Red Machine (Part Two): senseless

This is the photograph which accompanies the review which is of a show that Allyson saw.

Toronto: Red Machine (Part Two), presented as part of this year's SummerWorks Festival, is the second part of an experiment.  Seven writers were given the same idea – mysterious writer checks into strange hotel – and asked to explore it from the point-of-view of a particular part of the brain.  Part two deals with language (Section Four), light and vision (Section Five) and the pleasure centre (Section Six).

I found this entire piece to be fairly incomprehensible. The sections seem connected as all the actors are the same and I think that one actor may be “the writer” all the way through, yet nothing makes any sense as a whole.

 

Section Four involves one actor reciting a text with little meaning where each sentence begins with “This sentence is...”  Section Five has a blind boy, his mother who does magic tricks, his unhappy father and an intermittent magician who wanders in and out but seems fairly unconnected to the other characters. Section Six includes a man trapped in a wheelchair whose speech you hear as recorded voice-over, his wife who still wants to have sex with him and a memory version of the same man who is still mobile.  

 

The only reason I know that the plays are based on the idea of a mysterious writer in a hotel is because I read the program notes. That should probably not be required in order to make sense of a theatrical offering.

 

So, if you want to experience a true experiment where several creators are working from the same idea, this may be for you. On the other hand, if you like to have some sense of what's going on and why you're spending time watching it... well, you probably should check out a different show at Summerworks.

 

If you're curious, you can see what Ryan West thought of Part One here.

 

Credits:  Red Machine (Part Two) produced by The Room; Section Four “This Sentence Is The Title” text by Rick Roberts, direction by Geoffrey Pounsett; Section Five “The Illusionist's Heart” text by Jenny Young, direction by Geoffrey Pounsett; Section Six “My Pleasure” text by Tara Beagan, direction by Chris Hanratty; all sections performed by John Gilbert, Paula-Jean Prudat, Christopher Stanton and David Yee; composition and sound design Thomas Ryder Payne; set, props & costume design by Gillian Gallow/Anna Treusch; assistant direction by Leona Morris; stage management by Sherry Roher and general management by Natasha Bean-Smith.

 

 

By Allyson McGrane