BELLEVILLE by Amy Herzog (Company Theatre/Canadian Stage). At the Berkeley Street Theatre (26 Berkeley). Runs to May 4. $22-$49. 416-368-3110. See listing. Rating: NNNN
The title of Amy Herzog’s Belleville refers to the colourful, diverse Paris neighbourhood where her characters live. It also stands for the picture-perfect existence Zack (Allan Hawco) and Abby (Christine Horne) have set up for themselves. Young Americans abroad, he works for Doctors Without Borders as a physician helping children with AIDS, while she teaches yoga. Enviable, right?
That’s one of the big themes Herzog explores as her clever script – part mystery and part psychological drama – unfolds.
In the opening sequence, Abby walks into their flat to the sound of Zack masturbating to internet porn. But that’s not the only secret he’s keeping from her. The mysteries begin to pile up with the appearance of their Senegalese-Parisian landlord, Alioune (Dalmar Abuzeid), and phone calls from Zack’s secretary and Abby’s father. (Her sister’s about to give birth in the States.)
Add to that the fact that Abby’s still mourning her mother’s death a few years earlier and is off her depression medication and you’ve got the ingredients for an explosive domestic situation.
The ending doesn’t detonate as it should, but that’s due more to the machinations of the script than to the direction by Jason Byrne, who moves things along briskly. He’s helped by Yannik Larivee’s naturalistic set, complete with many doors that hint at what’s going on behind them, Kevin Lamotte’s lighting, which suggests shadows full of mystery, and Richard Feren’s urban-angst sound design.
Hawco and Horne’s Zack and Abby play off each other beautifully, sharing pet names and sensitive to each other’s shifting moods and desires. Their relationship – what they want from each other and what they’re getting – has to hold the play together, and the two actors communicate a lot with a look, a change in voice pitch or the positioning of a limb.
As the contrasting seen-it-all landlord couple, Abuzeid and Marsha Regis are also excellent in this absorbing and disturbing look at what’s beneath the American dream.
