Flee is a true original
By David Hudgins, Jonathon Young, and Peter Anderson. Directed by Jonathon Young. Presented by Electric Company Theatre and Studio 58. At the Fox Cabaret on Saturday, November 28. Continues until December 6
Like a stylish young intellectual, Flee is witty, likeable—and more than a bit self-conscious.
The story, which was written by David Hudgins, Jonathon Young, and Peter Anderson, unfolds in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. A destitute watchmaker named Archibald Twill and his love, Caprice, meet a flea that bites both of them—and they enjoy it. Because Archibald and Caprice owe three months’ rent, their landlady, Madame Renard, threatens to evict them, but, when she peeks through their keyhole and sees the original flea and her offspring feeding on Caprice, Renard recognizes a kinky business opportunity. Soon, throngs are lining up to gaze through the keyhole —and through Archibald’s series of magnifying lenses—at the salacious scene inside.
What’s it all about? That nagging question has a handful of reasonable answers. On one level, Flee, which is co-presented by Studio 58, a theatre-training program, is about the odd process of becoming an actor. Caprice doesn’t want to present a standard flea circus; she wants to liberate the fleas, to train them to be themselves. In the theatre, authenticity is a kind of performance, so the paradox is apt.
And Flee plays with the notion of being bitten by the artistic bug: Archibald and Caprice follow the course triggered by their insect muse, but, as they negotiate the strained relationship between emotion and commerce, between honesty and self-exploitation, will they ever find satisfaction? It’s easy to hop from here to ideas about addiction and existential struggle.
So, thematically, Flee is loaded, and, under Young’s direction, every element of its production is frickin’ fantastic. There are interactive scenes in Flee, but, a lot of the time, members of the company, which includes a chorus of 11 “fleaks”, recite the story directly to the audience, and Young finds endless ways to stage this: performers fight to relay their bits of information, or a lone actor crawls towards a mic that’s lying on the stage floor, terrified of delivering his installment.
Choreographers David Raymond and Tiffany Tregarthen supply exhilaratingly quirky movement. Shizuka Kai’s set features enormous magnifying lenses, which are hugely satisfying as sculpture. Barbara Clayden’s costumes are stylishly Parisian. (Perhaps in a nod to philosophers such as Jean-Paul Sartre, the story is set in the Hotel Paris.) And Itai Erdal’s lighting is so thick and moody it’s like you’re in a stripper bar frequented by chain-smoking existentialists.
Running through all of this in a rich stream that could be titled “your blood on jazz” is the improvised music of Peggy Lee, JP Carter, Ron Samworth, and Dylan van der Schyff.
Not everything works, though. The script includes a good deal of cringe-worthy rhyming. And, despite solid performances from the four main actors—Peter Anderson as Archibald, Kathryn Shaw as Renard, David Petersen as a flea-circus pro, and especially Lois Anderson as Caprice—the evening always hovers at an emotional remove. That’s because Archibald, the protagonist, is largely passive and because the plot illustrates the play’s themes rather than following an internal and inevitable logic of action.
Still, Flee is bracingly original and insanely cool. So, if you’re itching for a good time…
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