NO TROUBLES WITH THIS HILARIOUS AND CLEVER DOUBLE
A broad helping of physical comedy gives new life to Dostoevsky novella
Who hasn’t imagined a smarter, more capable, better liked version of himself?
That’s what the meek, prevaricating clerk Golyadkin does in The Double, a deliciously clever stage adaptation by Bad New Days of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novella of the same name. Problem is, that alter ego comes to life, or at least it does so in Golyadkin’s mind, and the conflict between real and imagined drives our poor, already slightly unhinged anti-hero off the edge.
That’s the Coles Notes version of the show. What Bad New Days does with the storyline in its three-person is worth its weight in rubles.
For one thing, the company presents the story as physical comedy, giving hilarious and memorable corporeal form to Golyadkin (co-adapter/director/actor Adam Paolozza), his smarmy, overbearing double (co-adapter Viktor Lukawski), and a bunch of subsidiary characters, from Golyadkin’s rickety old office mate to his dictatorial boss to the snooty father of the woman he loves (all played by Lukawski who was surely a chameleon in a previous incarnation). At one point, Golyadkin urges his double, whom he fears, back to his apartment for a drink. Lukawski plays the double like a rag doll whose every move and word is controlled by Golyadkin. It’s a very funny and flawlessly executed scene that underscores how the double is a creation of the sad clerk’s increasingly fevered mind.
The show also gives us a wry narrator/standup bass player (rock musician/co-adapter Arif Mirabdolbaghi). He stands to one side of the stage, addressing us as he moves the narrative forward and occasionally interacting directly with Golyadkin. His music, by turns humorous, ominous and dolorous, comments on the narrative, punctures Golyadkin’s pretensions — the man is a wannabe social climber — and helps set the rhythm of the well-oiled production.
The show is also sprinkled with contemporary references, some of them funny and others, like one to Gordon Lightfoot, merely gratuitous.
As well, the fourth wall is frequently shattered through the narrator’s addressing the audience or by having Lukawski step off the stage to mingle with the spectators. The contemporary references and breaking of the wall lend a real-time element to a show that’s set in long-ago St. Petersburg — issues like identity and social status being as relevant now as in the mid-19th century — while drawing us, the audience, even further into the story when the characters resume their place in the narrative.
The show, full of twists and turns, is wonderfully lit by Andre du Toit who won a Dora for his work. His shadows in particular startle and delight.
The Double stumbles occasionally. Some scenes, including one of Golyadkin running from an apparent pursuer, go on just a bit too long as though patting themselves on the back for their own adroitness. Others, including a lengthy narration about Golyadkin’s attempt to crash a party, quickly become tiresome. And the portrayal of Klara, the mincing belle of Golyadkin’s dreams, by means of a violin or Mirabdolbaghi’s bass, is heavy handed.
But these are quibbles in a show where “double” applies to the level of inventiveness and enjoyment as much as it does to Golyadkin’s fractured mind.
Continues until May 2. Tickets: NAC box office, 1-888-991-2787, nac-cna.ca