- Theatre Calgary's Tosca Cafe .

Seeing Theatre Calgary's Tosca Cafe prior to the start of the Insect play was rather beneficial. Much different than the usual Theatre Calgary productions, Tosca Cafe had no dialogue or plot. Recapping the events within the same cafe over a long period of time, the small stories within Tosca Cafe were told through action, dance, and a string orchestra. The use of repetition was interesting to see through action that kept reoccurring as each era told its own story.
Frank Capra claimed to be "not at home in silent films", as if sound of voice gave a depth to theatre that is missing in silent film. Tosca Cafe would be the counterargument to that perspective. The lack of speech throughout the play brought on a new dynamic that i found extremely effective in the sense that it brought on a different sort of connection to each actor and dancer because it eliminated the possibility of the story progressing as flat rather than told through emotion.
The use of the dancers was interesting as well because the storyline of the dancers ran parallel to the characters in the cafe as they arrived. For example , as the child arrived at the cafe and was given a paper crane, a ballerina from swan lake began to imitate the movement of the paper bird as the child played with it on stage. The use of the violin to tell the background of the man who was running from the police was an interesting approach as well. As the bartender opened the violin case that was left, light came from the case igniting a freeze screen on that section of the stage, creating a flashback through the dancers explaining the accidental murder of a girl he met at the cafe. The lady in the red dress, the ghost, was an interesting addition in the sense that it was the reoccurring character that offered a lot of explanation for the emotion of the owner. It was nice to come back to the lady in red to show how far he had come since her death. It kept reinforcing that he was the same man throughout the course of the play, though the scene around him grew. The dancers , who switched between telling parallel stories and acting as extras, were an amazing addition to the progression of time in the cafe.
It was interesting to also see a production that simply has no plot. Its easy to say that storyline and plot are one in the same, but once you remove one from the other, its fascinating to see it exist on its own. Tosca Cafe contained no central conflict, resolution, ect. (ie. plot) but rather had a storyline that progressed simply as time went on in the same setting. It was extremely easy to watch since i knew ahead of time not to expect a central conflict, so rather than trying to find a conflict, i was able to relax and enjoy watching the progression of life.
Costuming wasnt a giant part of the production though some pieces were key, such as the childs hat , and the red dress. Otherwise the costuming was effective in the sense of fitting within context. The only thing that i really noticed that couldve been better regarding costuming were the pastel colored dresses used in the dancing in the last era. I found that when used with the lighting (amber-ish?) , the colors of the dresses appeared too similar and almost too plain that they stood out in a negative way when seen side by side with the men and the actors.
The music in the production (a string orchestra) was used as if it were a silent film in the sense that it was constant and reflected the mood of the scene, and rather than the music being used as emphesis during high points of tension, they rather cut the music because by that point, the silence was the rarity used to contrast the switch in mood.