Balls!
By Rob Salerno
Presented by Ten Foot Pole Productions
Featuring Rob Salerno and Adam Goldhamer
Factory Theatre Mainspace
MMMm
Reviewed by Matt McGeachy
Much has been written over the years about what defines a man. It does, in some sense, come down to anatomy: man is man by his gonads. Rob Salerno, however, believes that men are more than just their balls.
Balls! is a touching story about two friends, Paul (Salerno) and Bastian (Goldhamer), who together undergo the trauma of testicular cancer. Paul is the first to be diagnosed when he notices that things are swollen “down there” and that something is not quite right. The diagnosis is difficult for Paul, but it’s as difficult for his dear friend Bastian. Through the treatment, Bastian begins to see his friend in a new, more delicate light. When chemo finishes and Paul is given a clean bill of health, Bastian himself notices that something is not quite right: testicular cancer part deux. In the end, Bastian survives; Paul’s cancer returns and he declines, slowly, into dust.
It would have been easy to make this an awareness play, beseeching men to check regularly (I’ll admit to a post-show self-exam), but it runs deeper than this. The show is about the bond that the two men share, and the trials of watching your strong friend wither away, losing a battle against his own body. It is, at its heart, a love story, and the beautiful portrayal of the bond between these two men by Salerno and Goldhamer was delicate and nuanced.
Slightly less nuanced was the jaunty nature in which they spoke to each other, making “I fucked your mom” jokes perhaps more often than happens in life (or maybe just behind my back?). The play is at its strongest when it deals with its most tender subjects, and was an enjoyable hour.
The Swearing Jar
By Kate Hewlett
Presented by 6AM Tango Productions
Featuring Deborah Grover, Andrew Pifko,
Janet Porter and Christopher Stanton
Tarragon Mainspace
Reviewed by Daina Valiulis
The Swearing Jar is a wonderful new and exciting work by Kate Hewlett that tells the story of Carey and her relationship with her husband, Simon: the good, the not so good, and the secret she didn’t know existed. Constructed around her perfomance at Simon’s 40th birthday, she sings some original songs and tells their story with scenes from the past interwoven throughout.
I loved this delightful comedy about a unique and quirky relationship that was also incredibly heartbreaking. Janet Porter’s Carey was bubbly, with an honest nervousness that was charming and relatable. I loved the genuinely awkward and truthful scenes between her and Dora-nominated Christopher Stanton (from A Quiet Place), who played Owen. I found Andrew Pifko as Simon a little presentational; if Porter wasn’t so lovely as Carey, I might have had more of an issue with this, but it didn’t end up bothering me that much overall.
The script is phenomenal (and as the characters joke about in the play, good writing is hard to find in Canada), and the simplicity of the set worked very well to create the different settings in the story. A great, cute little production you should see with someone you love.
Ike and Pearl : A New Canadian Musical
By Rob Kempson and Vikki VanSickle
Presented by Palais Productions
Featuring Sarah Angus, Ann Bisch, Doug MacLeod, Michael Strathmore, and Kara Wilkinson
Tarragon Mainspace
Reviewed by Daina Valiulis
I love a good musical. Ike and Pearl is most certainly not one.
A musical is — in so many ways — much more difficult to pull off than just a straight play. Obviously, you don’t just have to worry about your plot and characters and acting, you also have that whole music thing going on too. I actually didn’t mind the storyline itself: Ike, a farm boy with “soil in his blood,” falls in love with flighty, romantic, and adventurous Pearl. Sadly, Pearl runs off to pursue her dream of becoming a writer, while Ike has a miserable and lonely life running the family farm.
I found the score to be quite pretty, but unfortunately ruined by cheesy, repetitive, and overly simple lyrics. Now, if you make it past the bad writing pitfall, the next most important thing in a musical is to have strong actors who happen to also sing beautifully; since everyone thinks they can sing — as evidenced by American Idol – this can be tricky. I cannot stress enough that you must have actors who can sing.
Also, if your characters are not believable and interesting, it doesn’t matter if they are the most beautiful singers in the world — you won’t care about what they are singing. I guess, at this point, it pretty much goes without saying that the writing and actors were the two major problems I had with this show.
I applaud the creators for attempting it, though.
The singing was beautiful, but many scenes had me rolling my eyes with the saccharine sappiness. So what can be salvaged amidst the wreckage? Well, my advice to the composer would be to ally himself with a much better writer because I think he is talented. To the performers, I would say, “Your singing is incredible, but for God’s sake take some acting classes.”
Skip this one, folks. There are better things out there.
Acis and Galatea
By George Frederic Handel (Libretto by John Gay, Alexander Pope)
Presented by Classical Music Consort
Factory Theatre Mainspace
Reviewed by Dania Valiulis
Acis and Galatea is the story of a young shepherd boy, Acis (Thomas Macleay) who, despite the warnings of his friend Damon (John Bacon), falls in love with an immortal water nymph, Galatea (Rosie Coad); this is to the extreme jealousy and intense rage of Polyphemus (David Roth), who kills Acis by crushing him under a rock. Galatea, devastated, turns him into a stream so that he can live forever in this state, though he can never be hers again.
This production stages the story in the way it was originally intended: “on period instruments as a semi-staged, dramatic spectacle — but within contemporary visual context.” Translated, it is a giant projection screen behind the performers, with both silhouettes of the two lovers and many of the lyrics projected in creative ways on screen.
Acis is represented by a human silhouette and Galatea by a mannequin, which I found quite dead-looking and creepy. I wonder if this was intended to forebode the events to come? The show held my interest mainly on the strength of the two performers who played the lovers. It held my attention despite the rude snickering of people beside me and the extremely rude snoring person behind me, but then kind of lost me when silhouette-Acis runs across the screen with various (often unrecognizable) weapons to fight against Polyphemus for Galatea’s honour.
As well, the huge, bulky blanket draped across Acis’s shoulders was distracting and unnecessary and the standing light they shuffled around the stage to light people’s faces was annoying. There must have been a better solution. I also wish that Roth’s Polyphemus had a stronger, louder, more commanding presence. So, although the staging could have been better, I was very, very impressed with the singing. This show is definitely not for everyone. If period instruments and music is your thing, then by all means! However, for the performers’ sake, please don’t bother if you are feeling really tired or giggly.
