It’s difficult to know what to expect upon arrival at The Silent Barn to see Biter (Every Time I Turn Around), an original production from Title-Point, the art space’s resident experimental theatre company. And rightly so – experimental theatre is, after all, meant to be something new, something unpredictable. What you get is exactly what Title:Point promises in the invitation: a “slapstick gore-fest.” I’d also add, “With a lot of bare man-leg and one stinky raw fish.”
The lights go up on the nook of a stage, illuminating Golly (played by Catrin Lloyd-Bollard) and Goon (Ryan William Downey), two characters with faces painted in black and white, like mimes. Dressed in ill-fitting suits, the two quibble with one another until they are interrupted by a loud knock. A Postman unexpectedly arrives wearing a bloodied bandage over one eye and tight short-shorts. He carries a mysterious package in a white box, which he sets on the table before Golly and Goon, and distracts them for a while before his exeunt. With the scantily clad Postman gone, Golly and Goon can finally get to planning a birthday party for a bear. Once the bear arrives, things begin to go awry, as things are wont to do when there’s a bear in the room.
Playwrights Spencer Thomas Campbell and Ryan William Downey strike high notes with Golly and Goon’s scenes in the first half of Biter. The characters are well-written, well-acted and really quite funny. Their fast-paced existential quips are excellently portrayed by Lloyd-Bollard and Downey, who have fantastic timing and comedic chemistry onstage. Some lines, moments of brilliant wordplay peppered throughout the script, remain with me days after seeing the show. My favorite: Golly asks Goon, “What’s a metaphor?” and Goon explains, quite pointedly, “It’s for whatever I say it’s for.” (Remind me to use that in every argument from now on.)
