Theatre at UBC

Transit Lounge

by Conrad Alexandrowicz, Rachel Ditor, Kendra Franconi. Robert Gardiner, Amiel Gladstone, Anosh Irani, Andreas Kahre, Maiko Bae Yamamoto

Venue Telus Studio Theatre Dates: 6 -16 April 2005

Reviewer Jane Penistan

Transit Lounge is a work of many hands. With such a variety of input it could well be disconnected. In actuality, this is a very well put together, if somewhat confusing, piece of theatre.

Several of the student and professional cast play multiple roles, some of which do not seem to accord with the programme's listing. One of these is Ryan Beil, who plays Kazinsky, The Lost and Found Man, and Misha Krikalev, the astronaut lost in space. Much of his time is spent aloft, surveying the world from space, conversing with the air cargo pilot, Francine (Maiko Bae Yamamoto) and writing his daily report on his space odyssey. It is Misha who first raises the question of "What is home?," the kernel of the text. 

Although she leads a peripatetic life, Francine is the most stable and content of all the character. Yet for her home is her transport aeroplane. She always knows where she is going and why. 

In the busy airport staff are changing shifts, looking after passengers in transit, leaving home, as is Constance (Kendra Franconi), in the midst of a marriage breakup, A lost and verbally incapacitated man (Conrad Alexandrowicz) is frantically trying to find his wife. Airport staff marshal passengers, sell tickets, answer questions, pick up and dispose of lost property, and generally keep things moving -- sometimes literally. There is a constant shifting of personnel and property, all indicating the instability and uncertainty of life.

It is only in the air that life seems more stable for the astronaut and the pilot, while the dream cosmonaut (Conrad Alexandrowicz) drifts in space, pursuing the elusive planet Earth among the stars. In this dream world Canstance appears from the plane's cargo hold, dressed only in a luggage bag. Having divested herself of her earth bound clothes, and using the varied articles of cargo, she indulges her humanitarian and maternal instincts in the serene enclosure of the belly of the plane.

Astrid Varnes plays, among others, Misha's wife and the Currency Exchange Girl. As Misha's wife she is speechless, but as the Currency Exchange Girl she finds stability because people always "value money" even if they abandon their family relationships. In the last lines of the play, Kazinsky and this girl go off together for breakfast coffee. Misha and his wife reunited?

Highlights of this star-spangled production are the ensemble work of the cast in their choreographic inter scene movement and the beautiful chorus work in the ballad of the composer Andreas Kahre. The music throughout enlightens and enhances both the real and imaginary world.