{"id":22638,"date":"2022-04-29T12:34:45","date_gmt":"2022-04-29T19:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=22638"},"modified":"2022-04-29T13:26:55","modified_gmt":"2022-04-29T20:26:55","slug":"i-claudia-successfully-tells-big-story-through-minimalistic-means","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2022\/04\/29\/i-claudia-successfully-tells-big-story-through-minimalistic-means\/","title":{"rendered":"I, Claudia<\/em> successfully tells big story through minimalistic means"},"content":{"rendered":"

I, Claudia<\/em> examines the life of Claudia, a 12-year-old girl struggling through her parent\u2019s divorce, her dad\u2019s remarriage, a school science project, and, worst of all, puberty. Directed by Treena Stubel, this one-woman show is hitting Victoria for the first time since 2004 and starting off Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre\u2019s 2022 summer season.<\/p>\n

Although the play is acted out entirely by Kathleen O’Reilly, who plays Claudia, there are multiple characters that make an appearance on stage through the use of masks and wardrobe changes. Each character, while seemingly disconnected from the main story, adds depth and complexity to the world that Claudia lives in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
I, Claudia runs until Sunday, May 8 (photo by Jam Hamidi).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This play has its own brand of comedic timing and it finds ways to inject humor into otherwise serious conversations while maintaining the believability of the 12-year-old protagonist. O’Reilly manages to maintain Claudia\u2019s quirkiness and wit throughout the performance consistently, even through multiple character changes, which can be a difficult feat to accomplish.<\/p>\n

Every character\u2014from the school janitor to Claudia\u2019s grandfather\u2014has significance to the story and has a fully fleshed-out personality. Even in the moments of transition between characters, the traits of each shine through in subtle ways. Additionally, taking off a mask to replace it with another also has a huge amount of symbolism both in the play and in real life; watching each character be deconstructed and rebuilt from costume pieces provides a certain amount of intimacy that would otherwise remain unseen.<\/p>\n

Although O’Reilly does brilliantly portray each character and manages to add a great amount of realism to the cast, the masks used in the performance give each character a doll-like quality. With the face of each character (excluding the mouth) unable to provide expression, there is a certain eeriness that must be overcome by the audience in order to fully dive into the story.<\/p>\n

This play is heartfelt and touches on many different coming-of-age experiences in a way that does not mock or make fun of this transitional period\u2014a nice change of pace from how modern media treats it. And although there’s a distinct lack of conversation between characters (due to the style of the play), the interactions are both heard and felt through stories, queries, and anecdotes. O’Reilly\u2019s talent for characterization is quite apparent throughout her performance\u2014she was an excellent choice to lead this production.<\/p>\n

I, Claudia<\/em> is minimalistic, with only one set and one actor, but manages to tell a story bigger than one character with one problem. The lighting and music complement the performance to this extent, adding only what is necessary to tell the story of each character.<\/p>\n

I, Claudia<\/em>
\nUntil Sunday, May 8
\n$15 student tickets, Roxy Theatre
\nbluebridgetheatre.ca<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I, Claudia examines the life of Claudia, a 12-year-old girl struggling through her parent\u2019s divorce, her dad\u2019s remarriage, a school science project, and, worst of all, puberty. Directed by Treena Stubel, this one-woman show is hitting Victoria for the first time since 2004 and starting off Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre\u2019s 2022 summer season. Although the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22643,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22638"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22644,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22638\/revisions\/22644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22643"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}