REVIEW: Distant Early Warning at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
iPhoto caption: Pearle Harbour (Justin Miller) performs in Early Distant Warning, featuring set design by Jackie Chau, lighting design by Jareth Li, and costume design by Julia Howman. Photo by Jeremy Mimnagh
After two years of lockdowns and social distancing, a 100-minute performance that tells the story of a woman losing her mind as she waits for the man she loves while isolated in a bunker at the end of the world might be the last theatrical experience I thought I would want to endure. Been there. Done that. Hated it. (Minus waiting for my boyfriend. I don’t wait on any man.)
But in the hands of Pearle Harbour, this story is an entertaining evening at the theatre.
The fact that Distant Early Warning makes such a dreary set of circumstances a fun experience is wholly due to the campy, clownish, cabaret-style performance of writer-performer Justin Miller as his drag alter-ego Pearle Harbour. Distant Early Warning, which involves cabaret song stylings, silly-but-gruesome physical humor, and moments of theatrical magic, is a lot of fun. In her one-woman show, Ms. Harbour proves that the best way to endure life’s challenges is with humour.
In Distant Early Warning, Pearle Harbour is a “listener” stationed at DYE-4, a bunker that, first and foremost, keeps watch for any communication from outer space. Five years before we join Pearle in DYE-4, an omnipresent corporation, Moon Mist (that, among other things, produced cigarettes, meal-replacement pills, and media content), awarded a lucky inhabitant of earth with the opportunity to live a luxurious existence in space for five years. During the time in which this lucky Grand Prize Winner has floated in space above earth, there has been a nuclear war which vaporized everyone on the planet except for Pearle, presumably because she was safely sequestered in the arctic in DYE-4. Because she is the only person still alive, Pearle assumes that the Grand Prize Winner must want to be her boyfriend because, well, there isn’t any other person alive who could fill that role.
Over the course of the three-day period we spend with Pearle, the last three days she will be alone because the Grant Prize Winner’s five-year space vacation is ending, Pearle not only listens for transmission in general, but eagerly anticipates hearing from her beloved in orbit, while also monitoring the radioactivity from the nuclear fall-out. Along with listening for activity from space, she spends her day doing corporate-mandated calisthenics, smoking cigarettes, telling stories of her supervisor, Barb, or Deb (Pearle can’t remember – she’s losing her mind), and regaling her audience with songs with titles such as “Orange Colored Sky” and “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” that reflect her present circumstances, albeit with the sense of nostalgia and beauty that only doo-wop pop hits can elicit.
Justin Miller as Pearle Harbour is clearly a capable entertainer. From her performance of cabaret song-and-dance numbers to her detailed execution of hilarious physical comedy, Harbour is one of the best drag-clown-solo performance artist acts in town, if not in the country. Her singing voice isn’t the best, but that isn’t the point. She’s a clown, not a singer. Of note is the theatrically gruesome but laughable physical comedy bits in which Harbour removes splinters of debris embedded in her body after she has to leave the safety of the bunker to pump lubrication into the mechanism of the aged and barely functioning satellite dish that allows her to monitor transmissions from outer space. After she comically enacts the struggle of walking in a post-nuclear wind storm in which she has been pierced with shards of debris, throughout the rest of the performance she removes the pieces of glass embedded in her, often with a campy spurt of blood each time a piece is removed. This culminates when she removes the largest piece which, when she first attempts to extract the piece of mirror from the top of her thigh, she cuts her hand deeply spewing forth an inordinate amount of blood. In Miller’s capable hands, this rather gross and unfortunate event is a laugh riot.
Jackie Chau’s design of DYE-4, where all of the action takes place, also makes light of the apocalyptic circumstances. The bunker, made of metal, is crude and industrial. There are metal barrels overturned to offer Harbour a place to sit and the pedestal of a statue in which the statue itself, we presume, was blown away in the nuclear blast. To make this depressing setting a site for comedy, Chau has put up posters of 70s era porn stars, which, we assume, brings pleasure to lonely Harbour.
The set is also home to moments of theatrical magic, skillfully created by the team who fabricated the props. Metaphorically foreshadowing the final moments of the play, a bird, crafted by Lauren Gillis, is shot down by Harbour with a toy bow and arrow. The dead bird, shot through with an arrow, comically drops from the ceiling after Harbour makes the deadly shot. In another moment of theatrical magic, Harbour marvels at the capacity of the earth to produce a single flower, which the audience sees grow out of a crack in the statue pedestal. Harbour plucks the flower from the concrete to marvel at its natural beauty.
The excellent stagecraft, along with Miller’s comic performance, is brought together seamlessly by director John Turner. Turner, an expert in clown, has clearly mastered the artform so well he can support performers like Miller and a team of designers to transform such dark subject matter into comic material.
There is a lot going on in Distant Early Warning. The circumstances of the play invite us to consider the climate crisis, nuclear war, mental health, isolation, and the power of corporations to determine every aspect of human life on earth. At times, this is too much — some threads are dropped or left undeveloped. (Why was a statue installed at a remote bunker?) I was sometimes unsure of what was real or what was merely being imagined or misremembered by Harbour as her isolation and trauma took their toll on her mental health. I mistakenly attempted to make sense of it all and was left confused: making sense of this play, after all, isn’t the point. These circumstances are merely the context in which Ms. Pearle Harbour can present us with song, dance, stories, physical comedy, jokes, and even a burlesque striptease. And this veritable one-woman variety show transforms struggles we’ve all likely endured over the past two years into an evening of theatrical fun.
Distant Early Warning runs at Buddies in Bad Times through May 29. Tickets are available here.
Stephen Low
Stephen Low received his PhD from Cornell University in April 2016, where he also received his Masters in Theatre Studies in 2014. He received his first Masters from the University of Texas at Austin in the Performance as Public Practice Program. His scholarly interests include twentieth-century theatre and performance, dance, musicals, queer theory, sex and sexuality, gender, critical race studies, and gay culture. His current book project, Hail Mary: The Theatrical Constitution of Gay Culture, identifies theatricality as the constitutive feature of contemporary gay culture. His essays have been published in Modern Drama, Theatre Research in Canada, Canadian Theatre Review, Queer Theatre in Canada. Critical Perspectives in Canadian Theatre in English Series, Opera Canada, and Intermission.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Photo by Curtis Perry.
REVIEW: GCTC’s Beowulf in Afghanistan blends legend and modern heroism
Beowulf in Afghanistan, directed by Kate Smith, goes beyond simple plot in its exploration of what makes a hero, as well as the aftermath of violence.
iPhoto caption: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: YPT’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is appropriately sweet
Director Thom Allison’s production embraces Charlie’s many incarnations and tones in a slick rendition that’s both fun sugar high and candy overload.
iPhoto caption: The Lion King production still by Matthew Murphy/Disney.
REVIEW: The Lion King offers audiences a cat’s-eye view of sensory delights
Twenty years after The Lion King’s last open-ended Toronto run, Julie Taymor’s directorial and design concepts remain Pride Rock-solid, spilling out from the stage into aisles, balconies, and above the crowd.
iPhoto caption: A Case for the Existence of God production still by Cylla von Tiedemann.
REVIEW: A Case for the Existence of God makes meaning of platonic intimacy
The play’s urgency and strength come from the gentle way it presents male vulnerability and platonic intimacy — for lack of which men may burn themselves, or the rest of us, to the ground.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Mathieu Taillardas.
REVIEW: Feu Mr. Feydeau! takes charming liberties with a famous playwright’s life
Feu Mr. Feydeau! is an effortlessly enjoyable historical fantasy that takes on death, the creative act, and life's bittersweet disappointments.
iPhoto caption: Dead Broke production still by Calvin Petersen.
REVIEW: Comedy-horror hybrid Dead Broke successfully spooks
While the non-horror aspects of the show lean towards the more amateur, the scares are incredibly successful. This show pulls off the theatrical horror with seeming ease: That’s reason enough to check it out for yourself.
iPhoto caption: Production stills from Faust and Nabucco courtesy of the Canadian Opera Company.
REVIEW: Excellent singing elevates lacklustre productions in Faust and Nabucco
Both operas in the Canadian Opera Company’s current fall repertoire, Faust and Nabucco, include stellar performances from world-class singers in productions featuring directorial and design choices that abandon historical accuracy and realistic mise-en-scène to varying degrees of success.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Michael Cooper
REVIEW: Chiara Isotton burns like a supernova in COC’s Medea
Isotton is riveting, offering a masterful vocal and physical performance that swings wildly from one emotional episode to the next.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Canadian Opera Company.
REVIEW: A new take on Don Pasquale re-imagines its lead as a cat-loving crank
If you love cats, you’ll like Barbe & Doucet’s production of Don Pasquale.
REVIEW: Little Shop of Horrors at Capitol Theatre Port Hope
The performances in Little Shop of Horrors at the Cameco Capitol Theatre in Port Hope are proof that there is formidable talent in theatres out of town that aren’t part of the Stratford and Shaw festivals.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Michael Cooper
REVIEW: Tosca and Macbeth at Canadian Opera Company
Be it the lush and extravagant production of Tosca or the brooding and eerie production of Macbeth, both operas capture the spirit of romantic opera to delight audiences.
REVIEW: The Marriage of Figaro at Canadian Opera Company
Guth’s staging highlights the profound dimensions of human relationships in his exploration of individuals torn between morality, desire, and impulse.
Comments