THE WALTZ – REVIEW OF NEW BADIAN PLAY AT FACTORY THEATRE

Reviewed James Karas 

Marie Beath Badian’s The Waltz tells us about the next generation of the two nurses that came to Saskatchewan from the Philippines in the 1960s. You may have met them five years ago at The Factory Theatre in Prairie Nurse, a play by the same author, but it does not matter if you did not. The new play takes place in 1993 in rural Saskatchewan and it is a charming comedy-romance involving two young Filipinos who meet accidentally and find out that they have a lot in common.

Romeo Alavarez (Anthony Perpuse) is a self-assured young man on his way from Toronto to British Columbia. He is the son of one of the nurses of Prairie Nurse and promised his mother to stop over in Saskatchewan and visit one of her coworkers from many years ago. Carrying his possessions and a large boombox he stops by what looks like the outline of a cottage. Instead of the man he expected, he meets a young woman who holds a loaded crossbow menacingly and is ready to shoot him.

Romeo explains very quickly who he is, what his destination is and the reason for his stopover in Saskatchewan and who he is looking for. She does not shoot him but neither is she convinced of his bona fides. Turns out that the young woman, Bea (Ericka Leobrera) is also of Filipino origins and the man that Romeo is looking for is a good friend of her family. We now have some common ground if not exactly trust.

The two actors  engage in lively conversation, sometimes probing, sometimes contentious and we gain insights into their background. Bea has had a rough time at school and goes to the cottage represented by the beams on the set for quiet contemplation and an escape from the racism she encounters in the city.

Anthony Perpuse and Ericka Leobrera. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Romeo comes from a dysfunctional family where his parents fought a great deal and he is going to the University of British Columbia to escape his life in Toronto. The person he was to visit in Saskatchewan is a friend of his mother’s friend from the past.

The play is not about dysfunctional families but about two people who discover that they have a lot in common and are proud of their ethnic background. That sets the stage for reconciliation and a dive into something more serious emotionally. The path is laid out by Romeo telling Bea that he taught dancing in Toronto and he tentatively teaches her a few steps. Now we learn what the title is about and I will not give you more details.

The Waltz is a boy-meets-girl play with a Filipino background and flavour involving perhaps tangentially the experience of different ethnic groups in Canada. Author Badian is gentle even if the dialogue between the two young people gets acerbic at times. Without it the play would not keep our interest for ninety minutes. Badian does not descend into sentimentality and the acerbity of the exchanges diminishes and we enter the “courtship” phase if we can call it that.

Ericka Leobrera and Anthony Perpuse do superb work in their roles and director Nina Lee Aquino produces excellent results with what the play offers.

Prairies Nurse had a richer plot and more humour. The Waltz is good as far as it goes but we would have preferred more meat to go with it.  
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The Waltz by Maria Beath Badian, directed by Nina Lee Aquino continues until September 17, 2023 at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca/

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press