Your Heart’s Too Open, Close It had their opening night on the 30th of October, and it’s a whirlwind of supernatural, sci-fi, and romance, with the goal of making its audience wonder what it means to be the writer of your own story, as well as the process of opening one’s heart to the world. The play centres around anti-hero Pup, played by Matthew Heppell as he laments his break-up with Tiga, played by Dita Shebeen. He seems ignorant to the reasons his relationship ended, and on a sabbatical to Tibet, he is sent home with an ‘open heart’.
The storyline, however, was hard to follow at times. I felt as though too many things were going on to keep track of what the play was about, and it would do better with some scenes cut (a few of them didn’t contribute to the plot). The concept of the ‘open heart’ wasn’t touched on much, though it seemed integral to the story upon its introduction. I would have liked to see more of that explored, since it’s an interesting plot device. Some fourth-wall breaks were done brilliantly, leaving us in giggles or jaw-dropped awe whenever a character would interact with the group. Other times, the delivery was akin to slam poetry, a rhythm that felt cheesy.
My favourite parts of the play were the performances of Ben Sanderson and Elliot Tyndale-Biscoe, playing Jay and Gable respectively. From the second they appeared onstage, they captured my attention with their arguments ranging feeling akin to Bert and Ernie from Sesame Street (if you know, you know). The development between these two had me grinning throughout, and I must applaud them on this. Heppell’s delivery was also astounding, keeping Pup’s character consistently in the moral grey can’t have been easy.
I also enjoyed the references that were sprinkled throughout the play. A Metal Gear Solid bit, a nod to Rick and Morty’s ‘Pickle Rick’ meme, using sandwiches to allude to smoking (from How I Met Your Mother), a reference to Joey from FRIENDS, and even a mention of In The Night Garden. Yet even after the end, my thoughts on the character of Chao (played by Claudia Terry) are a bit muddled.
She left many mysteries unanswered until a single line of exposition revealed all too late into the second act, and until then, my head could only be tilted in confusion. What was Chao? One scene, she was urging Pup to re-write his story so she could stay with him, and in the next she was bored and dismissive to him. Was she an alien jumping from realities and stories, or just a stage-hand thrown into a loop?
There were a few technical issues that needed to be tweaked, too. Most times, when a song would play, it totally overpowered the actors’ dialogue. I only learned the names of some characters far into their appearances, and completely missed some lines because of this. Perhaps this played into my confusion of the storyline, and it overall made some scenes difficult to follow.
Despite my confusion, I think that ‘Your Heart’s Too Open, Close It’ ended in a poignant manner, leaving me with the reminder that we are all in control of our lives and the writers of our stories. It’s hilarious, thought-provoking, and powerful all at once.
