Soulpepper & TRIA Theatre/King Gilgamesh & The Man of the Wild, created by Seth Bockley, Jesse LaVercombe and Ahmed Moneka, directed by Seth Bockley, Younger Centre, July 25 to Aug. 6. Tickets obtainable right here.

Soulpepper is promoting King Gilgamesh & The Man of the Wild as a part of its Summer season of Track collection, however in actuality, it’s extra a play with music than a live performance, and enchantingly so.

On the coronary heart of the piece are two friendships that cunningly parallel one another, and kudos to the creators, Seth Bockley, Jesse LaVercombe and Ahmed Moneka, for locating that intriguing connection.

Within the current day, we now have LaVercombe and Moneka who play themselves, utilizing facets, each fictional and precise, from their very own real-life friendship. Within the play, LaVercombe is a troubled American actor who meets equally troubled Iraqi immigrant Moneka in a Toronto espresso store that the latter runs.

The 2 additionally painting King Gilgamesh (Moneka) and Enkidu (LaVercombe). It’s Moneka who makes an attempt to assist LaVercombe put his life in perspective (and by extension, his personal), by telling him the story of King Gilgamesh and his good friend Enkidu. The arc of the play swings between the 2 realities, when occasions set off the parallel connections.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest story ever recorded, written in cuneiform on clay tablets in historical Mesopotamia (current day Iraq) across the eleventh century BCE. Merely put, it’s a story of a journey taken by King Gilgamesh, and orchestrated by the gods, who create Enkidu, a former wild man/beast, to accompany the king on his travels, and assist him transfer from tyrant to benign ruler. Within the current day story, Moneka and LaVercombe additionally go on journeys the place they must face their very own demons.

The play manages to additionally contact on some profound themes, most notably, the numerous facets of friendship. Gilgamesh is greater than only a intelligent parallel of the traditional and the trendy. When it’s over, you understand that substantive questions have been raised about how we see our lives in relation to the world at massive.

The music figures into the combo by the presence of Moneka Arabic Jazz band who play the cinematic rating that underlies the textual content. The 5 very gifted musicians often get to carry out solos, with Moneka breaking out into music once in a while, whereas LaVercombe exhibits his chops on the piano.

The musical idiom is a beautiful fusion of Arabic-maqam and jazz. Maqam, the dictionary tells me, is a conventional mode of Arabic music, and the results of the combo is just beautiful. Simply think about melismatic singing layered over jazz riffs.

As for the performers, each Moneka and LaVercombe are completely charming.

Moneka is a tremendously gifted actor/singer who invests his position with an depth that burns up the stage. For his half, LaVercombe shows wonderful physicality by means of a physique that’s so supple as to be with out bones. He also can act up a storm. Collectively, they’ve such vitality and vitality, that there’s by no means a second of Gilgamesh that doesn’t rivet the attention.

The piece is brilliantly directed by Chicago-based Seth Bockley who understands that much less is extra. He was a part of the creation course of so he is aware of when to spotlight the scenes of excessive drama, and dial down the motion when wanted.

Lorenzo Savoini has created a easy set of a desk and two chairs, which act as each a part of the espresso store, and the varied terrains encountered by Gilgamesh and Enkidu. Savoini can also be accountable for the atmospheric lighting that bathes the complete stage, the encompassing partitions, and the road of musicians, in lots of hues, relying on the temper of the motion.

Between the appearing, the storytelling and the music, each second of King Gilgamesh & The Man of the Wild lifts off the stage to create a most satisfying theatre expertise.

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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for numerous cultural teams and universities, notably on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson College for the Arts.

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