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Culture Theatre

>>> Review: A George F. Walker Double Bill

A GEORGE F. WALKER DOUBLE BILL: PARENTS NIGHT and THE BIGGER ISSUE by George F. Walker (CrazyLady). At Theatre Passe Muraille (16 Ryerson). Runs to May 17, Wednesday-Saturday 7:30 pm, matinee Sunday 2 pm. $35-$42.50, Sunday pwyc/$17.50 advance, some discounts. 416-504-7529, crazylady.info. Rating: Parents: NNN Bigger: NNNN

George F. Walkers plays dont allow audiences to simply sit back and be entertained. Satiric, questioning, occasionally absurd but always with sympathy for his characters, Walker focuses on our social frameworks and the ways were messed them up.

In the two plays that inaugurate a new cycle, After Class, Walker turns his attention to the education system and the way it hinders rather than helps teachers, students and their parents.

The production by CrazyLady, directed by Wes Berger, starts slowly but builds to the kind of energetic altercations and surprising alliances that define Walkers works.

In Parents Night, grade three teacher Nicole (Sarah Murphy-Dyson) confronts two quite different parents. John (Matthew Olver) is a neurotic Type-A businessman, insistent that his son be taught to be competitive, a lesson hell need in life. Rosie (Dana Puddicombe), a confrontational mother who doesnt understand why her daughters ostracized in class, is good at getting in peoples faces.

As we learn this trios secrets, the parents become more and more like children, to the point where Nicole has to treat them as unruly students.

The interactions, though, are sluggish at the beginning and the stakes need ratcheting up. That happens with the appearance of Puddicombe, whose Rosie might not understand the meaning of personal space but sure has a handle on Walkers brisk rhythms. Murphy-Dyson brings an edge to Nicole even when the teacher thinks shes being nice, and shes best when she turns on the condescending parents.

The Bigger Issue is, well, a bigger play in terms of what it tackles. Were still in school, this time a grade seven class, where teacher Suzy (Julia Heximer) has pushed a large student who was threatening a classmate. Her principal, Irene (Murphy-Dyson), is worried about repercussions, especially with the appearance of the boys parents, Maggie (Puddicombe) and Jack (Olver), the former a daunting legal type.

But the confrontations here are economic as well as educational the difference between haves and have-nots drive the action, and not just in the classroom. The defiant way characters oppose each other has the feel of some of Walkers earlier works, especially the Suburban Motel cycle.

Maybe that larger picture gives a stronger grounding to the production, for theres dramatic tension right from the start in the scene between the callow, idealistic Suzy and the tough-assed, burned-out Irene, who couldnt bear to return to the teaching trenches. Her speech about a worsening education system that causes those who work in it to have a crisis of faith is a highlight.

Again Puddicombe stands out, this time as a mother who defends her family by means of intimidation and insinuation, and Olver fits more easily into the role of the insecure, well-intentioned Jack than the demanding father in the first play.

Given the stress each character faces, the play ends on an unexpectedly optimistic note, revolving around a redefined sense of family, or, as Maggie phrases it, valuing a human rather than a convenient truth.

Things could get better for these people, all around.

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