Cole has always been a bit of a wild child. He spends money on unnecessary things, has slept with a number of women, and has trouble with facing commitment and any personal problems. He tends to run away as soon as life gets hard. After living in his parent’s basement for years, he finally manages to get his own apartment and start getting his life together again.
Despite his history of partying, there’s only one person who keeps him sane: Julia.
Julia is a beautiful, kind spirit who he has had an off-and-on relationship with for the past ten years. After being apart for a little bit, Julia shows up at Cole’s apartment with some news. Cole then realizes that now is the time to start acting like an adult and finally commit to Julia.
But life sometimes doesn’t always go as planned and can change with a blink of an eye: In walks Vik, a sassy, mysterious girl who Cole had been with during him and Julia’s off and on time. Vik also has news for Cole and it will spin his life upside down.
Cole’s best friend Jeremy knows of everything that’s happening and as a married man with a family and a haunting memory in his past, he tries to do whatever he can to get Cole to focus and make better choices in his life. Jeremy’s faced with a number of Cole’s mistakes, both current and past, but realizes you can’t help people that don’t want to be helped.
A Bad Man’s World was written by Windsor local Michael J. Krym (who also plays the role of Cole). The show is roughly an hour and fifteen minutes long but carries so much raw emotion that you find yourself captivated when watching the performers. The four actors stayed connected to their characters every second they were on that stage. I feel like the actors dug deep into their soul to bring out what each character was feeling to really bring that to life.
Theatre in the Round was a very unique way to perform this show. I have never been to a theatrical performance set up like that before. Instead of having the stage directly in front of you with the chairs in rows, the seats are up close to the stage in a half circle. Depending on where you are sitting, you see the show a different way. Many times, the actors were on the edge of the stage looking towards members of the audience. You could feel their breath, movements and see the emotion in their eyes. Having a show presented this way makes it a very intimate performance.
A Bad Man’s World was a beautifully written show. Krym didn’t hold back on the content and language used. By doing this, you’re painting a real-life picture of things that can happen to yourself or others. Watching the performance, I felt myself getting teary-eyed at times and wanting to jump on stage and give them all a hug. Even looking around at other audience members, I could see them wiping away tears and one of them pulled out a tissue. I give the actors a huge round of applause for being able to pull the audience in like that. All of the actors are seasoned performers who will absolutely continue to do great things.
Director Eric Branget spoke a little bit about the show before it started. You can tell he really cares about keeping the performing arts alive and that showed in his direction of the play.
A Bad Man’s World was Tall Tale Theatre Co’s premiere. They hope to continue putting Canadian original works on stage. Not just in Windsor, but would love to see their original works be put on across Canada.
Tall Tale Theatre Co is a profit-sharing performing company, which means the ticket sales from the shows get split amongst the cast.
There are still a couple more performances this weekend (May 17-19) at Sho Art, Spirit & Performance Studio on Monmouth at 8pm nightly. Tickets are $20 and are available at the door or online.
Director: Eric Branget
Written by: Michael J. Krym
Cast:
Michael J. Krym as Cole
Kyle Kimmerly as Jeremy
Shannon Pitre as Julia
Somerville Black as Vik
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