‘CONTAGIOUS’ WARS PUT MINORITIES AT RISK
BY Meghan Harrison

Eye Weekly

Feb 27 2008
Canada

Richard Kalinoski’s second play concerned with the Armenian genocide
is also a lyrical reflection on aging, memory and history. Luckily,
he has a light and deliberate touch with the material, allowing the
play to unfold naturally toward its devastating conclusion.

Hrant Alianak plays Hagop Hagopian, an aging survivor of the Armenian
genocide who was once famous for killing the Turkish governor who
oversaw the murders in his village. His grandson Alex (Garen Boyajian)
thinks the story of his criminal trial will make a great magazine
article, but his grandfather’s history proves more complicated and
tragic than Alex supposed. Hagop also struggles to maintain his
independence despite his well-meaning daughter’s attempts to move
him into an assisted-living facility.

Alianak, who also directs, manages to give a very talky play enough
movement to remain visually interesting. Much of the action hinges
on the chemistry between the defiant, prickly Hagop and his curious
grandson, and Alianak and Boyajian are believable and often very
funny together. Boyajian looks way too young to pass as a 26-year-old,
though the glib, bumbling reporter he plays also seems rather young for
his years. Still, Alex visibly grows out of his innocence on stage,
and Boyajian gives an assured, nuanced performance that gracefully
allows Alianak to remain the centre of the play.

Kalinoski integrates the historical background without seeming to
interrupt the story or the characters, and the ensemble that reenacts
Hagop’s trial is almost universally excellent, right down to their
carefully-observed accents.

A Crooked Man’s flaws are more distracting than seriously
undermining. The actors tend to rush through Kalinoski’s more poetic
lines in the first half of the play, and the set design is a bit
heavy-handed, featuring scrims with old sepia-toned photographs and
blown-up documents about the genocide – the constant presence of the
ensemble around the edge of the stage makes the same point about the
lingering effects of history far more elegantly. It’s really too bad
that Michael Kazarian is flat in all his roles, though, especially
as the Turkish governor, who seems wholly ineffectual.

While it features an incredible performance by Alianak, A Crooked
Man’s greatest strength is undoubtedly the writing, which features
both a fine ear for language and a well-developed sense of narrative
proportion.

A CROOKED MAN Featuring Hrant Alianak, Garen Boyajian. Written by
Richard Kalinoski. Directed by Hrant Alianak. Presented by Alianak
Theatre Productions. To Mar 2. Tue-Sat 8pm; Sun 2:30pm. $21; $25 Sat;
$10 Sun. The Theatre Centre, 1087 Queen W. 416-504-7529.