Review: (Toronto) The Charge of the Expormidable Moose

Ben Irvine and Sochi Fried (photo by Yuri Dojc)

Gauvreau's Twisted World
An icon of Québec-lit gets an airing in Toronto
by Beat Rice

One Little Goat Theatre Company’s production of celebrated French Canadian playwright Claude Gauvreau’s play, The Charge of the Expormidable Moose, is the English premiere. Gauvreau was one of the leading artists in the group known as Les Automatistes, a movement made up of artists based in Montreal. The style is surreal and highly poetic, even when translated. 

The play is a whirlwind. By the end of Act one I knew not to attempt to make too much analytical sense of what I was seeing. The four young people who live in the house are sadistic creatures who thrive off of manipulating Mycroft Mixeudeim, the fifth housemate who is a poet. It is an incredibly dark play but is set in a visually contrasting and eerie world of people in bright bold colours set in front of a multi-coloured chalkboardlike wall of doors.