Photo of Kyle Claeys as Nathan Bridgets in “The Masterclass”
When you show up to The Masterclass, presented by A.C.T. Productions, you wait in the lobby of a west end commercial building. You were told via email to show up at least ten minutes beforehand as Nathan Bridgets demands his class start promptly at the scheduled time. His sister—ahem, his “assistant”—Stephanie, leads you and your fellow classmates in, instructing you all to remove your shoes. You find yourselves in a small rehearsal room with chairs arranged in a semi-circle facing your intrepid leader, Nathan (Kyle Claeys), his back to you, lost in his own headspace.
As Stephanie (M Fera), tries to alert him to your presence, the tensions start. Out of genuine love, perhaps, or a sense of familial obligation, she allows herself to take the blame for pretty much every hiccup that occurs during this, uh, “class,” but she absolutely does not buy into his charade.
Created by Claeys, the production is an immersive theatre event that takes the form of a truly cringe-inducing class lead by a delusional narcissist. From the banal exercises that make up the show to the marketing materials and confirmation emails sent to attendees, there is a solid commitment to the conceit. To my astonishment, at least one of my follow attendees had showed up thinking this was a legitimate class!
So, who is Nathan Bridgets? He’s an aspiring actor with a massive ego thwarted by crippling insecurities and a catastrophic lack of talent. With a questionable relationship to his mother that we glimpse in fragments, he has an abundance of energy and demands we dial ourselves up to eleven to match his intensity. The breathing and movement exercises, the outlandish tongue-twister, the hokey introduction to Shakespeare and discovering which kind of soup we are—these are a delightful send-up of actorly drills. And though satirical, they do actually help to loosen us up as individuals and bond as a group.
His instruction, it becomes abundantly clear to us, is a thinly veiled excuse to hype himself up and clear his name. He’s embroiled in a scandal resulting from a disastrous production of Equus—every mention of which I found especially hilarious. Perhaps that is where his fixation on “getting naked” with us comes from.
With clever integration of story elements into the structured exercises and tight facilitation of the improvisational specifics as they unfold, the experience is deliberately awkward, sometimes exhilarating and often quite funny. It is very elegantly bookended too. My favourite aspect was the understated moments with Stephanie as we grow increasingly sympathetic of her plight in all of this. I think Claeys reveals Nathan’s hand a little too openly. A more nuanced rendering of his neurosis would draw us in more completely. The relationship to his mother and sister could also be more fleshed out. In its current form, this feels like a successfully intriguing proof of concept.
The Masterclass
ran July 19 to 27, 2024
Charb Arts Studios (2238 Dundas St W, #111)
running time: 60 minutes
Photo of Kyle Claeys as Nathan Bridgets in “The Masterclass”