By James Karas
The Trouble with Mr. Adams is a new play by Gord Rand that examines the relationship between a
high school teacher and volleyball coach, and his star player, a pretty
(almost) sixteen-year old girl.
There is plenty of material for a play in that situation and Rand
attacks it head on but with limited success.
The 45-year old Mr. Adams (a passionate Chris Earle), feels that Cupid’s
arrow has struck him and he has fallen in love with Mercedes (Sydney Owchar). Those
are his words. Mr. Adams does have a few issues that should cause him to yank
the arrow out of his heart, to wit: he is married, has two children, he is in a
position of trust vis-à-vis the object of his passion, and the Board of
Education, the Criminal Code, her parents and society in general, may, to put
it very politely, take a dim view of his actions.
None of which register on the self-righteous, blind (by love?) and
perhaps fundamentally stupid Mr. Adams. After spending three hours with
Mercedes in his car during a snowstorm (she missed the bus after a tournament)
he announces to his wife Peggy (Philippa Domville) that he is leaving her.
That is the first of the three confrontations in the play. His wife is
furious and demands to know what happened during those three hours in the car and
his answer is: nothing. The argument takes a strange turn when Peggy seduces
him into a rather graphic sex act which I guess is supposed to convince him
that what he has at home is damn good and it is not worth being branded a pedophile.
Perhaps but Mr. Adams is adamant.
The next confrontation is with Barbara (Allegra Fulton), the union’s
tough lawyer who is also sexually attractive. She takes a prosecutorial
attitude and he acts like a juvenile until he finally gets the message that the
only way he can save his neck is by blackening Mercedes. Paint her as a tart
and put a saintly tint on yourself. We are not sure how well the approach works
because in the next scene, two years later, we find Mr. Adams teaching part time
in St. Catharines, living in a basement apartment and not permitted to coach a
girls’ team. Sounds like a split decision at discipline committee level without
criminal prosecution.
In the final scene Mercedes, who is now 18 years old, and Mr. Adams meet in a motel room where she is staying
during a tournament. He still has idiotic ideas about living with her and
dreams of promoting her career as a volleyball player. She stays for too long
talking with him and finally leaves to bring the play to an end.
I have given a summary of the plot to point out the dramatic possibilities
and some of the creaky aspects of the plot. Rand does not find enough substance
in the relationship or in the characters to make for a satisfying drama.
Whatever Mercedes’s attraction to her teacher, it is all too easy to file it, if not dismiss it, as
a teenage crush or puppy love, if you will.
Mr. Adams, however hard he tries to take the high ground by invoking the
intervention of Fate through the offices of Cupid,
comes out as no more than a horny, middle aged man who breaks the rules rather
stupidly. Rand failed to find substance to create a convincing,
fully-rounded if flawed human who attracts and repels us.
The performances within the confines of the play are very good. Philippa
Domvilles’ furious and hurt wife comes through; Fulton’s Allegra is officious
and finally helpful in suggesting how Mr. Adams can approach his problem;
Owcher is good as the undeveloped character of Mercedes. She has outgrown Adams
but she is still somewhat confused. We do not see her as the sixteen-year old
who “fell in love” with her coach but Owcher’s performance cannot be faulted
for that. Earle is full of passionate intensity like a teenager who has just
discovered love but not common sense.
The same applies to Director Lisa Peterson who puts the best face on a
flawed play.
______
The Trouble with
Mr. Adams by Gord Rand runs
until November 29, 2015 at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave.
Toronto, Ontario. www.tarragontheatre.com
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