Reviewed by James
Karas
Harold Pinter was
once asked what his plays were about and he gave the pithy and unhelpful reply
of "the weasel under the cocktail cabinet". That line came to mind
while watching Will Eno’s The Realistic Joneses now playing at
the Tarragon Theatre.
I am afraid the
famous reply did not spring to mind because of any inspired analysis of the play
but the appearance of a dead squirrel under the coffee table in one of the
Jones couple’s backyard. When the hostess sees the dead squirrel, she grabs a
spatula from the barbecue and loads it on it while her neighbour asks if she
intends to flip it. A very funny line.
Jenny Young, Patrick McManus, Tom Barnett, Susan
Coyne in The Realistic Joneses. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
The play opens
in the backyard of Bob (Tom Barnett) and Jennifer (Susan Coyne) where the two
are talking about talking and about paining the house. Between pauses and
reactions to each other, they are very amusing and confusing. They are the
Joneses.
John (Patrick
McManus) and Pony (Jenny Young) pop in with a bottle of wine. They are Joneses
too who rent a house down the street from Bob and Jennifer. It is the first
time the two couples meet and the conversation continues in the same apparently
banal but funny vein. The house that John and Pony are renting has an
interesting history: someone lived there before. And look at those cute salt
and pepper shakers.
The play moves
form Bob and Jennifer’s yard to a supermarket to John and Pony’s kitchen a
number of times. Charlotte Dean’s set design allows for quick scene changes
with moveable panels. Well done.
You quickly
realize that the Joneses are anything but “realistic.” They speak usually in
short sentences with frequent pauses. There are non-sequitors, changes of
subject and actions that make little sense. Nothing appears unusual but you
know that nothing is happening on a particularly logical level. These people
are nuts and yet they are completely normal. Well, they appear to be.
You can go to
Pinter, to Samuel Becket, to Eugene Ionesco and find elements that may seem
similar to what you are hearing in Eno’s play. But he has his own voice in presenting
these (ab)normal couples somewhere in rural America. They touch on illnesses, mental
and physical, real or imagined. They hint of infidelity and they speak in
sensible, logical words that at close look are neither.
Director Richard
Rose handles Eno’s intricate play with precision and sensitivity. In Barnett,
Coyne, McManus and Young he has a cast that can handle the tricky dialogue and
make it seem completely natural. The quick turns, the pauses, the constant subtle
changes in tone and all the zigzags of the script, test the mettle of the director
and the actors and they are all do a first-rate job.
You will get a few laughs, admire the performances and may come out
scratching your head but you will get your money’s worth.
______
The Realistic Jones by Will Eno continues until December 18, 2016
at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario. www.tarragontheatre.com
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