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Edmonton Journal
Monday, August 21, 2000
- Liz Nicholls
Endearing Izzy shameless and courageous.
She's a pop-culture repository of self-help truisms
Burnt Tongue - * * * * Stage 10 (Yardbird Suite)
Sure, Izzy does arrive for her blind date wearing a wedding dress.
But, like, that doesn't mean she's a "planner," OK ("guys get
scared when you do that"). "I'm totally prepared to be spontaneous,"
declares this most endearing of clowns, quivering with expectation
and the effort to appear casual.
She's met a man on the Internet, arrives in the park to meet him,
and ... waits. "I'm not too eager, I'm punctual," she says, with
the merest soupcon of doubt. "I'm sure he's coming. I'm not worried."
What Shannan Calcutt creates, in this enchanting, clever little
show, is a portrait of mounting anxiety with a red nose. "Do you
think I'm pretty?" she asks us with chipper fragility. She actually
wants, needs, an answer, but only if it's yes. The affirmative
comes: "A lot of people say that." She beams.
What Izzy reveals, in the course of Burnt Tongue, is a whole world
of huge hopfulness teetering giddily on the most fragile architecture
of self-doubt. You hold your breath, wondering if it will hold.
Izzy is a repository of pop-culture truisms about self-improvement
("like, I'm a totally awesome person"). A born disciple, whose
desperation to believe is shot with glints of doubt, Izzy studies
with the famous--and the teacher is always late, or indifferent.
A sequence in which she demonstrates the results of her corporeal
mime lessons is especially hilarious.
She is shameless, and brave, and scared to death that the mantras
of sociology won't save her from loneliness. In a nerveracking,
very funny scene, she wonders aloud if she's a good kisser, and
gets a volunteer to offer his opinion. "How would you rate me
on a scale of one to 10?"
You discover yourself desperately wanting Izzy to find love, and
desperately fearful she'll end up forlorn. Sue Morrison's production
is delicately tense and smartly calibrated. And Calcutt's winsome
performance will make you wince and laugh - simultaneously. Warmly
recommended, even for the diehard anti-clown audience.
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