The Elusive
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Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>
Trevor (Brad Carmichael) and Dan (Adam LeBlanc) portray a couple of average everyday guys. However, Trevor has gradually transformed into a histrionic psycho-cripple due to his obsessive failure to find true, transcendent love. As a Lothario, he fails spectacularly; at least, he is convinced he does. His room-mate, ‘pretty boy’ male model, Dan, is baffled and mostly irritated by all this torturous angst; for the present, at least, he’s content enough to pursue his own easy ‘revolving-door’ style of serial romance.
The current women in their lives also come across as polar opposites in personality and style. The frank, unpretentious availability of next door neighbour, Beth (Alison Louder) contrasts with the cool, independent sophistication of Jazmyn (Kim Doucet).
As things heat up between the respective couples, the play’s fascinating ‘pièce de résistance’ is the unforeseen ‘metaphysical tango’ between Trevor and Jazmyn, as they break out and perform high-concept roles exclusively for one another within their own charmed circle, while the rest of the world literally falls away. Somehow, they’ve managed to connect and communicate profoundly within the silent meeting-place of souls.
But there is a price to pay. Romantic entanglements bring their familiar highs and lows: self-doubt, longing, hope, exhilaration, delusion and despair. They also involve sporadic de-couplings and re-couplings, within a romantic action plan gone badly wrong. It’s the pure mathematics of paired love objects, geometrically shifting alliances and polarizing tensions.
In the process, LOVE itself goes on trial. Those formerly friendly room-mates, now antagonists, face off in an explosive battle of words to defend and justify their own vision and version of love.
Mike Czuba’s often vociferous, clever and quirky language flows like ‘greased lighting.’ It has a marked intellectual flavour, in which complex ideas and abstractions are excavated, scrutinized, given space and air. It’s a surgical probe into the workings of the heart, a painful excavation of the psyche. How to deny the evidence that love is baffling, contradictory, fickle and fleeting? As is human nature. The obsessive quest for the sublime can be a sojourn to nowhere, or worse.
In its grand theatrical treatise on love, ‘The Elusive’ manages to travel full circle; so, indeed, does the circulatory system of the heart…l’éternel recommencement. While emotional accusations, intimate sexual allusions and furious four-letter words are flying, the universal theme of LOVE continues to be examined under a laser beam in a bid to capture, identify, quantify and contain it, or at least define what precisely it is: is it love of the other, or needy self-love, or falling in love with love or the idea of love, or does it boil down to the dubious seduction of arousing the love of another, a ‘Narcissian’ type of self-love, reflected in some lover’s adoring gaze?
By the dramatic finale, the meaning of the word ‘love’ threatens to prove as elusive as Trevor’s desired ‘love object,’ not to mention ‘the actual thing—love—in itself.’
Invisible Cities Network
Tableau D'Hôte, Montréal's most daring independent theatre company, is pleased to announce that the inaugural production of Montréal playwright Mike Czuba's The Elusive starts this Thursday, February 14.
The Elusive is the story of two men and two women, clever amalgams of original and archetypal characters, all of whom are confounded by the issues attendant to love and relationships. From Trevor—who yearns for love and connection but can't seem to reconcile the way he is with what he thinks the world wants, to Dan—a cocksure, easygoing, ladies man, to Beth—the ingénue next door, to Jazmyn—a stunning, erudite career woman who seems to have it all together, Czuba's characters are all fascinating and irrepressible. That their struggles are something we can all relate to ensures that The Elusive will provoke and delight its audience.
"We can all get so wrapped up in our own existences that we can miss so much beauty along the way," says Czuba, discussing his play. "What if we allowed ourselves to be truly seen? Not what we wish others to see, but what is actually there. Do we have the courage to open ourselves to the possibility of a broken heart? And what is at stake? Approval, love, loneliness? What defines us? Who we are or who we're with?"
The Elusive is directed by Murray Napier, founder of the John Abbott College Theatre Department and its Theatre Workshop. Tableau D'Hôte is thrilled to have Mr. Napier onboard, as his career spent nurturing talent and contributing to theatre in Montréal has made the community itself stronger as a whole.
The Elusive stars some of the brightest and best-known talent in the city. Playing The Elusive's brooding and complex lead Trevor is Brad Carmichael (Quills/Fallen Angel), while Adam LeBlanc (The Restaurant Kings) provides a counterbalance as Dan, Trevor's good-natured mimbo roommate. Alison Louder (The Cyclops/Rabbit In A Hat) delights as Beth, the precocious girl next door, and Kim Doucet (Romeo and Juliet/Centaur) rounds out the cast as Jazmyn, who may or may not be the titular elusive.
The gifted cast is supported by an imaginative and creative design team that includes some of Montreal's finest young designers. Lighting design for The Elusive is by Chris O'Neill, costume design by Noémi Poulin, and set design by Jenn Sheshko. Tristan Capacchione provides an original score, and once again, Tableau D'Hôte is pleased to have Paul Brian Imperial stage managing.
Tableau D’Hôte, fresh off its successful mounting of Sally Clark’s engaging and complex Jehanne of the Witches, is excited to present Montréal playwright Mike Czuba’s The Elusive. An absorbing contemporary drama which concerns itself with the myriad complications of love and interpersonal relationships, The Elusive exposes that what we show is often not what we are, and proves that truth is often the most elusive thing of all. Given its tone, opening night—fittingly scheduled for St. Valentine’s Day—promises to be a decidedly one-of-a-kind experience.
Since its inception in 2005, Tableau D’Hôte has committed itself to giving Montréalers the chance to see productions that have never before been mounted in our city. In that spirit, the company is proud and pleased to be putting The Elusive front and centre for your consideration. Despite the difficulties attendant to such a mandate, Tableau D’Hôte stands firm and resolute in its aim to teach, delight, and inspire the current and next generation of Montréal-area theatre talents and audiences.
The Elusive, making its world premiere, is a timely production. A sharp and uncompromising look into the minds, lives and psyches of four city dwellers—connected and disconnected as they are—the play follows Trevor, Dan, Beth, and Jazmyn as they live, love, complicate and obfuscate their romantic lives in ways that are refreshingly true-to-life. Says playwright Czuba, “The Elusive is about what happens when we ignore the truth and try to manufacture our own reality. It’s a cautionary tale of what happens when we descend too far into our own selves and forget those closest to us.”
Traditional material of this sort often falls flat because of its reluctance to deal with the harsh realities of humanity that get exposed by love and need. The Elusive, to its credit, does not pull punches, choosing to look at love, need, and desire beyond cheap first-date intimacy or the unnatural simplicity of clichéd Hollywood romance. Bravely, Czuba’s play asks what happens “if we allow ourselves to be truly seen—not only what we wish others to see, but what is actually there.”
The Elusive is directed by Murray Napier, founder of the John Abbott College Theatre Department. Mr. Napier, as professional, lauded and experienced as one can find in the realm of Montréal theatre, is a veteran of far too many productions to count, yet still considers himself lucky to be involved with dynamic young actors and a promising new voice in Canadian theatre in Czuba.
The cast of The Elusive is experienced and multi-talented, and includes in its ranks Brad Carmichael (Quills/Fallen Angel), Adam Le Blanc (Dial ‘M’ For Murder/Hudson Players Club), Kim Doucet (Romeo and Juliet/Centaur Theatre) and the irrepressible Alison Louder, fresh from starring in The Cyclops (Rabbit In A Hat) at Centaur Theatre’s 2008 Wildside Festival. The show is fortunate enough to include lighting design by Chris O’Neill (Endgame/Gleams Theatre), costume design by Noémi Poulin (Jehanne of the Witches) and set design by Jen Sheshko (Quills/Fallen Angel). Tristan Cappachione (Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde/Gravy Bath) provides an original score.