Written and Performed by Daniel MacIvor. Presented at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax by reWork Productions and 2b Theatre.
A new one-man show by a sixty-something Cape Breton-born Canadian Theatre Legend, Daniel MacIvor, still rates as an East Coast Drama Event in my book.
Having reviewed similar singular performances such as Here Lies Henry, House, Monster and several others, along with his more naturalistic multi-actor shows like His Greatness and Marion Bridge, the theatrical innovator seems to come up with something startling every time I see him onstage.
At 75 minutes, Your Show Here seems more like a playful presentation or a theatre lecture with dramatic flourishes than a fully fleshed-out, finished piece. There are some autobiographical bits, but those are always a bit suspect. Are they confessions played up or exaggerated for theatrical effect? MacIvor asks these questions of himself and the play.
MacIvor’s tone is a little less tense in Your Show Here than in his work for Da Da Kamera, his two or three-person production team that toured his work around the world.
He’s looser; playful even. There are funny asides. And a looming narrative that threatens to turn the show into—believe it or not—a murder mystery.
The seduction of storytelling is one of the highlighted themes of Your Show Here. And the act of storytelling itself. All very self-reflexive; Post-modernism these days seems delightfully quaint when you question the process of the making of theatre itself. MacIvor, by asking those questions, involves the audience in the entire inquiry of narrative construction. But in the lightest, most fun possible way.
The writer/actor begins with a list of 12 elements of the theatre: Title. Poster. Light, Sound, Character. Typically, the light and sound are tightly choreographed to MacIvor’s gestures, so you get a pinpoint presentation. The only props are four glossy photos, a chair, and a water bottle. The control of the theatrical elements, particularly the sound, music, and lighting, reveals a basic dramatic minimalism that makes everything count for more.
It turns out that MacIvor really does begin with some autobiographical details. He has lost his friend—the theatrical collaborator, friend and director Daniel Brooks, referred to in the play as ‘friend’—and his mother, who turned 100 before her passing.
There is detail about both, with MacIvor’s mother revealing a late-in-life religious passion for a journey to Croatia to a Marian Visitation site. There is even more detail about the two Daniels joshing about their next collaboration, what it might be called and what it might be about.
Meanwhile, a story emerges about being stuck in a small regional airport at one in the morning, unable to escape the parking lot due to short staffing. It might even be the Sydney Airport; what develops from there is a marvellous example of MacIvor’s ability to build a narrative out of seemingly nothing to illustrate his 12 points of the theatre.
MacIvor’s earlier one-man shows were often hair-trigger tales of alienated young gay men attempting to navigate an increasingly meaningless world. Your Show Here is more relaxed, less alienated and more at peace with that same meaningless world, even if that world is far more unforgiving nowadays.
Ultimately, the play moves towards reconciling a pent-up pile of grief that has been lingering since the opening moments of the show. Along the way, you get humour, humanity and a lesson on how theatre can be magic when it wants to be.
Daniel MacIvor continues to blaze a singular trail through Canadian Theatre. This is yet another of his landmark productions. For his efforts, the audience rewarded him with a well-earned standing ovation. For me, it was indeed an example of the abundance of the theatre’s possibilities when revealed by the mastery of Daniel MacIvor.
Show Credits:
Daniel Brooks—Director In Absentia
Dramaturge—Kate Brooks
Stage Manager/Associate Lighting Designer—Alison Crosby
Lighting Designer—Kathryn Smith
Producer for reWork—Marcie Januska
With Assistance from Christian Barry, Mel Hague, Blake Booker an Denise Clarke
