Review: (Montreal / Theatre) Molly Bloom

(photo by Caroline Laberge)

Flavorless Sin
by Aleksandra Koplik

Molly Bloom is presented by Espace Go and directed by Brigitte Haentjens. The monologue is Molly's stream of thought. Her character (from Ulysses, written by James Joyce) is essentially based on Penelope in Homer's Odyssey. The main difference between Penelope and Molly Bloom is that the latter is not a faithful wife. Anne-Marie Cadieux takes the stage as Mrs Bloom. The scene opens with her laying on a wooden sculpture: a curvy mountain that is shaped like a woman's body. She is wearing a red dress (of course) and Greek-like sandals. In the background, the three walls surrounding her are made up of straw-like light curtains, they projected the different environments that Molly remembered. The ground is covered in golden white sand, almost giving warmth to the room. This was a very nice touch and visually pleasing, however, the gigantic womanly sculpture could have been explored.  I found that the sound effects were very low on the volume.

@SashaVK

Although the subject is interesting, unfortunately I can't say that it was a captivating performance. The monologue is at times very sexually detailed, and yet I didn't feel like the woman that was describing her encounters was in any way affected by them. Where was the passion? Where was the sin? Mrs Bloom is continuously cheating on her husband and I didn't feel the heat. Cadieux's Molly is very limited in her movements, there was no limberness, ease or liberty. While the translation was quite good, I couldn't understand the words that were being purposely said in English or in Spanish. Cadieux looked nervous and didn't express much of the emotions or physical reactions depicted in the text. This Molly Bloom seemed slightly mad and wide eyed, like she was surprised most of the time.

An interesting concept with a subject that would interest most people looking for something spicy to watch, but a little too mechanically performed. 

May 6 - 31

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes