Live and in person at the Tarragon Theatre, Mainspace, Toronto, Ont. Playing until April 27, 2025.
Written by Guillermo Verdecchia
Directed by Soheil Parsa
Set and projections by Kaitlin Hickey
Costumes by Ting-Huan Christine Urquhart
Lighting by Chris Malkowski
Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne
Cast: Veronica Hortiguela
Tamsin Kelsey
Tawiah M’Carthy
Rick Roberts
An ambitious play about the ills of society when wretched excess overwhelms everything. Perhaps a re-think is needed to see if everything is necessary to note, to be two hours long without an intermission.
The Story. Feast is about consumerism, environmental disasters, climate change, human rights violations, wretched excess in a world of profound want and poverty; the wanting of more without thought of consequences; families, communication, relationships and perhaps a hint of cannibalism. For a start.
It starts simply. A well-to do couple, Mark and Julia, are sitting outside on their patio on one assumes is a sunny day. She is reading her iPad and he is looking at his phone. And they are talking pleasantly. She is trying to arrange a little vacation for them at a nearby mountain. He is in agreement. He travels for work to a different city in a different country it seems every week. He never sees the city because he’s always in meetings in the hotel. One wonders why the meeting has to be in a different exotic city? There is a daughter, Isabel, a good student and accomplished swimmer. She is worried about the environment and the world. There is a son we never see and they aren’t sure if he’s in the house or not. So, we get hints of who these people are.
But then on one of Mark’s trips he meets a guide, fixer named Chukuemeka who seems to be able to arrange for incredible meals or exotic foods for Mark. Mark becomes obsessed with eating more and more exotic foods to the point of getting seriously sick. He is in a foreign land recuperating always in touch with Julia who is going through her own change—she’s building a bunker in case she might need it. So, it’s a play about having not just food, but a feast, or at least in metaphoric terms, more than enough of anything. It’s about needing experiences that keep on getting more and more exotic to feed a need for more.
The Production. Kaitlin Hickey has created a minimal set of two chairs, and sliding doors at the back. Kaitlin Hickey’s projections add context, texture and location. Chris Malkowski’s lighting and the sound scape of Thomas Ryder Payne add to the ethereal nature of the production.
The production of Feast is directed with great style and spareness by Soheil Parsa. There is such clear elegance to his production but a laser focus to the point of a scene. The initial languid feel of the scenes builds subtly with Mark (Rick Roberts) and Julia (Tamsin Kelsey) bantering good naturedly, with her planning a family vacation. They do look up from their devices to address the other by looking at each other, but the devices and what they are looking at are more important than conversation that requires facing each partner.
Mark is accommodating. Julia notes the pleasant day but then looks up and says: “The sky is too blue.” One shakes one’s head at such an observation. If one was looking back from this early scene, after the startling ending to the play, one could say that the play ends here—when a sky can be considered “too blue” by someone so rich in everything, that she can’t even know when something is perfect and ‘enough.’ I think that says everything about losing sight of something’s worth, wonder or value.
Mark notes that he is going to Beirut the next day for a meeting, and mistakes it for being in the “Holy Land.” He never ventures out of his hotel to explore these cities because he’s always in meetings in the hotel. Another ‘note’ by playwright Guillermo Verdecchia about the world Mark and Julia live in.
But then gradually Mark seems to be going off the deep end with his wanting of exotic foods to the point where he’s poisoned by one and still wants more. He’s finding himself in a way being complacent to being obsessive. So, the tension just builds and builds.
The acting is fine. Rick Roberts is laid back and gradually needy as Mark. He spirals into the obsession of wanting more and more exotic food without the prescience of seeing he is losing control and getting into serious, physical trouble.
Tamsin Kelsey as Julia is easy-going but then take charge and then perhaps crazed in her own way, wanting to build a bunker.
Veronica Hortiguela plays Isabel, the daughter, as a committed young woman who needs to save the world. She too is obsessed in her need that it is making her sick with worry. But she has her own epiphany and regains a sense of reality and calmness.
Tawiah M’Carthy plays Chukuemeka with charm and easy-going grace, until he traps Mark in his web of his own intrigue. Chukuemeka has his own desperation and a matter-of-fact way of solving his problems. Desperation, poverty and a prescience of his corrupted work, has made him hard and calculating, but also charming when he needs to be. The performances are fine.
Comment: I think Guillermo Verdecchia has written about a lot of important issues in our world and painted them impressively in the work. But at two hours without an intermission I think it needs some rethinking to shorten it and decide if everything noted should be included. At one point Mark is going on what seems like a dangerous journey to go to a remote place for a meal that Chukuemeka says is like no other anywhere, and Mark goes, and is given a gun for protection. I can appreciate the obsession and wretched excess of characters, but after a time it’s tiresome to be in a theatre having to watch one so stupid and reckless as Mark becomes. A bit unbelievable there and one tends to stop caring. That’s not a good thing.
Lots to think about in Feast but it should be edited and tightened.
Tarragon Theatre Mainspace presents:
Plays until April 27, 2025.
Running time: 2 hours (no intermission)