El Centro – What Did You See?

“El Centro” features a brooding, somewhat wise professor and a fidgety (unless the staging requires him to remain still), ADHD youth. Although we open and close with Professor Cohen (played convincingly by Michael Dickson), he is nearly a device for telling the story of Alex (played energetically by Chris Cope). A story which is “about” Antigua, Guatemala, and whatever REALLY happened to Alex when he visited. The narrative circles repetitively around phrases like “what I saw…” – without providing any answers of what actually happened. Sure, we get two versions of the truth, but the characterisation by both actors tell us this still isn’t the whole story. I left angry. I saw the whole thing through to the end, but I left feeling dissatisfied and frustrated.

I exercised my patience, trusting – hoping – for the narrative to reveal itself. But the repetition, the endless impotent attempts to “find out” whatever we never find out, does not deliver satisfaction. If there was a point: I missed it. Sure, I heard about the various faces of Guatemala, the good and the ugly. And I know those tales were purposefully framed in context of privileged white Canadian men visiting a struggling nation, men who had been “forever changed” by something or other… But this is where my understanding peters out.

I’m really not sure if I want to point the finger at the script, the direction, or the cast. I think Dickson and Cope are in the clear – I felt they convincingly portrayed the characters, delivering mouthfuls of lines with all the correct inflection that experienced performers can. The direction (care of Cecilia Davis) I cannot be sure about; the hand of a director is so often invisible. Which leaves the playwright, Daniel Morton, who I learn after the bows has been selected by a local theatre to workshop the piece – which is his first ever play. So perhaps here is where the work can be done – in the script – by taking the clear characters, the structure, and what could be a substantial plot and getting the ideas and the purpose of the play ironed out (and, please, hacking away the repetition).

There are inelegant shifts in focus, there are clunky bits, there is a badly handled false ending, and I could not comprehend what the point of it all was… but there are portions where everything comes together, palpable moments which you live alongside the character. If you want to support a new playwright, perhaps see the before-and-after of the upcoming workshopping: feel free. But I left angry, and I can’t promise it will be different for you.

This run of El Centro continues Sept 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, and 14 at Firehall Arts Centre