King Dave

Directed by Daniel Grou

King Dave is based on a play by Alexandre Goyett. Director Daniel Grou (Podz) has kept the integrity of the production, as the hour and forty minutes is filmed in the style of a long single shot with a natural edit as we move from scene to scene. The audience follows Dave (Alexandre Goyette) on his misadventures and chance encounters that normally racially or violently charged, and meet a violent or abrupt ending. Dave spews with passion his inner character monologues to the audience, as the fourth wall is broken. There are only brief seconds where Dave comes back to the scene to interact with the characters of the act.

In the prelude, we are introduced to Dave by his inner monologue as he goes from the metro to the scene of a party. He thinks of himself as a larger-than-life character, in the world where he is king and can do anything. At the party he befriends some gangsters who enlist him to steal car radios for a big payout, for Act 2. Act 3 sees Dave being flushed with cash as he heads to the club with his guy friends, and his girlfriend. Things end badly as his girlfriend ends up dancing with another guy, and Act 4 starts off with the girlfriend leaving Dave due to his criminal and erratic behaviour.

The acts then revolve around Dave trying to get back to his girlfriend, that leads him on a bunch of chance encounters and a lot of misadventures. As much as these adventures are of the violent and erratic nature, it is nice to see a calmness of Dave meeting a sympathetic ear of a female friend from a party. There is even an ingenious play where the audience member becomes a part of the action, as a police officer starts integrating us as a primary witness to Dave's actions. Through the inner monologues and a flashback to a sequence in his childhood, we discover how Dave became set in his erratic violent boisterous persona of King Dave. Along with Dave figuring out the truth through his inner monologues, it also enables him to some deep soul searching and his will to change for the better.

The film's integrity as a theatre production is kept as the adaptation is a collaboration between Goyett and Grou. This is done by the single tracking shot and edited together by moving from one scene to the next in a natural flow, as theatre productions always try to achieve. It is also done by the performance of Alexandre Goyette, who at times is reciting dramatic inner character monologues by breaking the forth wall, as well using split seconds to interact with action or characters on screen.

King Dave is currently playing in its original language at various theatres. Check your local listings for showtimes.

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