 |
| l-r: Johanna Nutter, Paula Costain, Alexandria Haber, Paula Jean Hixson (photo: Darren Ell) |
Who Brings a Gun to a Book Club Meeting?
Book Club’s actual plot and themes are pretty uninteresting
By Émilie Charlebois
When Ned Cox's Book Club promised “sex, drugs, violence and betrayal” I presumed I was going to sit down for an evening of lighthearted chick-lit satire. Wrong. While the first half is definitely more of a comedy, and although cute jokes (particularly Paula Costain’s Kristel’s) are used to break up the tension actors craftily drag the audience into, there is a lot of drama and it is not as delicious as the Melrose Place or Degrassi Junior High variety. Due to the cast’s undeniable talent and the intimacy of the Freestanding Room venue, the Book Club experience is quite like being at a party when the only person you truly know has left for the bathroom or another serving of hummus and you find yourself talking to someone with loose lips who makes it their mission to either gossip about everyone else in the room, or volunteer very personal details about their life. You either listen eagerly and want to know more…or you get a little antsy. The emotional outbursts of all four characters in Book Club made me so uncomfortable that I found myself looking away or fiddling with my program. Despite the tension and feeling like a child watching adults fighting in front of me, to quote an exchange overheard between two fellow attendees: “Holy Acting!”
