I, Claudia: In the Eyes of a Young Teenager

A one-woman show at Centaur

Michelle Polak was a smash in I, Claudia at the Segal Centre back in 2008. “I was laughing hysterically one minute,” said one audience member, “and bawling my eyes out the next.” So theatregoers will be pleased to hear that the production is returning to the Montreal stage, produced by Crow’s Theatre and Geordie Productions.

I, Claudia is not known as a young person’s play, but youths who are dealing with the pain and confusion of their parents’ divorce will certainly find comfort and something in common with Claudia as she, herself, deals with her own parents’ divorce along with all of the anxieties of being a teenager.

Aside from the cute title, the play has nothing to do with Robert Graves’s great 1934 novel I, Claudius, except that with a stutter, bum leg, and nervous tics, the eventual Roman emperor would no doubt have felt out of place as a teenager, had his parents not kept him isolated. For her part, Claudia feels isolated, and as such isolates herself… but lets the audience in on her little world, or her underworld, rather; her school basement, where she hides found treasures, stands in for the darkest depths of her heart.

Geordie ordinarily churns out wonderful plays for all ages, and it’s not unusual to see wee ones in the audience. The suggested age for I, Claudia, however, is 11, just a tad younger than the main character.

I, Claudia is a one-woman show. Just as playwright-actress Kristen Thomson did originally, Michelle Polak uses masks to play all of the parts, including Claudia’s grandfather, her father’s new “special friend,” and the school’s janitor. The play provides a safe environment for young ones to explore their own pain, and to share it with Polak, who is nothing short of mesmerizing.

I, Claudia opens today at Montreal’s Centaur Theatre, right beside the Old Port of Montreal and runs until the 19th.