THE COLD WAR – PART ONE by Michael Hollingsworth (VideoCabaret). Runs to June 5 at the VideoCabaret Theatre (10 Busy). $30, Sun pwyc, Tue $10. eventbrite.com. Rating: NNNN
The return of live theatre in Toronto wouldn’t be the same without a chapter in Michael Hollingsworth’s epic 21-play cycle about Canadian history, The History Of The Village Of The Small Huts. VideoCabaret’s black-box style productions of the shows have been a crucial part of the city’s independent theatre scene for decades.
Thankfully, the company has emerged from the pandemic with The Cold War – Part One. It’s full of intrigue, satire, eye-popping visuals and, with the recent aggression by Russia, a disturbing timeliness.
Co-directors Mac Fyfe and Hollingsworth employ a noir style for the show, from the black-and-white projected title card to the lush, dramatic sounds in Richard Feren’s compositions. That’s fitting, because we start in the 1940s, film noir’s greatest decade, and so watching Russian spies infiltrating diplomatic gatherings and passing along top secret files seems apt.
The well-known players include John Diefenbaker, Mackenzie King (complete with beloved dog), Igor Gouzenko and the ghost of Franklin D. Roosevelt. But because so much time passes, Hollingsworth has cleverly created a fictional family, the Muffets, headed by dad Tom (Greg Campbell) and mom, Mary (Aurora Browne). As the 40s turn into the 50s and early 60s, the Muffets go from post-war optimism to being forced into a conformist, consumerist box, with hints that their TV-watching kids (Kimwun Perehinec and Cliff Saunders) will want to break free from all that very soon.
Beautifully lit by Andrew Dollar and costumed by Astrid Janson, the actors bring the multiple stories to life with dazzling, efficient theatricality. VideoCab veterans like Richard Alan Campbell, Richard Clarkin, Greg Campbell and Cliff Saunders (who was in The Cold War’s premiere in 1995) are joined by company newcomers like Valerie Buhagiar and Perehinec, whose malleable mugs – covered in signature white makeup – look right at home. (At some point in every VideoCab show, I wonder what it’s like to be backstage rapidly changing costumes or calling the hundreds of precise lighting cues.)
While your knowledge of history might be a little rusty (what is NORAD, again?), the show will have you Googling names and events. It will also leave you waiting to find out what happens to the Muffets in the second part, due in 2023.
Of course this production, like all VideoCab shows, wouldn’t exist without the contributions of founder and director Deanne Taylor, who died at the end of 2020. It’s fitting that this show, the first in the company’s new Leslieville home, concludes with video footage of Taylor that would have been taken in the same era chronicled in the play. A lovely touch.
