MainLine Theatre - 3997 Saint-Laurent, Montréal QC 514-849-3378

When I lived in Toronto there was a story about George F. Walker that he would leave whatever comfortable digs he may have been living in, to stay at a seedy East Side hotel in order to write. It seems to have done wonders for this multiple award-winning and prodigious playwright. This offering by Tableau D’Hôte Theatre, in celebration of five years of producing Canadian plays, was thrilling.

This company has taken a huge risk by mounting the entire Suburban Motel suite. If the next productions are as energetic and emotionally explosive as Problem Child and Adult Entertainment, they will succeed, and we can only pray that they will enjoy many more years to come.

It is meet and seemly to enter a slightly graffiti laden door and climb the salubrious flight of stairs up to Mainline Theatre to see these plays about the seedier side of Toronto. The medium starts on Boulevard St. Laurent and the message packs a punch.

Problem Child about a former prostitute/drug addict and her ex-con husband speeds through some extraordinary twists to a fully satisfying conclusion. Mike Hughs was nail-bitingly perfect as the slightly functional hubby while Joanne Sarazen was utterly convincing as the mother of a child taken by the system. Catherine Lemieux went through the most deadpan lines, with perfect tone and timing, but it was George Bekiaris as the alcoholic motel maid of all trades who was disturbingly hilarious. Hughs and Sarazen were perfectly matched and they flawlessly circled and swept through the small claustrophobic set, never missing an emotionally charged beat. Liz Valdez is a thoroughly confident director working with intelligence and proficiency in the well designed setting.

Adult Entertainment about two rogue cops and the women who love them is more problematic. Liz Valdez and Eric Davis are splendid as Jayne and Max. Their interaction is torrid and cynical and completely believable. Patrick Charron had some good moments as the delirious Donny, but his focus sometimes veered when he was not playing drunk. Annie Lalonde also had a few terrific scenes and then seemed to get lodged into her head tomes for the second half of the play and could not get out of them. The directing was not as assured as it might have been and admittedly there were some difficult blocking problems, but they could have been resolved so that actors were not turning their backs and masking during key scenes.

There is something crazy and wonderful about seeing two of these plays in one night and I am so pleased that there are four more to relish. It is a privilege to witness well written theatre with actors such as Mike Hughes, Joanne Sarazen, George Bekiaris, Liz Valdez and Eric Davis. Valdez is a double threat because of her near perfect direction of Problem Child.

Most exciting of all is a new Canadian Works series that Tableau D’Hôte Theatre is launching this season. The venture into play development will fill a terrible gap in a community of playwrights who have been woefully neglected. They will workshop new scripts and stage a public reading. Bravo.

Suburban Motel suite consists of: PROBLEM CHILD – Nov. 10 – 15 7 pm (Nov. 14 & 15 2 pm); ADULT ENTERTAINMENT – Nov. 10 – 15 9 pm (Nov. 14 & 15 4 pm); FEATURING LORETTA – Nov. 17 – 22 7 pm (Nov. 21 & 22 2 pm); THE END OF CIVILIZATION – Nov. 17 – 22 9 pm (Nov. 21 & 22 4 pm); CRIMINAL GENIUS – Nov. 24 – 29 7 pm (Nov. 28 & 29 2 pm); RISK EVERYTHING – Nov. 24 – 29 9 pm (Nov. 28 & 29 4 pm). At MainLine Theatre, 3997, boul. St-Laurent. Box Office: (514) 849 – FEST (3378). Or: www.tableaudhotethetare.ca