THEATRE REVIEW:
TALE OF A TOWN -
QUEEN WEST
16 SEPT/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
R: 2.5/5

TORONTO - For a few brief and shining moments, Queen Street West seemed to be the cultural capital of the nation — at least in the city state that is Toronto. 
That was in the heady days of the early '80s, of course. Today that stretch of pavement that once seemed to be the heartbeat of a city now pulses with a different kind of life, as developers and big business mine the once legendary street of artistic dreams for commercial gold. 
But while the halcyon days of Queen West's glory may be largely gone, they are far from forgotten, as witnessed in a new site-specific theatrical event that opened Thursday, under the aegis of Theatre Passe Muraille, the theatre most closely associated with Queen West, in partnership with FIXT POINT.


Their show is titled THE TALE OF A TOWN - QUEEN WEST, and it begins in the present day, as its audience is transformed, if only for 90 minutes or so, into potential buyers for a brand new condo development christened the Champagne Flaming Feather Eco Boho Lofts. 
After a brief mime show outside the walls of the theatre without walls, the audience is then led, by a champagne-swilling, rhyming-couplet-spouting, name-dropping marketing maven through the storied streets and alleys that comprise this village within a city.


The ultimate destination, after a few stops along the way, is the newly opened show suites for this new development, located on the third floor of the building that has risen from the ashes of Duke's Cycle, transformed by designer Lindsay Anne Black, into a littered homage to the past, evoking everything from Cameron House and the Bamboo to Citytv. 
It is here we meet Jane, initially drawn to this storied strip as a young girl and finally forced out only by the creeping commercialization that has transformed it into something she no longer recognizes. 
As she shares memories of Queen West's glory days — a torrid romance with one-time rockabilly sensation Handsome Ned, a video homage of the Hummer Sisters in their glory days, an evocation of Speaker's Corner, a recollection of the Rivoli's Poetry Slams, all interspersed with flashes of the art and artists, designs and designers that once thrived in this milieu — Jane realizes those memories have, at least in part, been co-opted into part of the commercialization that has choked the life out of the street she loved.


Lisa Marie DiLiberto, who shares a creator's credit with the artistic team, also plays most of the major roles in the show, assisted by Treasa Levasseur and Adam Paolozza, both of whom, quite frankly, deserve more than a musician's credit.
 And while, under the direction of Varrick Grimes, assisted by the video design of Charles Ketchabaw and Trevor Schwellnus, they all bring tremendous enthusiasm and heart to the work, what they need is a lot more focus.


While The Tale of a Town may awaken more than a few memories for anyone who lived through Queen West's glory days, it fails to capture in any meaningful way either the magic of those moments or the full tragedy of its passing, blaming the latter rather simplistically on AIDS and Club Monaco before dismissing it all with a theatrical shrug and the recognition that while change happens, memories linger. 
Sadly, some of the most memorable moments of The Tale of a Town come from the interaction of live theatre and the life on this still vibrant stretch of urban real estate.