Ottawa Fringe 2011: Compulsive Characters run amuk in Glitch.
A highly entertaining study on the very process of theatre itself, that shows how a single script can be given multiple interpretations and come to mean something totally different, as long as the director remains in control! .
We see a small bar centre stage with a few tables and chairs on either side. We hear a machine like grating sound as a male character pushes the door and enters. There is a barmaid waiting to greet him. He gets a whiskey, makes conversation about the dark stormy sky, as he lapses into an apparent depression. A couple arrives. The conversation is tense, the girlfriend arrives and their conversation is also focussed on the depressing weather and she suddenly leaves, exasperated by the darkness of their conversation. Lights out.
An extremely simple situation with three different groupings of individuals that could produce a whole list of various human dynamics. And then it begins. The male character returns through the same grating door, and as if he were entering a time warp, he finds himself in the same space but at a different moment. He realizes the change has taken place but no one else does. He plays his role as he must all the while surprised by what is happening around him. Lights out again and again the man returns to the bar. This is repeated more times than I could count. And each time the scene plays out more violently, reaching an unexpected level of anger and confusion.
The speeches criss cross, the lines remain the same but are said by different people with different emotional reactions at different moments. Conversations overlap, even collide. Roles are switched as the tensions grows and as the time warp keeps drawing us back to the scene for a new beginning, the scene overextends itself to such an extent that the actors all appear to be performing at once without even hearing the other’s lines.
Time and space are squashed into the present and the result is chaos. But such fun to watch.
The audience was roaring with laughter, the male character that was responsible for the shifts in time was more and more distressed, and I was fascinated by the whole process. For me it wasn’t really comedy, it was just a director’s role run amuck as the characters are completely destabilized and become compulsive voices repeating their lines.
An excellent experiment ultimately showing that a director is the centre of a theatrical creation and that without the strong hand of a director…it all falls apart. Director Bruce Bissonnette has created a fascinating performance and brought his actors into the warp with great skill.
Glitch plays out beautifully in the Arts Court theatre…
Glitch
Written by David Hersh
Directed by Bruce Bissonnette.
A production of the Ottawa Theatre School
Featuring:
Jodi Morden, Kaitlin Miller, Kyla Gray, Diego Arvelo, Greg Shand
Reviewed by Alvina Ruprecht
Ottawa, 20 June, 2011