Is Gut, Ja?

I wanted to check out the preview to Grimm Too at the Bathurst Factory Theatre but I ended up at "And So It Goes ...", a new play by George F. Walker. It stars Peter Donaldson and Martha Burns as Ned and Gwen, a middle-class couple on an economic downward spiral; Jenny Young as Karen, their schizophrenic daughter; and Jerry Franken, the dead sci-fi writer Kurt Vonnegut as the imaginary therapist/friend for Ned and Gwen.

You can check out a review of the play at the Globe and Mail. Ned in demeanour, sardonic speech, and physical appearance reminds me of actor J.K. Simmons. Gwen was your typical high-strung suburban housewife; she gave up a career as a Latin teacher to raise the kids. The downward spiral of this couple from comfortable house, to cramp apartment, to homeless shelter is played for laughs; apparently a common absurdist strain in Walker's plays. This was quite funny. However, the short, abrupt scenes and the humour made the attempts to transition to Serious Drama in some parts a bit clunky. In my opinion, it was more effective, and in keeping with the ridiculous tone, when a line was casually said by a character, that had more emotional resonance after a bit of thought.

I don't know how realistic was the portrayal of schizophrenia. But at times, at least to me, it veered to close to Oscar Material (see Sean Penn, or Dustin Hoffman). Every actor loves to dig their teeth into "mental illness".

Sometimes, the short quick scenes led to some expositional speech: "Say, isn't too bad that X happened to you?", "Why, it isn't nearly as bad as when Y happened to you." I'm not sure what else a playwright can do to advance plot or character given the format, but it's just a bugbear of mine to have my back up when I hear that sort of lazy writing.

Overall, I enjoyed the play, with the exception of the gun sub-plot. I simply don't buy the premise that a middle-class man, no matter that he's on his way onto the streets, has the "criminal" connections to buy an "untraceable" gun, especially in Toronto.

As an aside, there are apparently quite a number of young, pretty women who go to plays on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Either they are all single, an odd circumstance given their attractiveness, or their boyfriends aren't into plays. And so it goes ...