FFWD Weekly
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| Theatre by Nikki Sheppy Preview Oprah tells us what to read; Bill Gates hands us more technology than we could ever need; Jerry Springer seeks to enlighten by offending; Anthony Robbins, with his Ken-doll physical perfection, tells us how to get happy; and all the while, Y2K hums threateningly on the horizon. In Diane Flack’s one-woman show, Random Acts, Toronto’s Nightwood Theatre takes a wry and wicked look at what constitutes moral behavior today. According to director Alisa Palmer – who also directed Alberta Theatre Project’s fall hit Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) – the millennium buzz is a route to studying values on the eve of 2000. "It was a jumping off point for the kinds of questions that I think cross everyone’s minds all the time, like, ‘Why do bad things happen to good people? Why do good things happen to bad people?’ And, ‘Why is there so much anger around? Is it me or is it really something to do with the times?’" "The play doesn’t propose an answer to these questions, but it uses the millennium as a postulation for the momentum." The main character, Antonella Bergman is a motivational speaker, a sort of popular cultural philosopher who, through the cruelty of a random act, winds up in a wheelchair. "When this happens, it places her right in the middle of her philosophy," says Palmer. "And what she discovers is that it doesn’t work for her as well as she always thought it worked for other people – which sets her questioning. She has the resources... but it doesn’t make her struggle any easier." Even though this is theatre, TV plays a crucial role – one guided by Flack’s experience working on shows like Kids in the Hall, says Palmer. "Motivational speakers get their identity from TV.... Antonella Bergman, the character, represents the global village, the world that is talking about your feelings in a big, big format." Several minor characters actually deliver their insights to an imaginary television camera, their testimonies made that much more important by the mediation. "People now know how to speak to a camera more easily than any other generation before," explains Palmer of the device. "They know exactly what a camera is and what it’s about. Certainly the trend now is that people have this appetite for revealing intimate secrets on TV. It’s almost as though they feel they’re validated only if they are on television." Palmer has worked with Flack on and off for years, and especially closely on this project for which she served as dramaturge. She describes the writer/performer as having both humanity and a lot of chutzpah. The characters she portrays are flawed people, says Palmer, but the play doesn’t condemn anyone, allowing the audience to reach their own conclusions. "There are a lot of different reactions. The foul-mouthed girl, for instance. Is she right because she’s honest or is she repellent because she’s honest?" |
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