>>REVIEW
WEDGIE
Runs until June 16
THEATREboom
(Dancers’ Studio West)
Wedgie, Jason Rothery’s new, expanded version of his 2002 hit, is a splendid showcase for all of the many things THEATREboom is doing extremely well. It’s also, in part, a caution that the young company, if it is to continue to be one of the most exciting forces in Calgary theatre, must beware of resting too comfortably on its laurels.
THEATREboom loves to both entertain and provoke in equal measure, and Wedgie’s premise seems to suit this dual purpose beautifully. The grade sixes of Anderson Elementary are perennially at odds with the grade sevens of Jacobs Junior High, and 1990 – the year in which the play is set – is no exception. The play opens with the rally of the sixes, who, at the behest of their charismatic-leader-of-the-year, plot their revenge on the sevens. It seems a six was doused with the contents of a grape-juice drinking box by a seven, and, as everyone knows, grape juice doesn’t come out. The solemnity with which the sixes intone this refrain is a hilarious comment on how children absorb the mindless homilies of their parents and, by extension, how citizens absorb the mantras of their leaders.
While Wedgie is perhaps too anarchic to be called straight political allegory, the grade-school war (a nice play, by the way, on the expression "at sixes and sevens") is clearly commenting on the absurdities of "real" war. These parallels are where the play is at its best. There are the slogans that barely anyone remembers the meaning of; the rigid hierarchies of leaders, followers and dissenters (here called the non-retaliators); and the heightened rhetoric of war (describing the aftermath of a planned stink-bomb attack dubbed "the chunking of our enemy," the six leader proclaims, "From this day forward, you will know… evil by his horrible, horrible smell").
Less successful are the occasional steppings-out of the 1990 setting to make sly references to more recent events, such as an admittedly clever reference to Junior Bush’s "If you’re not with us, you’re against us." But these are only occasional. For the most part, the play’s liberal use of allusions – we’re served everything from the Muppets to millenarian prophecy – manage to be crowd-pleasing without taking us out of the action.
The excellent actors deserve a good whack of the credit for the production’s success. Most of the cast does an admirable job with the play’s language, smoothly delivering the stylized rhetoric the satire demands while still maintaining the illusion of being pre-teen kids. While the entire cast of 15 is strong, standouts in need of mention are Léda Davies as the fascistic alpha-girl Cindy; her latest acolyte/victim, Becky (a wonderfully comic Julie Orton); Patrick MacEachern as the dangerously impressionable Sam; Joel Smith as the gifted kid, Casey; and Chris Austman as Simon, who doesn’t so much discover masturbation as hunt it down. All of these performers use an almost expressionistic physicality to breathe life into their characters.
Rothery’s one serious misstep is to plop, right in the middle of the play, several long monologues by Lucy (Amber McGrath), a former pal of Cindy’s who’s fallen so out of favour that Cindy et. al. have formed a "GAL (Girls Against Lucy)" club. Lucy’s whole tumble from grace revolves around menstruation and a single joke about a misheard word, and the anecdote isn’t strong enough to sustain the many minutes of railing against fate we’re forced to endure. As well, Lucy’s language doesn’t manage to toe the sophisticated humour/childlike cadence line that the rest of the characters’ does – more often than not, it simply comes across as overly adult. Most seriously, these monologues steal precious momentum from the play and take us right out of the realm of the "war" for far too long.
The play regains its steam towards the end, however, and we’re treated to a succession of showpiece scenes which highlight the company’s traditional strengths. There’s a Hamlet-esque pantomime complete with masks, a slow-mo climax and a kick-ass light-saber fight (Tyrell Crews, who also shines as the goody-grade-fiver Stan, does a smashing job as fight director throughout).
In the end, there is a sweetness to this play that isn’t saccharine and an edginess devoid of cynicism. Provocative? Everything from the script to the production feels a little too safe for that. Four years ago, a Fast Forward critic wrote glowingly of the then-new THEATREboom’s courage, comparing it to "The Fonz on TV’s Happy Days jumping over 14 garbage cans on his motorbike. He knew it was crazy, but he threw caution to the wind and made the jump anyway." One gets the feeling that these days, this Fonzie could jump those garbage cans in his sleep. I’ll look forward to seeing this wonderful company add a few more barrels to the mix. |
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