Featuring Laura Gauthier, Scott Stephenson, Andrea Davis, Carly Chamberlain, Clyde Whitham and Caitlin McCarthy. Written by Johnnie Walker. Directed by Morgan Norwich. Presented by Nobody’s Business Theatre. To Aug 31. Mon-Sat 8pm, Sun 2:30pm and 5:30pm. *Hotshot Gallery, 181 Augusta Ave.
www.nobodysbusiness.ca.
In amongst a real group show, called “Holy Fuss,” at Kensington Market’s *Hotshot Gallery, there’s one empty frame with a $10,000 price tag. Each of the characters in Muhammad of Yorkville takes a shot at describing this fictitious piece of art. Maybe it’s a portrait of a sad-eyed prophet. Maybe it’s blasphemy. Or maybe it’s just something that would look nice hung over a living room sofa.
Muhammad, which debuted at last year’s SummerWorks festival, has an accessible and funny script, though it treats its characters less as people than as debate positions on the relationship between art, commerce, freedom of speech and religion. With five middleclass white people against one headscarf-wearing Muslim protester (in this rare case, the CBC reporter is undecided), it’s clear which positions the audience is expected to identify with and which one we’re learning about. Fortunately Andrea Davis’s strong performance as conflicted Muslim activist Abra Ali helps balance things out.
Playwright Johnnie Walker, who plays bad boy artist Claude Pelier as a pretentious autistic savant, floats it all on a barge of naiveté. The artist types are surprised by what they produce and how people react to it. The gallery staff are surprised anybody cares. The Muslim activist is surprised the gallery won’t take the painting down. All controversies should be so sweet and affable.