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Culture Theatre

Monday Nights

MONDAY NIGHTS by Byron Abalos, Colin Doyle, Darrel Gamotin, Richard Lee and Jeff Yung (6th Man Collective). At the Theatre Centre (1115 Queen). Runs to September 20. $25-$30. 416-538-0988. See listing. Rating: NNN

This interactive show is part amateur sports memoir and part basketball skills clinic. Four actors, each deeply passionate about the cathartic, community-building potential of the game, lead teams of audience members through some basic hoops training, followed by friendly competitive drills.

The result is an intriguing look at the relationship between theatre and sports that’s ultimately heartwarming and fun if you’re not afraid to relive some gym class awkwardness (or glory, depending on your skill level) in front of total strangers.

Inspired by weekly pickup basketball games organized by the actors in the summer of 2008, Monday Nights divides the audience into four teams, each led by one of the affable actor “captains.” The first segment features a warm-up demonstration game between the actor/captains while audience members listen to a team-specific audio program in which your captain talks about his relationship to basketball and shares some beginner tips on dribbling, shooting and passing.

Next you’re introduced to your teammates, given a nickname and guided through some warm-up exercises. The final portion is a skills competition between the four teams, culminating in some six-on-six action. At the end, points are tallied and a winner is declared, but it’s really all about having fun and getting a sense of how the simple act of putting a ball in a hoop affected these guys so much.

While introducing each portion of the competition, the actor/captains (all super-nice dudes, almost to a fault) offer up brutally honest assessments of their lives and personalities. In the spirit of good-natured trash-talk among tight-knit friends, fears of abandonment, commitment, failure and aging are raised and confronted, and then loosely enacted in the skills challenge that follows.

Since the focus is on preparing the audience to play, the show runs a little light on this kind of analysis and character development. Beyond the audio introductions and peer evaluations, it would be nice to see more of how the game changed these guys rather than just hearing that it did. There’s also potential for some expanded critical reflection about the game itself why competition and camaraderie on the court is so useful to them as actors.

But this is a unique and provocative piece of hybrid theatre that should score with diverse audiences.

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