The Citizen, 2010-07-08, Page 27THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JULY 8, 2010. PAGE 27.
To anyone who has ever felt torn
over something, felt pulled in all
directions and conflicted about who
you really are,Bordertown Café is
for you.
The entire story is full of feelings
of duality. And as its characters
struggle to find their true identities,
paring various dualities down to
single identities can prove trickier
than they think, especially to those
who eventually find themselves, not
knowing they were even lost.
The Bordertown Café is a
Canadian café that’s a stone’s throw
from the United States, set in Alberta
just feet from the Montana border.
Bordertown Café is full of
questions and identity crises that
everyone has to face on a daily basis;
timeless questions that face every
family from time to time,
proving that this Blyth Festival
original from the 1980s is just as
relevant now as it was when it first
premiered.
This play, written by Kelly Rebar,
was originally commissioned by the
Blyth Festival in 1986, where it was
produced and staged to great
success. The play was even adapted
for the screen, which resulted in a
Genie Award for Best Actress for
one of the film’s stars, Janet Wright.
So it was with great anticipation
and expectations that Artistic
Director Eric Coates chose this
script for a remount at this year’s
Festival.
The premise is a seemingly simple
one that gets more complicated as
the play goes on. A woman
(Marlene) owns a café, that she and
her son (Jimmy) live in the back
suite of. Marlene’s mother (Maxine)
works at the café with her daughter
and are frequently visited by
Maxine’s husband, Marlene’s father
(Jim).
Jimmy, the product of a Canadian
mother and American father, is
constantly toggled between being
Canadian and American by his
family. His Canadian mother, the
product of a Canadian father and
American mother, had to face
similar confusion when she left
home at a young age to marry her
American sweetheart.
And nationality confusion is just
the beginning.
Early in the play, Jimmy is torn
when his truck-driving father, who
he adores, but barely knows, voices
his intention to bring his son to
Wyoming to live with him
permanently, which threatens to
spark a full-on border war.
His father has taken him across the
United States in his rig, an
experience Jimmy lives for. In
between hauls, however, it has been
a different story, as Jimmy’s father
has proven to be unreliable and often
absent.
Maxine jokes that Jimmy is the
only boy who has never seen the left
side of his father, which makes no
difference to Jimmy, when
considering the fun he says the pair
has on such trips.
So it is this conflict that the family
is faced with before Jimmy is set to
register for his first day of Grade
12.
With only the intermission
dimming the lights throughout the
entire performance,Bordertown
Café is a non-stop examination of
the decision Jimmy is faced with
along with the lives its characters.
Jimmy learns that he isn’t so
different from his elders and that
maybe he could learn a lot about
himself and how he should approach
his predicament if he just stops and
listens to them, but between the
rapid-fire banter between
Maxine and Marlene, his
grandfather’s wisdom, the crop he
has to get off and waiting for his dad,
Jimmy is understandably
overwhelmed.
In this fast-paced account of a
family at a crossroads, there are no
weak performances. Marion Day’s
Marlene and Michelle Fisk’s Maxine
work through pages of dialogue as
their banter is lightning fast and
hilarious, yet natural and
deliberate.
Day is soft-spoken and instantly
likeable, in contrast Fisk’s portrayal
of Maxine, who may be likeable, but
is far from soft-spoken.
In fact, Jimmy even notices that he
is in the middle of what seems
to be “The Tale of Two Maxines”.
In the first act, she can’t sing
the praises of the United States
loud enough, being her home
country and all, but when faced with
the real possibility of losing her
grandson to the country, her bad-
mouthing of the country begins
with the second half of the
performance.
When discussing the United States
in the second act with Maxine,
Jimmy acknowledges that “[The
United States] seem to have changed
a lot since a few hours ago].”
As the deadline for his big
decision draws ever closer, Jimmy is
forced to be more and more of an
adult, relying on the rest of his
family to help him along that path.
Jimmy, played by Nathan Carroll,
seems to grow before our very eyes.
As the play opens, he grumbles
under his Hot Wheels bedspread. By
the second act, he is asking real
questions about his life and his
future, standing up to his father like
a man and earning his grandfather’s
respect.
Carroll, a recent graduate from
George Brown College, excels in his
first season at the Blyth Festival,
taking on the diverse role of Jimmy,
nailing the drastic highs and lows of
a teenager in peril.
Jimmy levels out the insanity of
the two women in his life with his
level-headed grandfather, played by
Brad Rudy. His calm approach to
Jimmy’s problem creates a safe
haven for his grandson, ultimately
revealing some surprising stories
from his past that help Jimmy with
his looming decision.
His wisdom is calming and
fulfilling as Jimmy peers into his
future and sees very little, and it’s
Jim who helps him stand up for
himself, helping him along the path
from being a boy to becoming a man
when forced to make his critical
decision.
At a time when many families are
under stress and times can be hard,
such an internal struggle and
ultimately, the love of a family, is a
theme that can never go out of style.
And everyone at the Bordertown
Café shows that a bout of
laughter with your family can
help you through just about
anything.
It’s these staples that may have led
Coates to dust this one off for the
stage once more.
Bordertown Café plays at the
Blyth Festival until August 14.
Festival’s second show begins its remountTheatre review
Living in Bordertown
Bordertown Café opened at the Blyth Festival on Friday, bringing back a fan favourite and
Canadian classic to the stage where it was born. The play stars, from left: Brad Rudy as Jim,
Nathan Carroll as Jimmy, Michelle Fisk as Maxine and Marion Day (not pictured) as Marlene.
(Terry Manzo photo)
Entertainment Leisure&
Come & Go Birthday
Celebration
for
Kay Hesselwood (80th)
and
Verna Hesselwood (60th)
Sunday, July 11
2 to 4 pm
Londesboro Hall
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
ON $6.00 THURSDAYS
Drop into either of our offices any
Thursday with your word classified
(maximum 20 words) and pay only
$6.00 + GST (paid in advance).
That’s $1.00 off regular rates.
The Citizen