Head à Tête as fresh as ever
Story of intolerance and conflict is as relevant today as it was 20 years ago
The David S. Craig and Robert Morgan play Head à Tête has been around for more than 20 years, but you’d swear it was plucked from the headlines of last week’s newspaper.
Geordie Productions is at the Centaur Theatre with the play about conflict bred of misunderstanding until April 21.
The comedy is directed with mischief and wisdom by Alain Goulem and stars the masterful duo Michel Perron and Joe De Paul.
They played before a soldout audience of teenagers last week and triumphed.
A significant feat. Teenagers bore easily.
Head à Tête is set in a postapocalyptic world, bereft of beauty, where mad dogs roam in packs and dampness chills to the bone.
Perron’s “Mr. Please” and De Paul’s “Moyeah” cross paths in a clearing cluttered with the detritus of a destroyed world — the only sign of hope a spindly tree trunk that has managed to pierce through the booty of a rusty car and grow an odd, crunchy snack.
Diminutive De Paul avoids the dogs by hiding in a rusty box on wheels. He wears goggles and a grimy sweater, and his prize possession is a set of broken headphones.
Perron is the proud owner of a pith helmet, a makeshift spear and a dirty wool blanket. His most cherished possession is a scruffy teddy bear.
Amy Keith’s threadbare costumes and rendering of a devastated planet deftly situate the action, while Ana Cappelluto’s lighting design heightens tensions and offkilter moods with stabs of harsh, white light and moments of golden glow.
From the moment the two lonely souls meet, there is conflict.
Perron speaks only English. De Paul speaks only French.
They bicker, threaten, steal and fight. They refuse to share the crunchy snack plucked from the magical tree, they break each others’ toys and they don’t understand what the heck the other one is saying.
Stubborn, territorial, intolerant, greedy, possessive every hilarious step of the way, they battle to the brink of exhaustion. A line is drawn and then redrawn.
And then it happens. One gives an inch. The other listens a little harder. A common word “okay” is discovered and creates a crack in their isolation and resolve. That line begins to dissolve.
Yes, their intolerance and awkward interactions are a metaphor for the universal inability to look beyond differences to find commonality, but in Montreal, in these times of linguistic tension, the content takes on a more personal ring.
De Paul is a veteran clown who is impossible to resist. Perron is a natural-born comic. Goulem could direct a paper bag and make us laugh.
Midway through the matinée performance, one student spontaneously blurted out “It’s so good!”
Eh, bien oui jeune homme, Il était si bon.
Geordie Productions presents Head à Tête at Centaur Theatre, 453 St. François Xavier St., until April 21. Weekend performances are Sat. and Sun. at 1 p.m. and 3 p.m.
CTV’s Christine Long will host a chat with the artists following the 3 p.m. show Sunday.
Student performances during the week are also open to the public. Limited seats remain Tues. and Wed. at noon, and Thurs. at 10 a.m.
For ticket information, call 514-845-9810 or visit www. geordie.ca.