BREATH IN BETWEEN by Anton Piatigorsky (Crows Theatre). At Streetcar Crowsnest (345 Carlaw). Runs to March 11. $20-$40. crowstheatre.com. See listing. Rating: NN
Its hard to make things like murder, cannibalism and role-playing dull, but Anton Piatigorsky manages to do that in his two-hander Breath In Between.
Roger (Kyle Gatehouse) has just knifed to death two people a man named Maxim and a woman named Julia after placing an ad on the internet looking for willing victims. Later, in a bar, he meets a stranger named Amy (Julia Krauss), and they begin a relationship that gets more complex when she reveals that she knows about the murders. Whats more, she wants them to alternately pretend to be the victims.
Piatigorskys scripts are seldom straightforward. He likes to circle back to events, approach things from different angles and keep us off balance, all the while making us ask, Whats real, and what isnt?
At first, things are intriguing certainly the premise is macabre, if a little reminiscent of Jeremy Taylors recent (and far more effective) Big Plans. But soon the writing which also includes monologues by Roger and Amy talking to unseen characters grows precious and convoluted.
Piatigorsky has worked with some superb directors among them Crows own Chris Abraham and former Buddies artistic director Brendan Healy, who helmed an earlier version of this play at SummerWorks. Greenhouse and Krauss, though watchable, are a little young and fail to suggest the hellish depths of their older predecessors (Paul Fauteux and Amy Rutherford) in the SummerWorks version.
And in Piatigorskys hands, even simple things like how much time has gone by or whos speaking things that should ground us in a complex play like this are often unclear. Matters arent helped by Shannon Lee Doyles spare set dominated by a red brick wall.
Granted, Piatigorskys dealing with a nightmarish world of people haunted by their past deeds. But there should still be some clear way to navigate through this nightmare. Rather than being frightening, its simply tedious.
