by AMY BARRATT

Works by well-known playwrights like Morris Panych and Judith Thompson tend to make the rounds of regional theatres in the rest of Canada, but they often bypass Montreal. A couple of new independent companies have identified that gap and are attempting to fix it. Currently Tableau D’Hôte is presenting Thompson’s 1987 play I Am Yours.

The young company with three other shoestring productions under its belt has given itself a big challenge with this play. That they don’t always rise to the challenge is perhaps not as surprising as that they often do.

The plot revolves around two sisters, Mercy and Dee. Dee (Liz Valdez) is a mentally unbalanced artist, married to a sweet doormat named Mack (Paul-Brian Imperial), who finds herself pregnant following a one-night stand with her building superintendent, Toilane (Tommy Furino). Dee, who may well be schizophrenic, hears her baby talking to her while waiting at the abortion clinic and decides she will go ahead with the birth, but will give the baby up for adoption. Egged on by his domineering mother Pegs, Toilane decides to fight Dee in court for custody of the fetus. A certain colleague of mine will no doubt find it all too gynecological for his tastes.

I Am Yours is a problematic play. It has the gritty realism of Thompson’s The Crackwalker but the story it tells is sprawling and unresolved. Characters drop hints as to why they are the way they are, but the playwright offers no pat answers. The plot has a “torn from the headlines” feel, and yet, of all Thompson’s plays, this is the one that could be given a non-realistic, highly theatrical look. There is a lot of talk of animals behind walls and animals inside us, themes we see reflected in Dee’s canvasses, but not in the design of the show. Krystelle Metras’s set design is serviceable, but I wish she had gone with imaginary doors to match the imaginary walls instead of the makeshift ones she gives us.

It becomes apparent well into the (long) first act that there are supposed to be class issues at play here. Although Dee and Toilane live in the same skuzzy building, he’s a child of the working class, while she’s a starving artist with a middle-class pedigree. It’s all pretty subtle, both in the writing and in this production.

The company apparently took six months to put this baby together. While this showed in the comfort level the actors had in their lines and their characterizations on opening night, it was less evident in the pacing and overall direction. While Rena Hundert is a standout as the chronically unloved Mercy, some of the other performers need to let ’er rip.

Booze for Buffy

Underdog Productions, which gave us a strong production of Morris Panych’s Earshot last fall, is presenting an original play by Owen Belgrave titled My Name is Buffy, and I’m an Alcoholic. It’s on through Saturday, May 13 at the Balustrade of the Monument National, the space that supposedly inspired Belgrave to write the piece. Show starts at 8:30 p.m., 871-2224.

I Am Yours, to May 14 at Mainline Theatre
(3997 St-Laurent), $10–$12, 915-9297.

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