Please Return to Empire Video

Postcard review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Please Return to Empire Video

Playwright – James Odin Wade

Production Company/Theatre space –(professional) Lunchbox Theatre, Studio Theatre, Vertigo Theatre.

Length – 1 ACT (1 hour 5 minutes, no intermission.)

Genre/s – To identify the two genres here would be a spoiler for the end of the show.

Premise – A young woman working in a video store ostensively wants to find a particular film among a new delivery of old films and get a promotion to facilitate saving for a move to Toronto.

Why this play? Why now? – The nostalgia of video stores and a common theme.

Curiosities – I wondered how to write this review without spoilers. 

Notable Moment – Compulsive chocolate consumption.

Notable writing – Three video store employees talk in movie shorthand with quips, enactments, and impressions. This choice is as successful as the audience’s individual knowledge of those films and references. This felt like it was written with firsthand knowledge of a person who once worked at a video store and longed to escape to Toronto and study films. As written, it starts off as one play about employee banter and low-level relationships. But the playwright didn’t know how to end it, so he splices on the ending from a different movie. This smash cut may be abrupt but does make the title more prophetic. The genre jump, however sincere, has the same effect as a shark jump.

Notable performances – Heidi Damayo is given the task of bringing Cass, the protagonist, to life. She was also the Dramaturg for the play, so it’s hard to know if her shouting was a character choice or an inability to project. John Tasker’s somewhat restrained character was either one dimensional as a performer or a choice made from the script - again hard to tell. Greg Wilson is the most magnetic as the nonchalant lifer. Wilson (a shorter version of Stephen Merchant) is amusing as demonstrated by casual shoplifting while dialogue is happening elsewhere.

Notable design/Production – Hanne Loosen is a champ. She, like other top designers, has a signature look while still showing a never-ending diversity of locations and expression of themes.

Notable direction – Bronwyn Steinberg, a skilled director, picks nostalgia over form for this 50th season.

One reason to see this show Cinephiles will no doubt enjoy the refences.