Thought-provoking conversations on race and extreme paranoia are the highlights of this experimental show.
What if a Get Out situation wasn’t real? What if it was all in our heads?
WIGGY, by writer and lead actress Chelsea Bondzanga and director Ilayda McIntosh, puts the audience in that predicament, through an entertaining and odd play, set within the constraints of a ski flat, where four friends (two white, one South Asian, and the other black) spend a birthday week together. Tense conversations, surreal moments, and a violent finale ensue.
First of all, I’d like to disclose that, unfortunately, the venue wasn’t well accommodating for everyone to experience the show in its fullest capacity. I was on the third row, and the way the seatings were arranged didn’t allow me to see all of the action happening on stage, especially when characters were sitting down, which happened quite often.
Uncomfortableness aside, Bondzanga’s story was uneven. The performers were great (particularly Bondzanga as Karime and Coline Atterbury as Astrid), yet the script gave them difficult material to work with.
The first half is dedicated to getting to know the group, focusing on the comedy of their strange interactions. Although the conversations are quirky and fun in nature, throwing captivating phrases like candy, they seem aimless and out of place. Plot-wise, there’s only one interesting thing that happens: an accidental overdose. And of course, a strange painting in the middle of the room, the main source of conflict in the piece.
The second half, intense, packs multiple punches, and raises questions about race and class disparity. A balance between thought-provoking drama and mind-bending suspense is set in motion. Ambitious, to pull off a psychological thriller in a small-scale stage production, because the narrative constraints those circumstances provide were scarce: strange voice notes, a performer playing double-duty and extreme reactions from Bondzanga.
I appreciate the subtlety, but not when it gets in the way of functional storytelling. It’s one thing to shock your audience and make them gasp and another to leave them scratching their heads, wondering at all times what it is they’re witnessing. I kept tiptoeing between these two emotions, unsure of how WIGGY was and what it was trying to say. Effectively confusing plays are meant to take the audience on a satisfying journey, eventually separating them from the character living the experience. Yet the directionless first half and its spiralling second left me lukewarm, overwhelmed by its whirlwind. Entertained but empty.