The cute, the bad and the ugly

>> Lenny and Reno showcases young talent

by AMY BARRATT

Vangarde Theatre is committed to producing new plays by young, local playwrights. This mandate has the potential to be a feather in the fledgling company's cap, or an albatross around its neck.

Last spring's True Faith: a one-man show (with ninjas), although not an unqualified artistic success, had a lot of youthful exuberance on its side. But now, with a 1999-2000 season underway, Vangarde has to prove that it can hold its own amid the fierce competition for your theatre buck.

Their second production, Lenny and Reno, currently playing at Theatre Prospero (formerly Espace La Veillee) is the sweet story of two clowns in love and adversity. That is, Lenny and his lady-love Reno used to be a street clown act, but now Lenny works in the mailroom of a talent agency while Reno flies solo in the red nose. At the start of the play, Lenny's clowning around at work has got him fired and he has taken to his bed. What he doesn't yet know is that his antics have also caught the attention of one of the agency's clients, a big producer. The guy wants Lenny to appear in a movie, but first, has lined up a slew of commercials for him. Before we know it, our hero has been caught up in corporate greed, not just as the face-of-the-week, but--as if the playwright is concerned we won't get his point--as a business executive in his own right.

The playwright is Josh Bloch, a McGill philosophy student. Although not nearly biting enough to be satire, and not quite sweet and simple enough to be children's theatre, it's a promising first outing. Lord knows the English theatre community here needs to foster new writing talent, so good for Vangarde.

This production has two immensely appealing actors going for it: Shawn Baichoo, who also starred in True Faith, and Holly O'Brien, one of those insanely talented Mask On! girls. The pair recently appeared together in Mask On!'s Tripping Through Oz, a hilarious romp that came and went far too quickly at the Geordie space.

A brutally short rehearsal period gave Baichoo an excuse to do what comes all too naturally: shtick. Director Alexander W. Najar should have insisted on more of the genuine acting which this rubber-limbed performer is capable of.

The cartoonish set and decor by Aleksandr Niestroj is delightful, especially in contrast to the grey "realism" of the short opening act.

The less said about the other play on the program, X, by Matt MacLennan, the better. It only gives weight to the evening in the way that rocks in the pockets give weight to a drowning man. It should be dropped from the bill.

Batakliev's back

Actor Peter Batakliev, voted "Revelation" of the 1998-99 season by the Montreal English Critics' Circle, makes his debut tonight on the French side of the theatre divide at Usine C. Executeur 14, a text by Egypt-born French playwright Adel Hakim, actually contains bits of Russian, Italian, Spanish and English as well as French.

The piece for one actor, directed by Leo Argueello, casts Batakliev as the lone survivor of a civil war in an unnamed country which could be Lebanon, but could also evoke any number of ongoing ethnic conflicts like the Balkans. :

Lenny and Reno, to Dec. 4 at Theatre Prospero (espace intime) at 8:15pm; $10.50-13.50;285-2277.

Executeur 14 to Dec. 4 at Usine C at 8pm; $12-16; 521-4493