Three Ways to Handle a Telemarketer: Theatre Review
I love cheap theatre and every year i drag myself to at least one fringe production in the city i am currently living in. That probably doesn’t seem like a lot, but i have a love-hate relationship with Fringe fests that i imagine has much to do with how the density of productions really taps out all the talent available in the city. I’ve been to some good Fringe shows, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of them have been god-awful for one reason or another. Three Ways to Handle a Telemarketer put on as part of Montreal’s 2009 St. Ambroise Fringe Festival fell into this category.
I’ve given some thought has to how to be constructive in my criticism (or rather, not simply cruel) of a production put on my amateurs and have decided to focus on one problem and how it seeped into the other facets of the production: Genre. Three Ways to Handle a Telemarketer wasn’t sure what sort of play it was supposed to be. At times a satire, sometimes slapstick, occasionally a detective story - nothing went together in this play. Huge portions of the 60 minute running time was spent on moving desks for different settings which simply weren’t necessary. Two flashback sequences were introduced and completed with the actors on stage performing falling rain moves to alien-sounds. An “unexpected” twist at the end was so unexpected i wasn’t even sure i was watching the same play anymore. Overacting was endemic and although some of my fellow theatre-goers appeared to think it amusing, i really don’t think the third time the “peppy” telemarketer did a little cheerleading routine was either necessary or worthy of laughter. I’m inclined to place all these flaws firmly on the director’s and writer’s laps - and rather unsurprisingly that’s the same individual. A collaborative text written by the director and the stage manager, i could feel the piece vascillating between genres and visions and the experience wasn’t pleasant. in fact, i turned to a friend and asked why lightning never strikes when you most wish it would.
The experience further confirmed a hunch of mine - that writers should steer clear of the actual production. It also managed to get my hair up by bashing on telemarketers without any grey area at all. Social commentary, to be effective, has to have a semblance to reality. Humour, to be funny, needs to be consistent. Three Ways to Handle a Telemarketer was neither of these.
