Tongue in Groove : Chamber Theatre Hintonburg moves in a new direction!!

 

Manon Dumas, Jérome Bourgault, Gabrielle Lzarovitz.

Photo: Lisa Zanyk

What a change. We are in the habit of meeting this fine little company in taverns, and bars, dark noisy places suited to sweaty naturalism, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller and actors who don’t change their undershirts. Nothing like that happens elsewhere in Ottawa, I can assure you. Well, it is no longer the case and I’m wondering if this means that the Chamber Theatre group is revising its image.

In any case this new venture, Tongue in Groove by Amy Friedman is a parody, apparently of pretentiously stereotypical individuals who bring us back to the 1980s and this performance takes place in the more refined atmosphere of a book shop where the events begin. J.D.(Jérome Bourgault)  is  reading his works to us, the captive audience.  We quickly learn he is  a writer of purple poetry and passionate emoting. He has lost Lily, the love of his life and writes about it as though his life were about to come to an end. Its all only literature however, until Lily, the object of his desire appears and brings events to an uneasy conclusion. 

The performance shows us how Lily, who works in a woman’s centre is torn between the passionate attraction to this seductive poet who becomes hysterical at the thought of losing her, and a pompous University professor (with tenure!!) who cant open his mouth without quoting everyone he has ever read, as though there is no personal discourse in his own empty head. In the background there is a vivacious young Hannah who adores the poet and steely eyed Ruth, the radical feminist who knows that all women are potential victims of that disgusting male species, even though she finds the unsexed professor rather interesting, for intellectual reasons of course.

The tension is produced by Lily who cannot make up her mind as the two males confront each other. Manon Dumas creates an angry, nervous, quasi-hysterical Lily whose eyes seem ready to pop, who seems to be  gulping air until it chokes her as she somatises the conflict raging inside her.

Which man does she love? I wont tell, but frankly this is a quirky little play and even though it is steeped in literary and critical references, they only become crutches for characters who don’t develop anywhere and who only appear to be the incarnation of literary name dropping, which is all the more annoying.

The performances are caricatures,  the direction is clearly undecided and the play is not to my taste. That doesn’t mean one should not come to see this little experiment that Lisa Zanyk, Donnie Laflamme and the Chamber Theatre group are doing because it obviously indicates a new direction in their thinking and I’m very curious to see where this leads. So do take a chance. You might even like it!!

We have also discovered a new performance venue at Collected Works. It is not perfect but it allows for small intimate evenings that don’t need complicated lighting or production values..

Tongue and Groove plays at collected works from November 21 -24, and November 28 to December 1 at

1242 Wellington st. West.

Tongue and Groove by Amy Friedman

A Production of Chamber theatre Hintonburg.

Directed by Lisa Zanyk

Produced by Donnie Laflamme.

Costumes: Kristen Saar

Sound Design: Leslie Cserepy

Lights: Lite Stage productions- Kevin Mcdonough

Cast:

J.D. a writer Jérome Bourgault

Lily Manon Dumas

Hannah Gabrielle Lzarovitz

Ruth Anna Lewis

Professor Grant Stewart Sean Kemp

Mack Matt Smith

Andrew Park, Mediator Tim Oberholzer