ON STAGE: Amazon Dream
eye WEEKLY
eye WEEKLY February 2 1995
Toronto's arts newspaper .....free every Thursday
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
ON STAGE ON STAGE
review
AMAZON DREAM
Featuring Errol Sitahal, Janet Lo, Sandi Ross, Ernie Grunwald.
Written and directed by Ken Gass.
Factory Studio Cafe, 125 Bathurst St.
To Feb. 5. $14-$18, 864-9971.
by
ROBERT ARMSTRONG
Amazon Dream lies in a Never-Never Land the program refers to as "the
confused geography of the mind."
Thirty years after the end of WWII, an isolated colony of Japanese
soldiers believes the war is still on and Japan is occupied by
Americans. Leader Lord Ronjo (Errol Sitahal) dreams of waging a war of
aesthetics against the vile Yanks who, when confronted with true
beauty, will immediately lay down their arms. Ronjo is opposed by Duke
Inowa (Ernie Grunwald), who believes in the more conventional course of
enslaving the indigenous Tree People to pump up arms production. Then
the Westerner arrives. Oops.
Ken Gass' script constantly smushes together moments of lyric intensity
with swaths of crass violence and moral stupidity. The eternal war
between the desire for beauty and the desire for domination is also
played out quite literally in Gass' direction, particularly in the wide
range of acting styles he allows.
At first Sitahal's couched, mannered acting bugged the hell out of me.
And Grunwald's Stratford-style soldier glower equally got my goat. But
when Jane Spidell arrived as Jennifer, in all her television
slouchiness, it dawned on me that maybe the aesthetics of these various
performance styles were being played against one another, as some kind
of literal adjunct to the basic argument of the story.
Then again, the argument is hard to grasp because it's tossed out so
literally and utterly lacks any concrete metaphors to tie it down to
earth -- unlike Shakespeare, who pops up as an awkward yardstick in the
middle of the show. Or maybe that too is a point: familiarity breeds
content.
Anyway, the literal-mindedness doesn't go far enough. The color-blind
casting overlooks the fact that I'm not color-blind, and that the story
revolves around race. And I could go on for hours about why sets that
consist of a long runway are always a bad idea.
Instead, I want to admire Janet Lo for being the only real human
presence onstage, and also Gass' sheer audacity for staging this
muddle. But I wouldn't tell my friends to see it.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Retransmit freely in cyberspace Author holds standard copyright
http://www.interlog.com/eye Mailing list available
e...@interlog.com "...Break the Gutenberg Lock..." 416-971-8421