In The Chamber 2010: Last Men - Play Review

The seats were comfortable for the near hour and a half of the play (the start time was 15 minutes late as they were cramming as many audience members in as they could) In The Chamber 2010: Last Men, a Theatre Projects Manitoba production.

The play consisted of two parts - Part One: Last Man in Krakendorf, written and performed by Gordon Tanner, and Part Two: Last Man in Puntarenas, written and performed by Steven Ratzlaff. Both of whom are local actors/playwrights.

I found the beginning or 'overture' as it is aptly named, a little confusing in terms of what it was supposed to symbolize. It seemed to focus metaphorically on the concepts of self and chaos which are elements of the two part play that was to come later.

Part One sees Gordon Tanner playing a somewhat disheveled and disillusioned analyst who works for a large agriculture company, who is video taping a rant in a hotel bedroom which he plans to send to Warren Buffet about hog farm safety. Part One is laced with plenty of political, satirical, and sometimes self-deprecating humor about agribusiness and individual choices, while keeping up a pretty consistent continuity and flow. There were a few times were I felt the continuity and flow got bogged down, but overall I did enjoy Part One and Gordon Tanner's performance was well acted.

Part Two sees Steven Ratzlaff playing a somewhat, wait for it, disheveled and disillusioned ex-teacher and former medical consultant for patient safety, who just quit because he is so mired with cynicism and pessimism about his former occupation and how it relates to the death of his mentally challenged son, who underwent a complicated but unsuccessful heart surgery. Phew! That is quite a mouthful as I found Part Two was much more detailed to the point that it did seem to drag out as the balance between the humor, political, and satirical, which was pretty well balanced in Part One, got lost as Part Two went on and seemed to be only serious and lamenting come the end of the play. Ratzlaff plays his character well, and has a little more to work with then Tanner as Ratzlaff's character is at a restaurant with work colleagues who he addresses but are not actually there. The imaginary characters are portrayed by balloons tied to chairs which I thought was clever. Over time, a waiter, played by Tanner, takes the balloons away one by one till there is no one left to listen to Ratzlaff's character rant about the medical system and the inquiry into his son's death.

What tied the two plays together in a rough sense was the concept of 'human error with the new view' and something called 'human factor analysis'. Those themes are in both plays, though more so I thought in Part One, and both parts entail a tragedy of sorts, whether it be a hog barn fire or a botched surgical procedure, and how the characters are coping with said tragedies and the cold way the 'system' investigates and treats such tragedies.

Was the overall theme about the treatment of animals or socialized medicine? Was it more about individual choice or coming to terms with the consequences of ones actions? These were themes prevalent in both parts of the play and it seemed to me that there was no one main theme which made the play overall, a little convoluted.

There was a fifteen minute intermission where you could get water to quench your thirst from the first hour and a bit of the play, with music to keep everyone entertained while they stretched their legs and chatted with other audience members. At the end of the play there was a snack table with little bits to eat which was a nice touch, and I found the aesthetics of the theater itself to be simple and effective with the stage not really a stage, but part of the floor which gives the theater an intimate quality.

Overall, the play was great, though I found that continuity and theme development were a little scattered, particularly in Part Two, which left me not sure what the main gist or theme of the play was.