Week of September 8, 2005, Issue #516
ARTS
Bobby gets socked
By CAROLYN NIKODYM
Some people reflect on their late teens with misty-eyed nostalgia, remembering
the days they stood on the line that separated youthful frivolity and naïve
maturity; others look back with a feeling of dread, remembering the buildup
to that inevitable moment when youth ends and adulthood begins, and they realize
that the stakes are higher than they have ever been. It’s precisely this
uncomfortable moment that is captured in George F. Walker’s play Tough!
As the play begins, 19-year-old Bobby (Adam Keefe) is summoned to a meeting
with his girlfriend Tina (Natasha Lewis) and her best friend Jill (Chelsea Thompson).
Tina has a couple of bones to pick with Bobby, and has brought along Jill as
her backup. That situation alone is enough to make any guy shudder, and Walker’s
script captures all of that uncomfortable teenage angst and awkwardness. But
this is serious business—Tina is pregnant, and she’s waiting for
Bobby to say the right thing, which, at this stage in his life, he is incapable
of doing.
“I think it’s a really intelligent script about those moments where
you are forced to deal with adulthood,” says director and producer Michelle
Kennedy. “When I first read the play, I was drawn to Bobby—for an
actor, what a great character Bobby would be. He goes through so much, his whole
life changes, his whole perspective changes. When he comes back at the very
end of the play, he’s really ready to have a real conversation about what’s
gonna happen. And I don’t think it’s like, ‘oooh, and now
he wants to get back together’ or any of those things.
“The other thing, for the actor, for Adam, is Bobby doesn’t ever
lie,” she continues. “I think for an actor, part of being an actor,
in your little tool box that you can use against other characters is you have
all these secrets. It’s like, ‘oooh, when am I going to reveal that?’
Like, they kind of lie a little. But Bobby can’t lie, ever. I don’t
think he ever lies. Like, even though he puts his foot so far in his mouth,
it’s always the truth. He says the stupidest things and the meanest things,
but he still says them. Like, he says to her, ‘I want to care about you,
but I can’t.’ It’s so mean, but he says it, and it’s
the truth.”
Despite the serious subject matter, there is humour in the naïveté
of the three characters. Jill, the protective friend, deals with the situation
with an acerbic tongue that only makes matters worse, while Tina is so utterly
confused that she can’t even allow Bobby to say the right thing while
she verbally considers her fate. But Bobby is a case all on his own—he
is both beautifully and brutally honest, yet to learn the fine art of tact,
and it is here that the play derives much of its wit.
“I’ve been finding the humour the more the actors have been finding
it, the more they’re getting to know the script better. There are parts
when it’s so funny,” says Kennedy. “It’s a hilarious
play. There’s a scene after Jill kicks the shit out of Bobby, where he’s,
like, bawling on the floor. And some of the stuff that Bobby says, some of it’s
so ridiculous sometimes, it’s so mean, but it’s just like, ‘idiot,
you’re going to get killed for that one.’ I think it’s really
funny, and I think to ignore that, to make it so serious all the time would
totally do a disservice to the play. You can’t exist on this super-high
emotional moment for an hour and a half—you just exhaust people. I always
feel bad when I see those plays and there’s an actor and they’re
crying for two hours; it’s exhausting to watch.”
This show marks the inaugural production of Mischief and Mayhem Theatre, a company
that Kennedy and Natasha Lewis recently founded after Kennedy had returned from
after-graduation travel. Says Kennedy, she had developed a real passion for
theatre during university and in NextFest, and decided she wanted to start her
own theatre company.
“I’d been home for about three weeks and Natasha called me and said,
‘let’s do a show,’” explains Kennedy. “So we sat
around over a couple of bellinis one night and hashed it all out. She really
wanted to act, and I’m such a control freak that I wanted to do everything
else.
“For where we are in our careers, it was the perfect step to take. Edmonton’s
really supportive because it’s such a huge theatre community,” she
continues. “And I was, like, okay, I can do this, or I can not do theatre—and
that’s dumb. I had always been planning on doing it anyway, and it was
just very fortuitous that Natasha had called me when she did.” V
Tough!
Directed by Michelle Kennedy • Written by George F. Walker •
Starring Natasha Lewis, Adam Keefe and Chelsea Thompson • Azimuth Theatre
• Sept 8-11 & 15-18