Paper Shines

I love going to theatre. That's the amazing thing about the career I'm pursuing. I can work on my own shows, and enjoy them, and I can support friends, colleagues, and theatre companies. Even if I go to a show where I don't know anyone who worked on it, or am not familiar with the theatre company, I'm supporting the arts. I'm a contributing member of the society I want to live in: A society that cares about the arts.

These past two weekends, I have seen a lot of theatre. This might seem backwards, but I'm going to start with the show that I saw most recently.

This past Saturday, I went to the closing night of paper SERIES, written by David Yee and directed by Nina Lee Aquino. 

I'm familiar with both of these artists, as Nina directed my favourite play, Banana Boys, which David Yee acted in. That was five and a half years ago. I was in first year, and it was the first time I ever saw theatre and realized how different and challenging it could be. I was hooked.

But I'm talking about paper SERIES now. It was performed in the Tank House Theatre at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. It's a black box type of theatre. The set was extremely minimal, which suits black box very well. There was a desk at centre stage, with a two foot tall stack of paper on the [audience] left side of it. The stack of paper was lit in such a way it looked as though it was lit from within. There were two chairs on stage as well, and these were moved by the actors frequently throughout the performance. Off to one side, there was a record player sitting on two large stacks of paper. There was no real record on it, rather, there was a circular piece of paper. During the scene shifts, an actor would put a new, differently shaped piece of paper on the record player that related to the scene you were about to see. 

paper SERIES is just that. It's a series of six short plays, all connected by paper. There were six performers; each had a scene where they were the main character.

First was PAPER burns, starring Marjorie Chan. It was the story of a woman who goes into the family business of counterfeiting money. As a child, her father taught her that reputation is the most important thing. He built his reputation on being the best counterfeiter. He claims his money is able to pass "the burn test." When their warehouse is raided by cops, he sets everything on fire and goes out the front door, where he is shot down. The Russians, who were paying for this job, are not pleased and want Baht (Chan) to complete the job. She tries to make money that won't burn, and in the process realizes that her father built his reputation on a lie. It simply can't be done. In the end, she comes up with a cunning way to deal with the Russians and maintain her reputation. When they come to pick up the money, she makes them wear masks because the ink fumes are potentially dangerous. What she is really hiding is the smell of gasoline, as she has soaked the place in it. As the Russians are realizing they're unhappy with the money, she walks out the front door and sets the place on fire with the Russians still inside. She has the six pieces of paper needed to start a new life — a driver's license, a birth certificate, a SIN card, a health card, a passport, and a credit card — and on she goes.

The second play was PAPER cuts, with Rosa Laborde as Hope. This one was possibly the funniest as Hope tries to write a break-up letter to her boyfriend, John. "Dear John, It's not me, it's you. That's a lie, it's you. Love, Hope." She writes letter after letter, as John sleeps. She tries different tactics. Brutal honesty, gentle lies, and most hilarious of all, she re-adopts her Russian accent from PAPER burns, and writes "Dear John, We are international group of terrorists. We have kidnapped your girlfriend. If you ever want to see her again, bring $500,000 to locker... 19 at the bus station. But actually, that probably won't work, so just assume that you will never see her again. Love, ... nameless group of international terrorists..." In the end, she uses a metaphor to convey the truth honestly. She writes that she has a papercut, so small you can't even see it, but it hurts.

Next was PAPER dolls, starring Rebecca Applebaum as Mutt. She is a young girl, who has been shunted about from foster home to foster home. She makes paper dolls, and imagines them to be her Scottish father and Chinese mother. The dolls tell her the story of how they lived in the Annex and were happy, how they died in a car crash, went to heaven and made a deal with god, who prefers the name Angus ("God is Scottish!?"), to watch over and protect their daughter until she's 20. It was a very funny piece, with paper cut outs of cars, a dog, a house. When the cars collide in the crash, a handful of shredded paper gets thrown in the air. It also touched on issues of racism, with Mutt talking about how the nun at the orphanage says Mutt is unwanted because she's a half breed. Also, the character has no other name besides "Mutt." I found this aspect interesting, as I know the playwright, David Yee, is of Scottish and Chinese descent. 

The next piece was the most physically comedic, PAPER tears starring Nico Lorenzo Garcia, a waiter in a Chinese restaurant, named Wisdom, (his co-workers' names are King, Calm, and Love,) who decides to personalize the fortunes in the fortune cookies when he overhears a man who is on a date in the restaurant on the phone with his wife. His co-workers join in the fun, and the restaurant gets a reputation for having the most uncanny fortunes. This piece had hilarious sound effects, including the repeated sound of a wink. That was also the moment where my stage management sense started tingling, and I thought, "This would be difficult to call!" The climax comes about when Love writes a fortune to an attractive girl, whose boyfriend receives it instead. The boyfriend pulls a gun on Love, King comes out and pulls a gun on the boyfriend, a friend of the boyfriend comes in and pulls a gun on King, Calm pulls a gun on the friend, and the friend pulls out another gun on Calm. "It was a Mexican standoff in a Chinese restaurant!" Wisdom tells this whole story in response to an interviewer's question about whether or not he has any restaurant experience.

PAPER folds followed that piece, completely changing the pace. Byron Abalos delivers this monologue in response to his girlfriend who has just broken up with him. Interesting note: his girlfriend is played by Laborde, and Abalos played the sleeping boyfriend in PAPER cuts, so this piece is an alternative break up between the same actors. In PAPER folds Symbol's (Abalos) girlfriend is breaking up with him because he didn't kiss her one time, several months ago. Symbol reminds her of how when they met, he gave her his phone number inside an origami crane. He says that that one time he didn't kiss her was just one paper fold, and it takes so many more folds to build a relationship, or an origami crane. He makes her one last origami crane, and every fold he makes he labels as a part of their relationship, "our first kiss, the first night we slept together, meeting the parents..." and so on. In the end, he leaves her with the crane. PAPER folds might have been the weakest piece of the evening, but that doesn't mean it was bad. It was much slower paced, much less comedic. It was also the starting point for the entire series. In the playwright's note, Yee writes that he wrote Paper Folds for a fundraiser after becoming obsessed with a book on origami. From there, he became obsessed with paper, and wrote several short pieces, many of which didn't make it into paper SERIES. 

From the weakest, we went to the strongest for the final piece. PAPER route could be expanded to a full length play, and if it ever is, Kawa Ada should be cast in the role of Isaac again. Isaac is an immigrant to Canada from India, where he was a doctor. In Canada, he is a taxi driver. He tells his story to his fare, when she notices that his taxi driver license has been replaced with his medical credentials. He tells the story of how he met his closest friends, who are all taxi drivers in Canada who had been doctors in India. One day, they are driving along the DVP in two cars, a limo and Isaac's newly paid off, waxed taxi cab, on their way to pick up one of their friends from the airport. A truck jackknifes across all three lanes of traffic, and the friends narrowly escape being crushed. But then they notice that the man who had been driving behind them was thrown from his car and landed on the trunk of Isaac's cab. The man is a doctor in a Toronto hospital. His pulse is weak, and the ambulance won't be arriving anytime soon. Isaac performs a tracheotomy on the doctor to open his airway, but he has lost a lot of blood. The doctor's blood type is on his donor card, and one of them is a match. They find syringes in the doctor's car, and perform a transfusion. The police arrive and arrest the men; they are detained for a few hours and then released. The doctor doesn't press charges. He is, in fact, grateful to the men for saving his life. In celebration of their feat, all of the men replace their taxi licenses with their medical credentials. It was played mostly as a one man show, with Isaac impersonating his friends for his audience. It was a thought provoking piece. It was funny, poignant, sad, happy. It was a high note.

All six of the actors were commendable. They supported each other well, and owned their pieces in their own right. 

I seriously hope this play gets remounted or goes on tour. It deserves a longer life. It's definitely one for the books.