Plays Five

David E. Kemp, a former professor of drama at Queen’s University, is
the author of The Pleasures and Treasures of the United Kingdom.

Josh Meissner was a member of Peterborough’s Union Collective, a
company that staged scores of original productions in a former coffin
factory. Although the company disbanded in 1996, Meissner continues to
write for both stage and film.

This collection begins with three plays that form The Broken X Trilogy.
Set in the Old West, “Heavy with Aspect of Motion” blends realism
and expressionism as it explores skulduggery in a seemingly racially
motivated struggle. “Grim Miracle” uses a play-within-a-play format
to chart the life and death of Abelard Raymond, a noted desperado.
Somewhat out of sync with the first two plays in the trilogy is “Satan
at the Crossroads,” which examines the creative process and the
importance of inspiration to that process. “This Lane Ends,” an
unintelligible post-apocalyptic drama set in a bordello in the Arctic,
features a character named Blanche DuBois whose dialogue is taken
verbatim from Tennessee William’s A Streetcar Named Desire. “Circa
Coming,” the last play in the collection, is equally flawed.

While the first two plays of the trilogy have some merit with respect
to their imaginative staging and lively dialogue, the collection as a
whole is juvenile in its desire to shock and offend and contains no
visible plot, character development, message, or social significance.
Meissner’s specific and overelaborate stage and acting directions
leave little room for directorial interpretation, and there is a
pseudo-intellectual appreciation from a “journal” called “Maximum
Kawaii” that the publisher would be wise to omit from future editions
of the book.