REVIEW: E-Day a frenzied political comedy – just in time for the real election!
In the political circus to the South and the attendant carnival in Canada, Edmonton’s adventurous independent company The Serial Collective has chosen to look backward at a time of political ferment in Alberta. E-Day is a comedy based on playwright Jason Chinn’s time as a volunteer with the NDP during those heady days of their sweep in 2015.
Chinn was obviously caught up in the feeding frenzy of the party that had detected Conservative blood in the water and were on their way to a decisive win. He apparently feels that politics today are much more divisive and has returned to a time when a company of young believers were building a dream and forging robust relationships. They weren’t expecting to win and an underdog mentality was driving them. The hot house closeness of the situation led to strong emotional bonds – and a number of laughs.
The Serial Collective may be small (composed of four local playwrights ), but the company has attracted an impressive roster for this Roxy Theatre Performance Series production – which runs through Oct. 27 in the Roxy on Gateway. The cast is large – 12 in fact, and includes a number of heavy hitters: April Banigan, Candace Berlinguette, Lora Brovold, Asia Bowman, Sheldon Elter, Sue Goberdhan, Beth Graham, Linda Grass, Ian Leung, Shingai David Madawo, Amena Shehab and Kiana Woo. Star wattage like that certainly gives the evening a boost.
The troupe is headed by director Dave Horak, one of busiest and most able independent directors in town.
The setting is a 2015 NDP campaign office, a busy place where a motley collection of volunteers are beavering away at electioneering. The volunteers are mostly young but the rainbow band includes different ethnicities, attitudes and degrees of dedication. We meet campaigners, candidates, phone and foot canvassers, sign posters and a bevy of overworked managers and organizers. Pandemonium prevails as everyone rushes in and out of the office.
The candidate is Candace (Berlinguette – characters go by the actor’s first names), who lost in the previous election and is not happy with this one. She is also a woman of salty language. Her picture on the flyers was a disaster – as everyone keeps reminding her.
Beth Graham is a lively Rachel Notley and later a game but unmanageable wild-eyed mother of the candidate.
Two of the characters may not be so well known to those who didn’t follow the campaign closely, but were certainly present: Ian (Leung) is an officious and highly unwelcome,NDP apparatchik from “Down East” sent in to manage the local office. And Linda (Grass) is a hoot as the ethereal election day coordinator who bikes in from the West Coast and brings some much needed lotus-land metaphysical hocus-pocus to the office.
Trying to keep all this panic and disorientation from completely imploding is the indispensable Sheldon (Elter), doing yeoman work as the voter contact organizer. He is the long time lover of April (Banigan) the soon to be premier’s tour director.
The characters are given their own traits and the well-chosen company perform with the necessary earnest conviction.
Horak manages to keep things moving at a frenzied pace but some of the characters tend to get lost in the frenzy and the playwright is much better at his group dynamic than establishing individual attributes. His love story is desultory. Many of his scenes are short and don’t give the actors opportunity to develop much in the way of character. He does mange a few moments of real drama and his eye for human interaction leads to some sharply observed humour.
