Standing Alone In Three Parts

On Tuesday night I saw the play 'When You Stand Alone' a one-man play performed by Wesley Connor.

The performance was a charity event to raise funds for a hospital in Zimbabwe. Charity events always make me a little more lenient in my criticisms, however this performance did not require that, it was good.

The play is in three distinct parts, each with a completely different character (a childlike Beatles Lonely Hearts Club President, a disillusioned housewife, and an angry young man). The common thread they share is a sense of solitude (and a pot of cellophane flowers) that each of them deal with in a completely different way.

The actor did a fantastic job of making each of the characters believable, even though he changed costume from character to character on stage, had no real set, and limited props.

I felt that the Beatles fan and housewife were slightly stronger than the third character, but I can't criticize someone who five minutes prior was able to banish my disbelief so that I believed that he was a reminiscing 1950s-style housewife hoping to escape to France.

What I like most about the actor's performance was his all encompassing enthusiasm that shone through with each of the characters. The first character's display of his Beatles figurines in particular was simple yet fabulous.

The subject matter was actually terribly sad, three people trying to deal with their loneliness, each rationalizing how they have ended up where they are, and bargaining through convoluted self-rationing a way to keep their hopes alive. However, the actor's mastery of comic timing made each situation hilarious, and gave each character an innocence they made them even more likable.

More than anything else this play restored my faith (after the dance atrocity on Friday) that if you have talent you don't need complicated distractions like props, costumes and lighting to make a performance captivating.

On a personal note that has nothing to do with the play itself. Even though each of the characters had their own voice (literally and figuratively) I couldn't help but notice that the actor had what I, as a foreigner, consider to be a 'real' Canadian accent. I can't explain how, but it's always nice to hear.