by AMY BARRATT

Dating, it seems, is a minefield for the modern man, and the danger only increases if the man is black. At least that’s the thesis of Andrew Moodie’s A Common Man’s Guide to Loving Women, which opened the Black Theatre Workshop season last week.

Like Riot, another Moodie work produced by BTW some years ago, this play is “topic-driven,” rather than character-driven, though that is not to say that we don’t have four fairly well-drawn characters here, and four equally strong performances.

The play treads a queasy line between sitcom and issues drama, but Diane Roberts’ stylish direction keeps it from capsizing. Even before the action begins, she has the actors moving in the space in a kind of rhythmic dance of opening doors, cell phones and basketball hoops.

After last season’s string of one-person, mostly imported shows, it’s exhilarating to see BTW mount such a thoroughly professional production using local talent. Quincy Armorer, Chimwemwe Miller, Omari Newton and Lindsay Owen Pierre are excellent, individually and as an ensemble. The weakest point in the production is Newton’s sweater. Maybe designer Jonas Veroff Bouchard is using it to indicate that Greg is a bit of a loser, but it’s so ugly that I can’t believe his friends don’t say something.

Tough crowd

The preview performance last week of Driftwood Theatre’s inaugural show, Refuge, faced the ultimate challenge: an audience of non-theatregoers. If these young people were going to sit quietly and listen, the production was going to have to make them do it. The second play on the program of two one-acts, Problem Child, was the more successful in this regard.

Driftwood is yet another company created by a teacher - joining Tightrope, Persephone and others - to showcase her former students. Dawson’s Barbara Kelly is artistic director and also directs this show.

Refuge, by American playwright Jessica Goldberg, takes place in an ugly apartment shared by two sisters and a brother in their late teens. They have been learning to fend for themselves since their parents suddenly “retired to Florida.” Amy, the eldest, (Stephanie Farrel) takes care of the younger two: making meals, making lists and never stopping to think. The brother, Nat (Andrew Farrar), is a bit simple-minded and in constant physical pain following surgery to remove a brain tumour. Little sister Becca (Holly Greene) is an E-popping rave kid with an emotional age of about 10. Into this domestic scene comes Sam (Elias Toufexis), a drifter whom Amy picks up in a bar one night.

The fact that members of the audience talked and giggled their way through this play doesn’t necessarily mean they didn’t like it; they were, at least, commenting on the action, not discussing their weekend plans. The actors’ concentration was admirable throughout. Their acting was only all right.

Problem Child started off with an energy that Refuge lacked. The audience, though still far from quiet, seemed more involved with this story than the other, but the acting suffered from the same basic problem: a lack of true connection with the characters. In Problem Child, R.J. and Denise (Farrar and Greene) are a young couple who have been found unfit and had their baby girl taken away from them. They have tried to pull their lives together and are now waiting for a social worker (Farrel) to tell them if they can have the child back. Although Greene is undoubtedly developing into a fine actress, she does not yet know or convey the animal need of a mother for her child, which is central to the character of Denise.

Fringe focus

Montreal Fringe Festival applications are now available online at www.montrealfringe.ca. I’d like to make a personal plea that some of this city’s great children’s theatre companies think about entering the 2003 Fringe. It takes place late this year (June 19–29), so kids will be out of school, and parents will be looking for stuff to do with them. A few kids’ shows would bring a new dimension to what is already the most varied theatre festival around.

Applications are being accepted until Feb 12, 2003, with 60 or so of them being chosen at random on Feb. 13. :

A Common Man’s Guide to Loving Women,
until Dec. 8, at the MAI (3680 Jeanne Mance),
$15/$20, 982 3386

Refuge and Problem Child, to Dec. 7,
8pm, at McGill Players’ Theatre (3480 McTavish),
$10/$15, 488-0205

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