In the Chamber

On January 18, 2010 I attended a play called In the Chamber. It consisted of two monologues: one about our healthcare system, and another about the way that animals are mass-produced now. Somehow, both of these were connected by the prologue of both actors in bed together.

Out of the two monologues, I preferred the one written and performed by Gordon Tanner. It was a monologue concerning the mal-treatment of pigs in a Manitoba farm. Since our diets have become very meat heavy, farms have responded by mass-producing animals. Why he decided to use pigs over anything else to talk about, only he knows. He also trails off the topic quite a few times, and even began talking about quantum physics. It left me saying: please, just get to the point. That part was a little rusty.

Although his monologue was about half an hour too long (it lasted almost one hour), he definitely managed to deliver a great acting performance. He sets up a power point presentation in his hotel room and makes a video tape about his recent realization that all that he has worked for is contributing to the torture of animals, and at one point, to the death of thousands of pigs standing in a pile of their own feces.

Although he does have a good point, he really should have talked about the cruelty of all mass-produced animals, not just pigs. This makes it seem that only pigs are the victims; when we all know that it’s not just pigs that have it bad.

As well, there seemed to be a lot of inside jokes that only the people in the first row seemed to find funny. There were some odd times when people at the front row would almost fall to the floor laughing; the rest of us would just look at each other wondering what we missed.

The second monologue was about how we have a faulty healthcare system; who doesn’t? I mean, which country doesn’t have a faulty healthcare system? They all do. Since we have socialized healthcare people make it their mission to complain how the system is faulty. We're lucky to even have it socialized to begin with! Unless you have a solution in mind, I would suggest not bringing up the issue.

I appreciate that monologues are incredibly hard to write and perform. But I mean, why paint such a horrible picture of the world? Both monologues would have been more powerful if instead of pointing out faults, which is incredibly easy to do, they would have provided solutions to the problems. That’s all it takes. Spreading the word is not enough now a days, our world now requires immediate action.
This play gets the sad face.