SEVEN DAYS IN THE LIFE OF SIMON LABROSSE at the White Bear Theatre

★★★½

“an engrossing and innovative watch”

This new revival of French-Canadian playwright Carole Fréchette’s 2002 work, Seven Days in the Life of Simon Labrosse is a compelling piece of metatheatre that plays with the boundaries between the real and the fictional, stage and audience.

The principal narrative of the play is, as the title suggests, a retelling of seven days in the life of Simon Labrosse, an unemployed man in an unspecified city. His existence is shaped by sending voice cassettes to his girlfriend Natalie somewhere in Africa, where she is ‘helping the helpless’, confrontations with his landlord and people repossessing his property, and get-rich-quick schemes including working as a sentence finisher and an emotional stuntman.

However, the action begins even before the metaphorical curtain rises on the narrative of the piece. Rob Wyn Jones, playing Simon Labrosse, and Elaine Bastible, as a hired actor also called Natalie, chat on stage about him borrowing her ‘ghetto blaster’ (an unfortunate term that serves as a reminder of the age of the play). Wyn Jones is also forced to leave the stage to go and get actor-director Tony Wadham, playing his depressed neighbour Leo, half dragging him on stage to take his position for the start.

Before telling the story of Labrosse’s life, each of the characters introduces themselves and begins to display their eccentricities. Natalie has an obsession with the workings of the inside of her body, and takes every opportunity she can to address the audience directly on this topic and to attempt to play a mysterious VHS – the content of which is only revealed in the chaotic climax; and Leo, who suffered a tragic accident as a child that left him unable to experience positive emotions, is cast in the role of many surly interlocutors in Labrosse’s life. His main intention in the play is to share his deeply depressing poetry.

The most exciting and innovative moments in the piece come from this trifold relationship between the real-life actors, playing actors within the play, who are in turn playing the characters of the narrative. Watching the actors within the play struggle for control of the piece, as Simon Labrosse tries to keep Leo and Natalie on message is very funny and more interesting than the sketch-like events of the days of the play’s primary story. The actors all give very strong performances: the interplay between them feels natural and is especially commendable given the difficulties involved in playing an actor playing a character.

Wadham’s direction capitalises on the layout of the White Bear Theatre, with the seats lining two sides of the stage, and the physical comedy is outstanding. The set design is evocative of the early twenty-first century and the attention to detail in the costumes is fantastic. This is especially true in the case of Natalie, whose green jumper, blue jeans, knitted shoulder bag and white cowboy boot ensemble fits the oddness of her character perfectly.

Seven Days in the Life of Simon Labrosse is, therefore, a well-acted and intriguing piece that slips between various narrative and structural layers. While it is rather dated in some respects (although 2002 is not 1955), such as the aforementioned ‘ghetto blaster’ and repeated references to Africa as a ‘Dark Continent’, overall, it is an engrossing and innovative watch.

SEVEN DAYS IN THE LIFE OF SIMON LABROSSE

★★★½

White Bear Theatre

SEVEN DAYS IN THE LIFE OF SIMON LABROSSE at the White Bear Theatre

★★★½

“an engrossing and innovative watch”