John is the semi-eerie tale of a millennial couple who stay at a cluttered BnB while sight-seeing Gettysburg, USA, home of The Battle of Gettysburg. Waited on by Mertis, a lonely, batty and benevolent older lady, the piece takes on an almost ghostly vibe as we learn of the house’s bloody history and constantly ponder what on earth is going on in the out-of-bounds room upstairs.

The real winner here is Shannon Lea Doyle’s set design, which was the exact opposite of sparse. Dolls, trinkets, figurines and bric-a-brac filled every available space, truly painting the image of “that weird place we booked online filled with all the junk we’ll talk about the whole car journey home”. Offerings such as Mertis’ Parisian style eating area (characterized solely by a large Eiffel Tower Statue really hammered home the cheap kitsch vibes, making us feel sad and empathetic towards her.

Philip Riccio and Loretta Yu were excellent as the squabbling Elias and Jenny, who portrayed all of our stale relationships rolled into one. Of course, the message here was that modern technology allows for us to conceal feelings and connections in plain sight, which is almost as scary as the blank porcelain faces of Mertis’ doll collection.

Nancy Beatty was a true delight as the eccentric and mysterious Mertis, and I was delighted further when we were introduced to her friend, her co-conspirator through the lonely abyss, Genevieve, who has more in common with Jenny than we first thought. The combination of the two older ladies provided many of the laugh out loud moments of the show, as well as being complicit in some very aching silences.

A myriad of ideas and a world of endless, possibilities meant that, like Mertis and Genevieve, the play was in no hurry. John is 3 hours long, which means you really need to be prepared to settle in for the evening, although I must say, it is an evening very well spent. I daresay, I will be mulling over John for some time to come.

John is put on by The Company Theatre and runs at the Berkeley Street Theatre until the 18^th of February. Visit their website for further details and tickets.

The post Company Theatre’s production of JOHN by Pulitzer Prize winner Annie Baker appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

The battle of the sexes is a theme that is continually re-enacted time and again, yet when they are performed it usually maintains a lighter dynamic as to not to touch too close to home. Domesticated did no such thing and definitely did not shy away from touching on heavy topics of infidelity, power roles and gender stereotypes with a wickedly sharp and hilarious edge.

Domesticated begins with Bill Pulver, a popular Politician, (Paul Gross) and his real-life and onscreen wife, Judy (Martha Burns) approaching a stage to state a public apology for his infidelity and scandalous behaviour. In turn, this naturally causes irrevocable damage to Bill’s public image and his private life to slowly unravel.

If you haven’t guessed it by now, the time old story of the Politician who had an affair with younger women sounds almost cliché, but Domesticated took a different twist on it. The intimate performance allowed the audience to feel every ounce of agony and tension between his wife and the children, as the father simply sits on the sidelines in utter despair and drudgery as his wife and almost every woman he comes in contact wit, continually rips him to shreds.

The plot unravels after it is made clear that Bill was out with a prostitute one night, and during sexual “role-play” she had accidentally fallen, banged her head and fell into a deadly coma. From here the seams of the tapestry are pulled away and years of infidelity begin to unfold before Martha’s very naive eyes. During the beginning of the play Bill stays silent for the most part, as Martha and a multitude of different women express these thoughts and feelings about Bill’s repulsive actions. Yet, the audience senses how his repressed frustration begins to grow as no matter what he says or what her does, nothing can make the situation better.

Throughout the saga, some comic relief of the heavy topics were continually sprinkled in as their youngest daughter Cassidy, who is strangely adopted from Cambodia, presents examples of how in other animal tribes the female is typically the dominate one and the use of the male counterpart is strictly for reproductive purposes. As she continues with these examples throughout the play, the male’s role continues to become more minute and insignificant, mirroring Bills fall from high-powered politician into penny-less, powerless and grovelling old man.

Although some aspects of the performance might make some feel uncomfortable or perhaps, touch a bit too close to home, Domesticated definitely strikes a nerve by shining a light on fascinating and subconscious aspects of the male and female mind. Take the performance in good humour, remember its intention is not only to entertain but also to move you and you’ll be sure to have an unforgettable, wild experience

Domesticated is playing November 17 to December 19 at The Company Theatre.

Visit their website for info and tickets.

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