+

Three Vagabonds, presented by
Releatless Entertainment, Water-
tront Theatre, To july 20, phone
286-4444 or 6835-6217.

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

OR A play with next
to no plot and little
character develop-
ment, Three Vagabonds is
till wicked fun.

it’s more like performance art,
the way its main character spits
out scathing criticisms and homi-
lies on living the free lite.

You see, the protagonist is a
hobo of the highest order. He is
Francis-Xavier DuPree or F-X, a
tool-cunvsavior, a Jesuit of the
junkpile, who, tike his namesake,
lives in poverty and poverty-in-
duced chastity, preaching his own
gospel: tree-spirited curmudgeonry
and an unholy mixture of sin and
sainthood.

The play, written by Tom
Crighton and directed by Tom
Rowe, takes place in F-X’s living
room, which doubles as a grungy
back alley. Here the bum-

philosopher exists in the ever-
untolding now, amidst the ever-
accumulating teash.

After waking up in his armchair
feeling ‘‘reborn’’ aiter a good
sleep (with a slight twist on the
usual born-again theme), F-X finds
himself in the company of two
middle-class professionals who
crashed the previous night on his
mattress. A meeting of minds en-
sues, in which F-X berates the
man, john Scott (played ably by
Howard Kruschke) for his WASP
lifestyle, his “unilingual egg salad"
sandwich culture.’

But Scoit is too shallow to hear
the wisdom in F-X’s quirky
aphorisms. He goes off to search
for his car, leaving his date, who
just happens to be his best friends
wife.

F-X now unleashes his poetic
stream of consciousness on Susan
(Tamsin Kelsey), verbally undress-
ing her with his libertarian ideas.
He manages to expose the cracks
in her wifey-white world, coaxing
from her a confession (yes, con-
fession) of near-suicide.

In a word, he arouses the vaga-
bond in her.

During the soul-searching, John
enters and exits still in search of
his car, now a target for private
jokes between the newly allied F-X
and Susan.

# GEORGE WALKER
4 Summer/Fall Register Now

phote submitted

HOBO-PHILOSOPHER meets attractive kindred spirit...Susan
(Tamsin Kelsey), F-X DuPree (Alec Willows) and John Scott
(Howard Kruschke) enjoy a sip of vintage in a back aliey in
Three Vagabonds, currently playing at the Waterfront Theatre.

In the second act, Susan, in-
spired to boldness by F-x's
promptings, decides to leave her
husband, dump one-dimensional
John and fead her own fife.

In the end, John leaves indig-
nant, defending his pig-headed
male chauvinism to the end. Susan
then occupies the mangy armchair
of F-X, gaging its comiortability
and the possibilities of assuming
another (her own) identity. F-X
appears in respectable clothing
and strides off to assume sorne
new identity.

Since | am 3 hopeless addict of
puns and curmudgeonisms | sat
happily through most of the play,
oblivious tc its dramatic flaws.
Transfixed by Alec Willows’ enter-
taining performance as F-X |
became obsessed with hearing the
witty quips. Bui by the second act

FOR TRE

LIGHTING

l twigged that the dramatic devel-
opment was lacking,

Somehow it all came too fast,
and Susan’s transformation didn't
teel like the real thing.

it seems Crighton got toe fond ot
his pithy ideas to the detriment of
the characters who aren't allowed
enough time to develop in be-
tween wisecracks.

As for those wisecracks, nething
is sacred, Crighton, through his
mouthpiece F-X, takes aim at
multiculturalism, politics,
chauvinism, ethnocentrism and
democracy (‘just a system we
use to elect dictators’’).

I liked the set, a precariously
leaning cement wali with rusty
metal reinforcements and a win-
dow oarred with bricks, itself a
statement on the dubious belict
systems which confine us.

essiopan a iat
: ating Fees

‘79

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