North of Dupont

last night, i met up with a troupe of classmates from my Drama Strategies course to watch Hannah Moscovitch's "East of Berlin" at the Tarragon Theatre. it was an elaborate dramatic monologue of the son of a Nazi war-criminal trying to cope with the revelation of the atrocities his father committed. i have to write a review on the production and this is my sounding board.

it was a rainy night and far colder than i anticipated. i had to downgrade to a thinner jacket because it was far more waterproof than the slightly warmer one i went out the door with. i parked at mccowan and made the trip to Dupont station without any difficulty.

i had drawn myself a small map of the area with instructions on how to get from Dupont to Tarragon Theatre. i did not account for the lack of accuracy of the official Tarragon website's map. so when i thought i was to turn, i did and found myself on a road not mentioned on that map. so i doubled back and headed north on Spadina some more, to Davenport. then i headed west until i made it to another street i completely did not recognize. thus, i wandered midtown after sundown on a rainy and windy night for a good half hour before i decided to ask for directions. seeing as how i was supposed to meet my instructor at 7:30 for the tickets, i thought it'd be a good idea to be as not-late as possible.

as i turned about George Brown College campus for approachable faces, i saw a small, squat building with the word Tarragon fitted to the side with a dim light casting ominous shadows over the name. i made my way into the cramped foyer and found my classmates. i repeated "it's going great! how's yours?" about 13 times to everyone who asked how my placement coming along. inside the actual theatre was even less space, so i made my way to the back (the top) by the AV booth. lo and behold, the AV guy that squeezed past just before the show started was Kevin, from elementary school and high school. hoimin - 5 : Facebook - 0.

the play itself was well executed and at times uncomfortably intimate. the set was essentially a large stage-wide bookshelf that pushed its way halfway up the stage. i was quite glad to have been sitting in the last row. there was one character (out of three) in the play with the same name as me, so i heard people calling 'me' or referring to 'me' the whole night.

it was a fairly lengthy work for three people to perform, the bulk of it going to the main character. the humour was well-timed and tastefully understated, the dialogue was believable and often times truncated by very telling emotion. the themes and questions were grandiose and far-reaching, but also at times extremely personal. whole worlds would collide in the interactions of two characters, as each one carried personal and national baggage beyond their comprehension.

the main character was played superbly, unfortunately overshadowing the slightly above-average performances of the other two. the soundscape was chillingly authentic in its minimalism, complemented by the lighting. scene changes and props logistics were marvelously fluid and natural. that was my favourite part.