Review
THE GOOD LIFE
Theatre Junction
Starring Brian Jensen, Elana McMurtry and Shauna Baird
Directed by Kevin McKendrick
Written by Daniel Brooks
Runs until March 1
Betty Mitchell Theatre (Jubilee Auditorium)
Theatre Junction has the first must-see show of 2003 with its production of Daniel Brooks’s The Good Life.
This is a show with everything you need for a great night of theatre – a strong script, great performances and enough substance to leave audiences talking about the show long after the curtain falls.
Drawing on such unlikely sources as Plato’s Symposium and the Ingmar Bergman film Scenes from a Marriage, Brooks has created a dark comedy that examines the nature of love in 2003. What could be a dry, intellectual exercise is anything but – two couples face crises that threaten their relationships and force them to question everything they believe about love. How these couples survive, and the discoveries they make along the way, makes for a very funny, hard-hitting elixir that should have everyone in the audience re-examining the state of their own love life.
The heart of the show is Calgary native Brian Jensen, whose riveting performance as Dan reveals depths never seen from him before. Val Planche spouts flames as the argumentative and volcanic Mary, and Shauna Baird, as Gena, brings a sensitivity and familiarity as natural as breathing.
Director Kevin McKendrick's comic sense serves him well in The Good Life, with laughter escaping like pressure from a valve when things heat up onstage. Using Yannik Larivee’s clever boxing ring stage design, which elevates the proceedings on a podium, McKendrick gives intense scrutiny to every moment, as if we are watching a Brechtian post-mortem on a still-living body.
This is heady stuff for the brain and the heart, laced with wit and sparkle. As they did with last year’s production of Patrick Marber’s Closer, Theatre Junction once again holds up the proverbial mirror, showing us the current state of love and connubial bliss and challenging us to either swallow it or do something about it. |
