Alan
Dilworth, the director of The Events, describes the play as
“one of the most simple and yet complex” he has ever encountered. As a two-hander
with a choir, it looks simple. After that following the plotline and making
much out of it becomes a pretty tough task.
The
production uses a different community choir for each performance and the City
Choir was present on opening night. They sang several times and participated a
bit in the play but I did not quite get why they were present.
After
the singing by the choir we meet a priest called Claire (Raven Dauda) and a
young man whose has an Aboriginal name that I did not catch and is also
referred to as Gary. He gives a startling image of an aboriginal boy standing
on the rocks above the Illwarta River in Australia when sail ships arrive from
England for the first time. They carry convicts, religion, disease and “instruments
of objectification.” If he were there, this aborigine warrior would have told
the boy to kill them all. OK, but “instruments of objectification”?
Raven Dauda and Kevin Walker. Photo: Dahlia Katz
From
then on, Claire and the young man assume a number of different identities that
are difficult to follow and even more difficult to understand.
Claire
tells us that she and her lesbian partner lived happily at first and then Claire
became a priest for the poor and vulnerable. Something terrible happened to
her. We are never quite sure what is was but it involved a man with a gun who
confronted her and another woman and shot the latter.
The
incident was so terrible that she feels she is entitled to a visit from God.
The
young man imagines being a Viking warrior, going berserk and slaughtering
people. In his view the best thing for the world is a huge conflagration that
burns everything out of existence. He wants to make his mark on the world now
using violence. After all Jesus had established a religion by his age, Bob
Geldof has saved Africa and Gavrilo Princip had started World War I.
Members
of the choir throw questions at him as if he were a pop star, asking about his
favourite song, favourite movie, if he drinks, is he a virgin, what is his
diet. He tells us that the aboriginal warrior follows the Paleolithic diet as
described in the Sunday Times Lifestyle Supplement. All of this is said with a
straight face and barely raises a giggle from the audience. This play has no humour
at all.
The
dialogue gets more confusing as we get an infusion of more jargon. We look for
a snippet of clarity and find is more confusion. Claire relates the story about
the birth of a boy in a hospital where she is a nurse. She takes the newborn
and suffocates him. That seems clear.
There
is a supposed ceremony to bring back people’s souls. A choir member (apparently
with no acting experience) tells the young man that what he asking he to do is depressing.
Claire
gets a job at Peterhead Prison. The two start fighting, Claire wins and spits
on him. She describes the incident with the gunman who kicks the door open
where she and another woman are. She has sex with him and his soul returns. More
torture and violence.
The
play reaches the end after about eighty minutes and we go back to the beginning
where the young man shyly enters the room with choir and is received by the
priest Clare.
The
set by Ken MacKenzie has several rows of chairs to accommodate the choir, a
piano and open space. Jacqueline Teh is listed as Music Director and I assume
she was the woman playing the piano.
Dauda
and Walker speak matter of factly about the horrible things that they describe
and some of the jargon that they express. It is the perfect way to express what
the play offers.
“One
of the most complex …plays” that Dilworth has ever encountered went pretty much
over my head, In the program note he states that “I hope to present the
possibility – an invitation for a shift in one’s narrative of themselves, their
situation or the world around them.” How I wish he had.
_______________________
The
Events by Davis
Greig in a production by Necessary Angel Theatre Company opened on March 4 and
will run until March 15, 2020 at Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue,
Toronto, Ontario M4M 2T1. www.necessaryangel.com. http://crowstheatre.com/
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