A Creampuff Compares
Back on Monday, I promised a comparative analysis of the OTHER two shows we saw last weekend. I spent much of the week being distracted by deadlines and my Annie Sullivan eyes, but here, as advertised:
Blue Planet at the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People vs. A Suicide-Site Guide to the City at Buddies in Bad Times
BP: Set on a planet where all the inhabitants are children who club their own seals.
SSGTTC: Set in Toronto.
BP: Show begins with the children frolicking on the planet. Then a stranger lands in a giant space vacuum cleaner.
SSGTTC: Show begins when Darren hands a toque to someone in the audience, saying that it belongs to a homeless guy outside and can we pass it around and help the guy out. After handling the hat, Katr breaks out the antibacterial hand foam.
BP: Technicians onstage in jumpsuits and headsets, operating the butterflies, the waterfall and the flying apparatus of the children.
SSGTTC: Technicians onstage in street clothes, running sound from one computer and Powerpoint, lights and smoke machine from the other.
BP: “Children” flying through the air.
SSGTTC: “Darren” flying on an plane, fantasizing about making the 19 year old girl snoozing in the seat next to him come in her sleep.
BP: Scene where the children on the dark side of the planet commit a beautiful act of selflessness and altruism.
SSGTTC: Scene where Darren invites someone from the audience to go and make out with him on stage. He pops a breath mint and waits. Sadly, no one goes up, so he is forced to say “Alright - then I am going to make out with EACH and EVERY ONE OF YOU. Chickenshit ass-fuckers.” Then he steps into some mood-lighting and makes out in the direction of the audience. From where I was sitting, he looked like a pretty good kisser. Confident yet gentle - non-invasive tongue.
BP: About a half an hour too long.
SSGTTC: Smoke machine.
BP: Turns out the stranger in the vacuum cleaner is trying to steal the children’s youth.
SSGTTC: Turns out that hat doesn’t belong to a homeless guy. It was Darren’s all along! It was all part of the show!! But the hand foam has a nice gardenia scent, so we regret nothing.
BP: Moral of the story: your actions have consequences, so don’t be a jerk.
SSGTTC: Moral of the story: I haven’t actually figured that out yet. But the scene where Darren comforts a streetcar stalled by the blackout of August 2003 was oddly moving. The scene, not the streetcar.
Darren O’Donnell has a blog in which he recounts his experiences working on the show. He’s a pretty smart guy, so I’m a little sorry to have missed the Q & A after his show, where they apparently discussed “the role of theater, the state of theater and the relationship between art and activism.” SOUNDS cool, but knowing me, my question would have been something like “It kinda smells like lentil soup in here. Is that the vegans?” Probably best that Katr and I chose Slurpees instead.
