A tragic boy-meets-girl…
with ballerinas
Chlorine, an auspicious directorial debut for Johanna Nutter
By Byron Toben
The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place.
G. Bernard Shaw
In this play, Sarah (Cat Lemieux), a chubby teenager known as Lard Ass, becomes immobile as result of being force fed liquid Chlorine as a prank by two boys, not realizing its poisonous effects.
Her communication is limited only to eye blinks. Her parents, finely played by Brian Wright and Linda Smith, become full time caregivers. They manage to communicate in a manner, with the aid of a letter board to which they laboriously point for “yes” or “no” blinks. The strain creates difficult relations between them after nine years. Dad even mulls about “letting Nature takes its course” but cannot challenge the watchdog dedication of Mom.
Somehow, Sarah, who once adored The Sound of Music evinces a desire to have the company of a youth of her own age. Dad convinces a neighbour boy, Nathan, played with a combo of teenage uncertainty and ebullience by recent Concordia theatre grad Augustus Rivers, to visit her.
At first completely bored, he gradually develops a tender fondness for her as she becomes a captive audience for his own problems and concerns.
Beginning the show and throughout, three nimble ballerinas (Mélanie Lebrun, Catherine Gonthier and Erika Morin) dance and flit about, adding a touch of elegance and grace (in Sarah’s mind?) to the setting.
The play, originally written and choreographed by Quebeckers Florence Longpré and Nicholas Michon, has been translated into English and produced and directed by popular actor Johanna Nutter, well known for her landmark My Pregnant Brother and, with Ms Lemieux, in Good People.
It is the initial effort of her new own company, Creature/Creature, which, like infintheatre, has adopted an eye as its logo.
The generous Ms Nutter credits fourteen persons in this play/ballet. The other seven offstage are mostly technical people. Her bare bones financing continues on indiegogo (creaturecreature presents chlorine).
The original inspiration is based on true events in Mascouche.
The production raises reminiscences of the 1993 mercy killing by Saskatchewan farmer Robert Latimer of his long suffering daughter, Tracey. As well as the 2012 Segal Centre production of Vigil with non speaking then 89-year-old Kim Yarosheskaya in bed (OK, she does surprise the audience with a few words at the very end).
It was 101 years ago, during WW I, that German scientists released chlorine into Belgian and Canadian trenches justifying it as a less bloody “higher form of killing” and refining poison gas into the even more deadly Phosgene over the next two years. Don’t get me started on WW II with Zyklon B or Bhopal with MIC, both incorporating cyanide, a chemical cousin to Chlorine.
But I digress. As a play, Chlorine and tutus are good for your theatrical wellbeing.
Chlorine continues at the Centaur until November 29.
Information and tickets at 514 288-3161 or centaurtheatre.com
Images: © James Douglas
Byron Toben is the immediate past-president of the Montreal Press Club
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