James Karas
Hart House
Theatre treats us to a remarkable production of Morris Panych’s 1989 surreal
play 7
Stories. It is done by a group of young actors and a production team which display amazing talent.
As you enter the
theatre you see a man holding an umbrella standing on a ledge of a high-rise
building. He is clearly contemplating suicide. He stands mostly still until the
lights go down in the auditorium and the performance begins.
There are half a
dozen windows behind the unnamed Man (Brian Haight) and he will interact with
about a dozen people that will pop up from some of the windows. If we assume
that the Man is on the edge both physically and metaphorically or, to put it
crudely, nuts, it is nothing compared to the people that he meets.
Brian Haight as The Man, Rakhee
Morzaria as Charlotte, Scott Kuipers as Rodney
The Man at the
beginning is mostly a sounding board for some of the lunatics that pop out of
the windows but eventually he is allowed to speak about himself and gives a
reason for being on the ledge. Haight plays the Man as a reserved and at times
stone-faced being who appears far more rational than the other loonies of the
play.
The first
intruders into the Man’s encounter with his chosen fate are Rodney (Scott
Kuipers) and Charlotte (Rakhee Morzaria). They are having an affair. Rodney is
a lawyer, Charlotte is a poet and he is trying to kill her. They argue
violently and Morzaria gets some great lines and gives a superbly histrionic
performance. Kuipers does well as almost her straight man. Morzaria has another
juicy role as the one-hundred-year old Lillian. She changed the life of a Frenchman
with the only French that she knew which turned out to be “the grapefruit is on
the table.”
Kuipers gets
more scope for his talents as Michael, the obsessive artist who distinguishes
between a shade and a tint. Good work by Kuipers in portraying the punctilious
and sensitive appreciator of colour who, like everyone in the play, has loose hinges.
Nicole Hrgetic
plays Michael’s partner Joan and the sadistic Nurse Wilson who loves people but
can’t stand individuals and has no feelings but is humanitarian. Good work by
Hrgetic.
Brian Haight as The Man, Kevin
Forster as Marshall
Kevin Kashani
plays the psychiatrist Leonard, one of the more bizarre characters in the
play. Leonard works in a loony bin (his
words) and he is completely crackers. Kashami gives a splendid portrayal of the
psychiatrist who needs a psychiatrist fast. Kashami also play Percy, a guest at
a party on the floor, who is as batty as the psychiatrist.
Kevin Forster
plays Marshall and Al, two characters that are almost caricatures and require
some showy acting. Marshall seems to have an identity crisis. He is a
homosexual about to marry an heiress who almost ran him over, an actor who
could not act and a fine character for an actor like Forster. The latter also
plays Al, a man who knows how to put an end to a
bad party – start a fire.
Margarita
Valderrama plays the religiously fanatic Rachel (she poisoned her mother but it
was an act of God) and Jennifer, the garrulous dummy who thinks it would be a
thrill to jump off the ledge.
Panych has
peopled the play with some fascinating and fantastic characters for actors and
full credit goes to the cast and even more so to director Rebecca Ballarin for
putting everything together and pulling off a successful production.
The play
displays, wit, marvellous non-sequiturs and comments about the play itself. One
character leaves the stage (closes her window) because there are too many
pauses in the conversation. Take that, Pinter. Any number of labels can be
attached to the type of play this is but your best bet is to forget branding it
and just go and enjoy it.
________
7 Stories by Morris Panych opened on March 3 and continues
until March 11, 2017 at Hart House Theatre, 7 Hart House Circle, Toronto,
Ontario. www.harthousetheatre.ca Telephone (416) 978-8849
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