensitivity and care by Weyni Mengesha. A slight change of body language along with the dialogue indicates a change of scene. There is never any confusion or doubt in where we are in the journey. And we are never, ever in doubt as to the love these two characters have for each other because of Mengesha’s direction. They are tactile. They touch, stroke an arm, a thigh and not in a sexual way. It’s not cloying. It’s natural.
(PHIL)
The title certainly is odd.
(LYNN)
Why the title Lungs, I wonder? Perhaps because Samuel Beckett already took the title Breath for his epic 30 second play about birth, life and death (a smack, a baby’s cry, a breath in, a gasp out and silence).
Lungs is compelling theatre, beautifully directed and acted. Breathe. Exhale. See it.
(PHIL)
And now The Wanderers in which Afghanistan figures prominently. What’s the story?
(LYNN)
First some background. It’s produced by Cohoots Theatre Company dedicated to stories that examine cultural diversity. It’s written by Kawa Ada, an Afghan-Canadian. Born in Kabul. Came to Canada with his family. He is a wonderful actor in this city. This epic play is his Canadian playwriting debut. The play spans 36 years starting in Kabul in 1978 and ending in Sudbury in 2014.
In 1978 a 14 year old girl name Mariam is being teased by an unseen Aman. They are school hood friends.The affectionate relationship is established quickly. She is feisty, independent and obvious a person who knows her own mind. She is also sweet on Aman. And since he marries her later, he returns the affection. Kawa Ada establishes how the father Aman is a diligent, quick thinking man. In Afghanistan he was a championship chess player. In Canada he works in a pizza place. Aman is subjected to the homophobic taunting and insensitive verbal jabs of Joseph, the owner of the place. The night before this incident Aman becomes a father of a baby boy named Roshon.
(PHIL)
What was Joseph’s problem?
(LYNN)
His wife, Marie, had just left him and run away, leaving him to take care of their unstable 14 year old daughter Alice. She was born without being able to feel pain and subject to causing herself harm. Alice comes on to Aman. Joseph assumes the worst and fires Aman unfairly. Aman then becomes a cab driver. There is also a connection between Marie, Aman and Roshon
(PHIL)
How is it as a play?
(LYNN)
As a first play it certainly tackles big issues of displacement, immigration, homophobia and myths. For example The Wanderers of the title are gypsies who seem to follow Aman and his son over time. The Wanderers prophesied that Roshon would be powerful. And they appear mysteriously to watch over him. There is some lovely lyrical writing. But the play is also sprawling. There are too many scenes and speeches that go on for too long and add nothing to the play. Some of the politics and snarky dialogue about gay issues seems tacked on, as if to give a platform to the playwright without properly introducing the subject. The connections between the four characters at times seem too far-fetched.
If Ada gave his play another pass and cut out anything that did not progress the plot and fixed any sense of the incredulous, this play would be tighter and much shorter than 2 hours and 20 minutes.
(PHIL)
And the production?
(LYNN)
It’s a terrific set by Camellia Koo of ruins, we assume in Afghanistan. The music and sound puts us right there. Nina Lee Aquino directs with a sure hand. I wish she asked her playwright to cut or helped him on where to cut.
Of the cast of four, Dalal Badr is an impressive Mariam. Kawa Ada plays Young Aman and Roshan (so both father and son). He has charm and stage presence.
His play examines many interesting questions of the immigrant experience. Now he has to edit it so that all the stuff that does nothing to add to the story is cut. You get the sense sometimes he’s having a great time riffing. Cut it, hard though that might be. The play deserves to be tighter and better.
(PHIL)
Thanks Lynn. That’s Lynn Slotkin, our theatre critic and passionate playgoer. You can read Lynn’s blog at www.slotkinletter.com on Twitter: @slotkinletter
Lungs plays at Tarragon Extra Space until March 30.
www.tarragontheatre.com
The Wanderers plays at Buddies in Bad Yimes Theatre until March 23.