TORONTO - A "devised theatre ensemble" and the theatre they make reminds one of those solar cars created by engineering students. They look odd as hell, but no one can deny they get the job done.
They call themselves Theatre of the Emerging American Moment (or TEAM, if they're in a hurry), and the New York-based company brought their latest creation -- titled Particularly in the Heartland -- to the Enwave Theatre Wednesday. As part of Harbourfront Centre's ongoing New World Stage Festival, Heartland runs through Sunday.
It starts out as a pretty casual affair, with the six-member cast horsing around in the theatre as the audience arrives. Tossing a football around and occasionally breaking into song, the actors mingle with each other and with the audience, unobtrusively building a rapport that (at least on opening night) blossomed into a lovely bit of mutual trust, and a surprisingly touching rendition of our national anthem before the show began.
From there, however, things slowly morph into a show. We find ourselves somewhere in Kansas, sometime in the near future, watching the three Springer siblings (Todd played by Frank Boyd, Sarah played by Libby King, and Anna played by Kristin Sieh) struggle to cope with some unexplained natural disaster that has either claimed their parents' lives or, at least, removed them permanently from the scene.
While we are struggling to understand what the nature of this cataclysm might be (A tornado? Alien invasion? A sale on corn liquor?) the Springer clan settles the blame on The Rapture, the multi-platformed end of the world as Biblically foretold.
Mystified as to why they have been Left Behind (as their favourite series of books describes it), they nonetheless are soon caught up in the messy business of survival.
While they may have been left behind, it turns out they have not been left alone. Whatever strange event has claimed their parents has left them with a pregnant alien (Jill Frutkin), a middle-aged career woman with a penchant for red shoes (Lucy Kendrick Smith) and an inexplicably lively Bobby Kennedy (Jake Margolin) for company.
Stripped of familiarity, this strange group stranded in the American heartland finds there is more that ultimately binds them than separates them.
Despite the dramaturgic ministrations of Stephanie Douglass and Chantal Pavageaux, this is still a sprawling work, albeit one that is often delightfully so. There is, for instance, no plausible dramatic explanation for Sieh's segue into a skipping demonstration. Its placement notwithstanding, it provides a delightful theatrical amuse-bouche that takes the mind off the fact that there's no intermission in a work just short of two hours.
Under the direction of Rachel Chavkin, the entire cast has been encouraged to soar, blending movement and moment in such a way that audience connection becomes as important as storytelling -- not entirely a bad thing in a jerry-rigged vehicle seemingly cobbled together from spare plot parts from The Wizard of Oz, The Twilight Zone, A Christmas Carol, Alien and diverse other elements, including a call-in show.
Surprisingly, it all works -- well enough, in fact, that Heartland was able to claim a Fringe First Award at last year's Edinburgh Fringe.
Its success is, one suspects, due in no small part to the calibre of performers such as Margolin, King and Sieh. But it is impossible to overlook the powerful message of humanity that floats up through the froth.
Even if you don't like an ending that feels somehow like simply the nearest exit, chances are you will have already discovered that getting to that exit has been way more than merely half the fun.
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