Seeing Ruin from the Left...
photo by Rob Newell, North Shore Outlook
"From where I live and breathe--liberal left, secular humanist Canada--fundamentalist Christianity Texas-style looks like some monstrous aberration from the human default position." So begins a review of my recent run of Leaving Ruin in Vancouver. The writer sees Cyrus as a tribesman in a tale of a long-dead way of life, with this particular tribe--Texas fundamentalist Christians--still thinking they're doing something vibrant, when they're really nothing more than an odd slice of Americana not far from the twilight zone.
Her major problem with the play was that she never got a glimpse into the actual issues for which Cyrus was being fired, her assumption being that there had to be major social activism on Cyrus' part to get his parishoners dander up. (A pretty decent observation, I thought, given that I had gone to great lengths to avoid exactly that--seemed far to obvious and easy if Cyrus is getting railroaded out because he supports liberal activism.)
And the other review, from the Vancouver Courier, leads the story with the following: "Writer/actor Jeff Berryman draws an evocative picture of a spiritually arid Texas town and its liberal-minded preacher, but weighs down the story with too much detail about church parishioners and his character's woes." Complaining more about length than anything, I thought this reviewer's final comment was telling: "The best part is that Cyrus doesn't let Ruin ruin him. The worst part is that the First Church of Ruin, Tex. will almost certainly replace Cyrus with a line-toeing fundamentalist. Leaving Ruin should feel, if not like a tragedy, at least a travesty of Christian charity. Why didn't I care a whole lot more?"
Perhaps the play is too culturally specific, so that the only ones to care about the little people of Ruin and the detail of their lives are the ones who've been there. But as my friend Nikki said, at least the play started some conversations..
7:48:31 AM 
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