Preview
MARABOU STORK NIGHTMARES
Mob Hit Productions
Starring Matt Woodward
Directed by Lawrence Leong and Sean Montgomery
Written by Irvine Welsh, adapted by Harry Gibson
February 26 to March 8
Pumphouse Theatres
How does a theatre company capture the inner workings of an abused and abusive man’s mind? In the case of Marabou Stork Nightmares, Mob Hit Productions overloads the audience’s senses, pulls back when the audience is ready to pull out and refuses to let them slip away.
Producer-director Lawrence Leong has taken Harry Gibson’s adaptation of Irvine Welsh’s novel and added so much more. Through his imagination, he has turned it into a hypertext that links on-screen images of screaming ambulances, James Bond in a white tux, dancing teenagers, lions tearing into their kill and Christina Aguilera’s latest video with onstage slow-motion, a stunning dance/rape sequence and a meticulously placed breaching of the audience-performer barrier. The result is a disturbing show of madness that perfectly reflects the wounded mind of anti-hero Roy Strang (Matt Woodward).
Mob Hit’s staging of Marabou Stork Nightmares is technically daring and well executed, but it wouldn’t work without the strong performances of its cast. They all have moments in which they shine – Bernard (Sean Montgomery) admitting he’s HIV positive, Dorrie (Alison Lewis) sharing her E with the crowd, John (Geoff Woods) screaming at his neighbours, Gordon (Jamie Switch) molesting his nephew and Kirsty (Sarah M. Smith) cutting off her victimizer’s eyelids. But, ultimately, the show is Roy Strang’s, and Woodward rules the stage with depth and confidence.
Marabou Stork Nightmares is difficult subject matter for any audience, but Mob Hit makes it more than palatable. Their production is inventive, challenging and entertaining – all the things a staging of Welsh’s work should be. Too bad he didn’t hang around Calgary long enough to see it – he would have been impressed. |
