Eyes Have It (Drama)

BREAKING CHARACTER written and directed by Alexis Bernier, with Gina Clayton. Presented by Freefall Theatre at the Glen Morris (4 Glen Morris). July 4 at 10:30 pm, July 5 at 4 pm, July 7 at 7 pm, July 9 at 8:30 pm, July 10 at 3 pm, July 12 at 9:30 pm, July 13 at 3:30 pm.

For centuries, poets have said that the eyes are the windows of the soul.

What if it were literally true?

Jacqui, the central character in Alexis Bernier's Breaking Characters, is an optometrist who realizes while examining the eyes of her clients that she can also scan their innermost thoughts.

Sounds like a voyeuristic thrill nothing's hidden from her until she turns her powers on her husband. You don't need glasses to anticipate that some of her discoveries aren't so pleasant.

'Alexis's writing is smart, dense, funny, challenging and, above all, emotionally true, says actor Gina Clayton, a long-time artistic collaborator with Bernier and producer Anna Pappas.

The three worked together on Berenice, a memorable 1993 Fringe show, later remounted, and plan an upcoming production of Bernier's Some People's Children.

'She doesn't lay everything out for you, and both actor and audience discover there's always more you can learn about a character.

Sometimes there's trouble when a show's writer doubles as the director.

'She's really comfortable wearing both hats, insists Clayton. 'Alexis isn't precious about her words. If I struggle and work as an actor and still can't make sense of a line, she'll get rid of it.

Clayton's doing the Fringe show while filming Odyssey 5, a new sci-fi series with Peter Weller. She's also a regular on the Comedy Network's Patti. But stage work will never lose its pull.

'Maybe we'll do a Fringe show next year called Free Beer, Naked Women, she giggles. 'It's a surefire audience- grabber. JK

Thin red line (Drama)

WALKING ON CRIMSON by John Bourgeois, directed by Rosemary Dunsmore, with Bourgeois, Maria Ricossa and Chuck Shamata. Presented by Ziggurat Theatre at the Poor Alex (296 Brunswick). July 5 at 5 pm, July 6 and 9 at 10 pm, July 7 at 3:30 pm, July 11 at 2:30 pm, July 12 at 5 pm, July 13 at 7 pm.

Actor John Bourgeois has fringe fever. That's what you catch when you want to fulfill your fantasy of being a playwright.

'My drawers are full of of unproduced scripts that don't see the light of day, he says. 'The purity and restrictions of the Fringe are liberating.

In Fringe 2000, Bourgeois premiered his first play, the solo show Tansey's Brag, about a Jesuit priest involved in an unusual love triangle. This year he's back with Walking On Crimson, a three-hander about a UN officer whose sanity and loyalty are questioned before he reports to an international commission.

'It deals with the meeting point between individual and collective responsibility, he explains. 'And it has a social resonance that relates to daily events on our TV screens.

Given his acting career on TV (the upcoming series Monk, with Tony Shalhoub) and stage (King Lear, The Glorious Twelfth and Cherry Docs), writing could be seen as a downwardly mobile move. But not by Bourgeois.

'I've also directed, taught and produced, but writing is a different point on the storytelling compass. What theatre work comes down to for anyone involved in it is finding how to tell a story in the most powerful way possible.

That's where the Fringe comes in: it tests the text.

'The Fringe offers a chance for writer and actor to connect with the text to the exclusion of almost all production values, telling a compelling tale to a group of listeners.

'It sometimes amazes me that that's the original formula for theatre and it still works. JK 3