The Public Servant:

Photo: Courtesy GCTC

Originally an hour long play , the result of improvisation and some verbatim work, based on collected interviews, that was presented at the Undercurrent  theatre festival several years ago,has been reworked, stretched into one hour and twenty-five minutes.  The result is a play  lacking in content, a play that repeats the same gimmicky jokes and feels  like a short skit   stretched to the snapping point of nonentity. The set is heavy handed although it does try to reproduce a government office with its moving sections  that limit the movement in the wings.

 

Of course, I’m glad to see good actors such as Jennifer Brewin, Haley McGee. Sarah McVie and Amy Rutherford  getting jobs on the stage but this should be re-shortened and presented at a Fringe festival. A fringe audience, looking for easy laughs and simple-minded substance will be more tolerant. Or else, this might touch a cord with Civil servants in Ottawa who have a serious grudge against the institution and who  might feel they are getting their own back as they watch this. Perhaps plays with such therapeutical qualities do have a function in society and should not be discounted. But  to the former civil servant I ran into after the show who was furious with this portrait, I would say that  frankly, this is such a forgettable and silly show,  it is  not worth getting riled up about it.

The Public Servant plays  at the GCTC until June 21

written by the whole cast, directed by Jennifer Brewin, set by Anna Treusch, lighting by Martin Conboy . Presented by the Great Canadian Theatre Company in association with the Magnetic North Theatre Festival and co-developed with Common Boots Theatre.