By Mike Carron
Nickel and Dime’s newest production is sure to be talked about well after it is performed. Geoff Woods’ play, Coffee and Jazz, is the tale of a jazz musician, Kieran (Woods) and his love-stricken quest for Tiana (Jamie Konchak). Directed by Cherie Diane Caslyn, the play twists of Kieran’s reality and investigates who is in control of reality.
Kieran’s problem is that he is too shy and so he makes a pact with the devil, Nudge (Sarah Cassady), in order to get,"what he wants or what he thinks he wants."
Themes include: karma and girl’s attractions to good and bad boys.
"The main theme of the play is that sometimes you get what you want, but you don’t always want what you get," says Woods.
Caslyn, who directed last year’s acclaimed Nickel and Dime production Five Men in a Tub, has created a warped reality and dream state on the stage by having characters circle Kieran and they only become involved in Kieran’s world when he wants. Caslyn also broke some theatre conventions in order to get a reaction from her audience.
"[I] may get under the skin of some traditionalists," she warns, but that’s what she wants–love it or hate it, it does not matter, just react to it.
"We’re here to inspire reactions …or incite them."
The play toys with free will and the idea that humans are merely pawns. Also, throughout the play Nudge has his/her back to the audience so that the audience creates their own image of who and what devil should be. Nudge was originally written to appear to males as females and vice versa.
"Something in your twisted little subconscious minds always wants to see the opposite sex as evil," says a cast member.
Coffee and Jazz is running at noon from Feb. 1-4 at the Reeve Secondary on campus. Admission is $1 at the door. Or it can be seen at the One Act Festival on Thurs., Feb. 3 at 7:30 pm at the Pumphouse Theatre for $10-12.