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Culture Theatre

The Big Smoke

THE BIG SMOKE by Amy Nostbakken and Nir Paldi, directed by Paldi (Theatre Ad Infinitum Canada). At Factory Studio (125 Bathurst). Runs to March 4, Tuesday-Saturday 8 pm, matinee Sunday 2:30 pm. $25, stu/srs $18, Sunday pwyc ($15 sugg). 416-504-9971. See listing. Rating: NNN

Amy Nostbakken’s husky, emotion-filled singing voice is a marvel, but it can’t give full life to The Big Smoke.

Written by Nostbakken and director Nir Paldi, the narrative focuses on Natalie, a talented young Canadian artist chosen to be part of a competition at London’s Tate Gallery.

Rich with promise, Natalie spends a month in London, supposedly preparing her submission for the contest. Instead, she sinks into a whirlpooling depression from which she can’t extricate herself.

Nostbakken sings most of the show a cappella – there are a few spoken lines – playing not only Natalie but a dozen or so others. The musical rhythms and styles shift, depending on the speaker and his or her mood, but generally there’s a jazzy feel to the 70-minute show.

Stepping decisively to a microphone at the start of the piece, garbed in a fancy pink, off-the-shoulder dress, Nostbakken takes command of the audience from the start. Her voice can be loud and vibrant or whispered and gentle, making us lean in to hear her words.

The flashiest characters – Natalie’s sex-driven girlfriend, her busybody cousin, her worried mother – are solidly up-tempo, but it’s Natalie’s internal moments that are the most convincing. The performer’s voice slows down, her face becomes expressionless and her eyes glassy there’s a touch of anger in her loss of confidence. We can’t forget those episodes, even in the giddy, happy fantasies that Natalie later paints for herself.

But the sometimes poetic text doesn’t always succeed as well as Nostbakken’s performance. Inspired by the lives and work of such writers as Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton, the story has a predictable ring, despite the aching truth in Natalie’s confusion about what she wants from life.

Though the emphasis is on the performer’s voice, her physicalizing of people is also strong. With the help of Paldi, she makes good use of the microphone, which becomes other characters and momentary props.

The best section of the work is the last, when Natalie returns home to Canada and plots, not all of it in a pleasant fashion, what to do with her future. The music is strong, the performance alternates between staccato and lyrically expressive. The final powerful image will haunt you for days.

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