An entertaining two-hander
‘I found it to be an engaging succession of ideas punctuated with humourous counterpoint’
My wife and I went to see ‘On A First Name Basis’ at the Victoria Playhouse. In spite of having read the scathing review by the Guardian’s Colm Magner, we decided that for the sake of supporting the arts we would hold our noses and endure this “contrived, sentimental and utterly predictable” theatrical offering.
I can confirm that, as the reviewer scornfuly reveals, the specific geographical setting of the play is indeed not made known, thus condemning the script to the dustbin occupied by clunkers like Beckett’s “Waiting For Godot” and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest.”
It is also true that the characters spend almost the entire performance either seated in chairs or standing in place. Rather than feeling, as Mr. Magner, cheated by the absence of a healthy tableau of crossing and criss-crossing downstage, upstage, left and right with plenty of prop engagement and maybe a swordfight or two, I felt that the relatively static staging allowed me to concentrate on the dialogue.
As to the quality of that dialogue, I cannot share Mr. Magner’s haughty dismissal of it as “inane” and “torturous.” I found it to be an engaging succession of ideas punctuated with humourous counterpoint.
The wild divergence of our opinions on this play’s merits no doubt reflects my own shallow theatrical sensibility. I am, apparently, incapable of appreciating the unflinching clarity and schooled perception of Mr. Magner’s razor-sharp critical barbs. As a mere P.E.I. theatregoer, I found much to enjoy in the play and the work of its performers.
If I didn’t suspect that his hypercritical, caviling, downright mean theatrical review is harming the box office of a worthy and storied Island cultural institution, I might be tempted to thank Mr. Magner for lowering my expectations.
After being forewarned of a dud in a review by someone apparently expecting a masterpiece worthy of Chekhov or Ibsen, I was relieved to encounter an entertaining two-hander by a Canadian playwright.