Courtesy of Theatre at UBC

It’s been a grim season for UBC Theatre.

It isn’t that their shows have been poor—on the contrary, they have all been successful in their own way.

Rather, it’s the content of this year’s lineup that has been unremittingly bleak. The Trial of Judith K, Two Merchants, The Idiot, and now two of Canadian playwright George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel one-acts —Problem Child and The End of Civilization—are not exactly feel-good productions.

Walker’s pieces are refreshingly unpretentious. His characters do not serve as reflections of social stereotypes. Though fictional, they are drawn from the fabric of life as it is actually experienced by average people. These characters suffer from problems that are immediately prescient to anyone living in the modern urban world.

Both one-act plays are performed in the same grimy motel room. Given the smallness of the space—as well as the brevity of each play—Walker doesn’t hold back any punches. The audience is plunged straight into the turbulence of these domestic dramas.

Problem Child features the struggles of a couple hoping to have their child returned to them from social services, while The End of Civilization follows the decline of another couple in the face of unemployment. Both productions are characterized by meditations on power and justice, valour and misery, and most strikingly, a pervasive cynicism.

It is Walker’s frankness that drives these performances, and for the most part, they prove engaging, thoughtful and concise. Problem Child is arguably the better of the two, though; its pessimism is measured by moments of wry humour, whereas the melancholy of The End of Civilization becomes somewhat heavy-handed towards its conclusion, as characters hurl one expletive after another at each other.

Nevertheless, MFA student Chris Robson emphasizes the tensions of Walker’s dialogue with coordinated and exciting stage direction, which is complemented by the pointed performance of the cast. Wladimoro Antonio Woyno Rodriguez should also be credited for his outstanding set design, which somehow manages to make the spacious Telus Studio Theatre feel claustrophobic.

Problem Child and The End of Civilization run at the Telus Studio Theatre until February 18.

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