“Donkey Derby” and “You Didn’t Ask To Be Here”. A Mixed Evening at the Avalon Theatre

Tess McManus : Donkey Derby. Photo Allan Mackey

Sometimes when one has no expectations at all, an evening can turn out to be a most gratifying event. This is what happened last night at the Avalon Theatre where two monologues are currently on stage. Donkey Derby with Tess McManus is nothing less than a jewel of a performance. The actress transformed herself into a troubled Irish lass, hiding in a barn alone with Percy her donkey, just before the “donkey derby” begins. The young lady has panicked and locked herself in with her dear animal. She has to talk to him (to the audience in fact) through her state of nerves because she is paralysed and unable to face the competition.

Megan Carty. Photo Allan Mackey.

The rest of the 45 minutes explains it all. Closed in that barn alone with her dear donkey she pours out all her fears, her troubling memories, the traumatic moments that marked her for life. A mass of unanswered questions well up and she finds herself, seeking answers to the many disturbing reactions that have always sent electrical charges of emotion racing through her mind, that have challenged her life choices,. The text is beautifully constructed. Little by little the psychic obstacles are unveiled: the deep seated encounters that haunt her bring her back to violent family relations, the tense political situation in Ireland that left its stain on her own relations with the world as the race becomes an image that takes over her life. .. McManus has cleverly woven multiple levels of human relations into the memories and experiences of this girl and they all come pouring out as she stands there in front of her Percy who luckily, never says a word.

What is also extraordinary is the life that McManus brings to her confession which is also part storytelling, part mimicry, part highly sensitive self-revelation as she creates a whole world of sights and sounds and hitherto unknown individuals who spill over into her tale. She brings these amazing characters all to life in a most natural performance that flowed like a churning river, and sweeping us all way in its torrential energy. The confession even seems to resolve itself as she and donkey Percy both recognize that there is nothing serious to worry about. No one will get hurt! It’s all just fun. I’m not sure we are all convinced that the character believes this is true but at least, it ends on a positive note, telling us how such confessions are really therapeutic events, and that is no doubt the crux of the performance.

And most wondrous was her Irish accent! Tess McManus gives a performance that would warm the cockles of John P. Kelly’s heart so I’m now giving him notice that he HAS to see this before it finishes on Sunday!! Or else invite her into the Gladstone for her own evening of storytelling.

The second monologue of the evening, sponsored by Underground Theatre , directed and written by Allan Mackey is entitled You Didn’t Ask To Be Here. Such an “in your face” statement sets the audience up for something that is our fault because it suggests the show still needs a lot of work so if you came its too bad for you. That is exactly the case. Megan Carty has a very good presence on stage but her material was constantly posing obstacles that broke the mood, broke the style, broke her thoughts, broke the flow of her persona, and nothing moved forward. A young woman, Charlie, feels she is in a place “outside”…she does not fit, she has had a terrible life. A performance that is sometimes stand-up comedy, sometimes a naïve fairy tale, often an act of storytelling that is not well thought out, that suffers from clichés of all sorts and from a tendency to over explain everything and change the images and never allow anything to resolve itself. There is a discussion about neuroleptics and psychiatric questions by an individual whom one doubts has any knowledge of those things. An invisible voice, the dangerous one, makes fun of Charlie who mentions “metaphysics”, zombies in one great eclectic soup that rings phony. The set and the fact that “Charly” operates in cluttered chaos (a music box that resembles a garbage pail) is an image of her life. It even suggests the Surrealist game “le cadavre exquis” where sentences are strung together spontaneously to create chance encounters of images that have mysterious connections. There is a sense that author Mackey was trying to do that as he suggested a girl living a dream, searching for something better, that which is hidden behind that mysterious door, just out of reach, there is a suggestion of magic and transformation but the magic, the dream, the fairy tale aspects are not allowed to develop because the text keeps tripping over its own words . There were moments of delight and dancing and the use of music that could have been emphasized if Megan Carty’s movement had been less stiff and more graceful. Needless to say, this production team has its work cut out for it.

Two very different pieces that show the kind of work being done in Ottawa . The Avalon offers an excellent space for this kind of intimate performance, where lighting and music can play an important role.

Donkey Derby (Tess McManus) and You Didn’t Ask To Be Here (Megan Carty and Ron Langton) , are currently playing at the Avalon Theatre,

SHOW DATES & TIMES at the Avalon theatre, 738A Bank St. Upstairs.
Friday, September 11th at 7:30pm
Saturday, September 12th at 3:00pm *NEW
Saturday, September 12th at 7:30pm
Sunday, September 13th at 5:30pm