THEATRE REVIEW: THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED
13 Mar'10

'Monster Under The Bed' a smash

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

TORONTO - One of the first things we learn in life is that the stuff we can't see can be way more spooky than the stuff we can.

Then, shortly after that, we learn that that kind of spooky can be a lot of fun.

And in bringing those two lessons together for a young audience, The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People hoped to pull off something in the way of a theatrical coup. In fact, with the mainstage North American premiere Thursday of Kevin Dyer's often-delightful tale, THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED, pull it off they do.

After a fashion and not without a wrinkle or two.

As for the titular bed and what dwells beneath, it happens to be a very big bed indeed -- the very bed in which young Ben (played by Darrel Gamotin) happens to be asleep as the audience fills the theatre. But his is a restless sleep filled with dreams of the binoculars his soldier father gave him before he shipped out and of how those binoculars have been filched by his best friend Vince (one of three roles well-played by David Yee).

Then suddenly, it is morning and young Ben must face the last day of school before the holidays.

But before his long-suffering mother (Marie Beath Badian in one of three roles) can cajole him into the school day he's doing his level best to avoid, Ben comes face to face with the monster that lives under his bed -- a dusty-smelling, stocking-bedecked boy creature named Luke, played by Danny MacDonald.

And almost before you can say "Give me back my cereal," the two have traded places. Luke heads off to school to retrieve those precious binoculars and give Vince his comeuppance while Ben settles in for a quiet day at home alone. That's when he meets a second monster, who is not merely just an older version of Luke, but is, in fact, Luke's father. But while Luke is clearly an adventuresome sort, his father (played by Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) is of a more timorous disposition, although it takes Ben awhile to figure that out.

As Ben and Luke each struggle to make it through the day in strange environments, THE MONSTER UNDER THE BED becomes an adventure in problem solving, friendship and facing one's fears, with a side-service of kiddie-lit references.

Once again presented in the round, MONSTER is only moderately more successful than EL NUMERO UNO, YPT's last mainstage offering, at subduing the problems unique to such staging.

While there is something initially delightful about Camellia Koo's concept, it quickly disappears as much of the action is relegated to the very edges of the playing area, suggesting "In the round" is a concept best served by merry-go-rounds.

As for the play itself, under the direction of Nina Lee Aquino, it gets an enthusiastic and often polished performance from its cast -- one that is almost certain to delight all those possessed of tiny little Y chromosomes in a tale that traffics heavily in snakes 'n' snails 'n' puppy-dog-tails. But what little girls are likely to make of the way females are portrayed -- Badian as mother, teacher and pushy girlfriend -- is anybody's guess. Dyer's script and Badian's performances come together in such a way as to suggest the monsters of the other sex are only slightly less fearsome than the monsters that make themselves at home in the bed springs.

And that's more than a little problematic in a theatre that aims to make theatre for all young people, and not just for little boys.