MAMMA’S BOY by Randie Parliament (Ghost Light Projects). At Factory Studio (125 Bathurst). Runs in rep with Larger Than Life to June 12. $15-$37.50. 416-504-9971. See Listing. Rating: NN
It’s always a gamble when writers cast themselves as leads in their own plays. Sometimes the trouble is that they take the part they’ve written themselves too seriously, but Randie Parliament has the opposite problem.[rssbreak]
Stumbling through scenes and flubbing lines, Parliament seems woefully unprepared, giving a sluggish and uninspired performance as Peter, a queer 20-something who returns to his small Alberta hometown to visit his ailing mother and reflect on his fractured family. Parliament’s acting is inexplicably stiff, and about as engaging to watch as Keanu Reeves on sedatives.
The seen-it-before family-drama delves into Peter’s difficult childhood and adolescence through a series of flashback scenes and freeze-frame asides, first focusing on Peter’s alcoholic, authoritarian mother (Kris Skjellerup) and his free-spirited older sister Janie (Briana Templeton), and later on his seemingly benign father (Sky Gilbert).
Skjellerup and Templeton are both solid enough in their roles, but Gilbert’s lackadaisical turn as a working-class dad is in step with Parliament. The play’s overuse of asides (signalled by clumsy and unnecessary lighting transitions) interrupts the action, functioning as exposition rather than actually adding to the dramatic flow of the show.
The script does offer a few decent comic moments, but these are sardonic or campy one-liners that don’t further the play’s drama.
