Winners and Losers - period. The title of the play is a bit
deceiving because the actual spoken rhetorical flourish used between the two
sparring writer/performers of this entertaining piece of stand up actually
poses a question mark after each chosen topic for discussion: winner or loser?
This is the entire premise of the evening that is basically a predication in
the form of a romp through the morning newspaperÕs current events right on to
major personal questions effecting the lives of Marcus Youssef and James Long who play themselves throughout. And always we are
told who is the winner and who is the loser, as the play Òembraces the ruthless
logic of modern day capitalismÓ.
So I guess it should not be a
surprise to us that the theatricality of this theme is pushed a bit to include
a wrestling match and a ping pong game between the two protagonists within the
course of the 90 minute running time of the show. Neither physical encounter I
would call ÒruthlessÓ in its staging by Chris Abraham but certainly interesting and more than a little
entertaining.
In content, the play does
steer toward the dialectics of race, class and sex at several intersections and
herein lies some of its better moments. Mr. Youssef is first generation
Egyptian Canadian, he tells us, and is identifiable as a person of color. As
such he getÕs to talk about race matters with some authority. But donÕt assume
this also carries on to class. Mr. Youssef comes from a wealthy family while
Mr. Long comes from the working class. So does race trump class or vice versa
when it comes to the bona fides of identity politics vis a vis the class
struggle?
As you might guess, they both
have their arguments to advance. Mr. Youssef is also identified early on in the
evening as the more intellectual of the two, because, according to Mr. Long,
Òhe knows all about the Russian revolution.Ó Although when he got on to the topic, he seemed to forget
who the Mensheviks were. But anyway, you get the idea.
During this dialog of
contrapuntal ideas - which is so rapid at the beginning that one imagines the
two of them priming backstage on either double expressos or Red Bull - we are
told at one point that the show is actually composed of about eighty per cent
tightly scripted and rehearsed material with twenty per cent pure
improvisation. ItÕs fairly easy to spot the improv stuff because it occurs at
the beginning when the two discuss topical current events and itÕs clear that
this part of the show each night is taken from the daily headlines.
IÕm sure that in most cities
of the world right now this would be all well and good; a zinger about a
prominent local celebrity here, a poke at a high profile white collar embezzler
over there... that kind of thing. But this is Toronto my friends and the moment
ÒRob FordÓ came out of their mouths and placed him as current event number one
within the matrix of winner or loser, the audience just kind of leaned back a
bit to wait for these guys to take their best shot. I mean, weÕre entering the
major leagues now - Jon Stewart, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmy Fallon -
theyÕve all been chewing on this one mightily. IÕm sorry to report that when
push came to shove on the question of Ford Nation - winner or loser?, Mr.
Youssef and Mr. Long came up a bit short.
But then thatÕs the nature of
the game, you win some and you lose some, but you suit up just the same and hit
the field running, right guys?
Winners and Losers plays through December 8th at the Berkeley Street
Theatre, 26 Berkeley Street, Toronto.