Cardinal: A playful battle between memory and disease
By Gwenith Kikkawa student in the theatre criticism class of Patrick Langston
Cardinal takes us on an unexpected clowning journey into a man’s mind as his memory deals with an uninvited guest, Alzheimer’s disease. A unique show like this awakens our inner childlike innocence, inviting us to wonder what it might be like to lean into our vulnerabilities with laughter and play when facing the very serious matter of disease.
Mitchel Rose and Madeleine Hall make their mark as both playwrights and performers in Cardinal, a Aplombusrhombus theatre company production. Rose plays Memory, a buoyant and endearing character dressed fully in cardinal red who, as you may predict, enjoys having things just as he remembers them to be. When Hall enters the scene as Disease, a mischievous and yet equally endearing character dressed fully in the contrast of white, she makes a game of her discovery by engaging Memory in a secretive game of hide and seek. Rose, the director, makes imaginative use of the stage set and props that unveils itself as an invisible playground for these clowns to explore the human condition. Thus begins the unfolding of a heartfelt inner battle of trickery and silliness.
Why clowns? Perhaps it is because they are human connectors, the ones who wear their hearts on their sleeves, the ones who are honest to a fault and make themselves exposingly approachable no matter the circumstance. There is a saying in the circus business that “a clown falls down so we don’t have to.” This so beautifully captures the eloquence of Rose and Hall’s clowning and the gift it offers. By making humour out of our reality – all the pains and frustrations of life – we are able to have a cathartic release and transform our pain into joy. What we have here is the work of true alchemy.
No words are necessary as we explore the depths of empathy in this story; the skillful pantomime dialogue speaks volumes. Alongside a memorable and minimal set design of a wall, a door, and some chairs, set designer John Doucet adds to the storytelling through its colorful transformation from cardinal red to white. Sound designer Julien Dussault provides an original soundscape and musical composition integral to the storytelling with its own comedic triggers, and it may even be said that the live music played by a trio of accomplished musicians creates the entity of another character when it interacts with Memory and Disease.
Rose and Hall have laid out the details of the story in the program and we know where the storyline is inevitably leading us as Disease reigns power over Memory. In this aspect there is no spoiler. What remains a welcome surprise are the magical singular moments that Rose and Hall fill the spaces of the story with. Their bravery in bringing the cardinal topic of Alzheimer’s to the forefront and offering an uplifting way to get close with it leaves us with a sense of hope and gratefulness that these clowns are falling on our behalf.
Viewed online Oct. 14, 2020 courtesy of Aplombusrhombus theatre company.