Live and in person at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Oct. 5, 2024.
Written by Bernard-Marie Koltès
Translator, Martin Crimp
Directed by ted witzel
Costume and set designer, Michelle Tracey
Lighting by Logan Raju Cracknell
Composer and sound by Dasha Plett
Cast: Samantha Brown
Jakob Ehman
Fiona Highet
Daniel Macivor
Kwaku Okyere
Oyin Oladejo
Challenging, dazzling, pretentious, compelling, thought-provoking.
The Story. Roberto Zucco is a challenging play by Bernard-Marie Koltès and it’s opening the season at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
It was written in 1989 by Bernard-Marie Koltès a celebrated French playwright who was dying of AIDS that would eventually kill him. In the meantime the play was a hit in Europe and elsewhere.
It’s about a cold-blooded serial killer named Roberto Zucco and it was based on a real serial killer in Paris and later Europe named Roberto Succo. Roberto Zucco has murdered his father and is in prison. He escapes right under the noses of the guards and goes home to collect his fatigues. His mother is there and is afraid of him, naturally. But he quietly gets his clothes from the laundry hamper then he strangles his mother because her angst and nagging annoyed him.
We follow him as he interacts with all sorts of people: a young woman he might have raped but who loves him; an old man who gets lost in a deserted section of a subway and they have an esoteric conversation bordering on the frightening, about being lost; a stylish woman and her son that ends badly and involves a stolen car.
Roberto Zucco is charming, forbidding, philosophical and dangerous. We are both horrified and impressed with him.
The Production. Buddies in Bad Times Theatre caters to LGBTQIA2S stories. The theatre company has had a troubling, contentious last few years with internal squabbling, losing their board, their artistic director etc.
And with Roberto Zucco Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is back with a vengeance with a new Artistic Director in ted witzel, a clear mandate and philosophy and a roster of plays beginning with Roberto Zucco, that will attempt to knock your socks off for many reasons.
Bernard-Marie Koltès apparently saw a wanted poster of the real Roberto Succo in a Paris subway and was intrigued by the handsome face and the horror of what he did. The play seems part hero worship and being intrigued by his many and various escapes from the authorities. There are other characters: the young woman he allegedly raped; her dysfunctional family, the too easy slide into prostitution. I think Koltès writes about this murky world without judgement and definitely compassion, as if Zucco was who he was because of society, his family etc. and not a born psychopath.
The production is dazzling. It’s directed by ted witzel, the artistic director, and he obviously is making a statement. He packs his production with all the bells and whistles one expects of him. He’s a very compelling director. He has a clear vision of the dark world of the play.
So, Logan Raju Cracknell’s lighting is moody and startling with lots of shadows and blazing light. There are smoke effects, walls come down to reveal characters; Dasha Plett’s composition and sound design, underscore action with a subtly throbbing, pulsing sound. Michelle Tracey has designed a complex set in which set pieces of walls and props are moved and revolved to establish new scenes. There are moments of quiet that are heightened with the sense of impending doom that are beautifully established.
A scene in the deserted subway with Roberto Zucco (Jakob Ehman) and a smartly dressed older man (Daniel Macivor) is one scene in particular that is fraught with possible doom. The two men sit close on a short bench. Daniel Macivor as the older man notes the possibility of danger but also mixes that with a seductive impishness, touching Roberto Zucco’s leg often for effect. Jakob Ehman as Roberto for his part, plays along with the impishness, but there is more than a hint of danger because we know Roberto Zucco’s penchant for killing those who get in his way. Jakob as Roberto Zucco is never anything but compelling. He is soft spoken, seemingly almost wounded by an unjust world, but his cold-blooded behaviour suggests that he is without conscience. He disarms people because he appears shy, awkward, inquisitive and he shakes when he holds a gun to someone’s head. But of course we are also terrified of him.
Roberto says he squashes people in his way, because he doesn’t notice them. It’s a fascinating line from Martin Crimp’s fascinating translation.
There are lovely performances from: Fiona Highet who plays his frightened mother and a cool socialite; Samantha Brown plays an almost innocent young woman who loves him, but is calculated in her way; Daniel MacIvor also plays a witty prison guard along with Oyin Oladejo who has her own confidence; and Kwaku Okyere plays the young woman’s protective brother who coldly ‘sells’ her into prostitution when he learns she’s not as pure as he thought.
And while I do say the production is ‘dazzling’ something happened on opening night that also put the production in perspective.
Earlier, there was an accident in which the stage manager was hurt so the apprentice stage manager (ASM) had to step up and learn the whole show in a matter of an hour or so.
There was a delay in starting without explanation (except for those who review being told by a very efficient press agent) and the audience was in a holding pattern in the bar. Finally, after 20 minutes past the start time, there was the announcement and explanation that they needed to keep people safe and take the time to guide the ASM through the show. At half hour past the start time we were let into the theatre by a circuitous route as a ‘part of the experience.’
As I’m watching the show, seeing many stage crew scurry in the dark taking props on and off the stage, shifting set pieces, revolving walls, I realize that for all the production’s bells and whistles, the smoke billowing, the fans blowing for effect, the constant pulsing of the accompanying music, that the show is over-produced. Dazzling to be sure, and over-designed and over-produced. A director in the very center of the work, making a statement about his work.
I can appreciate that ted witzel wants to make a statement that Buddies in Bad Times is back with a vengeance, but in context the production is at times self-indulgent and dare I say it, pretentious.
As for Bernard-Marie Koltès’ play it reminded me of the “angry young man” type of work. It’s a fascinating story of a serial killer full of esoteric musings, philosophical comments on loneliness, money, commercialism, society, and class. There are witty literary illusions—to Hamlet for example.
Two guards (Daniel Macivor and Oyin Olaejo) talk about guarding a prison, and one thinks he heard something and the other is not sure—it is a reworking of the first scene in Hamlet in which a noise terrifies the guard. In Roberto Zucco the playwright is being cute with a literary slant. Fine and dandy. That said, I also found swaths of the play self-indulgent with philosophical musings that slowed down the pace.
I was glad that the apprentice stage manager, Kayla Thomas, was brought out for the company bow at the end, but in truth she should have had her own bow separately from everybody else just so we know who she was. It’s the little things that make the difference.
So, Buddies in Bad Times Theatre is back with a vengeance. Buckle up.
Buddies in Bad Times Theatre presents:
Plays until Oct. 5, 2024.
Running time: 2 hours or so (no intermission)