Chamber Theatre Hintonburg presents Edmond

Chamber Theatre’s next show is a controversial and at times violent and racially-charged play about loneliness and sexual identity.

EdmondEDMOND is Mamet’s 1980′s fable about a mild-mannered man whose journey of self-discovery and empowerment becomes a bloody rampage.

“David Mamet’s Edmond powerfully conveys the loneliness and naive enthusiasm that compels so many Americans to try to break out of the bounds of their own lives - to create themselves anew at great cost. It is an incredibly sad play, a modern morality play that follows the misguided trajectory of Edmond Burke’s attempt to find his place in society.”

Written by David Mamet and directed by Donnie Laflamme (assistant director Manon Dumas), the show features Tony Adams, Jonah Allingham, Karl Claude, Leslie Cserepy, Manon Dumas, Allison Harris, Anna Lewis, Donnie Laflamme, Adam Pierre, Bob Reynolds, Cory Thibert and Jennifer Vallance.

The show runs April 3-5 & 11-12 at 7:30 pm, and April 6 & 13 at 5:00 pm at the Carleton Tavern (223 Armstrong at Parkdale).  Tickets are $20 online at eventbrite or at 613.791.4471 / 613.791.0097.

Show is recommended for mature audiences

Other Media

Edmond: Mamet and the Hintonburg Theatre take on New York in the Carleton Tavern (Alvina Ruprecht, Capital Critics Circle)
Three-Card Monte (Kevin Reid, Visitorium)

(If you know of any press not listed here, leave us a comment or send us a note.)

What do you think? Have you or will you see the show? Tell us in the comments below.

Preview article prepared by: Reena Belford, with information and photo from Chamber Theatre Hintonburg.

What people are saying:

  1. Saw David Mamet’s “Edmond” at the Carleton Tavern. Best production I’ve seen in the capital. Brilliantly done. Great script. Amazing magic from such a humble stage.

  2. Overall a good attempt at a difficult show. The opening scene was narrated off stage through a poor audio setup and was not effective in setting up the beginning of Edmond’s journey. Edmond himself was one note and wooden throughout the performance, not giving any hint of reason to why the character was doing anything. His actions felt completely inorganic, even one particularly emotional (or it should have been) scene where his crying seemed was only present because he directed himself to cry now (the director is also the lead actor, never a good move in theatre). The pacing also felt off as he would very often pause as if searching for what to say next, but this never felt like a character trait, it felt like an actor grasping for lines. All this had the pleasant benefit of drawing the audience’s attention much more to the secondary characters. The staging was awkward and as such most emotional connections were lost on stage as the blocking had all the actors face out and due to an apparent lack of direction or laziness by the actors, they were not able to overcome the blocking limitations. Some solid work by Karl Claude as Edmond’s cell mate, and Alison Harris had some good moments as Glenna though she and Edmond never seemed to connect. The final scene between Edmond and his wife, the adult theatre prostitue, and on the Subway also saw good performances by whoever was not Edmond. And that was the theme of the night for me. I watched a group of actors do some good work around a main character that would rather orate than talk to his scene partners, as a result I spent the entire show watching them have more powerful and poignant moments than the man I’m suppose to care about. This won’t be the last time this show is produced in the city, hopefully by a more organised group in a better venue, you aren’t missing anything special if you were to pass of this one.

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