Four men debate being
male in The Wild

Martin Millerchi
THEATRE REVIEW

The Wild Guys by Andrew
Wreggzitt and Rebecea Shaw,
directed by Margaret Bard. An
Arts Club Mainstage production
to Sep. 10, Box office: 687-1644,

unscientific survey of three

friends after seeing The
Wild Guys last week for the
first time.

| CONDUCTED a very

Asked to provide first impulse
reactions to the trigger words
“Robert Bly,” they came up with:
“drumming,” “poetry” and
“Mutiny on the Bounty.”

It fater transpired that my poetic
friend was actually thinking of
Robert Frost, but even so, | was
surprised to get one correct associ-
ation (No, forget Charles
Laughton.).

Talk about “the men’s move-
ment” near the water cooler gen-
erally reveals that while we can,
with prompting,remember drum-
ming, talking sticks and a quest for
the inner man, most of us have
forgotten Robert Bly because we
never had a very clear idea about

what he stood for in the first place.
"At least, / dicin’t before seeing
The Wild Guys.

And guess what? { still don’t.
But | had a great time at the play.

Wreggitt and Shaw’s script
turns on the simple premise of four
men from very different back-
grounds heading out into the
woods for a weekend of ... well,
since they each have their own
expectations, nobody gets exactly
what they were looking for.

Jackson Davies is Stewart, who
hopes to ask his company boss,
Andy (Vince Metcalfe), for
advancement from his small-town
store to a not-quite-such-a-small-
town store.

Unfortunately for Stewart the
trail to Zippermouth Lake is
known by only five guys and, it
turns out, he isn’t one of them.

Meanwhile, new-ager Robin
(Hrothgar Mathews) has not
brought food for the weekend so
that the group must hunt for it,
thereby releasing the primal male.

This action earns Robin the
undying enmity of 39-year-old
Randall (Howard Siegel), who was
hoping for a much softer weekend
after getting out of a triathlon with
his 22-year-old girliriend.

That's pretty much it.

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

FLINTSTONES
7:00 pm
9:00 pm

Fun, |

ag :
Photo Glen E

LEFT TO right: Vince Metcalfe, Howard Siegal, Hrothgar

Mathews and Jackson Davies

exchange a moment of “honest

emotions” in the Arts Club's production of The Wild Guys.

The guys trade shots, gentle
and otherwise. Humor arises from
the clash in personalities and
Stewart and Randall’s fear of let-
ting go.

In one classic tableau, Robin
forces the men who have just
helped him “visualize” away his
fear of drowning into a group hug.
Anything less like an “exchange of
real, honest emotions” would be
hard to conceive,

As the weekend progresses the
men debate anger, fear, failure
and, as the barriers come down,
women,

While there is no huge dramat-
ic centre to Wreggitt and Shaw's
finely observed comedy it had a
large crowd at the Arts Club
laughing consistently the night |
saw it.

And that’s a tribute to director
Margaret Bard and a very strong
cast who never go over the top in
search of the cheap laugh.

Davies and Mathews could so
easily have allowed their poten-
tially extreme characters to slip
into stereotype, but both find the

See Play page 28

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SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES
FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL
7:10 pm

SEPARATE ADMISSION FEATURES

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