A Brief History of Smoking Cigarettes

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – A Brief History of Smoking Cigarettes

Playwright/s/Composer/s – created by Deanne Jones, with music by Paul Simon and snippet of writing from CBC.

Production Company/Theatre space – Suitcase in Point, One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo / Heather Edwards Theatre, Contemporary Calgary.

Length – 1 Act, 1 hour 10 minutes (no intermission.)

Genre – Storytelling with two songs, video, puppets, and audience participation.

Premise – A woman tells us that the show about her love/hate relationship to cigarettes is in its beginning stages and will go on to be a mega success.

Why this play? Why now? – We are told that she loves to perform and this is a topic she feels passionate about.

Curiosities – How did she get the rights for the music?

Notable Moment – The cigarette pleasuring her.

Notable writing – The show is a potpourri of elements. There is video as stop motion animation, a sampling of how glamorous smoking used to be in advertising, a CBC radio clip as a warning, a contemplative beach scene in two parts, and a three-part imagining of herself in a dystopian world where smokers are criminals and she is holed up in a bunker. There is also a pseudo-Shakespearean monologue performed as Dame Judy Dench. In the musical department there is 50 Ways to Stop Smoking with lyrics for the audience to see, an acoustic guitar number with the puppet, an electric guitar rage number, and a lover’s dance (also with the puppet). Under audience participation, she flings cigarette packages with gruesome warning on them into the seats and then dice are rolled to illustrate the odds of a 1/36 chance of dying of cancer. There is an imagined comical history of smoking which leads to her personal relationship with cigarettes, her memories of her family smoking, and her attempts to quit. What’s missing is seeing a loved one die of cancer. The cigarette as the antagonist and lover are the best written and where she is strongest. Who doesn’t love a story of romantic fiction and addiction where your lover seduces you and tries to kill you? That part has real potential to develop into the bigger show she craves.

Notable performances – If Drew Barrymore and Rebecca Northan had a baby it would be Deanne Jones. In the bunker videos she transforms into more of a young Mick Jagger/Simpsons character. She is personable, creative, and entertaining.

Notable design/Production – Besides the aforementioned video and guitars, the best bits are the cigarette puppets. She alludes to Ronnie Burkett, but these are more Muppet mouthed.

Notable direction – Karen Hines as Director and Dramaturge and I’m sure helped shape the show. These types of self-made shows nearly always benefit from outside eyes.

One reason to see this show – The show is marketed as rebellious and ridiculous which it is.