Extremely Short Play Festival: Smooth Direction and Some Sensitive Performances Highlight This 95-minute Collection of Short Plays.

Creating a satisfying dramatic whole in a few minutes is often more challenging than writing a much longer piece. (Remember the adage: “Had to write a long letter. Didn’t have time to write a short one.”?)

Yet, at least three of the plays in this year’s edition of The Extremely Short New Play Festival are dramatically complete and consistently interesting.

Of particular note is Blue Fluted Plain by Adam Meisner, a wrenching tale of family tragedy that tackles the question of the impact on those involved by family connection. Quartet, Pierre Brault’s delightful, tongue-in-cheek look at speed dating, also makes a lasting impact.

ILoveOrangesAndHateThePort by Sarah Waisvisz deals with three major themes in a solo piece about the difficulty (make that near impossibility) of maintaining a long-term same-sex relationship against the powerful currents of cultural, familial, religious and political forces.

Still within the memorable range, though not nearly as powerful as the first three, is Buying Time by Rosaleen Egan, an encounter between a bullying and jealous storekeeper and the outsider who married her long-time friend. This is a play that almost goes where it suggests it is heading but is slightly disappointing because it stops short. A Couple Walks Into a Bar by Stéphanie Turple depicting a couple at war being counseled by the waiter from hell is quite amusing, but not entirely satisfying.

The other five short dramas were less interesting. Rasha by Mikaela Asfour begins to make its point about sibling rivalry and male dominance in certain cultures but fizzles. Brad Long’s Dream On focuses on the determination to be right rather than happy. Yohanan Kaldi’s two absurdist fragments seem longer than the two minutes they occupy. The first, My Best Friend, shows an acrobatic prison warden killing a prisoner’s trained fleas. The other, Ex Libris, focusing on a confrontation between a man who devours books and two bullying librarians is more effective.

Jessica Anderson’s Submission, a story of a playwright going through a dry period and losing her partner in the process, is very disappointing, primarily because her 2013 entry in the festival showed so much promise.

Under John Koensgen’s smooth direction, Mary Ellis, Gabrielle Lazarovitz, Brad Long and John Muggleton bring the 10 scripts to life. Consistently fine performances make the most of each of the pieces, but it is the sensitivity of John Muggleton’s and Mary Ellis’s characterizations of the married couple trying to regain normalcy in Blue Fluted Plain and Gabrielle Lazarovitz’s beautifully nuanced monologue in ILoveOrangesAndHateThePort that remain long after the 95-minute collection of short dramas is over.

New Theatre of Ottawa’s 2014 edition of The Extremely Short Play Festival continues at the Arts Court Theatre to November 30.

Plays:

My Best Friend by Yohanan Kaldi

Rasha by Mikaela Asfour

Buying Time by Rosaleen Egan

ILoveOrangesAndHateThePort by Sarah Waisvisz

A Couple Walks Into a Bar by Stéphanie Turple

Ex Libris by Yohanan Kaldi

Submission by Jessica Anderson

Dream On by Brad Long

Blue Fluted Plain by Adam Meisner

Quartet by Pierre Brault

Director: John Koensgen

Sound and Music: Lewis Caunter

Lighting: Pierre Ducharme

Costumes: Vanessa Imeson

Projection Design: Andrew Alexander

Cast:

Mary Ellis, Gabrielle Lazarovitz, Brad Long, John Muggleton