Proud: Lots of laughs, smart dialogue, strong performances. Political Theatre might even go further….!
Reviewed by Alvina Ruprecht
Tom Barnett and Jenny Young. Photo by Barb Gray.
English Canada has a long tradition of theatre that comments on our political history. The Riel Story and the Metis Rebellion have often been dealt with on stage and more recently, the War of 1812 was the object of a satirical reconstruction that made known its distaste for that useless slaughter along the American Canadian border.
But not since Codcoe from Newfoundland took playful pot shots at their object of love-hate, Premier Joey Smallwood has an English Canadian playwright satirized a living politician the way Michael Healey has with Proud. I would say that political theatre about current political figures is also a rare occurrence here whereas Quebec theatre has always thrived on such material, especially during the 1960’s and 1970’s where everyone involved in politics, the new society, the Refus Global movement, the bombings in Montreal, or the Referendum and the creation of the Parti Québécois, found themselves on stage in one form or another.
Michael Healey sets us up with a character who is the result of in depth research on the inner circles of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister’s office. The play begins on the eve of a massive election victory but the dialogue comes from references to recent scandals, to debates in the house, to all the controversies surrounding the Conservatives as well as more personal research about the life of our own Prime Minister, his background, his studies, his past life and it is full of recognizable events that the Ottawa audience picked up quickly. 
Michael Healey..as The Prime Minister
The result is a well-structured piece of theatre that builds up with a snappy dialogue of one liners ,fast repartees and saucy responses all anchored in authentic controversy, authentic readings, authentic articles that get all the audience’s adrenaline flowing and the guffaws were spontaneous.
The question is however, who is this imaginary Prime Minister who sounds like someone we think we know but who is much larger than life because of the broad caricature and the semi realistic monstrosities that he spouts. Such a simplistic vision of politics that twists and perverts the ideas of the brightest thinkers of economic policy and political theory – no small feat of course, can only come from the imagination of a playwright. And a playwright who wants to titillate and amuse us by being perfectly outrageous only because his relationship with his object seems to remain extremely ambiguous.
The political statements have great shock value and make good theatre, especially when this Prime Minister affirms that his aim is to change the country by the sneaky path of least resistance. It all demands discipline. “So don’t talk to anyone, not even your loved ones. Just talk to me, and no one else! “ IT is all about “them” and “us”. Is this vision of binary politics about the rise and fall of a dictator, the ravings of a paranoiac, or the antics of a clown?
Cold blooded, self-centred, a spontaneous liar but certainly almost sincere when he parodies the Zola statement at the Dreyfus trial. J’accuse , turning it into “ I don’t care”, followed by a litany of what he does not believe, all the sacred issues of Canadian politicians. I don’t care about the abortion issue, I don’t care about Quebec, I don’t care about the CBC, I don’t care about the senate, I don’t care about human rights and on and on, even ,with a nasty remark about Louise Arbour. This frigid creature is incarnated by a Michael Healey who almost never changes his facial expressions, who remains tight, stone-faced and emotionless until the arrival of his vulgar but charming alter ego, the apparently tarty little Isabella Lyth (Jenny Young), a parody of one of those NDP members (here they all become Conservatives) who was elected from Quebec in spite of herself and so she comes completely ignorant of what she is supposed to do. The clash in that first scene knocks these up tight male politicians for a loop . Her flowing body gestures, the way she tosses around those f..Words with such free and easy spontaneity , her over the top frankness, creates a sexual buzz and lots of raunchy humour to offset the nasty stuff spouted by the males of her party who soon decide to use her. She will create a distraction by introducing that anti-abortion bill which caused so much ruckus a few months ago and thus, Mme Lyth is sucked into the party. As she steps into the ring with The Prime Minister and his aid, a very capable Carry Baines, the battle lines are drawn, the gloves are on and some of the confrontations become quite exciting as the struggle for power becomes a battle of the sexes, that takes on funny tones that slip in and out of the world of the House of Commons .
This is the kind of humour that almost reminds me of Wayne and Shuster! Of course this is longer and the structure is more complex than that of a TV skit. The tone is nastier because these characters appear to take themselves seriously and the text delves more deeply into the political literature and journalistic documents that surround the object of caricature but essentially, the play seems to want to shake up the audience by exaggerating everything, but only to amuse and titillate. It has no other pretentions. I must say that the author had the good sense to stop after 90 minutes because it could not have gone any further…
So what was missing? Well, what we did not see was anger, and a real desire to reveal something more disturbing that would make us want to delve behind all the seductive repartees, cutting language and the perverse manipulation of those political theorists. The dialogue reiterated everything we have already read about Harper in the paper here in Ottawa. It just assembled the best parts and brought them together as a good writer does but it did not produce the model of a really biting form of political theatre that could do some serious damage to its victim.!! But perhaps Healey has opened the door for the next generation of political parody and what comes through it might be a lot more viscious. Lets see what happens next!
It was still an amusing evening, and a theatrical event that should not be missed.
Proud continues at the IGTC until September 29, 2013
To carry on this spirit of political debate the GCTC has organized Friday Night Fights, a series of discussions/debates every Friday evening after the show with different guests. They begin tonight, Friday September 13 right after the show around 9h30pm.
THE CAST
Michael Healey: Prime Minister
THE CREATIVE TEAM
Gillian Gallow: Set & Costume Designer
