A BOY CALLED NEWFOUNDLAND by Graeme Gillis, directed by Ashlie Corcoran (Theatre Smash). Tarragon Extra Space (30 Bridgman). Runs to April 11, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2:30 pm. $15-$30. 416-531-1827. See listing. Rating: NNN
When a play’s titled A Boy Called Newfoundland, you expect the story or characters, if not both, to be eccentric.
While Graeme Gillis’s script about the pleasures and pitfalls of romantic love is indeed quirky, the sometimes entertaining parts don’t add up to a satisfying whole.
The title character (Patrick Kwok-Choon) – stuck not only with Newfoundland as a first name but also the nickname Flounder – is a shy 15-year-old who feels most at home with his family, though he does have a crush on a young Quebecois woman (Vivien Endicott-Douglas) he met at French camp. When Newfoundland’s mother (Martha Burns) returns from a second honeymoon without his father (Layne Coleman), the teen is forced to become the man of the family.
Add two sisters – one (Lara Jean Chorostecki) involved with a divinity student (Martin Happer) and the other (Natasha Greenblatt) with a secret passion – the mother’s loss of interest in the family’s business, a publication called The Romantic Times, and the father’s desire not to be found by his children.
The result? A dysfunctional group whose oddities could fuel several plays.
But while some individual scenes hit the mark, others don’t. It’s only about the halfway mark that characters start to connect with each other, a problem with the writing rather than director Ashlie Corcoran’s production.
There’s a fine scene, for example, where each of the three children recounts to their depressed mother an amorous incident from their past each memoir is both enjoyable and bizarre, but the trio of tales doesn’t push the story forward.
We start to care about the characters and their relationships in the second half, when the sisters go on a road trip to find their father Corcoran stages with maximum comic and bonding effect, while Greenblatt and Chorostecki clearly have as much fun as the audience. There’s also a moving reunion between father and son, which Kwok-Choon and Coleman (who makes a strong impression in the few scenes he has) play both for humour and tenderness.
There’s lots of cleverness in Robin Fisher’s multilevel and multicolour set, too, with sections popping open and transforming into unexpected playing areas. The set would work even better if it were black, though props and added design pieces frequently get lost, as does Jason Hand’s lighting.
jonkap@nowtoronto.com [rssbreak]
