…Comes Around (What Goes Around…Redux)
Absinthe Collective and mutatis mutandis, The
Writer/Creator: David Whiteley
TRIPLE RIDEAU NOMINEES! Our Rideau Award nominated Fringe hit What Goes Around… gets a sexy new staging with an absinthe twist. The revamped remount features cast members from last year’s Rideau nominated A Leave of Absinthe, directed by Rideau Award winner Margo MacDonald. …Comes Around, adapted from Arthur Schnitzler’s La Ronde, unveils a merry-go-round of secret trysts, courtships and one-night stands. Warning: explicit sexuality.
[...] …Comes Around An all-star team of Ottawa’s best and brightest artists with more award wins and nominations among them than there are people in the cast. Plus, explicit sexuality! They have two 11 p.m. time slots for all us skeevy pervs in the audience. Guess when I’ll be in attendance? [...]
A friend of mine received an e-mail from Margo MacDonald promoting this play, so we made plans to attend last night’s (Thursday 18 June 2009) performance at 8:00pm. She was impressed with an acting class she recently took with Margo and that was good enough for me.
I thought “…Comes Around” was clever but could have been funnier. The play consists of several scenes, each one involving a couple of one kind or another getting together for “secret trysts, courtships and one-night stands”. One character from each scene appears in the following scene, with a new partner. That was the clever part, and also the fact that many scenes worked in a reference to absinthe (the drink). But considering that each scene was essentially about a hook-up, I thought that there was an opportunity for wittier dialogue that was often missed. Margo’s Roberta had some good lines (and two interesting partners) and did a solid reading but she was almost the only one who stood out. Still, it was interesting enough.
Regarding the “explicit sexuality” warning: It wasn’t all that explicit, really, at least at the performance I attended. You’ll see some skin but not any boobs or bare asses…unless they’re waiting to pull that out for the 11pm performances later in the show’s run, or if they decide they need some buzz. I dunno…would that even be allowed?
This performance was also packed to the rafters. I’m glad I got tickets online the day before because if I’d tried to take advantage of the 2-for-1 opening night special on this play, I’d probably have been S.O.L. Everybody got in and got a seat, but there was a scramble on to find extra chairs and about a dozen or so folks ended up on cushions on the floor in front of the first row of chairs. Hey guys, I know you don’t want to turn away paying customers, but learn how to count and don’t over-sell your theatre. And make sure the door stays closed during the performance, too. A stagehand also remained on stage at the beginning of one scene for several seconds, at least, while the scene commenced on the other side of the stage. Gotta iron the bugs out.
[...] (which sold out it’s opening night and was stuffed to capacity for other performances), …Comes Around (2 sell outs!), Catgut Strung Violin (played to two very full houses on Saturday and Sunday), No [...]
The play was o.k. at best. I went to an 11:00pm showing and found myself bored for most of the show despite the fact that it was highly sexual in nature. I found some of the dialogue was witty (very few moments) and the red light transition was well done but besides that, it had very little story. My friend and I thought that maybe there would be some sort of ending to tie all of the characters in but alas there was not. Most of the situations that took place were too similar so although I’m sure each of them were supposed to represent some messages, they all ended up being too similar to break down effectively. The whole thing reminded me of Eye Wide Shut or Young People F*cking but without a story. Sorry if I’m being a bit negative but I would have liked a more solid story instead of a bunch of stereotypical characters and vague messages. Go see it and then post here to disagree or agree lol.
Having seen What Goes Around… at the Fringe two years ago, I was surprised to see that it was much the same script as the last time, but after this seemingly unpleasant revelation (Heck, it’s a redux, what did I expect), I was completely turned around and captured by the uniformly strong performances and reminded why I liked the original so much.
The play offers two brief windows into the lives of each of its characters, and often the glimpses we receive are diametrically opposite to one another as we see flings and trysts, and explore the fickle nature of love. Each vignette is fairly self-contained, and each scene captures the in-the-moment passion of the various encounters - and ultimately, the in-the-moment betrayals. The cast fills each encounter to the brim, and it’s always bittersweet to see the following scene played out with similar intensity. The characters aren’t caricatures (except for one, but that’s kind of the point there) and the acting is generally excellent - which is great, since the focus here isn’t the plot, but the characters themselves.
Concerning the Mature rating - it’s true that there wasn’t much pushing of the envelope on that front, but it was creatively implemented and didn’t distract from (and indeed supported) the themes of the play.
A solid show with an excellent cast, well worth seeing. But get there early for good seats!