Sunday, August 17, 2008

Play: "Italian American Reconciliation" - Romantic Tragedy-Comedy

The ANNOTICO Report

 

 "Italian American Reconciliation" is a Play about the Human Predicament, more specifically about Relationships, with an Italian flavor,

but avoids the trite or negative stereotypes.      It's a Romantic Tragedy-Comedy

 

Love Italian American Style

 

Vancouver Courier

Joy Ledingham

Friday, August 15, 2008

 

ITALIAN AMERICAN RECONCILIATION

Aldo: "Why did you marry him?"                                                                                                                                                                                                       Janice: "He asked me."

Director/actor Jennifer Clement brings not only years of experience to this play, but she visits part of her own past at the old Tomato Cafi. The smell of garlic emanating from a mini kitchen stage right offers a mouthwatering welcome to the theatre. Minestrone simmers on the hotplate, and it's all you can do to stop from walking onto Sean Tyson's set, hoping to be served what smells like heaven in a soup pot.

The kitchen isn't completely gratuitous; Teresa (Krystal Vrba) works in an Italian restaurant somewhere in New York. That's probably where Huey (Ben Ratner) met and fell for her. But Huey is still agonizing over his three-year divorce from Janice (Lori Triolo) and thinks he must break up with Teresa, reconcile with Janice and get his manhood back. Huey is seriously confused.

Although the story is, on one level, about Huey and Janice, it's told from the perspective of Huey's friend Aldo (Bill MacDonald), a mama's boy who can't keep a relationship going. Shanley tears down the fourth wall right off the top with MacDonald, in black shirt, black trousers and bright yellow tie, walking through the theatre asking us how we're doing and saying hello to his mom. He tells us he has a story to tell us: "You're my class. I'm gonna teach you something."

Although the lesson Aldo teaches is not entirely new and the plot is slight, Italian American Reconciliation is tremendously entertaining. Shanley's dialogue crackles with stuff like the comment Teresa's friend Aunt May (Linda Darlow) makes: "Men get upset about the past. Women are worried about the future." Or Teresa's admission, "I really love him." (Pause.) "To the best of my knowledge."

But what makes it all work is this superb cast. The Beaumont Stage is an intimate space, and these actors work it like garlic: not too much, not too little. MacDonald is a powerhouse, a "take no prisoners" kind of actor who has us and holds us for a couple of hours. In the end, it's his character that learns a valuable lesson. Or maybe not. And that's OK, too.

Ratner's Huey is ridiculously and purposely rigged out in a poet's ruffled shirt, jodhpurs, short leather boots and a Woody Woodpecker haircut. If Huey weren't such an emotional wreck, Ratner's sad, little-boy looks would completely win us over. But it's so obvious that this pushover Huey is no match for Janice.

Equally conflicted Teresa is the woman for him. Vrba handles one of the juiciest scenes in the play (one of those "What? You're breaking up with me?" scenes) with skill and pizzazz. Shanley captures so perfectly that turning point and Vrba executes it beautifully.

No-nonsense Aunt May is a touchstone amidst all the mismatches and Darlow brings warmth and generosity to the role. You have to love a character that says, "Don't ask me to witness. I don't retain."

Matching MacDonald's big performance is Triolo who, in Janice's marriage to Huey, brought only "heartbreak, screaming, bad food and a dead dog." Triolo is fantastic in this bitch-with-a-broken-heart role. She doesn't appear until Act 2 and when she does, it's a tenement balcony scene that cheekily turns the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene on its ass.

Romantic tragedy Italian American Reconciliation isn't. But in the end it's not completely comedy either. Shanley takes the old maxim about love as the greatest human accomplishment and turns it sideways. Maybe he's got it right; maybe that's what amori is really all about.

Playwright John Patrick Shanley packs so many true reflections on relationships into his play you don't know whether to laugh or cry. Not that there's really a choice; Shanley's biting humour keeps us laughing from beginning to end in this Evolving Arts Collective production.

At the Vancouver, Canada Beaumont Stage until Aug. 24            Tickets: 604-733-3783 ext. 305

 

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