Theater reviews: And So It Goes, at The Factory Theatre, Toronto, Canada

And So It Goes, a play by George F. Walker, is the story of Ned (played by Peter Donaldson) and Gwen (played by Martha Burns), who face their daughter Karen’s (played by Jenny Young) schizophrenia and subsequent death as well as their own financial ruin. Both Gwen and Ned possess an imaginary friend and therapist of sorts, the author (and very dead) Kurt Vonnegut (played by Jerry Franken). The play was written and directed by George F. Walker. A review of The Factory Theatre’s performance of And So It Goes, from the February 18, 2010 performance, will take into account the art direction, script and performances to assess the function of these elements in the play.

The art direction, specifically the set and many of the props, was the most disappointing element of the play. The set (designed by Shawn Kerwin) consisted of black flats of varying sizes, placed sporadically around the stage. They also had various paintings on them, which were supposed to be indicative of what was going on in that area of the stage, rather than a realistic portrayal of a location. For instance, the section of the stage that was supposed to be the home had a backdrop of children playing, as well as a crazy-looking eye and an equally crazy-looking baby. While it is easy to respect the artistic decision of painting representations of ideas rather than sets, it is the execution of it that was highly disappointing. The effect of the black, occasionally painted flats was reminiscent of the mazes they create at LazerQuest, and overall the look appeared to be very cheap. The set can be cheap; it just should not look cheap.

This same argument can be made of some of the props. At one point Ned takes to standing in the street with various signs – initially as a job, with a sandwich board, but afterwards with increasingly philosophical statements. While it is understandable that as Ned gets poorer the signs are just constructed of found cardboard, the initial sign (the sandwich board), looked nearly as cheap as the rest. This was a distracting element, as the focus was more on why a company would make their signage at Business Depot and not have something more professional rather than what the actor was saying.

The press release for the play states that “And So It Goes is quite different stylistically from the East End plays that Walker’s audiences are familiar with, but the intensely obsessed characters, troubled social landscapes and signature Walker humour are ever present.” This statement is undeniably true. And So It Goes most certainly has characters on a downward spiral, which are marginalized by society – very reminiscent of his Suburban Motel series. The play is also very funny, which is also classic Walker writing.

The most unusual element of the play was the inclusion of the “imaginary” real-life character Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote the classic novel Slaughterhouse-Five. This seemed an unusual choice, as Vonnegut is largely known as a science fiction writer, however, on the And So It Goes blog, the assistant director Courtney Walker states that “…no matter how awful things got for him and the world in general (and they got pretty bad… think the bombing of Dresden) Vonnegut was always able to see that most of it was also hysterically funny.” This statement alone clarifies exactly why Vonnegut was chosen and makes the choice perfect for this particular play.

The performances themselves ranged from capable to extraordinary, with no poor performances present. Jenny Young as the schizophrenic Karen was the standout performance of the play. She excellently portrayed both the manic “real” Karen and the normal “imagined” Karen in the second act of the play. This range of performance for one actor in a play was admirable and well-done. The relationship between the actors was clearly evident on stage. Martha Burns and Jerry Franken seemed to be genuinely having fun with one another as Gwen and Vonnegut.

And So It Goes runs January 30 – February 28, 2010 at the Factory Theatre and is highly recommended.

Learn more about this author, Heather Bellingham.