Buckle your seatbelts, kids, ‘cuz it’s going to be a bumpy ride. In space. Post-apocalyptic satire in Empty Box Theatre Company’s [link] production of Waiting for Alonzo, written and directed by Keavy Lynch – running at the Theatre Passe Muraille (TPM) Mainspace for Toronto Fringe.
In a post-apocalyptic time in the near future, a lone ship floats through space. The ship’s captain and all-around bossy boots Doctor Zanita (Victoria Urquhart) has seen a single life form reading scurry across their monitor and is convinced that Alonzo is coming. The anticipation of his arrival throws her into a right tizzy, and she wants everything to be perfect. Beside herself, she bursts into a flurry of activity, ordering her faithful assistant Bielke (Hayley Malouin) around, and pestering her hunky talking computer man statue Andre (Kevin Chew) for assessments of her appearance. Of course, it’s all futile. And all for a man!
Urquhart’s Doctor Zanita is a mean girl with a PhD, obsessed with body modification (with comic results) in her efforts to become a perfect ‘10’ – a pathetic mess underneath the arrogant attitude and gorgeous, Barbie doll body. Malouin is a delight as the adorably sweet (or is she?), put-upon Bielke; mistreated by her employer, but cheerfully sharing some comically maudlin advice on the bright side of death with the audience when she has a moment to herself. Chew’s Andre is a calm and static observer, a highly sophisticated computer programmed to respond honestly to Zanita’s personal questions; he has a particularly fun moment, which I won’t spoil here.
The futility of Doctor Zanita’s efforts at “beauty” is particularly pathetic in light of her education and brilliance as a scientist (she built the damn ship, after all); choosing to spend her time and energy on plastic surgery (highlighted in a particular grotesquely hilarious scene) as she awaits the arrival of a man instead of – oh, I don’t know – searching for an inhabitable planet, or finding and rescuing other survivors.
With shouts to designer Nicole Titus for the wacky, spacy set, props and costumes.
Waiting for Alonzo is Waiting for Godot meets Brazil – in space – in this bizarro, quirky fun post-apocalyptic tale.
Waiting for Alonzo has two more performances at the TPM Mainspace: July 10 at 7:30 p.m. and July 11 at 5:45 p.m.
life with more cowbell 