Sneak Preview Review: INCIDENT AT VICHY

by Lynn on May 27, 2016

in The Passionate Playgoer

sneak preview

Sneak Preview Review of Incident at Vichy

At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Arthur Miller
Directed by Alan Dilworth
Set and lighting by Lorenzo Savoini
Costumes by Gillian Gallow
Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne
Selected cast: Kawa Ada
Kevin Bundy
Meegwun Fairbrother
Peter Fernandes
Gordon Hecht
Stuart Hughes
John Jarvis
Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster
Diego Matamoros
Alex Poch-Goldin
Brendan Wall
William Webster.

Alan Dilworth has directed a gripping, heart-thumping production that shines a laser beam of light on Arthur Miller’s taut play full of moral and ethical dilemmas and how people react to them, given the situation. The fact that we come to it with hindsight only adds to the emotional weight of the play.

We are in Vichy, France in 1942. Eight men have been summoned by the authorities and they don’t know why. They sit on a bench waiting to be called. They imagine, theorize and guess why they are there. Is it simply to check that their papers are legitimate? Is it to tell if they are Jewish. What will happen? They are frightened by rumours they hear about work camps that really aren’t work camps. They try to cope with something they cannot control. Slowly, gradually Dilworth builds tension out of anxiety. This being Arthur Miller there are dilemmas; questions of moral consequence; would you betray a stranger to save yourself? Would you sacrifice yourself to save a friend? Can people act humanely in times of war?

The cast is superb, headed by Diego Matamoros as an Austrian prince and Stuart Hughes as Leduc, a doctor. There is not one weak link in this stunning production.

Full review will be posted shortly.

The review will be broadcast on CIUT FRIDAY MORNING, 89.5 fm Friday, May 27, between 9 am and 10 am.

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