In The Chamber

For my creative writing class we had to attend a play put on by Theater Project Manitoba called In The Chamber. What the title means exactly I couldn't tell you, nor can I explain what the play really was about. I can however let you know what I thought about it.

The play starts out with a man and women wrestling for control of the covers (Has it ever occurred to couples that they can have their OWN blankets?) and then an oddly placed handjob scene that made no sense in context to what happens next. (Of course this might be just because I'm not the well versed in the nuances of theater)

The stage goes black and when the lights come back on we watch as a man goes through an epiphany moment as he records a video of a presentation he was going to do at a farm safety convention. He then goes into an hour long monologue about 15,000 pigs burning to death in a fire. It was a heartfelt and genuinely well acted speech, although I just couldn't find enough reason to care. The actor Gordon Tanner plays the part so well you'd think he wasn't acting at all.

-Intermission-

Lights up bring us into a restaurant scene where a man who just quit his job is giving a speech to his "friends" (Friends is in quotations because this again is really just a one man show and the people are represented by balloons). The man discusses the death of his son and the circumstances surrounding his death within the Health Sciences Center pediatric facility. His son, born with Downs Syndrome and a malformed heart, spent most of his life in and out of the hospital. The acting again is superb, and the actor Steven Ratzlaff makes me feel like he isn't acting at all. Unfortunately I really didn't care about the story and felt completely disconnected. The play ends with a waiter (played by Gordon Tanner from the previous act) talking with the man about a fight he's having with his wife, which in my mind is completely separate from what his previous speech was about. (again this may just be because I don't really read into what the script is deep enough to understand the underlying issues)


I'm torn. I loved the acting, hated the stories. I did like it but I know that the only way I'll ever see anything like this is if I'm forced to go or have to go for another assignment which is pretty sad.

Theater is not for me, but I really did give this one a try.