Batakliev, tout seul

>> Executeur 14 doesn't show off actor's talents

by AMY BARRATT

For the past five years or so, Peter Batakliev has been making his mark on the English theatre scene in Montreal. But until now, the Bulgarian-born actor has been virtually unknown to francophone theatre audiences. All that seemed about to change last week with the opening of Executeur 14, Adel Hakim's play about the ravages of civil war, at Usine C. With Batakliev ambitiously taking on not just a French-speaking role but a solo performance in a wordy play, francophones would get a chance to see what all the fuss is about.

After seeing Executeur 14, I suspect that many of them are still wondering. This vehicle eclipses many of Batakliev's strengths while accentuating his weaknesses.

Whether he likes it or not, through such performances as Lucky in Waiting for Godot and Clown in A Winter's Tale, Batakliev has developed a reputation as a "physical" actor. To an actor who, in his native country, was known for his interpretations of principal roles in classic and modern drama, that label must have felt limiting. It looks as if he chose this text deliberately to break out of that mold. Indeed, Batakliev has said that the main appeal of this play was the challenge of going it alone on stage.

That he speaks with an accent is not a major problem here, although I confess that, not having French as a first language myself, I often find it more difficult to understand actors who are non-native speakers. The famous Batakliev concentration is in evidence in this performance, but it seems as if it's mainly focused on just getting the words out. And while he does a fair bit of jumping and crawling and climbing in the course of this play, the physicality seems uncharacteristically aimless.

When two or more people are named as directors of a piece it's often a bad sign. Batakliev shares directing credit here with Leo Arguello, yet the production is sadly lacking in direction. The performer gets no help from Robin A. Paterson's lighting which, after about the first 10 seconds, remains completely static. It's as if Batakliev wanted to prove, to himself as much as to anyone else, that he could do it "tout seul." But theatre is a collaborative art form, and the actor who fails to embrace that is cheating both himself and the audience.

Mayday, May Day

Patrick Goddard, author of Fringe hit The Baumgard Cuckoos, tries out his latest one-man show this weekend at infinitheatre. The monologue is delivered by a young playwright named Pat (hmmm) who "doesn't do autobiography" but can't stop obsessing about the senseless murder of one of his friends.

In recent years, Goddard, who settled in Montreal in 1992 after years of army brat-dom, has been busy helping run the Fringe. It's nice to see he hasn't forgotten to be a writer. What we can probably expect from The May Day Impromptu is a charmingly convoluted tale, full of coincidences too corny to be fiction, and truths too sad to be told except in comedy. May Day has already been booked into the Wild Side Festival at Centaur in January. :

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

The May Day Impromptu, Dec. 2-5, at the infinite space, 7pm; box office at Blizzarts, 3956A St-Laurent. Members $5, non-members $10 (includes membership); 987-1774