Urine for a pissing contest: Corporate pissants, party pooping revolutionaries, and STU Musical Theatre

by Greg Everett

Toilet Assistant Bobby Strong (Lucas Tapley) leads the revopootion—or is that upeeheaval?—in STU Musical Theatre’s production of Urinetown.

Drums riff and instruments trill as we enter the theatre for STU Musical Theatre’s production of Urinetown. There are dirty, disheveled people on stage and looming in the entrances. As spectators continue to trickle in, so do these shabby deplorables taking positions on the floor and on the stairs that frame a rundown gated entrance and catwalk. It is difficult to tell whether the play has begun, where the line is between action and audience.

This is in keeping with “the Brechtian theatrical style that inspired Urinetown writers Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman,” explains director Tania Breen. The play is full of metafictional references and fourth wall breaks.

In Urinetown‘s dystopian reality, pollution and wastefulness have led to a water shortage; private toilets are outlawed, public toilets are privatized; and those who can’t front the dough to go are taken on a trip to Urinetown, a mysterious prison colony beyond the horizon. Caldwell B. Cladwell (Ben Smith) of the Urine Good Company, with the aid of governmental regulation, has established himself as the sole controlling interest in the toilet industry, employing operators like Penelope Pennywise (Georgia MacNaughton) to collect a steep fee from people in need of a pee. But when Toilet Assistant Bobby Strong (Lucas Tapley) watches his father carted off to Urinetown, he begins to question the justice of the status quo. And with the aid of Cladwell’s daughter Hope (Sydney Hallett) he leads a popular revolution against the tyranny of the toilet industry.

Although written in the mid-90s, Urinetown is, if anything, more relevant now than ever: the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was opened to oil drilling at the end of 2017 and the FCC’s vote to repeal Net Neutrality just became official. Those are just two major examples from the past three months that are part of a sweeping trend toward the expansion of corporate interests disregarding the well-being and rights of the individual and the world at large. On the other side of the coin, Kotis and Hoffman also examine the dangers of unbound idealism and anarchic socialism, which are also increasingly relevant, if less tangibly so.

However, in spite of its lofty Brechtian ideals and its social relevance, Urinetown falls considerably short in terms of message and effect. It relies on its strengths as a comedy to gloss over its unnuanced and negative approach to the revolution, whose members go from meek and oppressed to unstable and violent almost as soon as they decide to resist and seize power. Conversely, the murders committed by the corporation are grim and weighty while the onstage slaughter of politicians, executives, and their relatively innocent assistants is rushed and lackadaisical. And the ending comes across as Ayn Rand-ish: the moral appears to be that Cladwell and the UGC are necessary evils that must be bargained with.

There is a hint of real complexity at the end of the first act when through free and unregulated usage the public toilet breaks down and cannot be fixed, presumably because the people with the funding and skill set have been overthrown. But this is a loose end that remains untied as the revolution moves from the street to the underground. In terms of politics, the show is ultimately weak.

But in terms of performance, STU Musical Theatre’s production is impeccable, aside from some of the staging. From a side-seat in the thrust-configured Black Box, much of the blocking feels awkward and it’s possible to see behind the wall of Public Amenity No. 9, peeking at setups and entrances that are meant to be unobserved. Otherwise, the choreography of Courtney Arsenault is delightful. The costuming and makeup is functional and fun. Breen makes excellent use of the ensemble to create frantic action and great comedy.

And kudos to Miguel Roy and Georgia MacNaughton, as Officer Lockstock and Penelope Pennywise respectively, for delivering fantastic performances.

Produced by STU Musical Theatre, Greg Kotis and Mark Hollman’s Urinetown ran February 21-25, 2018 in STU’s Black Box Theatre.

Theatre UNB’s chilling Bone Cage traps Maritime life at the precipice of brutal poverty and crushed hope

by Greg Everett

Jamie (Alex Pannier) holds Kevin (Devin Rockwell) over the rail of the town’s bridge in Catherine Banks’s chilling Governor General Award-winning Maritime drama Bone Cage. Photo Credit: Mike Johnston

Catherine Banks’ Bone Cage is a powerful and difficult play. The narrative it weaves is very much a story of the Maritimes, one that feels familiar and predestined but never cliché or overwrought. Theatre UNB’s production deals lovingly with Banks’ script, demonstrating a respect for the source material that transcends the professional and suggests something personal. Director Len Falkenstein calls Banks’s depiction of rural Nova Scotia “brutally clear-eyed, yet sympathetic,” and while audiences will certainly walk away with a sense of sympathy, it is a challenge to walk away with anything but misty eyes.

Jamie (Alex Pannier) and his sister Chicky (Sophie Tremblay-Pitre) live with their father Clarence (John Ball) in the very archetype of a broken, impoverished home in rural Nova Scotia. Soon to be married to Krista (Kate Aldacosta), a high school senior preparing for graduation, Jamie faces serious decisions about commitment and their future together. At the same time, he struggles with guilt and depression associated with his job clear-cutting trees. In the plays opening moments he holds and laments a dead bird, ultimately casting it into the water from the heights of a bridge where he perches to numb the pain with drink. The bridge and the river become, at one point or another, the focal point for the painful baggage that Chicky and Clarence carry in their own right; Chicky’s adulterous relationship with its roots in statutory rape; and Clarence’s obsession with cloning, reanimating, or otherwise reclaiming the young son he lost to a brain tumour. Weighed down by their pasts, and worn down by the brutal realities of rural poverty, all of the plays characters must navigate the brutal bigotry and unrelenting bleakness of the place they are forced to call home.

The most striking, and perhaps the most effective, element of TUNB’s production is the set design. Clarence’s house occupies the stage, and extending out in front of it in a sort of peninsula is the river and the path, culminating in the bridge; the audience is seated parallel to the river, on either side. It lends to the action a very real sense of distance and space, and allows for a more rapid pace than would be possible with set changes. This also lends a more pronounced sense of height and danger to the bridge as it juts up out of, and looms over, the audience, rather than extending above the stage.

The entire cast deserves to be commended for their performances. There are standout moments: Chicky’s crushing retellings of her romantic history and her current realities; Clarence’s desperate and frantic rants about cloning technology and ‘good eggs’; Jamie’s bridge monologues, and most notably the hair-raising howling as he stands on the edge. But all in all, the cast as an ensemble shows an investment in their characters and the world in which they live that translates into excellent performances all around.

There is a moment at the conclusion of a play wherein the audience is not quite sure whether the show has actually finished. In the case of this production, there is a moment after the cast has taken their bow, wherein the audience is not quite sure whether they are ready to leave. The ending of Banks’s play is jarring, and artfully handled by Falkenstein and his cast. It leaves the audience with a genuine need to sit and process, to consider what they have seen and what it has meant. And there are few compliments greater than that.

Catherine Banks’s Bone Cage, produced by Theatre UNB, ran January 31-February 3, 2018 at UNB’s Memorial Hall.

Theatre St. Thomas answers “What’s Next?” with Fredericton’s emerging playwriting and directing talent

by Greg Everett

Theatre St. Thomas’s What’s Next presents an evening of theatre that is both an answer to and an interrogation of that very question? What’s next for Fredericton’s theatre community as a new generation of playwrights, directors, and actors emerges onto the scene? What does that new generation learn about itself as it asks, “what’s next?”

“This has been a giant project,” writes producer Robbie Lynn about TST’s new play festival conjured from last summer’s play submissions from STU students and recent alumni. “[E]very single person that has worked on it has been integral to its success… No matter what comes next, we have to face our obstacles together.”

Ferrando (Dylan Grant) prays for the lives of his thieving compadres Antonello (Jason McIntyre) and Raffiano (Lucas Guitérrez-Robert) as they ‘return’ Saint Nicholas’s relics in Michael Pallotto’s Thieves of Paradise, directed by Laura-Beth Bird. Lighting design: Chris Saad. Costumes: Emma Wilkes. Photo Credit: André Reinders

In Thieves of Paradise, written by Michael Pallotto and directed by Laura-Beth Bird, Ferrando (Dylan Grant) receives a dream vision which he interprets as a holy command to retrieve the remains of a Christian saint from Muslim Turkey. On this pretence he recruits his cousin Raffiano (Lucas Gutiérrez-Robert) and the thief Antonello (Jason McIntyre), but the divine nature of their quest is called into question as events take turn after turn for the worse. From the first moments, the technical elements and direction hook the audience into a world that feels almost magical—the set design and lighting are gorgeous, the sound effects are nothing shy of perfect. The play is well acted and the script is interesting, but not without its problems: the narrative slows to a snail’s pace during the thieves’ argument at the shore, which feels out of sync with the rest of the pacing. And while Pallotto’s writing is diligent in questioning and undermining the justification for their actions, ultimately the thieves are vindicated in an ending that lacks any hint of doubt or irony.

 

‘Dutch (Telina Debly) tells Sonny Elmore (Madigan Downs) how it’s going to go down in their version of the shell game (with poisoned tea) in Louis Anthony Bryan’s I Love this City, directed by Esther Soucoup. Photo Credit: André Reinders

Louis Anthony Bryan’s I Love This City, directed by Esther Soucoup, follows former champion quiz-kid and current all-time loser Sonny Elmore (Madigan Downs) as he is swept into the world of Private Eye Ambrose Holiday (Emma Dufour) through the machinations of his best friend and narrator Jolene Espin (Grace Victor). Bryan’s script is very obviously meant for the screen and, despite Soucoup’s best efforts, doesn’t wholly transfer to stage. For instance, there are musical vignettes and an overture that feel crafted for camera angles. That said, this play is incredible. If anything, the writing is too witty at times, as the laughter from one joke causes another to be lost, but that’s a good problem to have. Downs is electric and larger-than-life; Victor is sly and subdued, maybe a little low-key to start, but pure charisma once things get rolling. As the story plays out to its conclusion, pieces fall into place that make one want to shout out as the realizations strike. Absolutely fantastic.

The Nuclear Preparation Guide or N.P.G. (Naomi McGowen) tells America how to respond to a nuclear attack by baking pie in Thomas MacDougall’s And Above All, directed by Samuel Crowell. Costume Design: Emma Wilkes. Set Painting: Samuel Crowell. Photo Credit: André Reinders

And Above All, written by Thomas MacDougall and directed by Samuel Crowell, brings together a rag-tag band of citizens to face the cold reality of nuclear war within the warm, welcoming confines of their friendly neighborhood corner store. Rookie clerk Melly (Brenna Gauthier) is forced to take charge of the situation with the aid of an archaic copy of the Nuclear Preparation Guide (narrated and embodied by Naomi McGowan). As director, Crowell makes excellent use of the Black Box’s entrances and exits to get astounding comedic mileage out of McGowan’s performance, which was itself extraordinary. She and Miguel Roy, who portrays RCMP accountant Jack Flannigan, run away with the show, and the audience is happy to go along for the ride. MacDougall’s writing is raucous and clever; there is, however, one moment of saccharine wholesomeness toward the play’s finale that feels incongruous to no particular end. Overall, the play is a hilarious and satisfactory conclusion to a stellar night of theatre.

Theatre St. Thomas’s What’s Next? theatre festival ran January 31-February 3, 2018 in STU’s Black Box Theatre.