I AM
YOURS by Judith Thompson
(Equity Showcase).
Rating: NNNNN
Benjamin Clost is one of those actors you can’t stop watching. It’s not just the energy he generates onstage — though he has loads of that, as his performance as the romantically suicidal Joey in Road amply demonstrated — but also his facility with language. Last year, in his graduating year at George Brown, he juggled meaning and emotion in Shakespeare, Restoration comedy and 20th-century works.
Clost followed all that up over the summer with a splendid Puck in Daryl Cloran’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Now, the Ottawa-raised performer (he used to be part of a clown duo called Pork and Beans) gets down and dirty as Toilane, obsessed with a neurotic woman in Judith Thompson’s gritty, disturbing I Am Yours.
“This is the first script since Shakespeare where I feel I can just give myself over to the words,” says Clost. “Each character has a huge stake in every scene, which makes for an exhausting roller-coaster experience.”
Given Clost’s skills, he’s sure to give audiences a great ride.
jonkap@nowtoronto.com
