It's been a somewhat slow summer for local indie theatre. A reinvigorated Charlottetown Festival is in full swing, but the city's more low-rent venues have been relatively idle this year-with one shining exception: the show is Final Thoughts, its venue is the Arts Guild, and its audiences are lucky. It's one of the finest shows this town has seen in a very long time.
Final Thoughts is a collection of short works written by Tony award-winning playwright Warren Leight and staged by the Gang of Four, a quartet of theatre veterans from New York City. Most of the plays are performed by Alexander R. Scott (who also directed the production) and Ean Sheehy, plus a rotating assortment of local performers in the sole female role. In addition to Scott and Sheehy, Gang personnel include producer & set designer Irene Strang and costume designer Lauren Cordes. Local recruits include technical director Dawn Binkley, lighting designer Paul Druet and sound designer Rob LeClair.
Leight's scripts are compact gems of characterization and observation, capturing an eclectic collection of characters in a disparate array of situations and drawing on everything from post-communist politics to comic book trivia. In one interview, Scott describes the characters as loners and outsiders, desperate or despairing types nearing the ends of their respective ropes. "This may be the last time some of them ever speak," he says, by way of explaining the production's overall title.
Most of the pieces are monologues: in "Diary of a Voyeur," Sheehy plays a screenwriter struggling with writer's block while nursing an infatuation with a female neighbour he observes from his window; in "The Poem Writer," Scott is a crusty old veteran poet giving a reluctant lecture on his profession; in "Ol' Gator," Sheehy portrays an obnoxiously creepy weatherman whose big mouth costs him his job; in "What I Did Wrong," a woman (played capably if somewhat one-notedly by Kathleen Hamilton this night) muses on why her man left her; and in "Jaguar Jesus," Scott voices a free-ranging meditation inspired by a street musician.
The show also features Scott and Sheehy in a couple of two-handers: "The Final Interrogation of Ceaucescu's Dog" is a brilliant satire depicting a revolutionary (Sheehy) interrogating the dog (Scott) of the fallen dictator Ceaucescu, and the quirkily clever "A Bus for Mr. Morton" (making its world premiere) casts Sheehy as a rookie cop who gets some life lessons from a surprisingly chatty corpse (Scott).
Leight's darkly witty scripts are full of thought-provoking insights into human nature (the writer seems to have a particular knack for concocting self-deluded characters); but above all else, these plays are hysterically funny. All of the above is aided immeasurably by the talents of Scott and Sheehy, whose comedic sensibilities, measured subtlety, finely honed timing and expansive range make Leight's characters both human and hilarious.
The sets are extremely simple (assorted furnishings and dressing) but effective, and the production makes practical use of the awkward Arts Guild space by framing the various plays in and around the hall's existing pillars. There are minor glitches here and there (Scott calls for a line once and Sheehy has trouble staying in his light a time or two), but overall, this is a very professional, very polished show, and a rare opportunity for Islanders to see some first-rate New York City theatre right here in Charlottetown. Don't miss it.
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