by AMY BARRATT

Most of us exhibit some superstitious behaviours—avoiding stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, for instance—but they don’t get in the way of day-to-day functioning like they have for Tina. You may have too much clutter in your home, but Marian has got 30 years worth of newspapers piled in her kitchen because of her compulsion to collect words.

Marian and Tina are characters in Anana Rydvald’s Section O, a hilarious comedy currently playing at Théâtre Ste-Catherine. I know, I know, it’s mean to make fun of the mentally ill—but that’s not what Section O does.

Rydvald, among many international credits, was also one of the founders of Mask On! She’s worked with local companies like Persephone and the Other Theatre, and teaches mime and drama at John Abbott College. In Section O (named after a real psych ward Rydvald visited often when a friend was a patient) the actress returns to her beloved mask work, and the fit is perfect.

Mask work, like clowning, calls for characters who are exaggerated, physically and vocally. It is the exaggeration of (and inability to control) certain emotional states and character traits that has sent Rydvald’s five women characters to section O. It takes a fearless performer, one who is in total control of her instrument, to travel to the edges with these women as Rydvald (who plays all the characters herself) does.

Some mental illnesses make for better theatre than others. Tina’s counting and touching routines are tailor-made for the stage. Several other characters are performers of one kind or another. Lubika is a bad street performer who abuses her audience; Roxanne is a dancer at Chez Parée who can’t stop moving when she’s in her manic phase. Andrea (Ann the Man) is a hip hop artist struggling with panic attacks and, it seems to me, gender identity. It’s no mystery why a depressed character makes only one brief appearance: lacking the ability to speak or get out of bed are not very theatrical symptoms. Still, in a compact running time, not much over an hour, Section O finds a way to give even the speechless a voice.

Maybe this doesn’t sound like an entertaining night out but, thanks to Rydvald and director Stacey Christodoulou, it is. The performer obviously has so much love for these characters that we can’t help falling for them too, and wanting them to get better.

On a bowl

In this season that has seen an unprecedented number of original English-language texts produced, the next contender is Blacks Don’t Bowl, by Vadney S. Haynes. This mainstage offering from Black Theatre Workshop has been in development for five years. The production, running at the MAI from March 23 to April 9, is directed by Nigel Shawn Williams, last seen here as an actor in BTW’s Wade in the Water. The cast of six includes locals Quincy Armorer, Omari Newton and Matthew Kabwe. Tix: 932-1104, ext 225.

If you haven’t gotten around to seeing the two Michel Tremblay revivals in town, you’re in luck. Both Encore une fois, si vous permettez, and Hosanna, both originally scheduled to close this weekend, have been held over. Hosanna is at Théâtre du nouveau monde (866-8668) until the 30th, and Encore une fois continues to April 1 at Théâtre d’Aujourd’hui (282-3900).

Section O, to March 25 at Théâtre Ste-Catherine.
Tickets $15/$12. 540-0774.

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