The Concessions - Strong if not Inspired

Touchstone Theatre has this wonderful mandate of producing only contemporary Canadian plays. In addition to this their Flying Start program (in association with Playwrights Theatre Centre and the Firehall Arts Centre) gives new Canadian professional playwrights an opportunity to develop and showcase their work. The Concessions is the product of the Fourth Flying Start Cycle.

I have come to expect a lot from Touchstone Theatre. They typically produce strong work and I always look forward to their season. I have yet to see a Touchstone Theatre production that didn't have an innovative set and an intelligent, complex script. The acting is usually pretty good too.

As expected, The Concessions set is gorgeous, evoking a gloomy, unbalanced atmosphere. The suspended pieces of wall, combined with the well-chosen soundtrack begin to create tension from the moment you take your seat. The tree branches are eerily both inside and outside the walls of the house invading your peace with a sense of impending doom. (I know if I lived in a small town I’d feel like the walls were closing in on me.) Throughout the show the set and lighting combine to create new locations, seemlessly transporting us and suspending our disbelief.

As far as acting performances go, the cast was solid. Good, but not inspired. The only performance that really reached into my soul was that of Marilyn Norry as Julie, but to be fair I also think that hers was the only character with much meat to her. As part of the Flying Start program I’m not sure how many scripts Briana Brown has brought to fruition, but she is definitely at the beginning of her career. The Concessions as a play feels young. The plot is a little broad, a little random and a little melodramatic. The characters are reasonably shallow and don't really grow as a result of the action. It feels predicatble, wrapped up in a nice neat package.

That said, the characters are at least boldly written and the dialogue is versatile. As an actor/director I could hear the interpretive opportunities written into the dialogue, which means that every artist who touches this script will have the opportunity to make it theirs. That's a really hard thing to do and the fact that Briana Brown has managed it in this script speaks volumes. I hope that as Brown continues on her career her work will become more complex, subtle and transformative because I believe she has the potential to be a great playwright.