Play With Monsters
At Performance Works until Nov. 18
Tickets: vancouvertix.com
Few of us free ourselves completely from our parents expectations, but only playwright Aaron Bushkowsky fantasizes Mom and Dad as lurching, blood-dripping zombies who still nag at him after theyve passed on.
Drew (something like himself, Bushkowsky admits) suffers relentless putdowns by his father Bill (Bill Dow) who, while still alive, says to his one and only child, I dont care for you all that much. And then theres his mother Karen (Karin Konoval) who, before she ran off with another man, would rather smoke and play sexy with Bill than play Mommy to poor Drew.
After Karen leaves Bill and Drew for some guy who sings like Elvis, grown up Drew persuades the old man to go to Burgundy with him. And they both fall in love. Bill with Marie, a vineyard owner who looks a lot like Karen (both played by Konoval) and Drew with Singapore-born Lily. She, like Drew, suffers from her fathers high expectations: I try to be a success but my shoes are killing me, she complains inexplicably.
A shrink, a ninja and a couple of zombies (Bill and Karen, deceased) ensue.
So its all a bit crazy, very postmodern and more than a bit quirky but always with Bushkowskys trademark darkly comic cleverness. You are the most amazing woman I have never slept with. A cannibal is a guy who walks into a bar and orders a waiter. And sadly, How can you make amends to a parent who doesnt like you?
Andrew McNee, as Drew, is as charmingly scruffy and as willing to please as a big stupid puppy especially when it comes to love. Josette Jorge is Lily, prim and high-strung; sword-wielding Hiro Kanagawa plays her over-bearing father.
Director Rachel Peake directs this Solo Collective world premiere on Shizuka Kais classy, mirrored set.
Its all bloody good fun.
