Review
THE WILD GUYS
Lunchbox Theatre
Starring Christian Goutsis, Robert Klein, Tim Koetting and Grant Linneberg
Written by Andrew Wreggitt and Rebecca Shaw
Directed by Johnanne Deleeuw
Runs until September 27
Bow Valley Square
Nothing dates faster than topical humour. Andrew Wreggitt and Rebecca Shaw must’ve known that a decade ago when they wrote The Wild Guys, their much-produced, recently filmed comedy about the men’s movement, now getting an excellent revival from the company that first staged it, Lunchbox Theatre.
The play, which was written when Robert Bly’s Iron John was on the bestseller lists and male-bonding rituals were all the rage, starts with a sitcom premise. Four disparate men – intellectual, good ol’ boy, cynical lawyer and New Age nut – head out for a camping weekend-cum-men’s retreat in backwoods Alberta. Then, after giving us a good laugh at war paint and crystals and all the other mystical-mythical folderol, Wreggitt and Shaw get down to the business of addressing the real problems that the men’s movement ostensibly tried to tackle and that men today still struggle with.
The play’s plot, in fact, is launched by a classic male foible – Stewart (Grant Linneberg), the group’s country-boy guide, stubbornly refuses to admit he doesn’t know the way to a remote lake and ends up getting them all lost in the woods. To make things worse, Robin (Christian Goutsis), the flighty New Age faddist, has arbitrarily decided not to bring any food, so the men can get back to being hunters and gatherers – a fact that enrages middle-aged lawyer Randall (Robert Klein), who only came along to avoid doing a triathlon with his much-younger girlfriend. Trying to keep the peace is the sage Andy (Tim Koetting), whose cool intellectualizing goes from being an annoying trait to an obvious shield for his own emotional issues.
Predictably, some of the play’s early-’90s vintage jokes – such as references to the flaky beliefs of Shirley MacLaine – are a bit stale now, but the characters are lightly yet convincingly drawn and played superbly by this cast. The boyish Goutsis as a burbling neo-hippie and Klein as his snarky older nemesis work up some great comic friction, while Linneberg is delightful as the beer-lovin’ regular guy, shambling about amiably like a teddy bear who’s lost his picnic. Koetting, meanwhile, handles the toughest and most dramatic role with quiet skill, revealing the supposedly wisest member of the group to in fact be its unhappiest and most repressed.
I’ve never seen The Wild Guys in its full-length version – the one most often produced – but here, in its original one-act form, it packs just the right amount of plot and character development into 50 minutes. Director Johanne Deleeuw has crafted an engaging production, with plenty of outdoors atmosphere in Colin Ross’s forest décor and lighting, and great character-defining costumes from Brian Craik. This is the best kind of lunchtime theatre – light but filling. |
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