FRONT ROW CENTER THEATRE REVIEW: HOMECHILD

Theatre Review by Mark Andrew Lawrence, Front Row Centre

Joan MacLeod's play HOMECHILD has been in development for two years, and now has been deemed ready for public performance. It opened as the first production of the New Year by CanStage at the Bluma Appel theatre in the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Though the play has some riveting moments, all too often it loses focus and plays like a TV movie-of-the-week.

Documenting a small but important part of our history, HOMECHILD recalls the time between 1860 and 1930 when over 100,000 Home Children were sent to Canada from Britain. Some were orphans, while well-meaning families hoping their children would find a better life sent others. The story offers a touching tale of a daughter's odyssey to find her father's long-lost sister. This is the heart of the play, if you can get to it. But there are plenty of roadblocks along the way.

The biggest of these is the use of a memory character of the long lost sister of the main character Alistair as a young girl, irritating played by Lara Jean Chorostecki. She serves to undercut the climatic moment at the end of Act One when the daughter, Dorrie, learns of her father's secret. The play would be a great deal more effective without her.

It could also lose the simplistic resolutions near the end. We never fully understand why Alistair is so bloody cantankerous. Is it age? The onset of a stroke? We never know, and the text never makes it clear.

There are, however, some moments of genuine interest but these are due mainly to the committed performances by a solid cast led by Eric Peterson who has that cranky old man routine down pat. It could become a one note performance but if you've seen Peterson before you know that he understands how to make it never less that riveting.

As his devoted caretaker, Patricia Hamilton again essays the feisty but loving favourite aunt. Unfortunately MacLeod's script tries to turn her into stock sitcom character in the middle of the second act. A more serious performance is offered by Brenda Robbins as the determined daughter who discovers her father's secret and brings about a reunion with his long lost sister. She gets some of the plays most intense moments and makes the most of them.

In general, the cast gives solid, nicely nuanced performances, but HOMECHILD never maintains the level of its best moments.

HOMECHILD plays Mondays thru Saturdays at 8 Pm at the Bluma Appel Theatre with a 1:30 pm matinee on Wednesdays and 2 pm matinees on Saturdays. Ticket are $36-80 for all performances. Rush seats are ? price and sold at the box-office 1 hour prior to show time. On Mondays there are a limited number of pay-what-you-can tickets available at the box-office, cash only. For more info go to www.canstage.com or call Ticketmaster at (416)872-1111

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