Live and in person at 80 Bradford Street, Barrie, Ont. Produced by Talk is Free Theatre. Running until April 27.
Written by Mike Bartlett
Directed by Dylan Trowbridge
Production designer, Kathleen Black
Sound Designer, Nolan Moberly
Cast: Jakob Ehman
Michael Torontow
Tess Benger
Kevin Bundy
A gripping, powerful play and production about love—the obsession of it; the desperation of wanting it; the many variations of it. Beautifully acted and directed.
The Story. NOTE: about the title—According to Dylan Trowbridge’s Directors Note, playwright Mike Bartlett began writing COCK while participating in a writer’s residency in Mexico City. The inspiration for the play came when he saw a cockfight—close quarters for the two fighting cocks—and a group of ‘rabid?’ people surrounding the small fighting space cheering on the cocks who were tearing each other to pieces. Ah humanity.
Cock is not about vicious animals tearing each other to bits in anger. Cock is a love story between four people, each with a different perspective on love who are as demanding and brutal as any fighting cock.
John is at the center of the story. He is in love and been living with M for several years. (“M” can stand for “male” or “man). But recently John has met “W” (that can stand for “woman”) and become besotted with her. They have had sex and now John is confused as to whom he wants to be with. Perhaps it’s easier than that—he wants both “M” and “W” and of course they want him to choose. There is also “F” who is “M’s” Father (so “F” can stand for Father) and wants the best for his son—another kind of love here.
The Production. Director Dylan Trowbridge decided that because of the intimate, spare nature of the production it should be presented in a non-traditional space—small, tight, almost claustrophobic—so that the sense of the characters being stripped bare to their emotions is clear. It’s in a small garage space of an office building. The ceiling is low. There are opaque sheets as curtains along the walls. There is no fancy set, lights or costumes. A character might step on a switch on the floor and illuminate a light. The audience sits in chairs along two facing walls. The action happens in the middle of the space and often on benches right beside audience members. To say this is intimate is an understatement. The audience is both watching, perhaps as voyeurs, and in a way participating—deciding whom to side with, whom to consider, how to decide how this should end. Characters change positions in the space, perhaps standing in the middle talking or sitting on a side bench facing another character when addressing each other—it’s less a cockfight and more maneuvering.
Kathleen Black has designed the production and it’s spare, efficient, and enveloping. The audience is right in the middle of this ‘fight’ to win the prize of John. The production begins with M (a commanding, forceful Michael Torontow) and John (a more subdued, introspective Jakob Ehman) reviewing how John could have had his head turned by a woman. John tries to suggest the woman was stalking him. We learn later W (Tess Benger, giving a compelling performance) and John often took the same bus to work. There was an attraction there and they took it from there. John was intrigued by W and W was attracted to John, certainly when he tells her that his recent relationship has ended. John is coy about the pronoun about his former partner. When he lets it slip that his former partner was a man, Tess Benger as W reacted with a crease of her face in concern, but she soon recovered and continued as if pursuing John. She knows he’s interested. She’s smart enough to know how to play the situation and make him further interested in her. In a wonderfully erotic scene played as John and W face each other with the space of the room between them, each tells the other what they need for pleasure. It’s directed with exquisite care and detail by Dylan Trowbridge and played with growing gasping eroticism by Tess Benger as W and Jakob Ehman as John.
W is invited to M’s house for dinner so that the three characters can meet and talk about the situation. This is when M’s father, F (Kevin Bundy) is invited as well to support M. Kevin Bundy plays F with an almost tight, raised jaw. He is fighting for his son’s honour. The stranger in the room is W and Tess Benger plays her with controlled intelligence and grace. She is quietly fierce in her arguments and in defending herself. As M, Michael Torontow is angry, exasperated, demanding and desperate to keep John as his lover. Naturally both lovers want John to chose with whom he will remain. Will it be the forceful, take-charge M? Or will it be the quietly resourceful W? It’s obvious who John wants and it’s wonderful how Jakob Ehman as John plays the scene and both lovers. It’s not that John is passive aggressive when asked to make a decision. Jakob Ehman is much subtler than that in the playing—and in Dylan Trowbridge’s direction. One can imagine one’s heart is beating faster in anticipation of an answer that is taking its time. If Jakob Ehman’s performance has shown me anything, besides how gifted he is (as are they all), it’s that I would love to see him play Hamlet with all the emotional upheaval that role involves.
Cock is a terrific play of nimble thinking characters in a fraught situation of love and all its tangles. It’s so worth a trip to Barrie to see this emotionally charged production during its really short run.
Comment. Talk is Free Theatre should give tutorials on how to create a programme. (never mind how to produce provocative, challenging theatre). First of all, there is a programme! The programme has everything anyone needs to know about the show so an audience can pass on the information. The title is there, big and bold. So is the name of the playwright. Then there are the dates of the run. There is the address of the venue (note this is not a theatre) and there is the Talk is Free URL and phone number. Woow. They really want to let the public where they can see this stunning production. Other theatres should take note.
Talk is Free Theatre presents:
Runs until April 27, 2024.
Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)