Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian: Captivating, Thought Provoking, Nostalgia Inducing
WARNING: This review contains spoilers.
Charismatic and captivating to a fault, Mark Cassidy and Hume Baugh provide an escapist nostalgia trip accompanied and magnified by a veritable smorgasbord of 70s hits.
Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian sports a jigsaw puzzle of a story that isn’t so much a cohesive narrative, but rather a man flicking through periods of his childhood as he quite literally takes a trip down memory lane to the motel that shaped him into the person he is today. Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian is Presented by Threshold Theatre and Theatre Kingston Storefront Fringe Festival, supported in part by the Kick and Push Festival. This love letter to the playgrounds of wonder that were the local hotel and motel serves as the bittersweet farewell to a childhood that lives on in memory.
We follow Mark as he recounts encounters with the most intriguing of Brockvillians, as well as the impact the two buildings that his father owned had on him in regards to his growth as a man and his desire to pursue theatre. He chuckles through rose-tinted glasses as he arrives at the site of the old motel, only to find it abandoned and destroyed, any hint of life and the Dionysian revelry he’d come to appreciate reduced to rubble.
I was skeptical going into such a unique and unfamiliar piece of theatre, but coming out, I’d classify it as a different experience entirely. ABD delivers a spectacle that works in perfect tandem with the medium its presented in by utilizing the personal, intimate tone in a way that couldn’t replicate the same heartfelt impact on-stage.
Mark Cassidy’s narration is the foundation that Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian rests upon and you can’t help but warm to his quippy, unapologetically grandiose style. It’s crystal clear how close to his heart the people and places of his childhood are given his thoughtful delivery. I may have even shed a tear when he discovered that the place of wonder and enchantment he described in his memories was just as much a thing of the past as the memories themselves.
The musical accompaniment of Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian is a testament to Cassidy’s storytelling prowess, as the music is imperative to establishing atmosphere with every scene change. The selection of songs not only produce a thick layer of nostalgia right from the jump with “Highway to Hell”, but they also drive home the power that music has to coax emotion out of us -be it jubilance, sadness, or that indescribable feeling when you hear Gloria Gaynor’s “I Will Survive” on the dancefloor of the Flying Dutchman Moter Inn on December 31st 1979.
Personally, ABD forced me to confront my own mortality and whether or not reminiscing about events long past is a gift, or a futile soothing mechanism where the brain hones in on comfortable memories of the past because the present isn’t so pleasant and welcoming. That being said, I appreciated the way that the ending was handled. There was a multitude of poignant, saddening, closing messages Mark could’ve settled for, but he showed the maturity of a veteran playwright by opting to end on a more uplifting note with Peter Gabriels “Solsbury Hill.” In my eyes this decision cemented the fact that while there were more dreary undertones to ABD the primary intention was to be a celebration of life and a tribute to the first theatre he ever knew: The Flying Dutchman Moter Inn.
“The Theatre of Life” Mark called it, a term this reviewer had yet to hear but one I won’t soon forget.
Allistonian Brockvillian Dionysian is available on-demand from August 2-15 and is a part of the Theatre Kingston Storefront Fringe Festival, supported in part by the Kick and Push Festival. Click here for tickets and more information.