What really goes on behind Vancouver's pricey Coal Harbour condominium closed doors?
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The cast from “The 21st Floor” at the after-party following a performance. – photo Todd Wong
Michèle Lonsdale Smith has written The 21st Floor. It is a voyeurist look into the mundane, sordid lives of Vancouver condo dwellers who don't know their neighbors on the same floor of until something happens. We discover what brings them together and keeps them apart. It's ironic that people can live so close together but never know their neighbors. Smith explores this and gives the performers the freedom to creatively explore their emotional and physical ranges each night.
The set is lucious. It opens into windows that reveal the surrounding Coal Harbour buildings. You can actually look into the rooms of surrounding condos. But the real action takes place in each of the 8 little rooms surrounding the PAL theatre space.
Each character represents typical but exotic stereotypes of Vancouver condo dwellers: The yuppie developer's son; the cold yuppie lawyer; the drug user model; the hick from Alberta; the podcaster; the gay couple; the sexaholic.
Stir and mix… taste the results. Tangy. Sweet. Bitter.
Staged by Presented by Lyric Stage Project Nov 11-22, PAL theatre, Coal Harbour www.the21stfloor.ca
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