Real-life experiences that show people are ‘equal in our difference’
This Is the Point
(out of 4) Written by Tony Diamanti, Dan Watson, Christina Serra, Karin Randoja and Liz MacDougall. Directed by Karin Randoja. Until Nov. 20 at the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W. theatrecentre.org or 416-538-0988 There is a moment in Ahuri Theatre’s new play This Is the Point where Liz MacDougall, one of the show’s four performers playing themselves onstage, describes the verbal assaults she receives when walking down the street with her partner, Tony Diamanti.
Diamanti has cerebral palsy, uses a wheelchair and communicates with a board with the alphabet spelled out on it and a metal pointer attached to his head. MacDougall also has a disability, though she doesn’t specify it in the play. Above everything, MacDougall makes a plea for “respect, compassion and dignity,” that we are all “equal in our difference.”
It’s impossible to hear MacDougall’s story and not think of Donald Trump mocking New York Times journalist Serge Kovaleski at a North Carolina rally a year ago. The world was appalled by that moment, as surely as the audience hearing MacDougall’s and Diamanti’s real-life experiences.
But during the opening performance of This Is the Point on Tuesday night, a TV in the Theatre Centre café was broadcasting Trump’s pres- idential election victory.
When a platform built on othering and misunderstanding rises to the top, a comforting next step is to listen to the stories of other people. This Is the Point tells the story of two disabled, funny, raunchy, interesting people in MacDougall and Diamanti, as well as the story of Ahuri Theatre’s artistic producers, Dan Watson and Christina Serra, and their 7-year-old son Bruno who, like Diamanti, has cerebral palsy, is non-verbal and has a wheelchair.
Director Karin Randoja keeps the theatrical thread pulsing through these private, personal stories. There’s no artifice; the performers introduce themselves and the tech crew, who are also visible onstage.
To begin, Watson and Serra alternate playing Bruno as they recreate a typical rushed morning routine. A video camera follows them up close, projecting their performances on the theatre’s back wall. The camera links the onstage lives with the real ones in Serra’s and Watson’s home, with real home videos of Bruno playing with his younger brother Ralph.
Serra, pregnant with her third child, has another moving moment as she makes herself a sandwich and explains the joys and challenges of mothering a child with special needs, and the judgments she receives from others. Serra, an accomplished physical actor with previous hits at the Theatre Centre created with Watson, is captivating as she taps into her lived experience.
Just when This Is the Point is most raw, Randoja flips the switch into a highly stylized movement segment with Serra and Watson slowly walking toward each other, eyes locked, as daily tasks and distractions whiz by them.
For the couple, understanding their family’s normalcy is key.
For MacDougall, it’s conveying her humour, her sexual desires and her love of vodka. Her segments most closely resemble standup bits, which is something she might want to take up in earnest.
For Diamanti, his goal is to communicate the passion that might otherwise be hidden behind his disability. His preferred method of communication, to spell out his thoughts and have someone read them back to him, is worked directly into the play, read either by Watson or the audience itself.
This Is the Point may not be the most polished piece of theatre and it could use a stronger finish. But anyone who’s feeling anxious or isolated or in need of connection can look to these four performers, who are communicating and connecting with each other, their kids and the audience — with love, above all else.