My friend Elena performed this Daniel MacIvor one-woman play, cleverly designed by Clinton. Two “headlights”, a chair and a couple boxes make up the set: very simple, very effective.
The play itself is the usual MacIvor fare, a monologue that describes an event, with flashbacks and editorializing that reveal some kind of hidden truth. Her character, Bob (Roberta) is a runaway (teenage? It’s not totally clear) who is running from unspecified traumas that make themselves tragically clear as the show goes on. We see Bob as she runs, in scenes of her life before the running commenced, as a little girl, and in unguarded moments, addressing the audience directly about her inner desires. Bob is abrasive, possibly working class and uneducated. Lots of tough talk, lots of self-delusion and repression. Elena did a good job of juggling all these duties, a tricky feat considering how sweet and refined she is in real life– not a bit of the street-talking tough in this lady. So, kind of disturbing to see her as Bob! It would be like me playing someone, oh, I don’t know, socially adept and nice. You’d be all, “Wha happened?”
I think the script brings up a lot of questions. Like, it was not very clear how old Bob is, or how we can reconcile all these naive princess fantasies with her obviously very jaded personality. But it’s MacIvor, and I’ve loved everything I’ve seen of his, including this one.