Wild Abandon
Written by Daniel MacIvor
Black Sheep Theatre
2008 Rideau Award Nominee Zach Counsil (Best Emerging Artist), in multi-award winning playwright Daniel MacIvor’s “dark, introspective journey that is visceral, humbling and hilarious.” A play about Steve, a man who thinks he’s alone in the world. From the director of Iron Sticks ( *****) and The Root Of All Squares ****-Edmonton Journal, **** CBC)
One of the things I like about this year’s Fringe is the number of performers who are stretching beyond their audience’s expectations of them.
Beverley Wolfe is showing off her writing in Jump, on top of her impressive acting skills.
Mary Ellis and Kristina Watt are covering 27 vignettes in The Women Come and Go.
Nancy Kenny has broken out of her ingenue type with No Exit Upstage.
Kate Smith tackles yet another different role in We Never Clothed.
Emily Pearlman has created Countries Shaped Like Stars that is completely unlike anything she’s done before.
Jon Paterson has broken out of his comfort zone of ensemble work to solo in House.
And Zach Counsil…
crosses yet another personal boundary. This young man has performed in the classics Tartuffe and She Stoops to Conquer. He’s sung the lead in Bat Boy, the Musical. He’s romped through gumshoe pieces like Without a Clue and Satanic Panic. His Irish accent passed muster with John P. Kelly in The Lieutenant of Inishmore. He’s in demand for his stage blood formula.
And somebody tells him to stay away from the solo Wild Abandon by Daniel MacIvor because it’s not his kind of role!
I’m so glad he ignored this “helpful advice”.
Now admittedly Wild Abandon isn’t Marion Bridge, and it’s an earlier play than House. Nor is it performed as often as Never Swim Alone or This is a Play. MacIvor plays aren’t easy. Just ask Jon Paterson. But an actor has to work harder to keep our attention with Wild Abandon.
The audience at Monday night’s show laughed heartily in all the right places. In between the laughter, they followed Counsil’s high-energy performance intently, completely immersing themselves in the twists and turns of the plot that Counsil led them through. They gasped and froze when …
Oh wouldn’t you just LOVE a spoiler at this point?
And it took Counsil a few minutes to quell their long, highly appreciative and well earned applause at the end of the show.
Counsil could probably profit from some pointers from Jon Paterson and Mary Ellis.
But I’m definitely going to watch for more opportunities to see him in roles that take again him out of his (and our) comfort zone.
Well worth coming downtown.
[...] it was off to catch Wild Abandon at Saw Gallery. Zach Counsil (who also turns in a great performance in Satanic Panic) finds some [...]