School-boy confidential

>> William Young's Beyond Catholic is a rompthrough a God-fearing childhood

by AMY BARRATT

A visit to our fair city from playwright/performer William Young is always cause for celebration. His plays don't always completely work from a structural standpoint, but his writing is--oh what the hell, just say it--miraculous.

Beyond Catholic is one of the first things he ever wrote, as a student at the National Theatre School (Young is currently residing in Toronto while carrying on a long-distance affair with Montreal). The one-man show, revamped and performed by Young himself, is at infinitheatre through this weekend. Obviously on the autobiographical side, the piece explores growing up at Catholic school in St. Catharines, Ontario, things not to do in church or confirmation class, and the significance of that city's Grape and Wine Festival parade. In its heartbreaking honesty and the way it can turn on a dime from deep seriousness to kooky humour and back again, Beyond Catholic is vintage Young.

Young plays Pete, a boy and then a young man growing up within, but always questioning, the Catholic church. He sees the face of God in a retarded boy he and his friends have been beating up, and struggles--mostly unsuccessfully--to repress his sexual desires. A priest's advice that he think about "golf, or curling" to fend off lustful thoughts becomes a running gag. He also intermittently plays another character, presumably a priest, who directly addresses the audience, even taking up a collection for Dans la rue mid-performance. He also takes the opportunity to announce infinitheatre's upcoming spring production of another of his plays, Dead Ducks. It gets a laugh, but I'm not sure it's good for the flow of the play at hand.

Beyond Catholic is a romp, but it is also a search for Truth. Because of that, the playwright or someone else (he is directed here by Natasha Bartlett) feels the need to tie everything up with a bow at the end. Unfortunately, the ending comes far too abruptly and consequently feels kind of preachy and not at all in tune with the feeling of the rest of the play. The way Young rushed through the last few lines and ran off stage as if he needed to catch a bus made me suspect that this pat ending was someone else's idea.

The instinct to give the audience something to take away with them is a good one, but that something has to be real. Leaving it a little more open-ended wouldn't be the end of the world.

The Cossacks are coming!

Tickets are now on sale for Cirque du Soleil co-founder Gilles St-Croix's latest extravaganza. Cheval Théâtre (the name of the company, and so far the only name given to the show) is about what you'd expect: the kitschy artiness of the Cirque (otherworldly music, weird costumes, acrobats) plus genuine equines. A media preview last week featured frantic-looking horses running in tight circles around a circus ring while actual Russian acrobats dressed as Cossacks performed death-defying feats upon their backs.

Beyond Catholic continues tonight through Saturday, Dec. 2, 8 pm and Sunday, Dec. 3 at 2 pm. Box office at Blizzarts (3956A St-Laurent). $5 for members, or $10 (includes membership), 987-1774

Cheval Théâtre runs May 16-July 1 at an as-yet-unspecified location in Montreal. It then moves to Québec city and heads out on a North American tour. Tickets are $25-45, available at 790-1245 or www.admission.com