Skip to main content

Review: trace

int(100195)
iPhoto caption: Jeff Ho in trace. Photo by Dahlia Katz
/By / Nov 18, 2017
SHARE

trace

Factory Theatre

By Jeff Ho. Directed by Nina Lee Aquino. At Factory Theatre. Runs until December 3.

Strong, fearless women factor heavily in actor/musician Jeff Ho’s life. In trace, Ho celebrates three generations of women and how their steely, uncompromising spirit fortified and ensured the existence of his family.

Ho’s great-grandmother was the pillar. She was a single mother who left China for Hong Kong with her two sons during the Japanese invasion of WWII. Similarly, Ho’s single mother left Hong Kong for Canada with her two sons in tow. The play jumps in time and location as we follow the lives of these women, all played by Ho. In his energetic, lively performance, he flits from one character to the next, modulating his voice and accent as he takes on each role.

Ho is a gifted musician as well as a fine actor, and trace is presented as if it were a piece of music with a prelude, five movements, and a coda. Each musical section is projected on the back wall of the theatre. Truth be told I could not distinguish any difference in the style of the performance as I would have in a piece of music.

There are two pianos, one on either side of the playing space, with various platforms of different heights on the stage. Ho moves from platform to platform as he segues from character to character, shafts of light pouring on him as he goes, to beautiful effect. When he stops to play the piano, the music he makes offers emotional texture to the story.

The pianos even act as characters themselves, answering questions with a harsh note here, a ping there. It’s very clever. There is also inventiveness in using the pianos as props. In one scene, Ho was depicting a relative who worked in a hospital and had to clean up a patient who had soiled himself. Ho opened the top of the piano and, with a cloth, reached down, simulating the movement wiping the patient’s bum.

Telling this story is a huge undertaking, with all of the different characters and time periods, as well as trying to keep track of the Chinese names—foreign to my ear—and the characters to which they applied. Ho’s writing is funny, caustic, thoughtful, and informative, and his performance is impressive. But in spite of all that, I found trace often incomprehensible.

Aside from his growling great-grandmother, who magically conjured up cigarettes every time she appeared, I often couldn’t tell which character was speaking. I found this frustrating and would have loved a list of each character Ho played, along with their ages and their relationship to one another, to help me follow the story.

trace is a herculean effort by Jeff Ho, but definitely not a successful night at the theatre.

For tickets or more information, click here.

Lynn Slotkin
WRITTEN BY

Lynn Slotkin

Lynn is the former theatre critic for Intermission, and currently writes reviews on her blog The Slotkin Letter. She also does theatre reviews, interviews, and commentary for CIUT Friday Morning (89.5 FM). She was a theatre reviewer for CBC's Here and Now for ten years. On average, she sees 280 shows a year.

LEARN MORE

Comments

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


/
Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Toronto Fringe Festival promo photo by Joy Adeola. iPhoto caption: Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Fringe promo photo by Joy Adeola.

REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025

This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.

Masae Day, Landon Doak, Michelle Fisk in 'The Wind Coming Over the Sea.' iPhoto caption: Masae Day, Landon Doak, and Michelle Fisk in 'The Wind Coming Over the Sea.' Photo by Lyon Smith.

REVIEW: A new Emma Donoghue musical takes root at the Blyth Festival

As a resident of southwestern Ontario, what struck me most is how deeply rooted in the region The Wind Coming Over the Sea feels. It's a lively reminder of the cultural inheritances that continue to shape the area today.

By Deanne Kearney
The cast of 'Major Barbara.' iPhoto caption: The cast of 'Major Barbara.' Photo by David Cooper.

REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s metatheatrical Major Barbara is sharp and subversive

Director Peter Hinton-Davis draws on a light smattering of Brechtian techniques — acknowledgements of artifice that enrich and vivify Major Barbara’s clash of morals.

By Liam Donovan
The company of Talk is Free Theatre's 'The Frogs.' iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Frogs.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.

REVIEW: In Barrie, Talk Is Free Theatre delivers well-crafted outdoor staging of rare Sondheim musical The Frogs

Staged inches from the audience by director Griffin Hewitt, the show commendably captures the free-wheeling, anarchic spirit of the text. It’s a toad-ally great opportunity to see this rarity in the froggy flesh.

By Ilana Lucas
Jeff Lillico as Ralph with Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue in 'Forgiveness.' iPhoto caption: Jeff Lillico as Ralph with Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue in 'Forgiveness.' Photo by David Hou.

REVIEW: Stratford Festival’s Forgiveness tells a deeply personal story on a sprawling scale

Presented in an increasingly tense political moment, Forgiveness resonates on a level that is part reflection, part warning.

By Charlotte Lilley
Promo photo for Tim Crouch's An Oak Tree. iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Luminato Festival.

REVIEW: Is Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree worth seeing twice at Luminato?

Crouch tests the limits of theatrical representation, improvisation, and authorship. While I’m usually a sucker for exactly those types of experiments, I ultimately found An Oak Tree a bit underwhelming.

By Ryan Borochovitz