You know that horrible game people used to trick you into when you were a kid, 52 Pick-up? Well it just got way less crappy.
From November 13-29, the Vancouver independent theatre company, Twenty Something, is producing 52 Pick-Up — a refreshing change from traditional theatre productions. 52 Pick-up doesn’t have a set sequence of events, but rather the scenes are decided at random during the performance.
Set in the modern era, 52 Pick-Up follows the story of two young lovers who meet, fall in love and have a terrible falling out. Although this seems like a normal plot to a seemingly banal play, this play is such that every scene is done in a random order. The play, written by TJ Dawes and Rita Bozi, is about their relationship with each other and begins with the scene titles written on a pack of cards. The cards are then thrown up into the air and the actors take a random card from the pile of 52 cards on the ground and act out the scene.
When that scene is finished, the actors then randomly select another card from the deck and act that one out. This process is done until the end of the program and eventually all the cards come together to form a story.
Director and UBC alumnus Brian Cochrane described the scene construction as "Tarantino-esque."
After seeing the play at the Toronto Fringe Festival, Cochrane is looking forward to putting his own spin on the quirky show.
“Actually, it’s more like what I’d want to strip away,” he said. “I’m trying to use as little stage pieces as possible while still conveying the setting and the actions the actors are doing.”
For this play, there are multiple settings, but Cochrane is using minimal set, props and effects. In one scene where the main female role (Sara Andrina Brown) is chopping vegetables for dinner, Cochrane uses mime. This technique forces the audience to imagine her chopping as she mimes the action with no knife, vegetables or cutting board.
The two actors in 52 Pick-Up are from two different universes of on-stage theatre. Brown is the more experienced in theatrical plays, performing recently in Studio 58's The Crucible and A Room With a View. Her scene partner, Dan Willows, has a different on-stage craft. He works with improvisation and stand-up comedy and has worked on Canada’s Next Top Comic.
With the two talented actors, innovative design and unique construction, 52 Pick-Up is expected to attract large audiences.
52 Pick-Up will be performed from November 13 at the Havana Theatre.
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