HONEY I’M HOME – REVIEW OF FACTORY THEATRE PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Honey I’m Home is a play that is written, performed and directed by Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis, now playing in the Studio of Factory Theatre, Toronto. Angel Blumberg is the third performer. They play several characters but the program does identify their roles.

The 70-minute piece opens auspiciously with an old woman sitting in a chair and clearly unable to communicate.  Another woman who looks like a nun and has a ringing voice tells us that the incommunicative lady does in fact convey that she understands that the nun is present. In other words, even though the woman is catatonic, she can communicate at some level.

For most of the rest of the play the nun and the catatonic woman are replaced by two, perhaps more, performers representing the same person and her double, in other words, the catatonic woman is seen crouching over a computer screen, perhaps just some lights, and her double is seen through a space in  a wall talking intelligibly to someone called James and someone called Jeremy who speak but are never seen (nor are they identified in the program). The crouching woman gets up occasionally and trots around the stage with difficulty while quick orders are given to her about what to do. Is her double that speaks intelligently and James and Jeremy are robots operated by artificial intelligence? I don’t know.

 

Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis in Honey I'm Home. 
Photo: Eden Graham/Factory Theatre

I could not tell until the end when the nun appears and tells us that the catatonic woman has come out of her idiopathic (no one knows what it is) condition and we assume she has recovered. I have no idea but simply make suppositions.

There is considerable screaming and the appearance of a mouse and I am not sure what its role was in the world of the play.

The underlying ideas seemed opaque and the structure of the play with numerous short scenes with some that lasted for a few seconds did not help the situation. Computer-savvy people and those with greater knowledge of robots and artificial intelligence greater than mine may have grasped the tenor of the play but I admit that much of it escaped me. The evolution from catatonia to rational existence also escaped me.

Looking at the behind-the-scenes team, it seems obvious that a great deal of work has gone into putting the production together. A few of the people involved: there is a consulting Director (Adam Lazarus), a Dramaturge (Mel Hague), coaches for scene work (Rosemary Dunsmore) and movement (Denise Fujiwara), a vocal coach (Fides Krucker) and designers for sound (S. Quinn Hoodless), Lighting (Andre du Toit), set, prop and costumes (Lauren Gillis and Alaine Hutton) and other crew members. Those are extraordinary efforts.    

Honey I’m Home looks like experimental theatre that requires knowledge and understanding of current scientific concepts that I lack and therefore could not enjoy the play.

Too bad.   

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Honey I’m Home written, performed and directed by Alaine Hutton and Lauren Gillis in a Lester Trips (Theatre) Company production, opened on November 22, 2024, and will run until December 1, 2024 at the Factory Theatre, 125 Bathurst Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.factorytheatre.ca.