by AMY BARRATT

At the opening of This Table, Gravy Bath's latest creation, a man has just built a dinner table for his family. Will his wife appreciate his artistry or will she have him cut it up for firewood to keep her warm? Following five generations of a family through the 20th century, the play explores how we can balance our responsibilities with our desires.

This Table opened the third annual New Classical Theatre Festival on Aug. 16 at the Monument-National, and the day after, the same company premiered their Oedipus Rex. These two shows play in rep until Aug. 27, but other festival offerings continue through Sept.10.

A writing credit for This Table goes to Anthony Kokx, but the cast of 16 created many of the scenes through improvisation. There's an adage that says that in any form of storytelling, if you have a strong beginning and a strong ending, you will be forgiven some weaknesses in the middle. Unfortunately, its first and its last scenes are two of the weakest, while some of the best writing - and acting - comes in the middle.

The company is composed of a few familiar faces and a lot of new ones. Jessica Carmichael gives a memorable performance as Victoria, a woman struggling to raise two boys alone during the Depression. Graham Cuthbertson and Angela Galuppo work well together as flower children turned Yuppies.

For me, the central drama of the second act involved an unwanted, neglected child. Unfortunately, this last story undercuts what Kokx is trying to say with the play about your family being the only people who will always be there for you. Instead of a hopeful tale about the strength of family bonds across generations, This Table ends up being about how quickly everything can get screwed up by one generation.

Which brings us to Oedipus. Despite the vast differences in age and style between the two plays, there is some thematic crossover.

There is a case of questionable paternity in This Table that is, unfortunately, never fully explored. Oedipus, of course, explores in exhaustive detail what can happen when we don't know where we come from. Coincidentally - or perhaps not - Cuthbertson plays both Johnny, the character who can never be sure who his father is, and Oedipus.

In its goal of making the Greek tragedy more human, more intimate, the company succeeds only partially. When the chorus circulates behind the audience, it implicates us in the action on stage. The use of a piece of fabric to delineate different playing areas is a good idea that would be more effective if the fabric were a different colour from the stage itself.

It must be noted that this festival is Gravy Bath's first outing since losing artistic director Madd Harold to Toronto. Harold had a way of masking the weaknesses of some of his young performers through action and visual razzle-dazzle (I'm thinking of the battle scenes in his Coriolanus, for example). Kokx uses mask and movement and sound to good effect but there are still long portions where young actors are left alone to wrestle with the text of Sophocles, often unsuccessfully.

Despite some reservations, I recommend both of these plays because, when this company gets something right, they get it so right. A commitment to the process of making theatre pervades everything they do and makes you care about it too.

The New Classical Theatre Festival features eight plays at three venues and runs until Sept. 10. For ticket info, visitwww.gravybath.com or call 540-0774 or 871-2224

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