Jenny’s House of Joy: A western rather than a comedy? rather a comedy with serious undertones

Playwright Norm Foster describes his Jenny’s House of Joy as a western rather than a comedy. To be sure, this sit-com with a difference still has plenty of comic, sometimes raw, one-liners — as expected in a Foster script. But this tale of five women in a bordello in the 1870s Wild West has a serious undertone as it focuses on the humanity of the occupants rather than on the goods they sell nightly.

Jenny’s House of Joy is apparently not always a joyous place for the staff. Even so, Foster presents the life of the ladies of the night through rose-coloured glasses most of the time. The message is that it is impossible to leave the life, but who would want to anyway, when this is where your true friends are?

The flip side of his Outlaw, which is about the cowboys — some of them customers at said bordello in Baxter Springs — it uses the historical context as a backdrop to current interaction, attempting (not always succeeding) to draw a distinction between stereotypes and individuals.

He sketches Jenny, the madam, a tough businesswoman with a veneer of sophistication, Frances the old whore, tough without the smooth exterior and with a horror of being touched, and Anita, the naïve idealist, keen to escape the life and move into society.

Into the mix walk the ladylike Natalie, running away from her abusive husband and anxious for work, and Clara, the respectable wife begging for her husband to be turned away the next time he comes to call.

Because the women are primarily illustrations of attitudes, it is difficult for the actors to turn them into three-dimensional characters. For the most part, under the direction of Jon Alkan, the cast of the Kanata Theatre production succeeds in delivering the sketched portraits Foster has drawn effectively.

But the slightness of the sketches gives them little room to expand on their characterizations. Physical moves — Jenny (Andrea Fajrajsl) folding her arms and looking down sideways or Frances (Larraine Gorman) smirking after delivering a one-liner, for example — are frequently repeated. On the other hand, their timing, particularly Gorman’s, is highly effective and Katie Buller’s change of style transforms Natalie before and after joining the life by her new walk as well as through her changed appearance. (While the rougher makeup style for Natalie and Frances is understandable, on opening night at least, it was distractingly crude.)

Peter Jefferson’s set adds to the ambience and some of the costumes (the ladylike outfits rather than the get-down-to-business working clothes) are very attractive. However, because of their complexity, some costume changes tend to slow the action, adding to the sense that this short play is unnecessarily long.

Jenny’s House of Joy continues at Kanata Theatre until February 12, 2011

Jenny’s House of Joy

by Norm Foster

Director          Jon Alkan

          Sets                 Peter Jefferson

          Lighting          Bob Carey, Calie McPhee

            Sound             Bruce Knowles

          Costumes        Eufron Williams

Cast:

       Frances           Larraine Gorman

      Anita               Jennifer Brooks

     Jenny              Andrea Fajrajs

      Natalie            Katie Buller

               Clara               Margaret Harvey-O’Kelly