Gene Montague
Interrogatory Introspection
An Evening with Gene Montague
by Lewis King and Robert Thomas
Hot Car Vodka Collective at the Rosemary Branch Theatre until 17th August
Review by Heather Moulson
We sat on dining chairs with eclectic cushions, the intimate space before us ideal for a talk show setting. Or rather, a significant Q&A session, in which the original interviewer Jamie Pringle had been replaced by the over-keen Aubrey, putting the interviewee, actor Gene Montague, on a wrong footing, and into downward spiral as the stand-in interviewer read from poisonous cue cards. Thus is the plot of An Evening with Gene Montague.
Gene Montague, the thwarted somewhat sad actor was played by Woody Franklyn who frantically tried to dodge verbal bullets using the best skills that he could. Aubrey was played on this performance by Lewis King. (Robert Thomas and Natalia Lewis alternate on other nights).
With witty excerpts from film, solo plays and other past glories, and his telling of being dropped by co-stars, Woody Franklyn unravels skilfully before his unruffled host.
Gene Montague is clearly on the way down, if he was even up there at all. His exposé is simultaneously cruel and funny. A dramatic sequence against the soundtrack of BBC’s Gardener’s Question Time was an ingenious act, goading us towards the climatic revelation.
Projection and edginess lacked in places, and Gene Montague could have been a less sympathetic character. However, there were some classic comedy moments, and An Evening with Gene Montague is certainly a clever concept.
Heather Moulson, August 2023
Photography courtesy of HCVC
Mark Aspen 