How to explain the ‘wow factor,’ the originality of this play? To begin with, there’s the inventiveness of Jennifer Goodman’s set design. It’s the stylized, sloping façade of a seventh storey apartment block, having 7 windows of all shapes and sizes.

Through these windows we snatch glimpses of the lives of 7 sets of lodgers. The lightning rod that engages their collective attention is the sight of a stranger, THE MAN (played with sensitivity and conviction by Eric Davis) hovering on the open ledge, trying to pluck up the courage to jump.

THE MAN’s situation, as dramatic metaphor, suspended somewhere on the locus between life and death, powerless to shift backward or forward, sounds pretty much like the human condition to me.

With that as a starting point, the ingenious word-play built into the play’s structure and title—seven brick storeys and seven life stories—extends the entire length of the script. It’s an often erudite, labyrinthine exploration of language and meaning, with quirky philosophical and metaphysical forays into the significance of life, death, and the sometimes humdrum-sometimes turbulent existence in between.

The performance manages to be hilarious, eccentric and true, even if camped up a bit. From the loudspeaker comes a rush of subliminal ‘mad music,’ a deliberate backdrop of fretful malaise. As if in sympathy, 13 impassioned, larger-than-life characters respond to the suicidal trespasser on the nearby ledge, giving vent to their own rages, conflicts, secret tragedies, disillusionment and lies.

Less than two hours later, somehow they’ve meshed together into a multi-cellular microcosm of a world, dishing out, spilling out, revealing more about themselves than about THE MAN on the ledge.

Mike Payette (Leonard) is startlingly comic as the paranoid psychiatrist whose defensive ‘third-degree’ interrogations have no beginning and no end. Alexandra Ordolis plays Charlotte, engaged in a perverse lingering death duel with her married lawyer lover. John Hastings, as Al, wearing Satanic red eye-liner is the ultimate hedonist party animal. His fey-looking neighbour, Percy (Joseph Bembridge) plays out his punk rôle in a brassy-blond hairpiece, feathers and glitz.

Shut-in, ninety-something Lillian (Catherine Lemieux) strikes a note of comforting absent-minded sanity, whereas her flippant caretaker-nurse, Joanne Sarazen, is the one being driven ‘around the bend.’ Failed actor, Eric Hausknost (Marshall) morphs permanently into the rôle of upper class ‘toff,’ alias reluctant gigolo in disguise. Don Pompeo, plays Michael, the hypercritical home décor artiste, seeking the ultimate aesthetic in colour and form.

These and other fascinating stories create a live and flamboyant human tapestry, knotted together by a script that’s dense with humour and style. But then—all good things must come to an end: the play’s finale takes its own flying leap from human conundrum to transcendental mystery. Be prepared to come away from this performance of 7 Stories feeling bemused, uplifted, elated, and with more tantalizing questions than answers.

NEW-SCHOOL MONTRÉAL RACONTEURS TABLEAU D’HÔTE
INVITE YOU TO LISTEN TO

SEVEN STORIES

Director Olivier Perras is certainly no stranger to Tableau D’Hôte, as he directed the company’s first production. He’s also no stranger to Panych’s work, as that inaugural Tableau D’Hôte show was none other than Panych’s Lawrence and Holloman.

“This play tells of those certain people that have no problems getting exactly what they want, and who have strong opinions regardless of the facts,” offers Perras. “No matter what is true, they stick to their own fictions.”

“The rehearsal process has been fruitful, though challenging,” he continues. “Because the play can be done in so many ways, like as a clown show, or a straight drama, we have had to make sure that we’re all working in the same world, or in the same vein. To reflect this one world I have chosen to create not only moments, but paintings, all of which are created by the actors in the seven windows of the building.”

The cast of 7 Stories is large and, fittingly, largely talented, featuring veteran performers such as Eric Davis (Death and Taxes/Infinitheatre/Saidye Bronfman Centre), Tamara Brown (The Cyclops/Rabbit In a Hat), Mecca Award-nominee Catherine Lemieux (Call Me/Infinitheatre), and Tableau D’Hôte artistic director Mike Payette (Saving Celine/C’est Cheese).

The cast also includes other rising stars of Montreal’s English theatre community such as Sterling Mawhinny (Don’t Drink the Water/Geordie), Aimée Rose Ambroziak (All The World/Geordie), Joanne Sarazen (The Procrastin8r/Black Theatre Workshop), Joseph Bembridge (Titanica/Concordia), and Alexandra Ordolis (The Vagina Monologues/McGill). Last but not least, Tableau D’Hôte is pleased to welcome back past collaborators John Hastings (Jehanne of the Witches/ Tableau D’Hôte), Jessica Abdallah (Amigo’s Blue Guitar/ Tableau D’Hôte), Dom Pompeo (I Am Yours/ Tableau D’Hôte) and Eric Hausknost (One Night/ Tableau D’Hôte) round out the cast.

The crew of 7 Stories is also thick with former Tableau D’Hôte collaborators, and the company is extraordinarily happy to welcome back designers and technicians that have helped carve Tableau D’Hôte’s name into the tree trunk. This list includes Costume Designers Noémi Poulin (One Night) and Sarah Tracy (Jehanne of the Witches), Lighting Designer Cara de Grandpré (Amigo’s Blue Guitar), Technical Director Chris O’Neill (The Elusive) and Stage Manager Paul Brian Imperial. In addition, the company is proud to welcome Set Designer Jennifer Goodman (Brilliant Traces/Discord and Din Theatre) onboard.

“In a world where money, religion, and death are taken very seriously, and where jokes about these subjects can’t be made without somebody taking offense,” Perras says, “Panych forces us to take a step back—sometimes cynically, sometimes respectfully—which allows us a chance to laugh at ourselves. This is the spiritual side of his writing.”

Ticket Prices: Opening – April 30, 2008
General Admission : $23.00
Closing - May 11, 2008
Student / Senior: $15.00 Group Rates Available
Evenings : Wednesday to Saturday at 8PM
Matinees : Saturdays and Sundays at 2PM
By Phone : 514.848.9696
Théâtre Ste Catherine - 264 Ste. Catherine E. (Berri Metro)
Online : tickets@tableaudhotetheatre.com
http://www.tableaudhotetheatre.com