This blog has been silent for all of 2015. Too many shows seen and too little time to write about them. So it takes a major something-or-other to move me to awaken it. The mover is a play just seen at the Havana Theatre on Commercial Drive -- Abattoir Morning.
In many years of theatregoing I cannot recall seeing a more incoherent, incomprehensible, self-indulgent pile of rubbish than this play.
It is presented by a new group -- OR; Theatre Company. Some flavour of what they are about is found in the opening line of text at their website: http://ortheatre.com/
"The forming of the unreal from the depths of division. From the depths, the truth.
The realms of the unreal, unified reality."
After more pretentious drivvle it concludes with:
"Our Philosophy: The manipulation of space consumes the space and partakes intimately
of community. The consumption cannot be half-hearted—merely scratching the depths."
The lion's share of the blame for this misspent evening must go to one Ian Kent, described in the program as the Director, Writer and Producer of the play. (In fact, Kents seem to be present in abundance as the "thank you" page lists four additional Kents.)
Ian Kent's biographical notes indicate that he is a published poet. There are hints of this in the dialogue where Kent seems to be reaching for blank verse but never achieving it. And strange sentence structures abound like ones sometimes found in a bad translation.
The two female leads may be capable and talented performers. But given what they had to work with here there was little opportunity to assess their potential.
Production values were practically non-existent. The centrepiece was a badly constructed wooden item that purported to be a freezer/locker for storing meat. At one point in the action one of the characters draped a cowhide over one of the walls facing the audience making it clear that the locker had no ceiling. No wonder the meat spoiled.
With so many good small theatre companies in the Vancouver area do we really need OR; ? Based on this production and the nonsense spewing from its website, I suggest not.
