Search: MY NIGHT WITH REG

I had a great time recently giving a talk to the Arts and Letters Club Members about how the world and our theatre is going to Hell in a handbasket.

I blame it on the pandemic.

For two years or so everything was shut down. We were isolated from our friends and family. We yearned to be out and socialize but couldn’t. Initially because we were fragile we reached out to our neighbours or they reached out to us, to offer to shop or do errands for those less fortunate. That lasted a short while.

We were wary of people on the streets; to wear a mask or not to wear a mask became almost a political statement. In a short time, we went from being kind and considerate to being prickly and territorial. If someone accidentally knocked into us on the street the reaction was anger not consideration.  Belligerence and lost temper seemed the norm.

Those smart theatre makers with ingenuity made up for the lack of in person performances with filmed/zoomed/or streamed productions. I saw wonderful stuff around the world, across Canada and especially in Toronto and reviewed it. I actually loved being at home. I was out every night so often when the theatre was live, that I just loved being home for a change.  

The pandemic is over, sort of, and theatres are now open and my theatre going has resumed with a vengeance.  The same can’t be said about theatre attendance. Except in a few cases, it’s down.  Getting the audience back has been difficult. People are timid about coming back to the theatre, even if we are wearing masks. They either don’t want to be in crowds or they find they can live without paying high prices for tickets.

The Media is Decimated

What used to be a robust media that reviewed theatre as a matter of course, is now decimated. We have four daily newspapers that all used to review theatre. Now only the Globe and Mail has a full-time theatre critic—J. Kelly Nestruck—in all of Canada.

The Toronto Star uses freelancers to cover theatre productions and not regularly at that. That means there is no consistent critical theatre voice there.

We used to have the reliable NOW Magazine that covered everything. It’s gone and Glenn Sumi, NOW’s intrepid theatre/film critic seems to be doing triple duty reviewing for his own blog, “So Sumi” and freelancing at the Toronto Star and the Globe and Mail.

My York University four-year honours BA in Fine Arts Degree specializing in History, Theory and Criticism of Theatre is no longer offered. Why would it be?  There are no theatre critics jobs.

Critics or Cheerleaders

Apparently, theatre reviews are still considered important because so many bloggers are writing them. I certainly think theatre criticism is important. I’ve given short workshops on the basics of reviewing. Theatre is thousands of years old. You can’t teach even the basics of theatre criticism in a short workshop  but you try.

And there is a sweeping variation between those  who are “true critics” who have been trained in reviewing with rigor (Glenn Sumi, Drew Rowsome, Istvan Dugalin, Paula Citron, Christopher Hoile, me).

And “cheerleaders” who gush about everything without variation, nuance or background in the artform of theatre criticism/theatre. They want to be up close and personal with the people they review. There goes the idea  of arm’s length distance between reviewer and those we review. The idea of objectivity. I think “distance” is the best practice, otherwise the review could be written by the artist’s mother.

Censorship & Lecturing.

Theatre reviews seem to be a hot topic. In the last few years some theatre makers tried to decide who could review their shows and who couldn’t, sometimes on the basis of skin colour. I believe that’s called racism if not censorship.  Not a good idea.

Others wanted to give lectures on their culture to explain their process/ideas/story/ceremony etc. Well-intentioned but highly inappropriate and it betrays a lack of knowledge of what a review actually is or who it’s for etc.

I’ll write more later on this thorny subject of theatre reviews and criticism.

Education or Daycare

Troubling changes are also happening at theatre schools and elsewhere in the theatre.

At theatre schools students are voicing their opposition over curriculum, questioning why they have to study the plays of “dead white men” such as Shakespeare or the classics. I heard from one instructor that at a rehearsal for a production the student didn’t like the line and wanted to change it. The director tried to explain that the character said the line and it was appropriate for the character. The student was determined.  The playwright was Morris Panych and I doubt he would stand for a change.  We are now changing lines in plays so as not to hurt the feelings of students etc. So, we have situations where students want to change words because they are offended, never mind that it’s appropriate for the character.

This isn’t theatre education. This is enabling daycare for theatre wannabees.

One wonders, where will these theatre students get the life lessons to understand and to delve into the hard lives of troubled characters if their feelings are so fragile they are rendered inert?

How will they find the moral fiber to discover the difficult character if they can’t/won’t stand up to scrutiny? Will they even get jobs or will this handholding continue?  I don’t think so.

Shaw Festival-Cult of Sensitivity

And then we hear about the debacle at The Shaw Festival last year about the concert version of Assassins  by Stephen Sondheim. This had been in the works for a few years and then COVID delayed the production. Then there was a director change. And finally the show continued with rehearsals. But an actor refused to sing the ‘N’ word because he found it offensive. It’s supposed to be offensive. It’s sung in a song by a racist. The actor is not racist. The character is.

That seems to be the next big hurdle in the theatre, trying to convince actors that their character does not necessarily hold attitudes and ideas similar to them as people.  As I heard once last year in an announcement before a show, at the Shaw Festival funnily enough: “We, the actors have faith that the audience can tell the difference between the character and the person saying the words.” Loved that.

But, to Assassins, The ‘N’ word was changed  during rehearsals to accommodate the actor. No one passed this by the Stephen Sondheim people for formal permission. Eventually the Sondheim organization found out about the word change. They insisted the ‘N’ word be used as the lyric or they had to cancel the show. The artistic director of the Shaw Festival put it on the acting company to solve the problem. They were to vote confidentially on whether to cancel or not. And it had to be unanimous. The vote wasn’t unanimous. The show was cancelled. Then actors felt hurt and troubled because they were responsible for the cancellation.

Does anyone know the meaning of the word “consequences” anymore? How about, “we’ll have to find another actor for the part”. What happened to life lessons?

We seem to be developing a generation of people who want to be seen, to have space, to voice their opinions—all good—without seeming to know background, history, the consequences of their actions or on whose shoulders they stand.

Still to come: What theatre criticism and reviews are really about, who writes them and for whom; correcting misunderstandings regarding reviews etc.; the new misinterpretation of racism.

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Live and in person at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Presented by Mirvish Productions. Plays until Nov. 27, 2023.

www.mirvish.com

Written by Aaron Sorkin

Based on Harper Lee’s novel

Direct by Bartlett Sher

Original music by Adam Guettel

Scenic design by Miriam Buether

Costumes design by Ann Roth

Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton

Sound design by Scott Lehrer

Cast: Mary Badham

Ian Bedford

Anne-Marie Cusson

Christopher R. Ellis

Travis Johns

Steven Lee Johnson

Ted Koch

Mariah Lee

Justin Mark

Melanie Moore

Jeff Still

Richard Thomas

Yaegel T. Welch

Jacqueline Williams

Gregg Wood

A terrific dramatization by Aaron Sorkin of Harper Lee’s stunning novel given a respectable, if obvious, production. Richard Thomas gives a fine performance of the courtly, honourable Atticus Finch.

The Story. It’s based on the beautiful 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by southern writer, Harper Lee. The story is narrated by a young tom-boy nicknamed Scout by her family and her brother named Jem. Their father is Atticus Finch, a fair-minded lawyer and a widower. They have a housekeeper named Calpurnia. One summer in 1935 their idyllic lives change when Atticus defends a black man named Tom Robinson, accused of raping and beating up a 19-year-old neighbour, Mayelle Ewell, who is white.

During the trial Scout, Jem and a new friend, Dill Harris, sneak into the courthouse to see Atticus defend the man. The children are given a rude awakening about how black people are perceived and treated by whites at that time. They see how fair-minded and serious Atticus is. Atticus proves that Tom Robinson didn’t commit the crime and points suspicion elsewhere. The person who is suspected threatens to get even with Atticus. He almost achieves his goal too.

There is also a mysterious neighbour named Boo Radley. The children have never seen him but often talk about him and wonder what he is like. In a sense Boo Radley is another example of how people treat those who they perceive as different in some way. Something happened in Mr. Radley’s life and he has almost never stepped foot out of his house, as far as anyone can tell. Mr. Radley comes to Scout and Jem’s rescue when they are threatened one night. They learn another lesson in tolerance and understanding by that experience.

The Production. Playwright, Aaron Sorkin has shifted the order of the details in the novel: the trial of Tom Robinson comes at the end of the book, in the play, the trial is front and center, including the part that Atticus Finch (Richard Thomas) had to be convinced to take the case. He didn’t think he was a good defense lawyer, but the judge in the case, Judge Taylor (a wonderfully laid back and honourable Jeff Still) convinced him in a bit of gross lack of ‘professionalism.’ Judge Taylor is as decent as Atticus and knew that Tom Robinson needed a smart, good lawyer and made the move to ensure that Atticus took up the case.

Miriam Buether has designed an efficient set of moving parts that move on to be Atticus Finch’s house, the court room and the local jail, among others. Ann Roth has designed functional clothes dark clothes for the majority of the characters with a light tanned coloured suit for Atticus, so that he stands out.   

Bartlett Sher had staged a lot of activity at the beginning of the production. Scout (Melanie Moore) enters with conviction and purpose to begin the story. Melanie Moore as Scout is a bit forced in trying to convey she’s playing a young girl. She is followed by Jem Finch (Justin Mark) Scout’s older brother by three years. Justin Mark as Jem has that older-brother-seriousness when dealing with his young sister. Then their young friend Dill Harris (Steven Lee Johnson) arrives who is between Scout and Jem in age, enters to add other aspects of the story. Steven Lee Johnson as Dill has that lovely mix of precociousness and an eagerness to please his friends. I found Mr. Johnson the best of the three actors playing children. (Note: Truman Capote was a childhood friend of Harper Lee and is the model for Dill).  

Once the story is established set pieces are pushed on, chairs arranged, tables positioned. A lot of activity is going on. So, when Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch makes his anticipated entrance, all the activity stops and Richard Thomas makes his star-entrance along the top of the stage down stage, walking with a purpose, briefcase in hand, to expected applause. Loved that set up. I never get tired watching a smart director nudge the audience into recognizing the star and reacting appropriately.

Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch has that relaxed demeanor of a decent, honourable man. He believes in the decency and goodness of his neighbours until his Black housekeeper Calpurnia (a wonderful Jacqueline Williams who is watchful, quiet and knowing about the fact that the neighbours are far from decent) sets him straight. Atticus is respectful of all his fellow citizens. He treats Tom Robinson (a fine performance by Yaegel T. Welch) with respect and kindness. This is beautifully illuminated in Richard Thomas’ performance.  

I love Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of the novel. And there are lovely touches of business in Bartlett Sher’s direction: Scout tenderly putting her head on her father’s shoulder; Bob Ewell looking sideways menacingly at his daughter Mayelle in court to terrify her into lying about what happened to her. But overall, I think this touring production is obvious, forced in some of the acting, and almost too amplified. It’s as if the creators need to tick all the boxes and underline the points to ensure the audience hears everything, instead of trusting them to listen and pay attention to the details. The story represents a terrible miscarriage of justice, representative of a racist mindset—have faith that the audience will ‘get it’ without having to present it with broad strokes, and too slow a pace of the ending that it overplayed the poignancy.

Mirvish Productions present:

Opened: Nov. 21, 2023

Plays until Nov. 27, 2023 but returns May 28 to June 2, 2024

Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes (1 intermission)

www.mirvish.com

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Dear Friends,

The Celebration of Life for Marti Maraden will be held on Monday, November 27, 2023 at 2 p.m., at the Festival Theatre. All who knew and loved Marti are welcome. Please reserve a seat HERE.You are welcome to forward this message or post the

W.G. Young Funeral Home obituary for anyone who would want to attend. 
The message from the Stratford Festival is below.
Take care,Janet Sellery

Dear friends,

Please join with us to celebrate the life of actor, director and artistic director Marti Maraden.

DATE: Monday, November 27, 2023

TIME: 2 p.m.

PLACE: Festival Theatre

RESERVE A SEAT HERE.

Marti fell ill while on holiday in Sweden and, sadly, died there on August 31.

You can read the press release we sent at the time of her passing below. 

More information is available through the W.G. Young Funeral Home.   

Sincerely,

Antoni & Anita

MEDIA RELEASE 

30/23 

Stratford Festival mourns the loss of Marti Maraden 

September 1, 2023… It is with heavy hearts that we share news of the death of Marti Maraden, an artistic director, actor and director of rare skill, as well as a beloved colleague and mentor. She died Thursday, August 31, while visiting family in Sweden, having suddenly fallen ill. She was 78 years old. 

“Marti was a much-loved member of the Canadian Theatre,” said Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino. “She acted alongside an extraordinary group of talents from Bedford and Smith to Henry and Hutt among many other Festival favourites. She was a pioneer as she was among the first women in Canada to work regularly as a director. At the Stratford Festival her contributions as an actor, director and artistic director will be remembered with great appreciation and affection. She was a valued colleague and I’m deeply grateful to her for our work together. My thoughts are with her many friends who will miss her dearly.”  

Maraden joined the Stratford Festival as an actor in 1974, under the artistic directorship of Jean Gascon, playing Katharine in Love’s Labour’s Lost and Antiochus’s Daughter in Pericles, along with other roles.  

With the arrival of Robin Phillips as Artistic Director, she was given every opportunity to shine. During his first two seasons, her remarkable talent and versatility were clearly evident. In 1975, she played Mary Warren in The Crucible; Cecily Cardew in the legendary production of The Importance of Being Earnest, featuring William Hutt as Lady Bracknell; Juliet in Measure for Measure, with Martha Henry and Brian Bedford; and Olivia in Twelfth Night, also with Brian Bedford.  

The following year she played Miranda to William Hutt’s Prospero in The Tempest; Ophelia in Hamlet, playing opposite both Richard Monette and Nicholas Pennell, who shared the role; Irina in John Hirsch’s famous production of Three Sisters, alongside Maggie Smith and Martha Henry; and she reprised the role of Cecily in The Importance of Being Earnest.  

She went on to play, among other roles, Juliet to Richard Monette’s Romeo (1977); Sonya in Uncle Vanya (1978); Perdita in The Winter’s Tale (1978); and Regan in Peter Ustinov’s King Lear (1979). 

After the 1979 season she moved back to the United States, the country she and her husband, Frank, who was also a member of the Stratford company, had left in the late 1960s during the Vietnam war. There she pursued work in New York and soon began to teach and then to direct. She returned to Canada and quickly became one of the country’s most highly respected directors, equally accomplished in classical and contemporary repertoire.  

After working at the Shaw Festival as both an actor and director, Maraden returned to Stratford in 1990, directing a dozen productions, including Les Belles-Soeurs, featuring Janet, Susan and Anne Wright; Homeward Bound by Elliott Hayes; Alice Through the Looking Glass, featuring Sarah Polley; Macbeth, featuring Scott Wentworth and Seana McKenna; and The Merchant of Venice, featuring Douglas Rain.  

In 1997, Maraden was appointed Artistic Director of English Theatre for the National Arts Centre, a role she held until 2006, during which time she also co-founded the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, the first national festival dedicated to Canadian work. 

In 2006 she was appointed co-Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival, along with Don Shipley and Des McAnuff, with Antoni Cimolino as General Director, taking over after Richard Monette’s final season in 2007 and serving in the role for one year.   

In 2008, Maraden directed All’s Well That Ends Well, featuring Brian Dennehy; and The Trojan Women, featuring Martha Henry, Seana McKenna, Yanna McIntosh, Kelli Fox and Nora McLellan. Her final production for the Festival was The Winter’s Tale in 2010, featuring Ben Carlson and Seana McKenna.  

In addition to Stratford, Shaw and the NAC, Maraden directed for such organizations as Canadian Stage, the Manitoba Theatre Centre, the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Chicago Shakespeare Theater and the Drayton Theatre Festival. 

The Stratford Festival will dedicate one of the 2024 Shakespeare productions to her memory.

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Live and in person at the Tarragon Mainspace, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Oct. 15, 2023.

A Tarragon Theatre/NAC presentation of the NAC/Neptune Theatre Production.

www.tarragontheatre.com

Written and performed by Walter Borden

Director, Peter Hinton-Davis

Set, costume, lighting and projection design, Andy Moro

Sound design and composer, Adrienne Danrich O’Neill

Poetic, raw and glistening with life and imagination.

As the audience settles in their seats, talking, greeting people across the theatre, a man slowly enters and stands at the top of the cross aisle. He wears a cap of a porter it looks like? Part of a uniform of a service provider?  Two bags are slung over his shoulder. He carries a paper cup of coffee in one hand and an old-fashioned lunch bucket in the other. He slowly walks along the cross aisle, down the far aisle, up the stairs leading to the backstage area, and he stops, regards the now quiet audience, takes a swig of his coffee and nods to the audience and disappears behind the door leading to backstage.

Actor, playwright, educator, poet, Walter Borden has arrived as one of the ten characters he will play in this challenging, bracing, poetic evening depicting the life, challenges and resilience of a  Black person and the human spirit.

After this, the opening night remarks are made by Artistic Director Mike Payette and Andrea Vagianos, Managing Director of the Tarragon. (I wish the remarks were made first and then Walter Borden would enter so that his entrance would have been seamless.)

Walter Borden enters the stage from the house right wings, and walks into a little ‘office’? upstage where he turns on a radio that plays opera. A soprano is singing an aria. Borden listens intently, in a revery. He takes a pile of books carefully out of one of the bags on his shoulder. They are books dealing with the Black experience. He gives the title of one and then says with affection, “Jimmy Baldwin.” He opens the lunch pail and takes out a jar of something. Once settled, he sits on a stoop and tells us that he is addressing those in ‘the diaspora’, people who are Black. As specific as Walter Borden is with whom this is for, others will find resonance to their own lives in his exquisite storytelling.

He has words of praise for hardworking women, no matter the job, in their efforts to raise their children. He has words of scorn for those bling-wearing rockers who view women as property and ‘ho’s’. His language, always poetic and complex, is blistering when taking these mono-syllabic men to task and putting in perspective the sainted women who raised and protected them.

Borden depicts a woman who uses sex to make her living when she was treated badly by a welfare officer. The woman realized that her income was ‘between her legs’. The story is funny, bitter-sweet, vivid in the telling and empathetic. He talks of the woman’s child who she cherished and loved, and who grew up to be successful in her job. The irony of the job and the story is wonderful.

He talks of being gay at a time and place that was not understanding. The hazards and dangers of wearing a pink shirt.

Walter Borden has been writing this autobiographical story in various iterations since 1986 where the original title was Tightrope Time Ain’t Nuthin’ More Than Some Itty Bitty Madness Between Your Twilight & Your Dawn. For the past four years he has been working with director, Peter Hinton-Davis to hone, refine and distil the story, but still keep its vivid poetic world. I can’t think of another director who illuminates and thinks in such poetic images as Peter Hinton-Davis.

This production is a perfect melding of Andy Moro’s set, costume, lighting and projection design, the ethereal sound and music of Adrienne Danrich O’Neill and Peter Hinton-Davis’s meticulous direction that always serves the piece. Magic appears subtly as a fur coat is put on Walter Borden as miraculously as if it’s floating in air. Later it’s taken off and another coat is put on, again, as if by magic. It’s the world of conjuring. Walter Borden navigates that world with determination and daring. I’m impressed at how often Borden gets down on all fours, or sits on a low step. He’s a person in his senior years and his dexterity is amazing.

Walter Borden speaks and thinks in poetic expression. The language is complex, esoteric, biblical, mystical, mischievous and intoxicating. You want to hear each line and its message again, just to revel in the language and sound of Borden’s crisp enunciation so we don’t miss one word.

In a kind of summation, Walter Borden says, “I’m just a Black man, talking.” Irony again.  The Epistle of Tightrope Time is so much more.

A Tarragon Theatre/NAC presentation of the NAC/Neptune Theatre Production.

Plays until Oct. 15, 2023.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.tarragontheatre.com

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Marti Maraden: Photo by Ann Baggley

Marti Maraden was an oasis of calm. Soft-spoken, impish-grinning, gentle-hugging. No matter the aggravations you had in your day—difficult people, disappointments, challenges—Marti would meet you at her front door with a smile and a hug and the aggravation would slip away.

Her house was not only pristine and neat, it exuded warmth and calm, like its owner. Light poured in through the curtains.  The house was filled with mementos, pictures of family and friends, books (lots of Shakespeare), a piano, all perfectly placed. (It made me want to tidy when I got home, such was Marti’s effect). There were pots of flowers and herbs on the back deck. There was always tea, cookies and conversation. Marti listened intently, offering carefully thought-out comments and advice. I never heard her raise her voice on stage or in person. And it speaks to her effect on people, that I doubt anyone would be loud in her presence.

She was an extraordinary actress, director, artistic director, mentor and cherished friend. She could charm the most obstreperous and prickly people and win them over. They would be friends for life.  

In one of the many, many tributes about Marti, Ric Waugh said, “She was softness and light with a spine of steel.” All three descriptors were present in her wonderful work as an actress and director. I was fortunate over the years to see so much of her work in both capacities: an ethereal Juliet, a luminous Ophelia and Irina, this last in the legendary production of Three Sisters with Maggie Smith and Martha Henry. Marti did stunning work at the Shaw Festival. And on and on.

Marti’s was a career of ‘firsts’. Marti became one of a very few women (Diana Leblanc, Martha Henry) making a living as a director. She was the first ever, and still only, woman Artistic Director of the Stratford Festival.  

When Marti began directing she found a new way to blossom. This is when her ‘spine of steel’ came in. She dug deep into every production to realize the playwright’s intention. She faced the challenges of each production head on. She directed probably the best production of The Merchant of Venice I have ever seen, with Douglas Rain as Shylock and Susan Coyne as Portia. It shimmered with dignity, heartache and when you least expected it, compassion.

I gladly drove to Ottawa to see her productions when she became Artistic Director of English Theatre of the National Arts Centre (1997-2006). I was particularly impressed with her production of After the Orchard by Jason Sherman—a reworking of The Cherry Orchard transplanted to Ontario, where a Jewish family debates what to do with a cherished family cottage. If ever there was a play I want to see again, it’s this one, all because of Marti’s sensitive direction.

I gladly went to Chicago when she directed for the Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

Marti directed several productions for Drayton Entertainment. Sweet and challenging productions such as On Golden Pond, Driving Miss Daisy and The Odd Couple. Then she blew us away with the angry muscularity of A Few Good Men and Twelve Angry Men.

It’s important that actors and theatre creators respect the director. In Marti’s case, they also adored her. From all the tributes that have poured in from actors and colleagues. it’s clear they would all swim through oceans of gore rather than disappoint her if they didn’t give 110% to the work.

Marti and I had a ‘short-hand’ routine. As many of you may know, I give out Tootsie Pops to theatre creators to say ‘thank you for making the theatre so special for me.’ After one of her openings, I would approach Marti, ‘Tootsie’ firmly in hand. She would approach me, smiling, eying the Tootsie, her eyes gleaming and say, “Do I deserve one of these?” and then just as firmly pull it out of my hand, laughing.

Marti took ill while visiting family in Sweden. She was taken to hospital where she had surgery. Marti was intensely private. The small group of friends responsible for providing information about her situation was aware and respectful of that. A site was established to provide information. The last notice, announced the unthinkable:

“Our beloved Marti died early this morning (August 31). After her surgery, she developed organ failure and intensive care efforts were not successful. She didn’t regain consciousness. Her cousin has said: ‘She had a calm last night and slept until the end. We will always remember Marti with joy and lots of good times together.’

With her bright smile and twinkling eyes, Marti has made each of us feel special and treasured. Please reach out to each other to share support and love as we all face this profound loss of Marti.” That last line says everything about her effect on us all. We carry it forward.

But I’m still heartbroken at the loss of this glorious friend.

All the world is made of faith, and trust, and pixie dust. – J.M.Barrie, Peter Pan

Lynn

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Live and in person at the Festival Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Plays until Oct. 27, 2023.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by William Shakespeare

Additional text by Erin Shields

Directed by Chris Abraham

Designed by Julie Fox

Lighting by Arun Srinivasan

Composer and sound designer, Thomas Ryder Payne

Choreographer, Adrienne Gould

Cast: Graham Abbey

Anousha Alamian

Akosua Amo-Adem

Maev Beaty

Michael Blake

Déjah Dixon-Green

Austin Eckert

Allison Edward-Crewe

Jakob Ehman

John Kirkpatrick

Kevin Kruchkywich

Josue Laboucane

Cyrus Lane

Patrick McManus

Danté Prince

Glynis Ranney

Anthony Santiago

André Sills

Gordon Patrick White

Rylan Wilkie

Micah Woods

On Stage Musicians:

George Meanwell

Jonathan Rowsell

Stephan Szczesniak

A raucous, riotously funny, wonderfully thought-out production of reluctant love, the power of rumour and innuendo without considering the source of the statement, and finally a few extra speeches to set things straight and in perspective. Chris Abraham has directed a gem of a production. Graham Abbey and Maev Beaty are the crowning jewels of it.

The Story. Much Ado About Nothing is a comedy with some darker moments that are dealt with in a modern way. It’s a story of getting a second chance to do right by people you love.  A group of soldiers led by Don Pedro have just returned from a successful campaign. They are invited to spend a month at the palatial home of Leonato in Messina, in Italy. In the group is Benedick, a confirmed bachelor and Claudio a fellow soldier and a close friend of Benedick. Claudio is in love with and soon engaged to Hero, Leonato’s daughter. Leonato’s niece, Beatrice earlier in her life had a relationship with Benedick, but he jilted her. She has been wounded and angry ever since, and when they meet there is a war of wit and words, each one scoring points on the other.

The friends of both Beatrice and Benedick want to get them together again, and so a trick is played in which Beatrice and Benedick overhear the friends say that Beatrice is in love with Benedick and he is in love with her. This puts the idea in the mind of Beatrice and Benedick that it’s true—they have feelings for the other.

There is another sub-plot—Don Pedro’s half-brother Don John likes to make mischief and sets in motion a plot to discredit Hero’s chaste character. He will have Claudio think that he is actually seeing Hero chat up another man at night, before the wedding. In fact the person chatting up a man at her bedroom window is Margaret, an innocent in this scheme. At the wedding Claudio refuses to marry Hero accusing her of being unfaithful. This stuns everybody, and causes Leonato to even question his own daughter’s integrity. She faints, and it’s believed she has died from the shame. This puts in motion, Benedick declaring he will challenge Claudio to a duel because of this terrible accusation. From this terrible situation, Beatrice and Benedick declare their love.

The Production. Julie Fox’s lush set is full of vegetation, pots of flowers, an orange “bush”, a majestic tree of some kind or other that dominates everything and provides lots of places to climb. Suspended above the stage is a white hoop that slowly revolves in the air. I’m thinking it’s a kind of Dyson air filter/fan thing. I learn what it is later, when the production starts.

The set suggests peace, warmth and quiet, except for the birds chirping in the background. All it lacks is a hammock in which to lounge, read books and imbibe tropical, potent drinks. 

Much Ado About Nothing is directed by Chris Abraham. He is a wonderful director, no matter if it’s a drama or comedy. But comedy is his forte. This production is full of intellectual wit, sight gags that are natural and hilarious, physical humour that comes honestly out of funny moments, and moments that are just packed with jokes and humour that will have you doubling over, gasping for breath.

Chris Abraham is also a thoughtful intellectual artist. Many characters go on a journey of discovery in Much Ado About Nothing. Certainly Beatrice and Benedick go from animosity and hurt to true love. In this case Chris Abraham felt that a few extra speeches were needed to ‘update’, explain and clarify aspects in the play that needed it. So Erin Shields—a wonderful playwright in her own right–was called in to add some speeches, first for Beatrice (Maev Beaty) and lastly for Hero (Allison Edward-Crew).

Beatrice enters and points out Hero, standing above on the balcony of the Festival Theatre. She is admiring herself in the ‘mirror’ suspended above the stage-the white hoop. (Aha!). Hero primps and poses in the mirror. Beatrice notes that her cousin Hero does not have a care in the world. That all that occupies her time is how she looks and appears. Beatrice is not being unkind. As played by Maev Beaty, Beatrice is observant, watchful to the world she lives in. Beatrice is nothing like her cousin, but still can observe, with kindness, the lovely frivolousness of her cousin.  Once that is established, we go on with the production. I also note that that hoop/mirror was revolving in the air to subtly reflect the audience as well.

When the troops come home from the campaign we witness the barbed banter of Beatrice and Benedick (Graham Abbey). As Beatrice, Maev Beaty plays her with the lingering sting of embarrassment that Benedick dumped her years before. He knows of her sharp tongue and tries to counter her with his own barbs. Both Maev Beaty and Graham Abbey have the meaning of Shakespeare in their finger-tips; the cadence and meter of the language on their tongues. They are masters at the effortless delivery, nuance and subtlety of the language. And they are both fearless, with Beatrice beating Benedick by a hair. 

Maev Beaty as Beatrice is feisty, combative—using that misplaced anger at Benedick to get even with him for dumping her years before—and his intellectual equal. Maev Beaty illuminates Beatrice’s wit, smarts, keen intelligence and integrity. And she too is open-hearted with she declares her love for Benedick.  

Graham Abbey plays Benedick as boyish, impish and irreverent. At one point he looks at the laughing audience and says, “there are too many women in this audience.” He might also be commenting on the addition of various women on stage too. In one scene Benedick asks a servant to get him some books—that servant is usually a boy. Here it’s two women, Margaret (Déjah Dixon-Green) and Ursula (Akosua Amo-Adem) and they reluctantly go and get the books and drop them on his stomach and perhaps the hint of a sucking teeth sound, letting Benedick know their contempt for him on a feminist level. Love that bit of business.

But Benedick can also be open-hearted when he finally admits and accepts that he truly loves Beatrice and says: “I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is that not strange.” He truly sees the hurt that Beatrice is suffering because her cousin Hero is being maligned and he challenges Claudio to a dual to right it.

The biggest journey of discovery is Hero’s.  She goes from being self-absorbed and frivolous to being enlightened and confident in her self-worth as a person. She is wrongly accused of being unfaithful based on a malicious trick played on her by Don John. Immediately Claudio (Austin Eckert who plays him sweet but gullible) and Leonato (a courtly Patrick McManus) believe the lie without questioning the source of it—Don John is a malicious, mean-spirited man. And it’s not the first time that Don John has played his tricks. Initially Claudio feels awkward wooing Hero so Don Pedro says he will do it for him, making it look like he’s wooing Hero for himself but will then reveal it’s really for Claudio. (I love Claudio’s aside to the audience: “Why?” (why indeed does Don Pedro’s scheme make sense??). But then Don John puts doubt in Claudio’s mind—that in fact Don John is wooing Hero for himself. And Claudio believes him! Twice!!!

Hero has another Erin Shields speech at the end, when the truth is revealed, that she is an honourable woman. In the speech, Allison Edward-Crew as Hero chides both Claudio and her father Leonato for quickly believing she is untrue without questioning it. She makes Claudio prove to her that he is worthy to marry her, not the other way around.  She needs to know that he has grown up as well and will not fall into the easy ways of just believing any lie a male friend will tell him. She makes him question everything he believes in to win her trust and her love again. Allison Edward-Crew as Hero is full of conviction, emotional intensity and blazing intelligence

I love that.

The cast from top to bottom are a joy. Besides those I have already mentioned, Michael Blake as Don John makes mischief seem delicious, he does it with such relish. Josue Laboucane plays Dogberry, the leader of the Watch, as a man who never met a malapropism he didn’t love to bits. He is so self-righteous. Jakob Ehman as Borachio is so excited about the trick he’s played on Claudio and Hero he practically twists himself up and exhausts himself with the pushing of the lines. A little less gusto would be perfect and just as funny. As excitable as Borachio is that, is as laid back as Conrad is as played by Cyrus Lane. How does a character move at all if he is tied up from top to bottom? Cyrus Lane gives a masterclass in just such a movement. I must mention George Meanwell. He is such a gifted musician and proves it here, by always enhancing the scene with his presence on guitar, accordion, violin and anything he sets his mind to.

More on Chris Abraham and his attention to detail. He makes the audience see that detail. Margaret (Déjah Dixon-Green) is one of my favourite characters in Much Ado About Nothing. It’s a small but so vital and important a part. Margaret holds the key to the second ruse—in which Don John tries to discredit Hero’s character.

Borachio says that Margaret will do anything for him, so it’s set up that Margaret will be talking to him from a window late at night. Don John suggests to Claudio that Hero is unfaithful and will urge him to watch what transpires from a ‘bedroom’ widow with ‘Hero’. Claudio will not know that it is Margaret he is watching, not Hero. When he sees what happens Claudio humiliates Hero at the wedding the next day.

While one is fixated on how Hero is humiliated by Claudio downstage, upstage is the wedding party, looking on in horror. One of the party is Margaret. It’s fascinating watching Déjah Dixon-Green slowly register that the person being talked about at the window late at night was her. She looks on, stunned, comes forward a step to make sure we see her reacting, then she covers her mouth in emotion and runs off. It’s a small scene, but created with such care and detail by Chris Abraham to quietly reveal the truth.  Later the story is out that it was Margaret, not Hero at that window.

Comment. I love the fact that the 21^st century visits Beatrice and Benedick when they lived to flesh out areas that are not addressed. Shakespeare is always being fiddle with—the play is still there and it’s living and breathing.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Oct. 27, 2023.

Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Recently played at Luminato, but now closed.

Time escaped me and I didn’t post comments about offerings at this year’s Luminato Festival before they closed by June 18.

LITTLE AMAL

From the blurb about the creation:

“Little Amal is a 12 foot partly-animatronic giant puppet which was used as the centrepiece of a performance art project called The Walk in 2021. The project was created by the British production companies The Walk Productions and Good Chance in collaboration with the South African Handspring Puppet Company (of War Horse fame).  

Little Amal, a 12-foot puppet of a 10-year-old Syrian refugee, who has travelled through 13 countries to 90 cities across Turkey, Europe and New York City.  She arrived in Toronto on June 7. She walked across the region for 5 days looking for hope and her new home. She was welcomed by musicians, dancers, children and elders, civic leaders, community organizers, newcomers, fellow refugees and you in a journey of art and hope.  

See the world through the eyes of a child who was forced to leave her war-torn home.  On behalf of displaced children everywhere, she asks that we take note, offer support and hear her message to the world: “Don’t forget about us”.  

Little Amal had been to Scarborough, Mississauga, other suburbs during her five day stay in Toronto.  On Sat. June 10 she was to appear at Berczy Park between 6:30 and 7:30 after she walked along the Esplanade. I waited for her in Berczy Park, across from the St. Lawrence Centre that was preparing for the opening of Treemonisha, the Scott Joplin opera he wrote in 1911.

The park was buzzing with families enjoying the summer weather; a choir that was singing over there, while I was mesmerized by three couples casually doing the samba to music from a boombox. A man in baggy jeans, a t-shirt and a baseball cap on backwards, danced with his partner in a form-fitting top, black tights and ballet slippers. The grace of the couple, (and the other two couples) was astonishing. Effortless. Sensual. Sexy. I wondered when one traded in the easy sway of the hips for general creakiness. Perhaps it’s something that creeps up on you.

In the meantime, I kept looking up the street in front of me for a 12-foot puppet. The time was drawing close for her appearance. From behind me, on Wellington Street I saw a charge of people running forward banging boxes and behind them there she was, towering over the crowd, Little Amal. The sight of her is astonishing. She came into the park, graceful, confident, poised, her head turning slowly to the left and right, taking in the crowd. She blinks! Her arms are manipulated by two people, each holding a pole attached to each arm. I noted that inside the structure of the puppet is a person who is manipulating her eye-lids and I guess controlling her walk. That walk was almost like floating. To see this ‘creature’, this creation, was quite moving. She did a turn of the park giving everybody a chance to look at her and take pictures, then she walked off to her next destination. Loved seeing her.

Loss

Created and performed by Ian Kamau

Written by Ian Kamau and Roger McTair

Dramaturg and rehearsal director, Aislinn Rose

Composer, music director, performer, piano and Synth, Bruce A. Russell

Tenor Saxophone, Dennis Passley

Guitar, Dyheim Stewart

Costumes Cat Calica

Filmmaker, Tiffany Hsiung

Co-sound: David Heeney, David Mesiha

Lighting, Shawn Henry

Environment designer, Javid Jah

Video designer, Jeremy Mimnagh

Loss was developed and nurtured at the Theatre Center, as part of the year-long Residency Program.

From the programme: “Loss is a deeply honest, live retelling of an intergenerational family story, written by Ian Kamau and his father Roger McTair.

This multi-media performance begins as a mirror into a winter of depression for Ian Kamau, then slowly unravels the mystery surrounding the death of his paternal grandmother Nora Elutha Rogers.

An orchestration of memories using live music, video, and storytelling—Loss is an exploration of grief in Afro-Caribbean communities, and an immersive experience towards healing shared with the audience.”

The theme of the piece might explore ‘grief in Afro-Caribbean communities’ but there is resonance no matter what the ethnicity. Ah the beauty of theatre to transcend cultural differences and find common ground no matter the ethnicity.

The main audience sits on three sides of the Harbourfront Centre Theatre. A circle of chairs is placed around the main playing area with some audience members sitting there. There are standing microphones inside the circle. The band of keyboard, guitar and saxophone are microphoned. Ian Kamau sits on a stool off to one part of the circle. He speaks into a hand-held microphone. He says that this is a performance and then opens a binder and begins to read his script in a clear, measured voice. What he is reading sounds like poetry to me that will deal with his sorrow, grief, depression, his absent, distant father; his feelings about his father and that his father contributed four poems to the evening, but it’s not actually clear which they are. Some works are introduced on the screen facing part of the audience. Videos of family scenes will be projected on the screen. Because there are people around Ian Kamau he will turn his stool slightly, so that his back is not always ‘facing’ part of the audience.

Often music will underscore the reading, often drowning out the reader. I wonder (yet again) what the sound would be like if the band was not amplified, but just played and Ian Kamau read through his microphone. I bet we would be able to hear every word.

I wonder why we need music for what really is an overproduced and over amplified poetry reading for 1 hour and 45 minutes without intermission.

Played June 14-18.

Dragon Tale

 Co-produced by Tapestry Opera and Soundstreams. Presented by Luminato Festival Toronto and realized in partnership with Harbourfront Centre.

Composer, Chan Ka Nin

Librettist, Mark Brownell

Director, Michael Hidestoshi Mori

Music director, David Fallis

Set and costumes, Jackie Chau

Lighting by Echo Zhou

Cast: Alicia Ault

Mishael Eusebio

Mike Fan

Todd Jang

Evanna Lai

Keith Lam

Grace Lee

Alyssa Nicole Samson

Plus an orchestra and a choir.

Dragon’s Tale is an opera embracing long-held traditions juxtaposed with the need to be free and engage in the world, among other issues.

From the programme synopsis: “Dragon’s Tale is the story of a Xiao Lian, a young Chinese-Canadian woman who faces a difficult choice: Honour her family’s traditional past or embrace a more modern present. Her ailing father wants her to stay home and take care of him and respect tradition. She wants to go off with her friends.

Xiao Lian must travel into the ancient past to answer questions about her own life and future in the modern world. By summoning the spirit of one of China’s greatest poets, Qu Yuan, Xiao Lian learns the significance of the ancient dragon boat festival of Duanwu and her family’s deep connection with Qu Yuan.”

Under the baton of Musical Director, David Fallis the singers and chorus were stirring and compelling. Director Michael Hidetoshi Mori used the whole stage and areas in and around the audience of the Harbourfront Centre Concert Stage to great effect. Set designer Jackie Chau created several moveable platforms that shifted the action from the modern world to the ancient world.

While Mark Brownell’s libretto was in English surtitles were used to ensure the whole audience got the full benefit of the story and the important aspects of the story. While the cast wore body microphones the sound occasionally was fuzzy, when a microphone might have been muffled or compromised, hence how important the surtitles were. How then to explain how banners representing an ancient king were so high on the stage, they obstructed the surtitles, preventing people, either close up or sitting at the back, to actually read the details. Didn’t director Michael Hidetoshi Mori or set designer Jackie Chau sit in the theatre during rehearsals to see if the panels obstructed the area where the surtitles were projected? Frustrating.  

Played June 15-18, 2023.

Treemonisha.

TO Live and Luminato Festival Toronto Present, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto, Ont. A Volcano production, in association with the Canadian Opera Company, Soulpepper and Moveable Beast.

Composed by Scott Joplin

Book and libretto adapted by Leah-Simone Bowen/Co-librettist, Cheryl L. Davis

Arranged and orchestrated by Jessie Montgomery & Jannina Norpoth.

Stage director, Weyni Mengesha

Choreographer, Esie Mensah

Conductor, Kalena Bovell

Set by Camellia Koo

Additional set design by Rachel Forbes

Costumes by Nadine Grant

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Cast: Neema Bickersteth

Andrea Baker

Cedric Berry

Nicholas Davis

Ashley Faatoalia

Marvin Lowe

Ineza Mugisha

SATE

Kristin Renee Young

Scott Joplin wrote this opera in 1911 and set it just after the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. It has rarely been done. This reimagining of Scott Joplin’s opera does wonders to illuminate how ahead of his time Scott Joplin was.

This production celebrates many ‘firsts’: It has a creative team who are all Black: it has a new book and libretto by Leah-Simone Bowen, with co-librettist, Cheryl L. Davis, new orchestrations by Jessie Montgomery, directed by Weyni Mengesha, choreographed by Esie Mensah, conducted by Kalena Bovell, with an all-Black orchestra and cast lead by the always compelling Neema Bickersteth as Treemonisha.

The story is simple: A runaway slave carrying her baby in her arms, is shot in the back by a slave owner chasing her. The mother struggles to hide her baby in the hollow of a tree for safety, and then dies. Twenty years later there is to be a wedding by a young woman named Treemonisha. She is the baby, grown up. She was found by two decent people and raised as their own. When Treemonisha learns the truth—that the two people who raised her are not her birth parents—Treemonisha is hurt and confused that the truth was held back from her. She leaves to find out who she is and who her mother is. Her betrothed, Remus who belongs to the community of Freemen, goes after her. Treemonisha seeks knowledge of the Maroons, dwellers in the forest, for information. The two communities are always at odds with each other, not trusting them.  In the meantime she falls in love with Zodzerick, a Maroon medicine man. But Remus kills him. Treemonisha returns to her community where she brings both communities together to live in peace. Because of that Treemonisha is chosen as the leader who can bring stability to both.

Because opera/music is not my forte I won’t comment on the opera in specific terms, but will comment on the theatricality. I thought the whole enterprise stirring and beautifully sung, with Neema Bickersteth leading the enterprise with her soaring, crystal voice. She is also an accomplished actor, realizing the anguish of a young woman trying to find her roots and her history.

Camellia Koo’s set of the complex tree and its branches and offshoots is both mysterious, and mythical. Choreographer, Esie Mensah creates vibrant, sensual movement of this accomplished cast that is evocative and arresting. It’s always thrilling seeing her work. The whole endeavor is brought together by director Weyni Mengesha. She has a vivid sense of image, picture and the world of the opera. If I had a quibble it’s that occasionally the production seemed static, but I would offer it’s the piece itself, the story, that is static. But just a quibble. Being in that theatre for this opening night was a thrill.

There is a comment at the end of a note by the Treemonisha Team that is so important to consider. It says: “You, the audience, are encouraged to embrace the music in any way you see fit! Cheer, talk back, applaud—because this is an opera for everyone”. Amen and Hallelujah. If I’ve learned anything by seeing theatre of different ethnicities, different nationalities, different, attitudes, it’s that there is not one way to appreciate the artform, there are many, and they all are valid and important. I think it vital that we all be in the same room to experience the many, different ways of appreciating a form of art and learn from that difference, and not separated into separate groups. That separation just seems regressive.

I loved that the opening night audience of Treemonisha, multi-ethnic, mainly Black, dressed to the nines and ready for celebration, did laugh loudly where they believed something was silly or not right; talked back when they thought something warranted it, and stood and cheered instantaneously at the end, as did we all, in complete celebration at this rarely done work.  

Played June 6-17, 2023.

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Live and in person at the Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Oct. 29, 2023.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Kimberley Rampersad

Set by Judith Bowden

Costumes by Michelle Bohn

Lighting by Chris Malkowski

Composer, Sean Mayes

Sound by Miquelon Rodriguez

Supervising Fight Director, Geoff Scovell

Cast: Michael Blake

Richard Comeau

Déjah Dixon-Green

Austin Eckert

Jakob Ehman

Paul Gross

Andrew Iles

David W. Keeley

John Kirkpatrick

Josue Laboucane

Devin MacKinnon

Patrick McManus

Antony Santiago

André Sills

Tara Sky

Shannon Taylor

Gordon Patrick White

Rylan Wilkie

A generally eye-brow knitting production with seemingly deliberate laughs inserted that up-ends the play. Paul Gross is a vibrant, energetic, confident King Lear definitely playing against the character’s age.

The Story. King Lear has divided his kingdom among his three daughters, Goneril, Regan and Cordelia. He has done this before the play begins. We learn this at the very top of the production when two courtiers, Kent and Gloucester, talk about the division that has taken place. King Lear then announces this decision in open court, professing old age, and wanting to divest himself of the care and worry of ruling.

But before he parcels out the land, he has his daughters play a game. Each daughter has to tell him how much she loves him first, as if it depends on what parcel he will give her. Cordelia is the last to be asked. She is introduced as “our Joy” and Lear says tell me how much you love me and you’ll get a portion 1/3 better than your sisters’. Right away we see the meanness of the game. I don’t get the sense this is the first time he’s played the game on Goneril and Regan. This might be the first time with Cordelia because she tells him she hasn’t got anything to say to the question of how much do I love you.

King Lear says, famously, “Nothing will come of nothing. Speak again.” She tells him she loves him like a dutiful daughter. King Lear is still not happy. Cordelia has two suitors and Lear asks them to decide who will take her off his hands. That sets into motion all manner of discord in the court, between the other two daughters, etc. King Lear planned to divide the land among the daughters and to visit each daughter once a month with 100 knights. And in a sense, still rule, but be taken care of by each daughter while he does it. That too is in jeopardy.

I call King Lear mean because he’s deliberately playing each daughter against the others for his own ego, even though he’s already divided the land.

The first line of the play proves this. Kent says to Gloucester “I thought the King had more affected the Duke of Albany than Cornwall.” Meaning, on the basis of the division, Kent thought that the king liked Albany (Goneril’s husband) more than Cornwall, (Regan’s husband). Gloucester then says that it looked like it initially but then he saw that the land was divided absolutely fairly. Thus, proving that the game was rigged to begin with pertaining to the daughters…the land was already divided evenly, so what’s with this game?

I will also add that King Lear is an abusive father to play these cruel games with his daughters. It should be no mystery where you get scheming daughters like Goneril and Regan, with a father like King Lear. And he hates to be challenged. When King Lear is challenged as Kent does when Lear banishes Cordelia, Lear rages against him. When Lear is later challenged by his daughters about why he needs so many knights with him, he says, “reason not the need.” Meaning “I NEED THEM” and don’t ask why. When Goneril and Regan challenge him, King Lear can’t cope. He believes he is going mad. Worse than getting old is going mad or insane. The play progresses from there until King Lear has to hit rock bottom until he realizes that Cordelia was in fact loving, loyal and true.

The Production. Director Kimberley Rampersad seems to have envisioned a post-apocalyptic world with Judith Bowden’s set composed of overpowering walls that crunch and grind when they move, with accompanying crackling florescent bulbs along some walls.

Michelle Bohn’s costumes suggest some kind of otherworldly design of startling, formfitting, costumes in vibrant colours for Goneril (Shannon Taylor) and Regan (Déjah Dixon-Green), more flowing dresses in pastels for Cordelia (Tara Sky), black garb for the courtiers and the most stylish tailored shirts for King Lear (Paul Gross).

I found the production interesting, odd, and even very funny. I never anticipated so much humour before and it was by accident. I’m pretty sure it’s not a good idea.

Kimberley Rampersad who has directed fascinating smaller productions at the Shaw Festival such as O’Flaherty, V.C. and Chitra. But larger work such as Man and Superman at the Shaw Festival and Serving Elizabeth at Stratford last year were problematic in concept and in direction. Her ideas for King Lear were eye-brow knitting.

King Lear says frequently that he’s crawling towards death and that he’s old with lots of repetition of the word “old”. But Paul Gross, at 64 is not old, not playing old, and not attempting apparently to play old. He’s playing a fit, robust, energetic and impish man in full command of all his faculties both physical and mental. He does not stop moving, with purpose, energy and resolve. He handles the language beautifully and plays games with the language at the get go.

When he says he’s crawling towards death, he over accentuates the word deaaaaaaaaath, so that he’s making a joke of it. He’s not being ironic. He’s being sarcastic. I can only assume this is a decision between director and actor. My question is why? How is the play served here?

I also found this to be the funniest production of King Lear I have ever seen. Again, this seems deliberate. When the Duke of Cornwall (Rylan Wilkie) violently takes out the eyeballs of Gloucester (Anthony Santiago), there’s lots of gushing of fluid and plopping of an eye-ball on the floor. Great ‘ewwwwww’ factor from the audience. Immediately after this a courtier is seen crawling, wiping the floor with a rag to get up the glop, and then crawling off to the side exit.  The audience laughed out loud. Really? After several previews the cause of that laugh wouldn’t have been apparent? Then I can only conclude that laugh is deliberate. It takes the audience out of the horrific moment. The audience does not need comic relief. They need to be kept in the horror as it builds and builds.

Director Kimberley Rampersad also embellishes romantic subtext between Goneril and her servant Oswald (Devin MacKinnon). The subtext is there in the text. Rampersad feels the need to ramp it up.

Goneril is giving an important speech as a soliloquy about Lear and her sister Regan and behind her is her servant Oswald (Devin MacKinnon) putting a necklace around her neck. He’s not her dresser. This looks like a present a lover gives. We are to believe Goneril will wear the necklace for the whole production without her husband, the Duke of Albany (Austin Eckert) actually seeing it. Why? To show how dim her husband is?  He’s not.

We don’t see any development of this relationship for much of the production. Then much later when Goneril wants to toy with Oswald’s affections using Edmund (Michael Blake), Goneril takes off the necklace, with great show, and holds it out to Edmund, who’s favour she wants. She takes a moment, then looks back at Oswald, smiling at him suggesting she’s dumping his favours for a new lover. This too got a laugh.

Isn’t the play hard enough to decipher without creating extra attention-grabbing subtext when subtlety generally works just as effectively? Shakespeare does a nice job depicting Goneril and Regan as mean, damaged women. These extra bits of business suggests that Rampersad doesn’t think that’s enough.

On the heath, in the storm scene when Lear is truly going mad and he meets “Poor Tom”, actually Edger (André Sills) in disguise as a mad man, there are also lots of other shrouded beings scurrying around. I’m thinking, who are they? Did they get misdirected from Macbeth to King Lear by mistake. Again, eye-brow-knitting.

Directing on the Festival thrust stage is a challenge even for any accomplished director, let alone a director new to the space, as Kimberley Rampersad is. You have to stage and direct for the whole space so that all areas of the audience can see and hear what is going on. So, while those in the center of the audience could see perfectly,  I wonder if those on the extreme left and right aisles could see the verbal exchange at the beginning of the production, when Gloucester and Kent (David W. Keeley) have their first speech, because both are talking upstage-centre, half-hidden by a pillar. Often many actors are facing upstage to deliver their lines. Audibility is a problem in many cases.

That said, I was grateful for Paul Gross’s confident handling of the language, in spite of his not playing Lear old. I was grateful also for Shannon Taylor as a strong, driven Goneril; David W. Keeley as a bold Kent; Andre Sills as a trusting, but then commanding Edgar; Michael Blake as a wily Edmund and Rylan Wilkie as a venomous Cornwall. They all handled the poetry and language with confidence.

I thought it a wonderful stroke for Kimberley Rampersad to cast Gordon Patrick White as the Fool. Gordon Patrick White is Indigenous and his casting in this part added a layer of complexity—that the Fool is also a mournful trickster. I thought that was inspired casting.

The fight, by Geoff Scovell the Supervising Fight Director, with axe and sword between Edmund and Edgar at the end of the production, was chilling and death defying. So, the production is not without a lot of positive points.

It’s just that the overall effect is uneven in concept and while it tries to re-image the play in a ‘new’ way, I don’t think the actual production serves the play.  

Comment. There is a discernible divide between actors who are comfortable with Shakespeare’s language (perhaps because they have studied it formally, either in theatre school or a conservatory) and those who struggle to make the language and poetry sound like comfortable conversation. The Stratford Festival offers all of its actors the opportunity to delve into Shakespeare’s language by hearing it, playing and perfecting it.

Purists will insist that the language, meter and proper pronunciation must conform to the strict rules of iambic pentameter. Which brings us to the word “revenue” (income). Following the form of iambic pentameter, the word is pronounced with the accent on the middle syllable so that the word follows the rhythm and meter of the poetry. But if the word is in a line of prose, then the word is pronounced with the accent on the last syllable.

But language and pronunciation are always changing in this changing world.  In King Lear the decision was made to pronounce the word “revenue,” regardless of its use in poetry or prose, with the accent on the last syllable. Does it change the meaning of the word? No. Do most people (not purists) notice? Probably not. Does it make understanding the language clearer? Probably.  Language is always in flux. Purists, please deal with it.

The Stratford Festival Presents:

Plays until Oct. 29.

Running time: 2 hours 55 minutes. (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person at Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton, Ont. playing until May 6, 2023.

www.theatreaquarius.org

Music by Johnny Reid, Matt Murray and Bob Foster

Book and lyrics by Johnny Reid and Matt Murray

Directed by Mary Francis Moore

Choreography/movement by Yasmine Lee

Music supervisor, Bob Foster

Set by Ken MacDonald

Costumes by Samantha McCue

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Sound by Josh Liebert

Cast: Michelle Bardach

Dharma Bizier

Nicole-Dawn Brook

Liam Crober-Best

Jay Davis

Alyssa LeClair

Jeremy Legat

Lawrence Libor

William Lincoln

Sweeney MacArthur

Clea McCaffrey

Andrew McAllister

Jamie McRoberts

Kaitlyn Post

Aaron Reid Ryder

Julius Sermonia

Adam Stevenson

MUSICIANS: Bob Foster

Peter Bleakney

Chris Corrigan

Ethan Deppe

Trevor William Grant

Evan Hammell

Andrew Murray

Spencer Kagain Murray

Rachel O’Brien

A lively, buoyant celebration of family, community and resilience. A beguiling score, but the book needs attention to flesh out the story and fill in the holes in the plot.

The Story. It’s 1954 in Lanark, Scotland, a mining town. Everybody knows everybody. The women are hardworking mainly tending their families. The men seem to be hard drinking after a day working in the mines.

Maggie is a young widow raising three young sons herself. The story chronicles her journey as well as those of her sons. Each character has their issues, some more serious than others.

The Production. Designer Ken MacDonald has created a set of two large apartment buildings, each with many windows. Presumably, this is where the citizens of this community live. There is a clothes line with towels on it, hooked to one of the buildings and is attached to a pole down from it. To show the passage of time from scene-to-scene lighting designer Kimberly Purtell illuminates various windows in both buildings to show people are there. The illuminated windows are not always the same from scene to scene.

In quick succession we are introduced to a pregnant Maggie (Dharma Bizier) and her loving husband Big Jimmy (Jay Davis), a musician with a guitar. (Do we know they also have two other sons?) He sings her a song “I Love a Lassie” and never appears again. I’m not sure if it’s that day or soon after, but it’s the end of the shift at the coal mine for the week. Women, many with baby carriages, wait for their men to appear and give them their pay packets. The men go off to the pub. The women go home. Maggie is the last in line waiting for Big Jimmy. A man rushes up to say that there has been an accident and Big Jimmy didn’t make it. Maggie goes into instant labour and passes out.

Fast forward about 14 years. Maggie has eked out a living doing mending, cleaning etc. Her boys are: Wee Jimmy (Aidan Burke), a young scholar, Tommy (William Lincoln), has hopes of being a soccer star and Shug (Lawrence Libor) who inherited his father’s guitar and hopes to go to California and be a singing star. Tommy and Wee Jimmy keep their heads down and devote their time to their passions. Shug gets involved with a political group of rowdies who loath Catholics and try and make trouble any chance they get. Maggie frets about Shug. There is trouble and dreams are shattered.

I loved how Costume Designer, Samantha McCue suggests that Wee Jimmy’s clothes are hand-me-downs: the pants are too short for him (falling just above his ankles), and there are patches on the legs. With a change in wigs, facial hair and clothes, we get a sense of time passing as the boys mature.

The direction by Mary Francis Moore moves the action of the large cast seamlessly. She does not give in to sentimentality when one of the sons leaves home, tempting though it might be. I thought that was impressive.  

Yasmine Lee’s choreography is simple and evocative for this group of hard-working people who we can believe are not dancers, but are connected to suggest there is a close relationship with each other.

The cast is very strong with first rate singers. Leading the group is Dharma Bizier as Maggie. We get a clear idea of the strength of character Maggie has, from Dharma Bizier’s commanding performance. She is a belter who conveys the heart and soul of her songs; the anguish when her sons are troubled; the joy when they succeed. “Unbreakable” sung a bit into Act I establishes the moral fiber of Maggie. It’s a powerhouse rendering.

For much of Maggie the focus seemed to be on Maggie and her three friends Betty (Nicola-Dawn Brook), Sadie (Jamie McRoberts) and Jean (Michelle Bardach), rather than just Maggie,  as they sang songs of resilience, frustration and tenacity: (“Friday Night in Lanark,” “Everyone’s Gone,” or “Queen for a Day”). Each one, but especially “Everyone’s Gone,” is like an angry anthem. The music by Johnny Reid, Matt Murray and Bob Foster is compelling and catchy. One wants to hear the music again. The lyrics by Johnny Reid and Matt Murray further the story and flesh out character, providing an urgency to the drama.

But the book, also by Johnny Reid and Matt Murray, needs serious attention. The relationship between Big Jimmy and Maggie should be fleshed out so we can learn who Big Jimmy is and how solid his and Maggie’s relationship is before he earns his song that begins the show (“I Love A Lassie”). We need to get more than a glimpse of Big Jimmy in Maggie’s life to have a stake in her pain and suffering at his sudden loss. Another scene that fleshes out their relationship will put his death in perspective.

Further attention is needed to hone in on whose story this is. Each friend has a story. One woman is ‘secretly’ beaten by her bully husband until he’s challenged by the group of feisty women. Another wonders if she will ever marry, etc. Are the friends a chorus or individual stories that splinter the narrative? A decision should be made.

There is a deadly skirmish in which both Tommy and Shug are involved with thugs who are itching for a fight. It’s unclear who is responsible for the death although one goes to prison. Does that mean one brother took the fall for the other? That should be clarified.

Shug, a consistently brooding Lawrence Libor with a powerful voice, has been tightly involved with a group of bullies who pick fights with the Catholics. And yet at the end of the story he leaves for America. Why? How did he make this decision and why? What does he plan on doing there if he has sold his father’s guitar (and how much was that worth if it paid for Shug’s passage?) So many questions that need to be clarified. Some characters such as ‘randy’ Geordie Parven (Sweeney MacArthur), who aggressively comes on to Maggie and Charles (Jeremy Legat), Maggie’s gay brother, seem like caricatures. They need developing. At times the story feels like it’s just a sketch rather than a fully developed journey of these characters.

Comment. Maggie is based on Johnny Reid’s grandmother. It’s a story of a woman who would not back down, was resourceful and resilient. The music and songs are rousing and seductive. The show needs a strong book to match. The present effort needs to be ruthlessly revised and rewritten.

Theatre Aquarius Presents:

Runs until May 6, 2023.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (1 intermission)

www.theatreaquarius.org

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