Little White Lies: why diaries are supposed to be private

Someone here has daddy issues. I'm just not sure who, or why I should care. While watching Little White Lies - an immature one-woman monologue here on tour from Ottawa - it seems like in all probability it's the actor (I couldn't find indication of her name anywhere), the piece comes off like an autobiographical re-enactment of a teenager's diary in which she bubble-headedly goes on and on about her family and her fantasy romantic life, complete with simplistic impressions of her parents and her starry eye-inducing love interest.

It's all a bit disconcerting as this actor clearly isn't a teenager, and her impression of one is presented in that fidgety, wide-eyed acting style favoured by children's television show hosts.

I suppose the play may hold some resonance with a teen audience in an “hey! I-fight-with-my-weird-daddy-too kind of way!”, being shared as it is from a woman whom we assume has lived through this story already, except that she didn't. As it turns out, it was written by this guy, an Ottawa “filmmaker/playwright/actor” named Cody Campanale. So we can surmise that he's either writing about his own daddy issues through this character; or he's chosen to speak for the daddy issues of young girls, either way I'm quite sure I am nowhere close to the target audience of Little White Lies.

Following the play, the actor admonished us from the stage to keep it to ourselves if we didn't like it because “nobody likes a gossip”, or something. Sorry to disappoint, but when you're charging money for what you do, that's not really the way it works.

For showtime information go here.

Do you have daddy issues? Did you have issues with this play? With Simon's review? Tell us below.