Stan Douglas’s HELEN LAWRENCE is quite a visual spectacle at BAM (photo by David Cooper)
BAM NEXT WAVE FESTIVAL
BAM Howard Gilman Opera House
30 Lafayette Ave. between Ashland Pl. & St. Felix St.
October 14-17, $24-$95, 7:30
718-636-4100
www.bam.org
Canadian visual artist Stan Douglas creates quite a spectacle with his multimedia theatrical presentation Helen Lawrence, but after the initial wonder wears off, he’s not able to fully exploit the cutting-edge technology, some of which was invented specifically for this show, to illuminate writer Chris Haddock’s noir narrative. The Vancouver native sets the tale in his hometown shortly after World War II, as femme fatale Helen Lawrence (Lisa Ryder) arrives, having emerged from a psych ward ready to seek vengeance for a wrong done her. She gets caught up in a world of corrupt cops (Ryan Hollyman, Greg Ellwand), a clever bookie (Nicholas Lea), a creepy hotel owner (Hrothgar Mathews), a hooker looking to get out of seedy Hogan’s Alley (Emily Piggford), a tomboy hotel clerk always looking for the inside scoop (Haley McGee), and a pair of very different men battling for control of the neighborhood (Allan Louis and Sterling Jarvis). The actors perform in front of a blue screen and behind a large translucent scrim that covers the entire stage; several camera operators move around filming them live, with the results projected onto the scrim, accompanied by John Gzowski’s noir score. The characters wear colorful clothing courtesy of costume designer Nancy Bryant — no, they are not by British fashion designer Helen Lawrence — with Lawrence’s yellow outfit particularly eye-catching, but their onscreen versions are seen in black-and-white. And although the actors walk on a primarily empty stage, 3-D imaging places them on street corners and in hotel rooms as they appear to interact with objects that are not really there. It’s a fantastic effect, especially set in a noir world, a kind of live cinema that takes the audience behind the scenes as the action plays out, a separation between color and black-and-white that brings together the past, present, and future of cinematic storytelling, but it fails to delve any deeper over the course of its ninety minutes. While the beginning is ridiculously cool, it starts to feel like a lost opportunity as more of the same continues. Such multimedia works as Reid Farrington’s Tyson vs. Ali, The Return, and Gin & “It,” Tina Landau’s Old Hats (which is returning to the Signature Theatre in January), and Josie Rourke’s The Machine have been able to make more effective use of technology in relation to the narrative. The Canadian Stage production of Helen Lawrence is still quite a sight, but it’s hard not to wonder what more could have been done with it.