Kat Sandler‘s plays are so full of comedic energy, I imagine her composing them, holding a gun in one hand and a rolling pin in the other, while shouting at some cowering wretch, whose job it is to transcribe the playwright’s verbal hell-storm.
In COCKFIGHT, her latest effort, Sandler unleashes a play that is both hilarious and full of dark echoes. Every woman and man alive should see this play, but especially guys. And take your best mate. COCKFIGHT is more than a play, it’s a testosteronic event.
Deceptively, COCKFIGHT starts off as a conventional “buddy story”. It appears to be about three goofy young men who bond, live together as a one, bickering continuously over women and get rich quick schemes. It’s a cross of Dumb and Dumber, Fight Club, and several of the major works of Sigmund Freud. This play is murderously funny and played flat-out by the best imaginable cast. But Sandler is devious and the story begins to take us on a few twists and turns that prove increasingly disturbing. To me, COCKFIGHT is a major advance for Sandler, turning her into one of Canada’s more interesting playwrights. The play is well-crafted, and in it, Sandler shows her mettle, stripping down the male psyche, exposing doubt, yearning, and terrible hurt.
Straight off, we’re in an apartment, carpeted in beer cans, where we meet the Chiavetti clan, three unrelated men raised in the same foster home. As adults, they’ve all taken the same last name, Chiavetti, and they live together as a (stupendously dysfunctional) family. Benjamin Blais, as Mike, gives a gorgeous and vibrant performance as the leader of the Chiavetti “brothers”. Blais plays Mike as a saucy optimist, a real ladies’ man, always up for a good time, when in fact the underlying loneliness and fear in this man is palpable. While Mike boasts of his devotion to his “brothers”, his behavior suggests a possessive parent, threatened by anyone who might rob him of his “family’s” attention. Brenhan McKibben is Charlie Chiavetti, a warm-hearted man, grieving over the girlfriend who’s abandoned him, as she continues to travel, sending him letters describing her feelings and exploits, but with no suggestion of when she might return. This role fits McKibben like a glove, and he delivers some of the play’s best moments.
August or Auggie is the youngest Chiavetti, played with heroic passion by Jakob Ehman, the only one of the three who seems gainfully employed, duped into paying his elder brothers to raise him. He’s a sweet lad, given to inexplicable fits of rage, a trait that underlies all of the Chiavettis.
Why they’ve chosen the name Chiavetti, Italian for a “bunch of small keys”, is a potent symbol of so much that goes on in this story. These men are full of secrets that they fear to unlock. The entire work is rife with symbols and gestures that give clues about what actually holds these men together.
Benjamin Blais is delightful as Mike, communicating a rowdy optimism, selling the others on his loony plan to buy a rooster, stage illegal cockfights, and make a mint. Everyone awaits the rooster’s arrival, the one Mike purchased from a man known only as Scarman Devilman, so named because of the scar on his face and devil horns tattooed on his forehead. (I mean, really, what sane person would buy a rooster from a man with horns?) While all this goes on, Auggie innocently falls for Ingrid, a waitress he meets at work. Ingrid eventually shows up, clearly more experienced and full of lust for the virginal Auggie.
Caroline Toal is terrific as Ingrid, a young woman so in need of validation and adventure, she shifts alliances on a dime, triggering conflict. But all other intrigues fail when David Tompa, as Scarman Devilman, walks through the door. He’s as fascinating as any character in the flick, Pulp Fiction. Tompa is so quirky and menacing on stage, I’m praying his character returns in one of Sandler’s future works. All actors throw themselves into their roles with fury, and they clearly enjoy working together.
In this new work, Sandler hints at how damaged people try to heal themselves, often imperfectly. Bones don’t always mend as they should, and demons do not always go away. And in this story, Sandler doesn’t supply all the answers. Instead, she infuses this work with discreet ambiguity, giving it exceptional resonance. I personally believe she’s created the most difficult drama to write—a rowdy and boisterous comedy that’s also psychologically and emotionally complex.
For this production, Claire Hill designs a magically simple set, a dive of an apartment that’s transforms into a gladiatorial arena, with a floor of sand, ready to sop up sweat and blood. Holly Lloyd‘s costumes fit the turf exactly, and Angela McQueen does marvelous things with make-up. Jeff Hanson has choreographed a sustained fight scene that will surely become legend. The audience just sits there, slack-jawed, waiting for bodies to be thrown out the windows, and there aren’t any!
The play is co-produced by Theatre Brouhaha and Red One Theatre Collective, two of the real powerhouses of ground-breaking theatre in Toronto.
Tickets at:
http://secureaseat.com/buy-tickets/
Location:
Storefront Theatre
955 Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario
Photo Credit: All photos by Zaiden
Burke Campbell 