The Eco Show
Runs May 15-June 1, 2008 @ Buddies in Bad Times Theatre (12 Alexander Street)
Starring Richard Clarkin, Joe Cobden, Fiona Highet, Geza Kovacs, and Jenny Young
Written and directed by Daniel Brooks
By Daina Valiulis
The Eco Show is not what you might expect. It’s not a creative diatribe about how human beings are destroying the environment, but it does deal with environmental issues through the inner workings of a family.
At the centre is the father, Hamm: a tutor and intellectual with a particular interest in the earth’s deterioration, played by Richard Clarkin. He has locked his family: a boy, Joe (Joe Cobden); a girl, Fifi (Jenny Young); his own dying father (Geza Kovacs); and his “wife” (Fiona Highet) in a black box (reminiscent of a bomb shelter) in which there is hardly any electricity, the water is rationed, and the only food served is porridge. The family members rotate around Clarkin’s character like many suns around a very damaged and sick earth — they all need and affect each other in positive and negative ways.
Each character is a metaphor for the earth. Hamm, who sits confined to a wheelchair and never leaves the stage, deals with his father’s death and his dictatorial and selfish treatment of his wife and children by preaching about the state of the earth and how everyone else’s solution is to “do nothing” about it. He learns, throughout the course of the play, to listen, let go of his past, and become a part of the family instead of tyrannizing them from “above.”
Having worked on this script for the past three years, the actors are their characters from head to toe. They’ve incorporated detailed character ticks and natural, genuine responses to situations that I found relatable and charming. Joe (Cobden) in particular caught my attention, playing the disgruntled teen with his schlumpy walk, messy hair, and mumbling. Each character is certainly unique and endearingly real, the actors perfectly balancing the comedy and drama inherent in the script.
The set, composed of three projection screens that envelope the characters, was both confining (when it was made to look like a boxy bomb shelter) and incredibly imaginative and freeing (when it was used to look like moving water, a magnificent starscape, a forest or a sunset), and also served to remind the audience of the significance of environmental issues and the sheer beauty our planet has to offer. Light was used economically when the set served as a bomb shelter, often coming from one source and projecting a small square of light onto the stage.
Ultimately, The Eco Show was real rather than showy, and less about the environment than about the ecology of a damaged family that’s trying to heal itself. The meticulous balance of silence, words, images, and sound and light effects worked cohesively to communicate this ecology. When dealing with deep-seated family issues or the deterioration of the earth, we can feel depressed and helpless, but The Eco Show left me with a sense of optimism, healing, and hope for the future. As Daniel Brooks says, “We still have to live day in and day out, and I have tremendous optimism in that, in my ability as an individual soul to transform myself and to continue to learn how to enjoy life and increase my capacity for compassion.” At the end of the day, one has to believe that that counts.
