RECONCILIATION written and directed by Sky Gilbert (Cabaret Company). At Buddies in Bad Times (12 Alexander). Runs to April 25. Pwyc-$25. 416-975-8555. See Continuing. Rating: NNN
You know things won’t go right when the tie-and-jacketed Jared (Wes Berger), with cellphone and laptop, walks into his brother Blake’s (Jason Cadieux) filthy farmhouse filled with cases of Labatt 50.[rssbreak]
In Sky Gilbert’s Reconciliation, they’re the equivalent of the city and country mouse, one a university prof, the other a gravel-pit worker who raises pot and emus. Not surprisingly, they fight over just about everything.
Too bad the stop-and-start writing at the beginning needlessly recycles that point. Only when things settle down, about 30 minutes in, do the dynamics of their relationship resonate and the brothers’ rigid positions and a suggestion of secrets start to pay off.
The second act begins with unexpected revelations but goes off course with the introduction of the ghost of the men’s father (Bruce Beaton), whose philosophical meanderings are the dramatic equivalent of hitting the pause button. Beaton’s performance is solid, but his character feels like an add-on.
Despite these script problems, Gilbert has written two well-counterbalanced characters. The brothers might not at first seem fully fleshed out, but under the playwright’s direction, Cadieux and Berger give strong, tense performances, with just the right chemistry. There’s both comedy and realism in their fighting, as well as a sense that they take care of each other – or at least check in with each other – after a round of mutual battering.
Jared and Blake become richer in the second act, leading to a final scene that has a touch of the sentimental but brings the action to a plausible, if tentative, settlement.
