Guest theatre review – Bash – latter days

Writer Stacey Robinsmith can be found at www.theleftcoast.ca providing Vancouver and beyond with commentary and analysis on a daily basis that is informed, insightful and irreverent.

The Carousel Theatre is where many children’s plays such as Love you FOREVER…and more Munsch, the adaptation of children’s’ author Robert Munsch’s stories are put on the stage. However, from August 19th to 22nd, a Neil LaBute play, bash—latter day plays is playing at the Carousel. It is not possible that infanticide, gay-bashing or murder committed by seemingly normal people, could be further in theme or content from the kids’ plays that typically play on this stage.

LaBute’s play is actually comprised of three single act plays, or perhaps more accurately, three separate confessions of savage killings by three otherwise everyday folks. It is reported that initially LaBute wrote this play with the main characters overtly being members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Not surprisingly, the church did not appreciate this nod in their direction and hence his split from the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

The opening act has Michael Bean walk on the stage set with one white straight-back plain wooden chair on an otherwise entirely black stage. Bean plays the role of a “man” who has met someone in a hotel lounge and returned to his room to confess his sin and crime. And what a confession it is; his hatred for women is confessed line by line. His nervous movements and gestures, the partially full glass of water he carries with him and the pained expressions on his sweaty face all reveal this misogynist for who he is. Bean plays the role of the confessor with stunning realism.

As quickly as Michael Bean leaves the blacked out stage a young couple appear. John, the grinning male, is played by Stafford Perry while Veronica Campbell plays the role of a gushing Sue. Perry’s 10,000 watt super smile is his prop while Campbell’s giddy enjoyment of their big night out at a party and her “little black dress” are hers. While Stafford’s ear to ear grin can warm the hearts of audience members, it is his ability to instantaneously go from the beaming youth to the darkly dangerous gay-bashing animal who himself has a latent homosexual desire that is most frightening. All the while “Sue” is describing the party scene in her childishly giddy voice. This act of the play is creepy beyond words. Fortunately after this act there is a fifteen minute intermission to let the sell-out audience escape the stifling heat of the theatre.

Post-intermission the stage is set with a chair in front of a table, with a tape recorder, cigarettes, ashtray and a glass of water on it. Enter Nevada Yates Robart in the role of a “woman”. Nevada is dressed in orange coveralls to reinforce the fact that she is in a prison-setting. Her story of childhood sexual exploitation is told in the wide-eyed wonder of a child in a woman’s body. The voice and facial expressions tell the tale of a child’s stolen innocence.

The cast and crew of this production were all unpaid volunteers. They put together a disturbing, shocking and poignant play that demonstrates how thin the veneer over the monster within everyday people really is. If you want to see theatre in its most raw form, get to the Carousel Theatre and witness this production of Neil LaBute’s bash—latter day plays. Love it or hate it, you will not soon forget the performance.

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3. Theatre review – “tick, tick… BOOM!” (Fighting Chance Productions)
4. Theatre review – “The 21st Floor” at PAL Theatre (Coal Harbour)
5. Theatre review – 2o of Fear and Desire