I Think My Boyfriend Should Have an Accent.

I Think My Boyfriend Should Have an Accent, written and performed by Emily Pearlman. Directed and dramaturged by Laurel Green

Emily Pearlman is a storyteller who captures our full attention because we feel she is telling us something special, almost secretive and certainly the truth,at least her truth. We enter into her world of intimate revelations, confessions, frustrations, and a world of trials and tribulations of a very personal sort, trying to develop a process that opens us to the understanding of diversity in our immediate world and in the rest of the world that beckons to her. This is a performance style that establishes its own conventions and avoids creating a “character” in the traditional sense of a theatre performance. The powerpoint images and sentences on the screens suggest a lecture but the tone is always familiar, friendly and at times even light hearted.

Laced with humour, apparent wide eyed innocence, and a narrative style that constantly interrupts the story line, to send us off to new examples of similar questions, thus avoiding the messy business of transitions, she collects these fragmented experiences to illustrate how she lives with and grasps the nature of diversity in our global world. It is pleasant to watch, even if it often appeared rather naïve, especially her treatment of Auschwitz and Rwanda. A full-fledged 6 hour Belgian performance about Rwanda came to Montreal and immersed us in horror several years ago. Auschwitz can still be visited in Poland and the Shoah is not unknown, All we can say is that her vision of those two events must represent a younger generation’s way  of dealing with something that is still ever present but that she is trying to go beyond. A healthy and no doubt normal way of dealing with such things, especially for a jew-ish girl ( as she says!) , something she emphasized in the show and which was important to mention in this context. At times she did seem to be putting out a slightly flippant appeal to the ignorant, but on the other hand, she did try to ask the right questions, wondering how different people would react to that same event. Given the current situation in the Middle East which raises such heart wrenching emotions on all sides, such a question is certainly very relevant. Her references to Truth and Reconciliation tribunals in relation to Rwanda, were also well placed, and mentioned from a perspective of this new generation who might not understand the importance of such events, but presented in such a way that the audience obvioulsy wanted to hear more. That is a very good thing. 

This is a show for those who have not lived as long as I have! And then, It opens the doors to global thinking and that is the most important function of  Pearlman’s work. 

I Think My Boyfriend Should Have an Accent, at the ODD Box,.