Created by Martin Dockery
Produced by Concrete Drops Theatre | Brooklyn, NY
Review by Brian Carroll
60 mins / PG / Drama
You’re sitting in a school examination room. You flip open the exam booklet and realize that you’re not prepared. You haven’t even cracked the textbook. Maybe you know this nightmare. Psychologists say it’s very common.
Actors tell me that they have a nightmare. They step on stage and can’t remember their lines. Because they haven’t rehearsed. They haven’t even memorized their lines.
And so begins The Bunker. Two men on stage, an actor (Martin Broaddus) and a playwright (Martin Dockery), are supposed to perform a play. One hasn’t memorized his lines, and, even worse, the playwright hasn’t even written the play! A play about the end of the world, with two men who have retreated into a bunker.
Banner image from The Bunker. Photo provided.
Things start to get personal. Then very personal. We soon learn that the protagonists are brothers. Brothers estranged for at least six years. The brothers act out their differences before us, the audience. Long-standing personal grievances take the stage. They sling verbal arrows at each other, while addressing the audience, vying for our approval.
The personal mixes with the political. Familiar insults from America’s political silos take flight.
But the personal stays at the forefront. The fights gets dirtier, the barbs get sharper. Some audience members gasp. But the audience can’t look away. They break into uncomfortable laughter as the barbs strike closer to the bone. Secret thoughts become shocking accusations. Impossible to retract.
The audience is on tenterhooks. Can these differences be resolved?
I won’t spoil the result. But I can say that most of the audience gave the actors a standing ovation at the end of this fascinating performance.
The Bunker is playing at ODD Box from June 13–22. Tickets are $14 plus service fees at the Fringe box office (3rd floor, Arts Court, 2 Daly Avenue), and at the three satellite box offices (LabO in the Ottawa Art Gallery, Fringe Courtyard, 67 Nicholas St and La Nouvelle Scène). Five and ten Show Passes are also available. Visit the Ottawa Fringe Festival’s website for the show’s schedule and check out their online schedule here.
.gif)
