OH MY IRMA by Haley McGee (Theatre-Passe Muraille Backspace, 16 Ryerson). To January 29. $25$30. 416-504-7529. See Listings. Rating: NNNN
It takes a little while to warm up to Mission Bird, the intensely awkward, hyperactive and imaginative character that Haley McGee plays in her cute and disturbing solo show. But after following her dense and breathless monologue for a few minutes, a strangely enchanting world takes shape and draws you in.
Mission Bird is a nerdy teenager obsessed with an elderly man and his dog, Irma. She becomes convinced that the man is somehow connected to her dead mother, who was also named Irma, and begins snooping for clues around his apartment.
Apart from Mission Bird’s blood-spattered thrift-store outfit and an old suitcase, director Alisa Palmer relies only on suggestive lighting and eerie sound design to set various scenes. The rest is left to McGee’s monologue, which is so rich with description that it could stand alone as a radio play.
Physically, McGee conveys her character’s inner state through constant fidgets, hand-wringing, hyperventilation and quick dashes to the back corner to whisper pep-talk mantras. (Imagine a spazzed-out combination of Napoleon Dynamite, Michael Cera and a crackhead.) The result is always funny on the surface but also evocative of the mental struggles people face every day.
An adorable, oddball anti-hero, Mission Bird is such a wonderfully well-formed character, it would be a shame if her twisted adventures ended here.
