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Last Landscape

Bad New Days Production with Common Boots Theatre now on stage at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre to January 26, 2025

Credit: Fran Chudnoff

Dave Rabjohn

‘A truly ensemble group production managed by Director Adam Paolozza’

In a small shabby apartment, a random pile of clothing begins to thump as if containing a beating heart. With this early mystical image, we knew we were in for a fascinating time.

Bad New Days Production with Common Boots Theatre presents Adam Paolozza’s inventive ‘Last Landscape’ – an imaginative voyage through nature lost and regained. With virtually no dialogue, the production relies on movement, dance, sound, puppetry and interaction with props and actors.

The apartment is disassembled, and we are left with a huge empty acting space down to the bare walls and concrete floor. A nuclear type winter has descended and the natural environment has disappeared. Florescent lighting punctuates the mood of desolation and our lost environment. “Workers” – human forms who seem intent on remembering the past, begin to move about to recreate their memories of nature.

They begin with the sun and move on to create a tree – clever stagecraft uses arms as branches with wrists and fingers writhing as leaves. A river is stealthily created. They move on to create forests, birds and finally large mammals.

A final crescendo of hills, lawns, brooks and shrubs celebrates the resurrected nature. I have never observed a set strike as performance art, but the workers tear everything back and we end with human’s interaction alone with the sun.

The main strength of the production comes from the choreographed movement of the workers. Their actions are stylized but purposeful. One worker wears roller blades which enriches the movement. A tree might be moved five times by four different workers before it finds a resting place. This may seem redundant and even monotonous but somehow it works, and we are drawn in to their relentless pursuits.

Without dialogue, the actors rely on nuanced movement, stylized arm and head gestures and the occasional sound. The puppetry is a delight and the actors inventively infuse the sounds of dogs or birds or aggressive geese.

A comic highlight was a group of birds extending up on poles attached to actors’ heads. The humour comes not from the birds, but from the excited actors who bounce around like Keystone Kops, making strange faces and throwing bird poop at the maligned dog.

It is truly an ensemble group brilliantly managed by director Adam Paolozza. One exceptional performance comes from Nicolas Eddie – his extreme height makes him stand out, but his natural and effortless movement is riveting. Paolozza takes advantage of both Eddie’s size and his talent – wafting palm like branches far into the audience was both elegant and funny. His climatic turn as the ten foot ‘mega sloth’ was both poignant and touching.

Some of the worker scenes were roguish and bizarre, reminiscent of Monty Python. A human form made of sticks was striking – simple materials like sticks or tarps or bolts of cloth become effective images.

Speaking of materials, I would refer readers to a recent article by Joshua Chong explaining the efforts of scenic designer Ken MacKenzie to make theatres more environmentally sustainable. From the textbook of practice what you preach, this production used many repurposed materials and will find ways to keep used sets out of the landfills.

No spoiler alert necessary here. Some of the most moving and riveting moments of this production cannot be expressed with words – they can only be experienced and that I fully encourage.

‘Last Landscape’ by Adam Paolozza
Director: Adam Paolozza
Performers: Nada Abusaleh, Nicolas Eddie, Gibum Dante Lim, Annie Lujan, Kari Pederson, Adam Paoloza
Scenic design: Ken MacKenzie
Scenic marionette design: Roxanne Ignatius
Costume design: Valerie Calam
Runs through January 26, 2025 at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
Tickets: buddiesinbadtimes.com

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