Communication breakdown: Shaky script sinks bilingual production from 2 Winnipeg theatres

The business of translation is tricky — what works in one language (or for one cultural group) may fall flat in another.

So it's possible that the French-language version of Danielle Séguin-Tétreault's What To Do With Albert? connected with audiences when it was premiered by Winnipeg's Théâtre Cercle Molière last month.

But having seen the English-language premiere, which closes Prairie Theatre Exchange's season, it seems unlikely this is a script that really works in any language.

PTE and Cercle Molière had considerably more success a couple of years back when they co-produced The Flats/Les Flats — a play performed by the same cast in both official languages.

They take the same approach here, with Ginny Collins, who wrote The Flats, returning to translate francophone writer Séguin-Tétreault's script. It tells the story of Albert (Cercle Molière veteran Alphonse Tétrault) and his daughter, Cassiopeia (Alicia Johnston).

Cassiopeia is a recently unemployed host of a children's TV show, where she played the lovable sheep Daffodil and dispensed sage advice to youngsters (as we see between scenes in clever videos designed by Gabriel Tougas).

She needs some advice of her own, though, as she struggles to get along with her recently widowed dad — and with persuading him it's time to give up his home. When she pushes the point a little too hard, Albert heads out on the lam — along with his late wife, Simone (Jacqueline Hogarth-Glen, another Cercle Molière vet) whom he still sees and converses with.

Cassiopeia's search pulls in the people around her — her maybe boyfriend Eric (André Vrignon-Tessier), an affable guy who grew up watching her on TV; Albert's next-door neighbour, the geeky and irrepressibly cheery Janelle (Joanne Roberts); and Cassiopeia's friend Julie (Jane Testar), a homicide detective who's trying to hunt down a serial killer.

Sound like there's a lot going on? Well, there is — and one of the problems with Séguin-Tétreault's script is that it doesn't successfully juggle all of those characters and their storylines. It's trying to keep a lot of balls in the air over its two hours (with intermission), and some of them get dropped.

The sheer amount it's trying to pack in also means the script has an unfortunate reliance on awkward exposition, and it makes a few pretty broad leaps in logic (how exactly does a homicide detective working a serial killer case have so much time for heart-to-heart chats with her bestie?).

A lot of that could be glossed over with bigger laughs, and Albert offers some of those — but also a lot of groaners and jokes that just fall flat.

The cast struggles gamely with all this in director Laura Lussier's production — and to be fair, some aren't performing in their first language (this is, impressively, the same cast that performed the French version at Cercle Molière).

Johnston is believable as the frazzled Cassiopeia — a woman struggling to keep a messy life together. Tétrault has a warmth and charm as Albert, but seemed to stumble on some of his lines on opening night, which slowed the pace needed to sell the script's comedy in points.

Roberts and Vrignon-Tessier don't deliver the most polished performances, but they do bring some good laughs with broad takes on the play's comic relief characters.

Testar's considerable skills as a comedian (she's part of the much-loved local sketch comedy troupe Hot Thespian Action) are unfortunately underutilized in the underwritten role of Julie.

It's all disappointing, since What To Do With Albert? has moments that show how it might work. It delivers some good comedy and has some genuinely sweet scenes. The issues it touches on regarding the relationship between adult children and their aging parents are rich for exploration.

What To Do With Albert? makes a noble effort to take a comedic and heartfelt dive into those issues, but a shaky script sinks it.

Quel dommage, as the French say.

What To Do With Albert? runs at Prairie Theatre Exchange until April 28.