There is a big heart and there are some strong theatrical instincts at work here. There are also problems with this script and production.
Local writer James Barclay’s play is about the friendship between a middle-aged guy named Pete, who lives with intellectual deficits caused by a car accident, and his young neighbour Charlotte, whose family is facing the loss of their home. Pete cuts lawns for neighbours. Charlotte convinces him to cut her in on the action.
Both Charlotte and Pete are lonely, and their growing connection made me tear up more than once. Barclay keeps things nicely concrete: Pete is often immersed in VR, for instance, staggering around the stage in his headset; the characters prep for Hallowe’en. The playwright also knows how to up the ante: Pete’s mom Anne, with whom he lives, has problems of her own, and Charlotte’s dad, Scott, is an alcoholic who’s gotten in too deep with criminals. Charlotte’s mom, Tina, is struggling to establish emotional and financial independence. These obstacles and complications are all good.
But there are also verisimilitude issues. We’re told that Charlotte is a teenager, for instance, but she thinks she can save the house with the money she plans to make doing yardwork, which is not a teenage thing to think.
But the biggest issue I have with Wonderwall is its cutesification of mental disability. Barclay, the playwright, has also taken on the role of Pete and he delivers a tender, emotionally vulnerable, physically precise performance that includes great comic timing. But, in the writing, Pete’s disability is used as an excuse for a lot of cheap humour, which I find condescending. At first, Pete’s mistakes and misunderstandings are charming in their literalness. But it’s not long before Pete’s talking about how dangerous it is to bend over in the shower in prison — and that joke turns into a running gag. Pete answers the phone because “Maybe it’s that prince from Nigeria.” This isn’t humour about the quirkiness of Pete’s perceptions; these are exploitive laughs about how stupid he is.
Tracy Labrosse’s direction is uneven. Overall, there’s a strong sense of emotional investment from the cast, which is great, but there are also times when overacting seems to be the director’s rather than the performer’s choice. At its baseline, Marta Bilous’ characterization of Charlotte, for example, is distinguished by a touching combination of vulnerability and pugnacious self-defence. But then, out of nowhere, there will be a glaringly illustrative moment. Describing her role in the lawn-cutting business, Charlotte says, “I look all sweet and innocent and people will pay a lot more for that.” Bilous strikes a coy pose on “sweet and innocent” that’s at odds with the subtlety of the rest of her portrait.
There are also conceptual oddities. When Charlotte’s parents are fighting and she puts on headphones, the racket dims — for us, even we’re not inside Charlotte’s head.
The set, which was designed by Barclay and Labrosse, contains handsome elements — notably Charlotte’s front door — but it rambles across the stage. It needs more visual focus.
Playing Tina, director Labrosse is credibly warm and conflicted. And there’s a pleasing groundedness to Carrie Hunter’s Anne. But, playing Scott, the dad, Omer Aubin brings so little physical commitment to the stage, and his delivery of the dialogue is so slow and overworked, that his presence becomes a kind of energy sink.
As a playwright, Barclay gives us not one, not two, but three endings, which is two reversals too many.
The promise of Wonderwall isn’t completely fulfilled, but this is a relatively new script from a small, amateur company. There’s still promise and that’s a good thing.
WONDERWALL by James Barclay. A Black Box Theatre Co. production. Running at The Nest until May 2. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: Wonderwall features strong performances from James Barclay and Marita Bilous. (Photo by Dominique Labrosse)
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