“Mike Bartlett’s play is ‘Cock of the Walk’ in Barrie.”
I have to hand it again to Barrie’s Talk Is Free Theatre. TIFT pushes boundaries to provoke its audiences' thinking and nudge them out of their comfort zones.
Artistic Producer Arkady Spivak pointed out in his pre-show remarks that the play’s title cocked a few heads in Barrie. That’s a good thing when theatre can do that.
TIFT’s latest unabashed production of British playwright Mike Bartlett’s darkly comic ‘Cock’ made me do the same thing a few times on this opening night.
John (Jakob Ehman) is a gay man who has been in a relationship with his partner, ‘M’ (Michael Torontow), for seven years. They have quarrelled lately, and John has moved out of the apartment. But when he meets and falls in love with a woman, ‘W’ (Tess Benger), John is forced to contemplate the boundaries of his identity and decide what he wants for his future. A dinner party that ‘M’ holds at the apartment to finally see if John is serious about his future intentions becomes the climax for his future choices. ‘M’ has invited his father, ‘F’ (Kevin Bundy), for moral support.
The play examines an important question: are fidelity and monogamy still possible in a permissive twenty-first-century context?
That’s puzzling when you look at Bartlett’s script.
For instance, after being sexually intimate twice with ‘W,’ John is head over heels for her and then runs back to ‘M’ to be forgiven. Is John hinting that he’s no longer gay? Is that why he runs back to ‘M’ to be forgiven? I didn’t think one can be cured of being gay. This comes across as selfishly unfaithful.
Three out of the four characters are identified as initials. Many people will have the same initials, so there’s no sense of individuality, whereas a name like John denotes a particular character. Therefore, does using initials instead of names mean people are dispensable and thrown away once we’ve used them? How is it possible to remain monogamous, then, in a world where initials identify many people?
It finally dawned on me why Bartlett’s script is not puzzling. It’s not afraid to hit right at the heart of a permissive society and ask point-blank questions. By doing so, it’s riveting, gutsy and sexy theatre. It’s the ‘Cock of the Walk’ in Barrie.
First, let’s not get all schoolgirl giggly and intimating the play’s title means only the male appendage. British slang indicates ‘cock’ is a rooster. A cock fight is two roosters battling. Cock can also be used as a derogatory term towards someone else, usually from one male to another male. It also means to tilt one’s head to the side (see example above). Cock also means to get a gun ready for firing.
These meanings have been intricately woven into director Dylan Trowbridge’s bold treatment of a play that he believes concerns the human heart. His vision deals with love’s capacity to make us feel euphoric, joy, brutal pain, desperate fear, and overwhelming confusion. Love transcends sexuality and gender. It ignites primal fear both between individuals and within individuals. This theatrical vision has been courageously and confidently stamped on TIFT’s production, which Trowbridge believes will differ in each performance.
Production designer Kathleen Black does not set ‘Cock’ in an upper-class-looking setting of familiarity. Instead, it plays in the underground dust, dust bunnies, and cement storage space at 80 Bradford Street. We gather in front of a garage door. An audience member knocks, and John (Jakob Ehman) opens the door. Dressed in a white undershirt, silver pants, and black dress shoes, John stares at each audience member as we enter. There’s a sense of discomfort walking past him. What’s he thinking about each of us? It appears John has ensconced himself as the first cock of the evening.
It’s a tightly intimate theatre in the round performance space. The audience is up close to the action. A white drop sheet at the front allows some plot action to occur behind.
Periodically, I like to mention when I can sense a production becomes an actor’s play.
‘Cock’ is one of them.
What makes it easy and challenging for any theatre company? There are no cumbersome sets, props galore, or flashy costumes. There is the odd miming at the ‘dinner’ table. The challenge would be to ensure ‘Cock’ does not become the typical sitcom fare of a screaming and shouting match in playing for control of the moment.
Trowbridge does not allow that to happen. He confidently ensures his actors focus on the words' meanings and connotations, what they add to each moment, and how to deliver them so the context is clear.
These four talented artists measure up to this mammoth task of telling a good story using words.
Jakob Ehman and Michael Torontow open the show with gritty rawness and candour. There’s a sense of sexual chemistry of ‘hawtness’ (yes, I did teach high school for 30 years) and guts between John and M. They try to one-up each other while vying to become the cock of the moment to control. Torontow’s height, dark, swarthy Freddy Mercury look, complete with black nail polish, tattoos, and muscles, contrast robustly with Ehman’s shorter height, lighter-coloured pants, a white undershirt, and dress shoes.
As ‘W,’ Tess Benger becomes an appropriate foil to Torontow’s ‘M.’ Torontow is demanding and overbearing, while Benger is inviting and patient. John and ‘W’s sexual activity is most definitely euphoric in its static staging. It’s not graphic in its depiction on stage, yet it allows Benger and Ehman to use words and guttural sounds to indicate their pleasurable ecstasy. This encounter would set ‘M’ ready to fire a gun out of jealous rage.
Kevin Bundy ‘F’ is father to ‘M.’ Although he only appears in the final scene, ‘F’ is not of secondary importance but becomes more of a peripheral understanding of Trowbridge’s vision of the capacity of love transcending. A widower, ‘M’ has experienced confusion and difficulty in accepting his son’s relationship but is appreciative of what John has brought to ‘M’s’ life. However, one of ‘W’s’ conversation starters towards ‘F’ changes the course of events.
The ending of ‘Cock’ is visually powerful. The look on Ehman’s face when ‘M’ asks him a question to do something remains haunting. Will he or won’t he? I’m not saying a word. You have to see it for yourself.
And Another Thought: In the Programme, Talk is Free states it doesn’t just make theatre in Barrie. It works to redefine it, to redefine our relationship to it, and to redefine how artists thrive as they create it.
When you’ve solid Canadian theatre artists at work in Barrie, driving outside Toronto to see terrific work makes it all the more worthwhile.
That’s why you should go to Barrie to see ‘Cock.’
Running time: approximately 90 minutes with no interval/intermission.
‘Cock’ runs until April 27 at 80 Bradford Street, Barrie. Enter via Sign #3. For further information, visit tift.ca or call (705) 792-1949.
Talk is Free Theatre presents
‘Cock’ by Mike Bartlett
Director: Dylan Trowbridge
Assistant Director/Sound Designer: Nolan Moberly
Production Designer: Kathleen Black
Production Supervisor: Crystal Lee
Stage Manager: Koh Lauren Quan
