Tijuana Cure/Another Home Invasion: the unfairness of life and theatre
The one-person show can be a tricky format to navigate. The best of them are intimate and unfettered; the worst are akin to being stuck in an elevator with an irritating bore. Toronto presently has two one-person shows on stage that are markedly different in style and content but provide an interesting contrast.
Layne Coleman’s *Tijuana Cure*, playing in the "Passe Muraille":http://www.passemuraille.on.ca/ backspace and based on a real life tragedy, has the unfortunate distinction of being a missed opportunity for the audience to connect with that tragedy, while Joan Macleod’s *Another Home Invasion*, at the "Tarragon Theatre":http://www.tarragontheatre.com/, is a poignant and understated monologue on ageing and loss.
Tijuana Cure revolves around a trip Coleman and his ailing wife make to an alternative treatment hospital in Tijuana in a last ditch effort to reverse her nearly all-consuming cancer. Despite the protagonist being a 50 year old man, the creative team opts to put the young - and female - Ieva Lucs on stage to handle the role. Although counter-intuitive casting can be a bold and effective stroke (the Shehori Brothers’ "One Woman Show":http://shehori.googlepages.com/onewomanshow is a prime example), Lucs’ dissonance does nothing to enhance the work. In fact it is her emotional over-emphasis and often cartoonish huffing between sentences that is the greatest distraction.
Not all blame can be put on Luc’s shoulders. Coleman’s script is heavy on mundane excerpts from the couple’s travelogue as well as asides recounting exploits from the author’s sexual history. Although these elements add a bit of humour and a saucy throughline to the piece, they ultimately push the character of Coleman’s wife to the margins. Despite her brief appearances, one can tell that she is by far the more interesting of the two characters and more worthy of the limelight. Coleman does nail the emotional tenderness between husband and wife, and the fleeting moments in which the two interact are by far the best of the hour.
Another Home Invasion is, on the other hand, a far stronger piece, despite being much more subdued in content and delivery. Jean (Nicola Lipman), an elderly woman living with her husband in an otherwise empty family home in North Vancouver, navigates the process of ageing in a funny, earnest, and unsentimental manner. A strange encounter with a strung-out young man on her porch disturbs her internal equilibrium and provokes her to reflect on the fragility of her situation.
Lipman, arguably one of Toronto’s finest stage actors, is able to convey with grace and believability both the struggle of an older person to maintain their pride in a young person’s world and the tragedy of losing a life partner. Director Richard Rose is wise to have avoided theatrical flourishes in favour of letting MacLeod’s script’s remarkable naturalism take centre stage. Having said that, some subtle lighting changes and musical cues work seamlessly to punctuate the more poignant moments.
What Tijuana Cure and Another Home Invasion share is their respective ruminations on loss. There’s a certain irony in that the piece with more real-life history and, by extension, greater tragedy is overshadowed by a superior production that rings truer despite its more fictional background. Both of these shows make the point that life is far from fair, and in this case neither is theatre.
_Tijuana Cure by Layne Coleman; Featuring Ieva Lucs; Directed by Ashlie Corcoran; was presented at Theatre Passe Muraille Backspace. For more information go_ "here":http://www.theatresmash.com/events/productions/tijuana-cure/
_Another Home Invasion by Joan MacLeod; Directed by Richard Rose; Featuring Nicola Lipman; Set Design by Scott Reid; Costume Desing by Jenifer Darbellay; Lighting Design by David Fraser; Stage Manger Emma Laird; presented by Tarragon Theatre, a co-production with Alberta Theatre Projects; you can find out more information_ "here":http://www.tarragontheatre.com/season/0809/anotherhomeinvasion/