Extremely Short Play Festival: A unique event

John Koensgen at the CCC theatre Awards. Winner of best director for the Extremely  Short Play Festival. Photo: David Pasho

This initiative presented by the New Theatre of Ottawa at Arts Court, brings together 11 new texts by local playwrights, all directed by John Koensgen. Each play has its own particularities, poses its own staging problems for the actors and the director, which is what certainly made the audience aware of the staging process as well as the finished product. Thus, this is a night of surprises that is certainly very entertaining. There is no doubt that this Festival should become a yearly event. Let us hope that the NTO can get more funding to allow them to expand the event over the next few years to include more actors, more directors and perhaps even more plays over a longer period of time.

Each play deserves a comment….so here goes.

Ambition by Adam Pierre, performed by Adam Pierre

A confessional monologue that one senses was very close to the heart of the author who also performed the piece. It revealed actor Adam Pierre’s capacity to modulate his acting voice and bring it close to moments of rap, although he is not yet what one could call a mimic, judging from the few seconds he devoted to representing his mother. A piece that had the merit of avoiding caricature and easy humour, it still seemed repetitive and felt as though it was turning in circles, ending with the protagonists resolve not to let himself be told what to do by anyone and his final affirmation that he must make his own decisions. One feels that this performance was based on the author/actor’s need to express himself rather than anything else so more power to him. This is the place to do it….

Just Desert by Kelley Tish Baker.

Strange little prison drama where two attitudes with regards to the prison system clash through the meeting of a Prison inspector from American Managerial Services about to take over the place (Kate Hurman) and another prisoner (Brian Stewart) who is the chief cook of the facility. As he prepares the legendary “last meal” for a fellow inmate., tensions escalate when the Administrator, played with much vulgarity, harasses the extremely dignified cook, about the exorbitant price of the meal We see how the discourses shift terrain as the administrator scolds the cook for his misplaced need to please a killer while her anger becomes intertwined with her own desires for a bite of that delicious chocolate cake. There was an underlying conflict of desires here that the staging did not quite bring to its perfectly perverse climax. However, it was well paced, well-acted and held our attention right to the outburst at the end!

Viscious by David O’Meara

A funny and highly original dialogue between two victims of a drug induced death: Socrates and musician Sid Viscious whose lives could not have been more different! Floating in this “other world” of the afterlife, Socrates contemplates his death while Viscious tells his interlocutor to “fuck off”. More to the point, the reactions, based on language differences and others of course, become a game played out very well by the two actors, especially Kristina Watt who comes off as a completely degenerate male rock star …even to point of transforming her voice. Bravo!

Happy by Tina Prud’homme

Parody of a kidnapping! Excellent dialogue between the violent boss with the criminal mind (Brian Stewart) and his gentle side kick (Adam Pierre) who does not have the soul of a killer. The clash of types is actually very funny as each one insists on his own vision of the situation until the tension breaks. Will the little old lady come up with the ransom or not? The phone rings….then what? . Nice work.

Late by Lawrence Aronovitch

No doubt the most psychologically complex piece of the evening. Two friends meet for lunch in a café. One of them is a few minutes late. That sets off a series of defensive reactions that evolve into a clash of various forms of neurosis that reveal all the aggression, the insecurity, the fears that are the basis of these women’s lives. Is it all tied up with the fact that they had a past they prefer not to discuss? This is one of those plays that begins most innocently and evolves in a most unexpected way. Very good writing especially the way the author brought so much together in such a short time frame. However, it was also intelligently staged by John Koensgen who could have taken this a many different ways.

The Bridge. By Jessica Anderson

A tragi-comic situation that Jessica Anderson develops with much brio. Two individuals (Kristina Watt and Brian Stewart) meet on a bridge in very special circumstances which I prefer not to elaborate so as not to spoil the “fun”. The differences between each character are highlighted to a point where we are almost in a form of absurd comedy that finally comes back to reality…which is perhaps too bad. I was almost hoping for a messy ending….Another very  interesting playwright.

Float by Kevin and James Smith

This performance was the least successful of the evening. The text sounded as though I had heard much of it before and unfortunately, the company did not have an actor who could play the role convincingly, given the reality of the world of boxing that is tries to show. The suspension of disbelief was not sufficient to get us through this bit of miscasting which was not anyone’s fault really.

The Dog, the Cat and the fish by Andrea Connell

This title appears to be a nod at Peter Greenaway but it stops there. The play involves a fantastical foursome, that has two simultaneous dialogues working against each other. Two clients meet their respective shrinks at the same moment and the brunt of the discussion is a recent relationship that is or is not working, depending on your point of view. Rather bright, slick writing of a Second city style of comedy that would work really well on TV in front of a couple of hyped up cameras! Not bad at all…..

The Orrey by Pierre Brault

A poetic encounter in a class all by itself. The author has invented an entirely new language as he filters human sentiments through the minds of a pair of aging lovers : a nuclear physicist and a héliophysicist. As they stare into the firmament they translate their feelings into scientific images that interpret their own relationship as well as the reality of the world that surrounds them. One sees how love, transforms this magnificent couple into the image of the Orrery, one of those ancient clocks that shows the positions of the planets in relation to the sun. Through this cosmic comparison, Brault has inscribed love into the workings of the whole universe in a most beautifully poetic way.

You Win by Geoff McBride

Paranoia, pre coffee jitters of a coffee addict and Tim Horton’s is the place where it all happens. A picture of urban stress. A comic stand up sort of event where the writer and the actor have created an urban type. Not my cup of tea /coffee but actor Brian Stewart did it very well.

 

When the World Blew Away by Geoff McBride

This image of individual trauma in a bombed out urban site somewhere…It is powerful drama. Koensgen has captured the meaning of the piece and Kristina Watt’s performance shows the mental collapse of the traumatised victim following the explosion, as a soldier (Adam Pierre) tries to comfort her. A good way to end the evening.

A projection of black and white texts along the walls, took the place of a curtain. As the letters brought us into the world of the written word, the actors moved the props about preparing for the next show with appropriate music in the background. It was all smooth, and professional and there did not appear to be a single hitch. Quite remarkable for an evening with so many plays involved.

Don’t miss The Extremely Short Play Festival at Arts Court. Performances are at 20h00 and it runs from May 3 to 12.

The Extremely Short Play Festival

An evening of 11 plays lasting less than 10 minutes each.

Directed by John Koensgen

Performed by Kate Hurman, Adam Pierre, Brian Stewart, Kristina Watt.

Costumes by Sarah Waghorn

Sound design by James Richardson

Lighting design by Pierre Ducharme.

Produced by the New Theatre of Ottawa.