I HATE BILL PATS - A Minimalist Approach to Monologue

A bare stage: a folding chair, a small table, one prop: a whisky bottle. Bill Pats - green T-shirt, torn jeans - shambles on. I note this because this is all we have to look at for 70 minutes. Pats tells how two policemen came to his door to arrest him. Some body language and changed voice reveal the manner of the police. A few minutes backstory: he was guilty of embezzlement.

And then his narrative, in an even-paced way, goes on - and on. Sometimes absorbing, sometimes harrowing, sometimes tedious, significant life experiences from his twenties to his 40th birthday. "Based on a true story," we're told - authentic, convincing, sincere, yet the "based on..." must make us pause.

The episodes are all short, separated (unnecessarily?) by dim-outs and at time a few red lights coming on. This is a loser's story, yet ends with his show accepted for the Winnipeg Fringe, a happy ending, self-referential, redeeming power of theatre (compare Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good).

Pats is author and performer, and I would guess didn't have a dramaturg or director (might I be wrong?). Always Pats reports this happened and then that happened,never 'why' or even 'I don't know why I did this.' The script gives equal attention to falling off a bicycle and attempting suicide. Detail is often lacking: surely he has a few distinctive memories of being a server. The two-minute accounts of eviction or losing another job pall;  surely ten minutes on one and one minute on another would make for more gripping listening.

He jokes about the people of Winnipeg. I wanted  more about what was unique about Winnipeg. More important, wife - to become ex-wife - and stepdaughter have only passing mentions. His wife's rejection on Christmas Eve was devastating enough for there to be more to be said.  And has he no friends and relations?

I Hate Bill Pats is described as a 'dark comedy' - the emphasis has to be on 'dark.' So if you can take yet another monologue, you could try this.