Review: Don't Bet on Theatre Gargantua's THE WAGER

Theatre Gargantua's THE WAGER is a flat-Earth musical with talking birds.

Billed as a "bold and irreverent investigation into the strange things that people believe" THE WAGER uses an eclectic mix of dance, music, and drama to tell the story of the 19th-century Bedford Level Experiment, in which biologist Alfred Russel Wallace sought to prove to lay-person John Hampden that the Earth is, indeed, round.

But THE WAGER isn't content just to tell a story, no sir. It has flute music. Pumpkin-worshiping birds. A game show. Interpretative dance. Slides and projections. Terminator jokes. How inclusive the environment at Theatre Gargantua must be, that every suggestion makes it into the show!

Although the music in THE WAGER is pleasant - and performer Teiya Kasahara has an exquisite voice - almost every artistic decision made for this show was the wrong one. There is no need for anyone to to dance with ladders, or sing in German, or drawl on in a Southern accent. The old adage of "Less is more" was evidently usurped by "Well, I think it's funny."

But what really makes THE WAGER a failure is its unbearable smugness. From the first minute of the play through its many lab coats and lectures, THE WAGER never considers, even for a second, that its audience might actually know something about the subject at hand. That we have read the same Wikipedia articles as playwright Michael Gordon Spence, that we have had this discussion already. THE WAGER has nothing new to say about truth or faith, but it demands, goddammit, that we listen to its every word nonetheless.

There should be no such thing as a cocky solipsist.

THEATRE GARGANTUA's THE WAGER runs through 30 NOVEMBER at THEATRE PASSE MURAILLE, 16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto.

Photo credit: Michael Cooper