The Western Ontario Drama League (WODL) Festival is an annual
celebration of community theatre in South-western Ontario.
This year's Festival is co-hosted by the Guelph Little Theatre
and the Elmira Theatre Company.
The adjudicator for the Festival is Maja Ardal.
BARE BEAR BONES
by Michael Grant
Directed by Terri-Lynn Graham
Presented by Paris Performers Theatre
Sometimes, the best comedy arises from taking a simple wrong turn and then pushing it right to its logical, hysterical conclusion.
Such is the premise of Michael Grant's Bare Bear Bones, in which a couple seek to rekindle the magic in their marriage by returning to the campground where it all began -- only to find that said campground has in the interim become a naturist camp (nudist, if you prefer).
The first scene shows Norman and Ruth's late-night arrival, including inability to check in because the office is closed. The second scene, the next morning, gives the audience the delicious fun of watching other inmates of the camp prancing by behind a wall of sheets and blankets on Ruth's clothesline, as we wonder just how long it will take before the awful truth finally dawns on Norman and Ruth. Then it does -- hilariously -- and the real fun begins.
But Grant has much more up his sleeve than this promising situation, and in the second act, a late-night campfire visit evolves into a deeper examination of the nature of human relationships, and just what it is that makes them keep moving and growing. There's a good deal more in this play than meets the eye, and by the end it's apparent that the (at first glance) risible title actually points the way just as much to the more serious issues in the second act.
Without question, Paris Performers Theatre have mounted the most purely beautiful set we have seen this week. The campsite is surrounded by evergreen trees, and more evergreen branches and logs are arranged across the front lip of the stage -- although you'd have to be near the front of the audience to see them. The tent trailer is tucked neatly into one corner of the stage, visible but not consuming too much room. A rustic signboard on the other side balances it. Other necessities of camp life, from the small barbecue to the picnic table, the camp chairs, and so on, are moved around as needed. That all-important clothesline is strung across upstage centre, although the signboard and a convenient clump of shrubbery allow for actors to appear in other places as well.
The daytime lighting definitely gave the sense of a sunny morning in the country, while the night scenes were lit enough to see the actors and their faces without looking like a spotlight was tucked up in the trees.
Ensemble is of critical importance in a show of this kind, with the comic repartee spread around the entire company. Timing is also crucial in nailing the many, many laughs. Director Terri-Lynn Graham has steered a carefully-aimed course between "not enough" and "over the top," with very few moments in the show either failing to register or going so far as to provoke head-shaking sighs -- at least from me. The company has gone right along with her in the tight teamwork and ideal timing of the ripostes. Kudos to this team as well for the clarity, projection and diction of all the actors throughout the entire show -- I don't think I missed a single line except when I laughed too loudly.
The most critical teamwork came, as it had to, from the duo of Alex Graham as Ruth and Alex Riker as Norman. Instantly it was apparent that here was a long-lived marriage in which sniping had become second nature. Yet, at the same time, there was also a definite comfort zone here, a strong sense that both of them felt quite at home with the status quo. Is there anyone who has not encountered a relationship like this at one time or another?
When the "big reveal" of the nature of the campground occurred, both of them freaked out most believably -- but it was Ruth who was inspired to exalted, hysterical flights of prudishness. Who could forget the sight of her trying to walk to the community washroom with a paper bag over her head while Norm shouted directions from the safety of their campsite?
As this prudishness played out throughout the first act, the humour turned -- predictably -- to every possible sexual innuendo in the book. I thought I knew them all after 32 years of high school teaching, but I learned some new ones tonight!
In the campfire scene of the second act, the focus turned more to Norman as his friends tried to make him see why he needed to get to know his wife better in order to save his marriage. Riker's performance here was a cartoon of truculent manhood made worse by multiple beers, but it suddenly turned serious when he realized that his advisors had been right all along -- and that he was in danger of losing Ruth. Riker's exit at the end of that night scene was a telling vignette of a man crushed, broken, staring into the abyss.
Graham's finest moments as Ruth came the following morning, when she had to first find out what drove Norm to sleep in the truck, and then had to convince him that she still loved him. This she did with simple, earnest, entirely believable conviction.
The second key relationship in the play is that between Frank (played by Rich Dallaway) and his deceased wife. Although Frank talks about her in the first act, he really opens up on that theme at the campfire. I'm sure I wasn't the only person in the audience who had "been there, done that," and felt the strength and truth in his speeches about his loss.
The third relationship issue is between Frank and his grown daughters, Libby and Annie (respectively played by Deanna Stevens and Jessica O'Connor. His pain is real and palpable as he admits that he struggles so hard to control Annie's life choices because she so much resembles her mother. In the end, it's Annie (O'Connor in a brief but powerful firebrand moment) who confronts that issue. He tells her bluntly to stay out of his grief as that is not her decision. She then bounces the ball right back by shooting him the exact same command about her life, before she walks out.
Several other characters exist mostly to provide foils for these main players. Among them, I felt that the role of Lenny (Connor McGrath) was closest to being overwritten, and eventually became tedious for that reason. On the other hand, it was Robert Laszcz as Bruce who most overplayed his role during the campfire scene, his snorting laugh quickly grating on the nerves. Rose Huysentruyt-Closs in the role of Doris presented a nice mix of genuine kindness and caring with incisive tartness as needed.
The final impression of this show is of a company working as a team, having a whole lot of fun with the material, and making sure that we came along for the ride -- letting us share the fun as well as picking up the life lessons to be found there. And it was fun -- no question about that!
You write very insightful reviews Ken. I enjoy following your blog.
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