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As many of you know, I have been giving out Tootsie Pops for many years to people in the theatre as a way of saying ‘thank you for making the theatre so special for me.’ Instead of doing top 10 lists of the best theatre and performances of the year, I do The Tootsie Awards that are personal, eclectic, whimsical and totally subjective.

Here are this year’s winners:

PEOPLE

The Guts of a Bandit Award

Allyson McMackon

Allyson McMackon founded Theatre Rusticle in 1998.  She has been its Artistic Director and moving force since then. The company uses balletic movement to dig deeper into the meaning of classics. McMackon has a keen sense of artistry and daring. She disbanded the company this year but left us with one intoxicating, sensually provocative production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This was the first year that the company did not receive funding. That didn’t stop her. She has the guts of a bandit. I will miss her stunning vision in all things theatre and I’m not alone.  

Maja Ardal

Maja Ardal was hired by Arkady Spivak, Artistic Producer of Talk is Free Theatre in Barrie, Ont.  (more on him below), to curate a program of plays. The result was The Plural of She Festival devoted to plays created and performed by feminine-identifying artists. The plays were bracing, funny, bold and revelatory about race, culture, dealing with sadness and trying to fit in to a world that might not be accepting. The plays were done in backyards of private homes in Barrie and each performance was sold-out. Maja Ardal is one terrific spirit.

The Jon Kaplan Mensch Award

Nina Lee Aquino (Factory Theatre)

Artistic director Nina Lee Aquino adapted quickly to having to close her theatre and adjust her season to the digital reality creating the Satellite Season.  She directed a re-imagined production of House by Daniel MacIvor staring Kevin Hanchard, filmed in his house which made us look at that play in a different light. Then she had playwright David Yee re-write his play acts of faith for the digital reality with stunning results. Aquino is offering the whole digital season to her audiences for free. As she has said, “Since we can (offer the season for free) we should.” She then created “The Bedrock Creators’ Initiative” in which playwrights are invited to develop their plays at Factory Theatre and are guaranteed a production of the play—such commitment seems a rarity. Nina Lee Aquino is leading by example.

Kim Blackwell (4^th Line Theatre)

Kim Blackwell initiated a farmer’s market every Friday in the summer on the grounds of the Winslow Farm to help various vendors during the time of COVID and to give work to the folks who usually work for 4^th Line Theatre. The 4^th Line Theatre season was cancelled this summer. Blackwell also organized a series of 27 monologues from past 4^th Line Theatre shows that supporters of 4^th Line Theatre could arrange to hear by phone. For Free. The actors got paid. The ‘audience’ members were wonderfully entertained and hearing those monologues spoken with such passion by the actors, brought back vivid memories of the plays themselves. She also co-wrote with Lindy Finlan Bedtime Stories and Other Horrifying Tales, a spooky play for Halloween that took place outdoors, at night, in the fields of Winslow Farm. People flocked for the experience. The cast was terrific.

Tim Carroll and Tim Jennings (the Shaw Festival)

They came up with a plan to employ as many actors as they could who were members of the Festival who saw their shows cancelled. They programmed concerts sung by eight singers, played by musicians and employed them for as long as they could. Then they laid them off and immediately re-hired them for outreach and education for the community.

Mitchell Cushman (Outside the March)

In good times Mitchell Cushman and his inventive company, Outside the March, create theatre. In bad times—pandemic, COVID, closed theatres, Mitchell Cushman and his inventive company create theatre. He and his team fashioned The Ministry of Mundane Mysteries in which the ‘audience’ suggested the mystery and the company, in a series of phone calls over six days, solved the mystery. In each call the ‘detectives’ or investigator LISTENED intently to the ‘audience’ for clues and then ran with them in the next calls. The reach of this initiative was international. The New York Times was mighty impressed. And again, actors got paid for their labours.

Then, not sitting on their laurels, the company, in collaboration with Talk Is Free Theatre and the National Arts Centre, produced Something Bubbled, Something Blue, an outdoor wedding in which all the participants were encased in their own huge plastic sphere. The audience watched as they were positioned around a roped circumference. Mitchell Cushman and company adapt, switch, change and continue as usual in a different way. Take a look at the short video and be amazed at the creativity:  

https://nac-cna.ca/en/video/gat-something-bubbled-something-blue

Arkady Spivak (Talk is Free Theatre)

When does this man sleep? As the company’s Artistic Producer, he is either busy applying for grants that will help actors in his company with paying for childcare, or with guaranteeing them a contract for three years with a minimum wage, or with budgeting so cleverly that he can offer audiences free theatre for three years if they pay a $25 deposit that will be returned to them when they see a play. Then there is the theatre he produces for his company. Often the plays are forgotten classics or musicals that were not popular but he finds intriguing and he’s right.

And there are the wild experiments such as The Curious Voyage of a few years ago when he engaged hardy audience members to commit to a scheme to go on a curious voyage of theatre that began in Barrie, Ont. and finished in London, England over three days. And there are the readings he has for actors not open to the public because he wants an excuse to put actors to work and pay them for their efforts. He is a theatre man to his toes who cherishes his ‘babies’ (his actors) while he pushes them to be as good as they can be and then challenges them to do something terrifying to challenge them i.e. Michael Torontow, a wonderful actor, was encouraged to direct his first show and he started with Into the Woods by Stephen Sondheim, a really difficult piece and the result was wonderful.

And this summer, with COVID closing theatres, Spivak got the idea of a festival of plays done outside in private backyards. Maja Ardal, an extraordinary theatre creator, came up with the name, The Plural of She, and curated the plays.

Spivak has not only produced some of the best theatre I usually see in a year, he does it in Barrie, Ont. and has a fiercely loyal, daring audience who support him. Bravo in every conceivable way.

Julie Tepperman (Convergence Theatre)

Background. Convergence Theatre composed of Co-Artistic Directors Julie Tepperman and Aaron Willis, specializes in site-specific plays. But we have a pandemic that is keeping us isolated at home so we can’t go outside to see theatre. Why should that stop the fearless Convergence Theatre? In this instance Julie Tepperman created The Corona Variations in which she wrote (for the most part) stories and scenarios that one audience member at a time listened to via several phone calls over one evening. Julie Tepperman also directed the actors presenting the stories.

The playlets depicted what one might be going through in a pandemic: loneliness, pining for loved ones or friends, the anxiety of a senior. Julie Tepperman even got the listener to engage in a playlet as well. The stories were poignant and hilarious. Julie Tepperman beautifully captured the whimsy and depth of emotion that the characters were going through, and by extension, the audience.

I loved the complex effort of the whole endeavour and Tepperman’s Herculean effort in scheduling what story was to play at what time. It all seemed effortless. This is such a bold idea—phone plays for quarantine and bravo to all of the participants for engaging with such commitment. Again Tepperman engaged the audience, hired actors who needed the work and they all did and paid them for it.

The One(s) to Watch Award

Malindi Ayienga

A gifted theatre creator. She worked with Maja Ardal to create You and I a show for toddlers for Young People’s Theatre, getting right down on the ground to engage with them at eye-level before the ‘show’ began. Grace, kindness and joy was in that performance and the children responded.

In her show, Justice for Malindi Ayienga for the Plural of She Festival for Talk is Free Theatre in Barrie, Ont. she wrote and performed her one-person show about being the child of a white mother and a black father (from Kenya) and thought about how she fit into the world. She went to Kenya to investigate her roots. The play was one of the results of her ‘journey.’

Another result was that Ayienga and a group of friends formed Diva Day International to fund-raise to buy and send Diva Cups to girls in Kenya. Ayienga found that when a girl got her period in Kenya, she was ostracized from the class and had to sit at the back on a bench covered in sand.  Ayienga and company felt the Diva Cup would be important in alleviating the embarrassment the girls experienced when they got their periods.  

Ayienga is an artist with compassion, perception, sensitivity and she gives the rest of us a lot to think about as we navigate our own lives.

Tabia Lau

Tabia Lau is a PhD candidate in Theatre & Performance Studies at York University. In her play The Antigone Play she imagines Antigone’s story as one for our time. The production was presented as a showcase for the performance students.

Lau has such a compelling voice and vision in taking this mythic Greek story and applying it to our modern world. She has a dandy sense of dialogue that is gorgeous and vivid and makes her audience feel smart when they can spot her literary references in her work. If The Antigone Play is an example of the quality of the work Lau produces while she is a student I can’t wait to see her next play.  

Xavier Lopez

Xavier Lopez is a talented actor who has distinguished himself in such plays as For Both Resting and Breathing for Talk is Free Theatre in Barrie, Ont. and No Clowns Allowed at the Grand Canyon. But he was truly blazing as Angel in Jesus Hopped the ‘A’ Train in his Soulpepper Company debut. He played a religious man who was in jail for killing a man by shooting him in the butt. Angel said he was innocent. As Angel, Lopez was full of passion, conviction, righteous indignation and went toe to toe with Daren A. Herbert’s performance as Lucius Jenkins. Electrifying.

Natasha Mumba

Natasha Mumba distinguishes herself in every performance she gives, whether it’s at the Shaw Festival, or in a production for an indie theatre in Toronto, or virtually as she did in acts of faith for Factory Theatre, her work is masterful.

In acts of faith Mumba played Faith, a young woman supposedly with prophetic gifts, and gave a thoughtful, nuanced performance. I saw the sass and resolve of Faith in this bold performance. I also see a delicacy and tenacity that pervades her characters and makes them unforgettable.  

Andrea Scott

Andrea Scott is a compelling playwright. Last year her blazingly intelligent play Every Day She Rose (co-written with Nick Green) challenged our perceptions of race, communication, friendship, respect and how we deal with uncomfortable situations and each other. This played in Toronto at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, produced by Nightwood Theatre.

The play of Andrea Scott that really intrigues me is Controlled Damage that played earlier this year at the Neptune Theatre in Nova Scotia. It’s about Viola Desmond a Black business woman who lived in Nova Scotia and experienced a racist incident that took place in 1946 that had a ripple effect for almost 70 years. Viola Desmond is the face on the Canadian $10.

It’s symbolic that the play had its premier in Nova Scotia. Naturally I am eager to see it here in Toronto. What impresses me about Andrea Scott, besides her fierce abilities as a playwright, is her determination and conviction to have Controlled Damage produced to the point that she was the moving force behind its production. She had a collaborator in the company b current, but it was Andrea Scott’s drive to find the money for the production; pitch the play to the Neptune Theatre, and make sure that the play had presence on social media. The result was that the production sold out its run. The play is now published. I think it’s a matter of time that a smart Toronto producer will produce it here. Andrea Scott is a force of theatre.

Jeremy O. Harris

He’s an exception in my list because he’s American—over the years everyone who’s received a “Tootsie” has been Canadian. And ‘exception’ is the word to describe him in every single way.

When he was a third-year student in the graduate program in playwrighting at Yale University he wrote Slave Play that looked at racism, class, slavery, sex and privilege. It was workshopped and produced Off-Broadway at the New York Theatre Workshop.

Slave Play then transferred to Broadway where Mr. Harris was listed as one of the producers. He asked for and got a commitment that tickets would be set aside at a very reasonable price (usually unheard of for Broadway) for people who looked like him: Black, students, young, working two jobs to support themselves, who wanted to see a play but couldn’t usually afford the ticket price.

He asked for and got an evening set aside only for a Black audience so that people who might have been uncomfortable being in an almost all white audience could see a play with people who looked like them on the stage and in the audience. It was a triumph.

He asked for and got, not only talk-back discussions in the theatre after the play, but also more extended talk-back discussions at another location the next day. It’s a complex play. It invites a lot of discussion.

Slave Play was nominated for 12 Tony Award nominations, unprecedented for a play in one season.

During the pandemic Jeremy O. Harris has been busy. With New York Theatre Workshop he funded two $50,000 commissions for new works for Black women playwrights.

Upon sighing a development deal with HBO Jeremy O. Harris also asked for and got a $250,000 annual discretionary theatre production fund which helped produce streamed versions of the Off-Broadway plays, Heroes of the Fourth Turning and Circle Jerk. Each attracted an audience of 10,000 people, many of whom were new to the theatre.

Mr. Harris created “The Golden Collection, named for his grandfather Golden Harris who died two weeks before the playwright learned that Slave Play had been booked at Broadway’s Golden Theatre. “The Golden Collection” was launched in partnership with the Human Rights Campaign. The collection of plays is to go to a library in a Black community in each of the 50 states, plus Washington D.C., Puerto Rico and Guam.

The plays selected for the collection include: Les Blancs by Lorraine Hansberry, The Colored Museumby George C. Wolfe, An Octoroonby Branden Jacobs Jenkins, Sweat by Lynn Nottage, A Collection of Plays(Wedding Band and Trouble in Mind) by Alice Childress, Fucking A by Suzan-Lori Parks, We Are Proud to Present a Presentation by Jackie Sibblies Drury, The Mountaintop by Katori Hall, Is God Is by Aleshea Harris, Fires in the Mirror by Anna Deavere Smith, Funnyhouse of a Negro by Adrienne Kennedy, For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide / When the Rainbow Is Enufby Ntozake Shange, Bootycandyby Robert O’Hara, Dream on Monkey Mountainby Derek Walcott and Slave Play.

He pledged fees and royalties from Slave Play to fund $500 microgrants administered by the Bushwick Starr Theatre (an award-winning theater in New York) to 152 U.S. based playwrights.

He gave the proceeds from the streamed Heroes of the Fourth Turning production to the Playwrights Horizons relief fund for theatre artists. (Playwrights Horizons is the theatre that first produced Heroes of the Fourth Turning Off-Broadway).

He has sent a letter to President-elect Joe Biden urging him to revive the Federal Theater Project (“The Federal Theatre Project (FTP; 1935–1939) was a theatre program established during the Great Depression as part of the New Deal to fund live artistic performances and entertainment programs in the United States.”) He then got Seth Meyers on his show “Late Night with Seth Meyers” to promise he would spread the word to his prodigious, illustrious twitter followers and have them urge Biden to revive the FTP.

And Jeremy O. Harris is a great fan of our own Jordan Tannahill, especially his book “Theatre for the Unimpressed.”

Jeremy O. Harris is 31 years-old. He has and will change the face and the reach of theatre for the better by making it welcoming to a broader, more diverse audience.

PRODUCTIONS

In Person Productions.

The Play That Sums Up Our Lousy Year Award

Sweat

Written by Lynn Nottage.

Co-produced by Canadian Stage and Studio 180

“A group of friends who have spent their lives sharing drinks, secrets and laughs, work together on the factory floor. But when layoffs and picket lines begin to chip away at their trust, the friends find themselves pitted against each other in a heart-wrenching fight to stay afloat.” 

Yes, there are laughs, but there is anger, rage, racism, disappointment, violence done to an innocent man that left him brain-damaged and friendships and lives in ruins. In the end, a hard-worker in the bar, who many there either ignored or insulted, became the manager of the bar. He took care of the brain-damaged man and gave him a job wiping the tables, because as he said, “that’s how it oughta be.”

In the end, compassion, giving a helping hand and doing it quietly wins, because “that’s how it oughta be.”

The Wet Dream Award

A Midsummer Night’s Dream

By William Shakespeare

Re-imagined and directed by Allyson McMackon.

Produced by Theatre Rusticle

This was a sexy, raunchy, dangerous and touching production full of director Allyson McMackon’s signature touches: physically robust movement with sensitive attention to the meaning of the play. It was a production that celebrated: love, marriage, fidelity, confusing emotions, jealousy, nature, super-natural worlds, misguided but sensual fairies and the huge, open heart of the theatre.

This was Allyson McMackon’s swan-song and the end of the company. Damn! What a loss.  

The Well-Earned Ache In Your Heart Award

This Is How We Got Here

Written by Keith Barker

Produced by Native Earth

Keith Barker has written a play about grief that transcends cultures, religions, beliefs and the differences between peoples and brought everyone together to appreciate and experience what his grieving, wounded characters were experiencing. Estranged parents grieve over the loss of their son who took his own life. How do you give comfort with such loss?  Barker writes beautifully and eloquently about how you don’t get over such a loss, but you do get through the grief of it. Cathartic and cleansing.

Is It Real Or Is It Memorex Award

Marjorie Prime.

Written by Jordan Harrison

Produced by Coal Mine Theatre.

Are the characters clones? Are they real? Who’s alive? Who isn’t? The play and production were provocative, complex and unsettling. But the chance to see Martha Henry act in this tiny theatre in Toronto was a gift. The rest of the cast: Sarah Dodd, Beau Dixon and Gordon Hecht was wonderful, as was Stewart Arnott’s sensitive, detailed direction.

The Oil Slick Award

Oil

Written by Ella Hickson

Produced by ARC

Ella Hickson has written a play about the lure, dangers and pervading presence of oil through the ages. Co-directors Aviva Armour-Ostroff and Christopher Stanton created a world that was claustrophobic and accentuated class and position.  Designer Jackie Chau’s design was so inventive with a rusting oil drum in the walkway into the space, oil drips along the top of the set and various appliances in the shape of mini-oil drums, we got the message. The cast was superlative. But the hold that oil has on us was frightening. The land acknowledgement came at the end and melded into an indictment of oil pipelines going through Indigenous land.

I Can’t Stand Not Doing Theatre Award

Alphonse

Written byWajdi Mouawad

Co-produced by Theaturtle and Shakespeare in Action.

Alphonse is a play about isolation and uncertainty and the kind of theatre we have missed for so long. The imaginative direction of the production by Alon Nashman and the multi-layered, vibrant performance by Kaleb Alexander are pure joy giving the audience a wonderful opportunity to applaud. It was the first live play to be done in a park in the summer after the first lockdown.

The play is about Alphonse, a lost boy wandering a road who spins a series of stories, all while various people are looking for him.

I loved the open-hearted aspect of this production and everything surrounding it. Alon Nashman, the artistic director of Theaturtle, says that he so missed creating theatre that he couldn’t stand not doing it any longer so he engaged Kaleb Alexander to play Alphonse and collaborated with Shakespeare in Action to produce it. Bless them.

There is Another Stratford Festival Award

Here for Now Open-Air Theatre Festival

Fiona Mongillo is the fearless Artistic Producer of Here for Now Open-Air Theatre Festival. She has created this six-show summer festival to bring live theatre to the people of Stratford (and those who think nothing of driving from Toronto to Stratford to see live theatre) using local talent. Storytelling is the most important endeavor of the festival.

The plays are eclectic in nature and tone, varying from the true story of an abused wife who got even in Whack!; the wildly inventive Instant Theatre in which the audience provides the suggestions and the cast of four improvises the plays; The Dark Lady is a wonderful work of imagination about who ‘the Dark Lady’ was in Shakespeare’s sonnets; A Hundred Words for Snow is a story of love, devotion, and fulfilling a wish to a parent;  Infinite Possibilities is a bit of whimsy about the truth about Shakespeare and others told by Shakespeare himself and I See The Crimson Wave tells the story of Nat Love, an African-American former slave who was a cowboy at the turn of the last century, who loved words and had vivid adventures. And it was done in haiku.

So Many Variations of She Award:

The Plural of She Festival.

Maja Ardal curated this festival with the following plays: Having Hope: A Hand Drum Song Cycle, Smart, In Case We Disappear, These Are The Songs I Sing What I Am Sad, Justice for Malindi Ayienga and The Cure for Everything.

As I said when praising Maja Ardal, the plays were bracing, challenging funny, bold and revelatory about race, culture, dealing with sadness and trying to fit in to a world that might not be accepting.

Digital Productions, streamed, etc.

TO Live—Living Room Series

TO Live has produced a series of 100 short videos involving a cross-section of Toronto’s vibrant artists such as: the music of Quique Escamilla, Njo Kong Kie, the vibrant dance of Esie Mensah, Travis Knight, the poetry of Vanessa Smythe, a compelling scene enacted by Suzanne Roberts Smith, storytelling  and drumming from Yolanda Bonnell, family history and the importance of creations passed down as told by Santee Smith, the buoyant humour of Tita Collective, the marionettes of Ronnie Burkett, the glorious voice of Teiya Kasahara and so many more artists expressing their art during COVID. You can check out all 100 artists:

https://www.tolive.com/livingrooms

Home Alone in the House Award

House

Written by Daniel MacIvor

Produced by Factory Theatre.

A compelling production of a gripping play in this time of isolation.

The production of House by Daniel MacIvor was supposed to be the last production in the 50^th anniversary season of Factory Theatre. COVID-19 put a stop to that and the production was cancelled. But the ever-resourceful Daniel MacIvor suggested to Nina Lee Aquino, Factory Theatre’s Artistic Director, and the director of House, that he tweak the play to reflect they are in isolation and that they do a one-off on-line version. And so they did.

The Story. Victor is a disappointed man in work, marriage and in life in general.  The production took place in Kevin Hanchard’s basement (he plays Victor in this one man show). MacIvor gave Nina Lee Aquino and Kevin Hanchard license to add subtle references to the script that reflects that Kevin Hanchard is a Black actor. It added such resonance to the production.

It Grabs You By the Throat Award

Les Blancs

Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Produced by the National Theatre (Great Britain) for NT LIVE

The play and the production are brilliant, timely and gut-wrenching.

The Story. Les Blancs (The Whites) takes place in a fictional South African country at the turn of the 19^th  and 20^th century and reflects how the white population control and rule the black population, until the blacks  have had enough and take matters into their own hands.

The Production. The production is beautifully directed by Yaël Farber, using traditional music, the Xhosa language in some cases, dance and symbolism.

Hansberry gives the many sides of the story, from the point of view of the well-meaning, to the wilfully ignorant, to the deliberately oppressive and those who are fed up and will not take that treatment anymore. Her perceptions of the politics and mindset of the colonizer are razor sharp and her dialogue in getting that across is astonishing. This is a splendid production of a blistering play that every single person should see.

Not all Black Actors Want to Play Othello Award

American Moor

By Keith Hamilton Cobb.

Produced by Red Bull Theatre (New York City)

American Moor is a stunning, poetic punch in the gut. The play examines the experience and perspective of Black men in America through the metaphor of William Shakespeare’s character, Othello.  The play is a doozy.

An African-American actor named Keith is auditioning for the role of Othello in an American production. The director is young and white.

The play takes the form of Keith quoting speeches from Othello and other Shakespeare plays as part of his audition and to the audience for context. We learn that Keith was confined by a director’s view of him, who confined him only to parts for Black characters.   

It’s a reflection of the world of Black or BIPOC actors.  A well-intentioned but tone-deaf, insensitive director is going to tell them the meaning of something they already know in their bones.

I think playwright Keith Hamilton Cobb has written an exquisitely poetic, bristling play specifically about a Black actor dealing with a blinkered white director. But from a universal perspective it’s about a Black person who has to contend with white privilege and he’s had it up to here with dealing with it.   It’s Keith Hamilton Cobb’s personal eruption of what a Black person or person of colour has to deal with when they are not seen or heard.

Until the Flood

Written and Performed by Dael Orlandersmith

Produced by the Conservatory Rep Theatre of St. Louis.

A shattering piece of verbatim performance theatre about the death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Dael Orlandersmith is stunning.

In 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri Michael Brown, a black youth allegedly stole a box of cigars. The police were called and Officer Darren Wilson allegedly shot Mr. Brown several times and killed him. The details of what exactly happened were confusing. Officer Wilson said he shot in self-defence. Alleged witnesses disagreed. Officer Wilson was found innocent of any wrongdoing by a Grand Jury and was released.

Dael Orlandersmith, an American playwright, interviewed people in Ferguson, Missouri about their thoughts on the events. She culled the interviews and we hear the words of eight of them, alternating between a Black person and then a white person. Orlandersmith plays all the parts speaking in their voices.

Until the Flood is told with compassion, wit, humour, perception, and wisdom. Orlandersmith is never judgemental. She let’s her characters have their say. It’s a balanced, devastating work.

Until the Flood streams at:

https://www.centertheatregroup.org/digitalstage/digital-stage/until-the-flood-streaming-on-all-arts

The Exquisitely Beautiful Production Award that leads us into a better year.

Something Rich & Strange

Produced by Opera Atelier

Opera Atelier Co-Artistic Directors, Marshall Pynkoski and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg had planned to produce Mozart’s The Magic Flute and Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas to celebrate their 35th Anniversary Season this year. A pandemic put a stop to that.

In Something Rich & Strange, their first offering of their 2020/21 Season of Visions and Dreams, they created a program of music and dance  pieces from great composers from the 17^th and 18^th  centuries  and  fashioned the evening so that it seems a cohesive piece in which each segment focuses on dreams, secrets, desires and visions and seamlessly blends into one another.

While this is a staged production that was filmed in Koerner Hall it does not look like a film. It does look like a beautiful theatrical production come to life through technology. With an Opera Atelier production, the audience gets an exquisite education, in art, dance, music, opera, singing, painting, sculpture and what perfection looks like.

Available for streaming until June 1, 2021.

https://www.rcmusic.com/events-and-performances/opera-atelier-presents-something-rich-and-strange?src=operaatelier

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Streaming from the National Theatre, London, England, until July 9.

Written by Lorraine Hansberry

Adapted by Robert Nemeroff

Restored text directed by Joi Gresham

Directed by Yaël Farber

Designed by Soutra Gilmour

Lighting by Tim Lutkin

Music and sound by Adam Clark

Cast: Sheila Atim

Gary Beadle

Sidney Cole

Elliot Cowan

James Fleet

Clive Francies

Tunji Kasim

Anne Madeley

Roger Jean Nsengiyumva

Siân Phillips

Danny Sapani

Xhanti Mbonzongwana

Anna-Maria Nabirye

Daniel Francis-Swaby

Mark Theodore

Singers: Nofenshala Mvotyo

Nogcinile Yekani Nomaqobiso

Mpahleni (Madosini) Latozi

The play and the production are brilliant, timely and gut-wrenching.

Background: Lorraine Hansberry is best known for her play A Raisin in the Sunabout a Black family who moved into a white neighbourhood in Chicago, and how they coped with racism.

Les Blancs (Les Blancs, French for “The Whites”) was her last play and she had not finished it  when she died in 1965 at the age of 34. Her ex-husband Robert Nemeroff adapted and finished the play. It was first produced in 1970 on Broadway. Hansberry considered it her most important play.

The Story. Les Blancs takes place in a fictional South African country at the turn of the 19^th  and 20^th century. More specifically it takes place around the hospital/mission school established 40 years before by Reverend Neilsen and his wife Madame Neilsen.  The Revered came to bring Christianity to the natives and has continued to that day.

Working at the hospital are: Dr. Marta Gotterling who has been there for seven years, Dr. Willy Dekoven who is quiet, drinks too much and knows exactly what is going on in that country to those people, Peter an older Black man who is a servant and Eric a younger Black man who is lighter skinned.  

Charlie Morris is an American journalist who has come to the hospital to write about the good work of Reverend Neilsen. There is Major Rice the military presence, the typical overbearing British colonizer who has lived there a long time and believes that country belongs to people who look like him.  There is unrest in the region. There is local resistance to the white presence and that makes Major Rice more demanding about order and curfews.

Returning to the village for the first time since he left seven years before is Tshembe Matoseh. He went to England to be educated and then travelled the world, gained a perspective, married an English woman and they had a son. Tshembe has come home to see his dying father but he’s too late.  During his time away Tshembe worked for Kumalo, a man who was African and was trying to get the Europeans to recognize the rights of the African people of his country.  Tshembe got a first hand look at how Europeans and others treat Blacks with disdain, condescension and with a policy to not educate them enough for them to govern themselves.

Tshembe is reunited with his brothers: the aforementioned Eric, who is Tshembe’s younger brother, and Abioseh Matoseh, Tshembe’s older brother. Abioseh also went to England to be educated as a Roman Catholic priest. Tshembe is saddened to see that his brother has been totally assimilated in the European sensibility and turned his back on his African heritage and traditions He will soon take the Christian name, Father Paul Augustus, which Tshembe describes as the name of  ‘a murdering Roman Emperor.”

As the unrest escalates the rebels put pressure on Tshembe to join them. He longs to go home but is torn in his loyalties.  He sees what is happening to his country because of the hand-fisted way the ‘settlers’ (white colonists) are treating his people.

The Production. The production is beautifully directed by Yaël Farber, using traditional music, the Xhosa language in some cases, dance and symbolism.

The production begins with the thrum of music that is focused when a group of Black women in traditional garb slowly enter singing a throaty song in the Xhosa language. Adam Cork’s music/soundscape is mysterious, plaintive and seductive. The women walk clockwise around the large Olivier stage. They are followed by a larger group of people also walking slowly, wearing worn clothes. Each person holds his/her right hand in a light fist forward out of which falls a steady stream of sand. This larger group represents the Black servants and workers of the mission: Peter (Sidney Cole), Eric (Tunji Kasim), Abioseh (Gary Beadle) and finally, separate from them is Tshembe (Danny Sapani). To me the steady stream of sand is symbolic of their country slipping through their fingers.  

Walking counter-clockwise, even slower and more deliberately is a character referred to only as “The Woman” (Sheila Atim). She is commanding in her presence because she appears to be in an expressionless trance, her head is tilted down a bit and wears a costume that barely covers her.

This silent woman will slowly circle the stage for the whole of the production, always present and representative of that African country. She walks against the flow of the others going the other way… perhaps symbolic of how Africa was considered backward by the ‘settlers’. The Woman is also symbolic of the thing that haunts Tshembe– the memory of his country that he missed so much. The Woman is a presence, a thought, the idea of that place–majestic, graceful but also almost ground down in despair.   `

As these characters circle the space, the stage revolves. The make-shift wood mission comes into view—barely a skeleton of a structure (kudos to Soutra Gilmour for the evocative design). A few steps rise up to the veranda. Three white characters: Major Rice (Clive Frances), Dr. Dekoven (James Fleet) and Dr. Gotterling, (Anna Madeley) climb the steps, spread across the veranda and look ‘down’ on the Black characters in front of the house. In simple, elegant movement, song and symbolism director Yaël Farber has created the segregated, divisive world of that African country and that mission/hospital. Stunning.

Charlie Morris (Elliot Cowan), the journalist from America, arrives and is eager to begin his research for his article. He’s charming to Dr. Gotterling who greets him. There will be slight flirting between the two over the production. Charlie Morris offers Peter (Sidney Cole) one of the servants at the mission, a tip of coins for bringing his suitcase. Peter is excessively grateful, bowing, thanking etc. As Charlie, Elliot Cowan has that jaunty, confident, curious attitude of a man who is never awkward and always feels he’s doing good. He gives Peter a tip when we figure no one else would. As Peter, Sidney Cole has a skittish body language, always at the ready to rush and do the bidding of the people who employ him or the Major. Cole’s head is bowed in obsequious respect, almost never looks in the face of the person talking to him. But then when Peter segues from the servant to the resistance fighter he stands straight, looks a person in the eye and there is not one trace of wanting to please. The voice is strong and hard. You cringe and are embarrassed for him when Peter ‘bows and scrapes. And he’s compelling when he is in full height as the leader of the resistance. It’s a performance of power.

Lorraine Hansberry (and I must also credit Robert Nemeroff who adapted Hansberry’s notes in order to finish the play) had such a delicate way in creating her characters, their stories and how they faced off with other characters.

We soon realize that Madame Neilsen (a wonderful, quietly regal performance by Siân Phillips) did more to bring education and Christianity to the village and its people than her husband did. Madame Neilsen is now an old, blind woman who is waiting for her husband to come home from wherever he went on business. But we find out she befriended Tshembe’s mother, Aquah, years before and learned some of her customs and the language.  Madame in turn taught Aquah English, French and some Norwegian (the Nielsen’s are Norwegan).  Madame taught Tshembe and his brothers geometry and other lessons. She earned their respect.

When Tshembe returns home to see his dying father he also pays a visit to Madame. She is delighted to see him and wants to feel his face to ‘see’ it. When she realizes he’s cut his hair  she says, “You had such a bush!” the word and image stings to hear it in the 21^st century. Tshembe laughs and explains that now he’s “a city man. Do you see my part?” He means of course that he was trying to assimilate into a European lifestyle. Lines like this make one suck air. We know that assimilating for a Black man is so fraught then and now. As Tshembe, Danny Sapani gives a beautifully paced, nuanced performance of a man who is obviously conflicted and out of place in both worlds of his African village and the European world. His anger at what is happening to both brothers and his country fills him with ever bubbling rage. And he’s conflicted. He wants to back to England to his wife and son but is compelled to stay and fight for his country’s independence from the colonizers.

While Madame attempted to learn the language and customs of Aquah, Dr. Marta Gotterling has been there seven years and does not seem to have bothered to learn any of the language. She tends to a young boy and gives instructions in English to his father slowly and deliberately as if talking to a simpleton.  That speaks volumes.

Charlie Morris fancies himself an open-minded American but he too has his arrogant blind-sides. He wants to discuss and talk to Tshembe over a cigarette and a drink about the politics of the place for his story, but Tshembe has heard it all before and is sick of talk. Tshembe is the modern man—educated in England but staunchly connected to his country’s traditions and history.  He is the perfect opponent to Morris and lets him have it with wonderful lines like this:

“What is this meaningless nonsense with you Americans for a handshake, a grin and half a glass of whiskey you want 300 years to disappear and in a few minutes….do you really believe that a rape of a continent will dissolve in cigarette smoke?” You get the sense of his frustration at trying to always having to ‘explain’ to well-meaning but thoughtless people, about his country and what it’s like being Black.

Clive Frances plays the racist bully, Major Rice without one trace of pulling a punch. The contempt he has for the Black people of that country makes one squirm. It’s that condescending attitude of how the British (or any conquering people) are overbearing and think they know how to run a place with a fist, a gun, an insult and a need to keep people under his thumb.

The conscience of the play in a sense is Dr. Dekoven, played with a quiet sense of futility by James Fleet. He knows of the subtleties of what is going on there. He drinks a lot to forget. He offers Eric whiskey for the same reason. He knows how the white colonists have taken and ruined the place and the people.

In the end a young man runs around the set holding a lit torch above his head, climbs up the steps to the mission and slams the torch on the floor and runs off. It was Eric. The place goes up in flames and all in it one assumes—the doctors and Madame. The music swells to a compelling loudness. The Woman stops walking as if in a trance and turns around on the spot, her arms raised holding something in both hands—a weapon? Knives? I could not tell. And she looks up for the first time, to the sky, as if in some kind of ceremonial gesture. It’s both unsettling and thrilling.

Yaël Farber even stylizes the curtain call. Rather than doing a full-tilt bow the cast bent their heads down and brought it back. They did not bow at all. The director was saying something here—“we will not bow down again, ever”. Woow

Comment.  In Les Blancs Lorraine Hansberry has written an astonishing, gripping, timely, beautifully unsettling play for our times. It’s about imperialism, racism and colonialism. It is in perfect keeping of the Black Lives Matter movement. I listened to the words written in the 1960s and how I’m hearing them in 2020.When the Major spits out the word “boy” to Peter it stings to hear it. I must confess I sat uncomfortably when Madame said to Tshembe, “Come in, Child.” It’s a term of endearment she probably always called him when he was a kid. Now he’s a man in his 40s but she is still that child she taught.  Today when race and language are so charged, I heard the word “Child” perhaps in a different way even though Madame didn’t mean it that way.

Interestingly we learn that the Reverend considered the people of the village as his children and he kept them subservient and beholding to him as if they were children. They were taught a little—how to turn a dial or press a button–but were basically uneducated. Tshembe’s father was the person who started the resistance, fighting for more independence and at every turn was thwarted by the Reverend.

Hansberry gives the many sides of the story, from the point of view of the well-meaning, to the wilfully ignorant, to the deliberately oppressive and those who are fed up and will not take that treatment anymore.

Her perceptions of the politics and mindset of the colonizer are razor sharp and her dialogue in getting that across is astonishing.

This is a splendid production of a blistering play that every single person should see.

It plays on National Theatre Live until July 9.

www.nationaltheatre.org.uk

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 At the Harbourfront Centre Theatre

Conceived, developed and co-directed by David Buchbinder

Written by Marjorie Chan

Co-directed by Leah Cherniak

Set and costumes by Victoria Wallace

Lighting designer Simon Rossiter

Choreography by Monica Dottor

Cast and musicians: David Buchbinder

Aviva Chernick

Jacob Gorzhaltsan

Cara Krisman

Derek Kwan

Kaisha Lee

Michael Occhipinti

Cynthia Qin

Louis Simäo

Mitch Smolkin

Jeremiah Sparks

The Ward Cabaret is a labour of love and art by musician/composer David Buchbinder who conceived, developed and co-directed it. It was workshopped at Luminato last year and now it’s the finished product at Harbourfront Centre Theatre for a short run.

The text is written by Marjorie Chan and tells some of the stories of the area of the city called the Ward where City Hall and environs now stand. Chinese men working on the railway arrived at the turn of the last century. Their wives did not accompany them. Jewish people escaping the pogroms in Russia; Italians coming for a better life; people of colour all arrived in Toronto for a better life and lived and worked in the Ward. They each brought their culture, stories, arts, music and memories. They mainly worked at the Eaton’s Factory making clothes. There is a wonderful segment describing how Jewish grandmothers and Italian women sold bootleg whiskey. So some the area was a crime-laden slum. To others it was simply home.

The area was teaming with all sorts of nationalities of immigrants who played, fought and lived in tight quarters. And mainly they sang. The music and songs depict their lives, histories, cultures, and traditions. Buchbinder has been meticulous in finding the music of the various cultures who lived there. There are songs in Yiddish (“Das Goldene Land”); songs of slavery (“I’m Coming Home to Canada”); songs in Italian (“Avanti Popolo”); songs in Cantonese (“Meeting at West River”), Hebrew (“Tikanto Shabbos”); and also jazz, blues, songs of celebration, of the factory, gospel songs, and songs of hope for the future. Jeremiah Sparks brings a soulful gentleness to everything he sings and says. Derek Kwan is compelling when representing his various Chinese characters and singing his various songs with intensity. Kaisha Lee takes us to the deep heart of every song she sings. The whole cast sings with enthusiasm and joy. Sometimes the singers also read letters a character might have written or speak dialogue. Often the singing was more effective than acting or reading.

I thought the production tended to be a bit fussy with the band upstage and the singers wandering around downstage. Why are two directors needed to direct this? The piece needs focus of movement and direction and it needs more simplicity.  Activity always seemed to be going on—less is best. Also I always wonder why EVERYBODY has to be amplified—from the band to the cast in small shows like this. Too often the result sometimes comes out in a confusing screech.

But you can’t deny David Buchbinder’s commitment in getting this show on and to celebrate this pulsing centre of Toronto’s early days.  The stories are compelling; the music is illuminating and you figure that everybody on that stage might have had a relative who arrived from somewhere else to Toronto to live in the Ward as a start.

DB Works Presents:

Began: Dec. 12, 2019.

Saw it: Dec. 18, 2019.

Closes: Dec. 22, 2019

Running Time: 2 hours.

Box Office: 416-973-4000.

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Various musicals: Lil’ Red Robin Hood at the Winter Garden Theatre, Toronto, Ont., Anastasia, at the Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont., Mary Poppins at the Grand Theatre, London, Ont.,

Lil’ Red Robin Hood, at the Winter Garden Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Matt Murray

Directed and choreographed by Tracey Flye

Set by Cory Sincennes

Costumes by Michael Gianfrancesco

Projections by Cameron Davis

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Musical director, Joseph Tritt

Cast: Evan Taylor Benyacar

AJ Bridel

Mariah Campos

Michael De Rose

Eddie Glen

Sara-Jeanne Hosie

Julia Juhas

Lawrence Libor

Robert Markus

Gray Monczka

Tyler Pearse

Conor Scully

Genny Sermonia

Daniel Williston

 

This is the annual Panto of fractured fairy tales produced by Ross Petty. Lil’ Red Robin Hood is written with smart flair by Matt Murray with lots of goofy jokes for kids and lots of sophisticated jokes for the adults in the room. The slashing of the education system by the government comes in for a lot of attention.

 

In this production a modern teenager nick-named Lil’ Red (Robert Marcus) is studying for a history test. Somehow he’s sucked into his locker and back to medieval times to the time of Robin Hood, in Sherwood Forest to be exact. There he meets Maid Marion (AJ Bridel).  Maid Marion is a devoted teacher married to Robin Hood (Lawrence Libor) but they are estranged. Their enemy is the Sheriffe of Naughtyham (Sara-Jeanne Hosie—an evil woman—who wants to confiscate all the books so that she will be the smartest person in the shire. Naturally as a committed teacher Marion wants to thwart the Sheriffe.

 

The Sheriffe sees that Lil’ Red has a book of the history of the world and realizes she can learn of history before it happens, become the smartest person in the world, and get control of the people. Times are fraught and the Sheriffe elicits many boos from the audience. We are expected to boo her every entrance. She is expected to fling invective our way. There is the force of good vs. evil.

 

These pantos play to a formula: humour is silly and yet topical; a youthful cast bops to modern pop songs of the day; there is an evil character the audience loves to boo; a love interest and a really impish, smarmy funny character here called Sugarbum (Michael De Rose); and there is a funny foil to the evil character, in this case he’s named Marvin (Eddie Glen), and in the end, good prevails. A fairy tale indeed.

 

I thought this year’s version of the panto did very well.   They really slammed the government’s cutting of education programs.  I did get a sense that the humour was mainly geared towards the adults, but there are those delicious moments when the whole audience of kids and adults boo the villain.

 

The Sheriffe of Naughtyham is played by Sara-Jeanne Hosie with great flair. She has that easy almost ad-libbing style that whips up the audience to boo more.  It’s a terrific cast of top talent lead by Robert Marcus as Lil’ Red—charm for days. AJ Bridel plays a sassy Maid Marion. Eddie Glen plays Marvin who works for the Sheriffe but is really a sweetie.  Lawrence Libor is a dashing Robin Hood. And Michael De Rose plays an outrageous Sugarbum with lots of double entendre. Friar Tuck (Daniel Williston) also makes an amusing appearance.

 

Tracey Flye directs and choreographs like the wind. The production moves and dances at a gallop, and it’s wonderful, silly fun.  It plays to a formula but the formula works.

 

Ross Petty Productions Presents:

 

Began: Nov. 29, 2019.

Closes: Jan. 4, 2020

Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

 

www.rosspetty.com

 

Anastasia

 At the Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Terrence McNally

Inspired by the Twentieth Century Fox Motion Picture from the play by Marcelle Maurette as adapted by Guy Bolton.Music by Stephen Flaherty

Music by Stephen Flaherty

Lyrics by Lynn Ahrens

Directed by Darko Tresnjak

Choreography by Peggy Hickey

Music director, Lawrence Goldberg

Scenic design by Alexander Dodge

Costumes by Linda Cho

Lighting by Donald Holder

Sound by Peter Hylenski

Projections by Aaron Rhyne

Cast: Joy Franz

Brad Greer

Tara Kelly

Taylor Quick

Edward Staudenmayer

And many others.

It’s 1917 and the beginning of the Russian revolution when the aristocracy of Tzar Nicholas Romanoff II was overthrown and the whole Romanoff family killed, or so they thought. It seems that Princess Anastasia escaped and trying to find her occupied many. Two opportunists—Vlad, a one-time member of court and Dmitry—decided to pass off a young woman as the missing Princess and get the reward for finding her. The person who they tried to dupe was the Dowager Empress, Anastasia’s grandmother. She fled to Paris before the bloodshed began.

The two men meet a young woman named Anya who is a bit hazy on who she is. She can’t remember. She remembers waking up in a hospital. After that Vlad and Dmitry teach Anya about the Romanoff family, the workings of court, how to carry herself like a royal princess etc. It’s not clear if Anya knows she is being passed off as an imposter or she really believes she is Princess Anastasia. In true fantasy style, Anya and Dmitry fall in love. Will Anya convince the Dowager Empress that she is her granddaughter Anastasia? Will Anya find happiness with Dmitry? Questions, questions.

Anastasia also works to a Broadway musical formula in a sense and it’s not a good thing. The text has been sanitized to give the barest facts of the time and the Romanoff family and the history of the revolution and context all but ignored. (The Americanization of Russian history?)  That the unremarkable book of the show was written by Terrence McNally, who has done such good work elsewhere, is startling. The score by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens is shockingly forgettable considering these two are Broadway stalwarts. Director Darko Tresnjak has created the big picture of flashing video images to suggest the passage of time and distance (a scene on a train is rather impressive) but it’s at the expense of clarity. This must be the new ‘thing’ for Broadway—to use video and animation for sets (this is ‘so ten years ago’ in London). Next they have to learn how to temper their use so that our senses are not bombarded—or perhaps that’s the point.

Few in the cast suggested any sense they were playing Russians. Tari Kelly as Countess Lily and Edward Staudenmayer as Vlad are the worst in that they so overplay their supposed comic characters. Comic relief? They were not funny and only when they were off stage was it a relief. A refreshing change is Taylor Quick as Anya who has a light voice and a keen sense of the hidden royalty that Anya might be. Quick was the understudy for the lead on the opening night. Brad Greer plays Gleb a man on a dangerous mission. He was also an understudy and he displayed a nice sense of the courtliness of the character. Rounding out this group is Joy Franz as the Dowager Empress. Again she is regal and projected a strong sense of the Russian royalty that her character was. I was grateful for their presence in this flashy, unfortunate production.

David Mirvish Presents:

Opened: Dec. 4, 2019.

Closes: Jan. 12, 2020.

Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, approx.

www.mirvish.com

 

Mary Poppins

At the Grand Theatre, London, Ont.

Book by Julian Fellowes

Based on the stories of P.L. Travers and the Walt Disney Film

Original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and Robert B. Sherman

New songs and additional music and lyrics by George Stiles and Anthony Drewe

Co-created by Cameron Mackintosh.

Directed by Megan Watson

Music director, Craig Fair

Choreography by Stephen Cota

Set by Lorenzo Savoini

Costumes by Dana Osborne

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Projections designed by Jamie Nesbitt

Sound by Brian Kenny

Cast: Christy Adamson

Hayden Baertsoen

Ben Carlson

Alexis Gordon

Deborah Hay

Phoebe Hu

Jan Alexandra Smith

Giovanni Spina

Mark Uhre

Abi Verhaeghe

Sandy Winsby

Robert Yeretch

Have you ever read any of the Mary Poppins series of books by P.L. Travers? She was one prickly writer. I never read them as a kid. I began reading them as what I laughingly call an ‘adult’ when I saw the show in London. I remember reading the first book in the series and my jaw dropped when Mr. Banks said to Mrs. Banks that she could either have a clean house or children, but she couldn’t have both. Woow. Along came the children: Jane and Michael.

While P.L. Travers sold the rights to Mary Poppins to Walt Disney, she hated the resultant film. It was too sweet; it didn’t have the edge the books had. Cameron Mackintosh convinced her to let him have a try creating a musical that would be true to the books. Apparently the results pleased her.

Mr. Banks is a harried banker. He does not share his worries with his wife because he doesn’t want to worry her. He has no time for his children and more often than not finds them an intrusion while he tries to do work at home. Michael in particular pines for his father’s affection. Affection of any kind seems to have been thrust out of Mr. Banks by cold parents and a horror of a nanny. Jane and Michael in turn see a quick turn-over in nannies who are hired to take care of them. Jane and Michael focus on bedeviling each nanny until they just quit. Until Mary Poppins arrives. Miraculously and mysteriously. She arrives even before the job is posted. Mary Poppins takes over caring for the children with confidence and attitude. She specializes in dysfunctional families, working with them (unbeknownst to them) to dispel the ‘dys’ in ‘dysfunctional’.

Mary Poppins (she’s always referred to by both names) believes in order, good manners, consideration for others, playing and fun. She is never sentimental, for the most part; always looks out for the good of her wards but is not overly cloying about it. And when she is no longer needed, she just disappears into the air.

Lorenzo Savoini has designed a stylish set of the Banks’ home that suggests the size and the homeyness of it. The house is projected (?) onto the curtain with a projection of a wonderful tree with swaying leaves and branches in front of the house. Loved that detail.

Director Megan Watson is such a fine director: economical with inventive images and staging; relationships are beautifully established with her fine cast.

If I have a concern it’s that the sound/amplification is ear-splitting at times and the sound level needs to be brought down a lot. Again both the unseen orchestra is amplified and so is the cast. TOO MUCH!

Deborah Hay is splendid as Mary Poppins. Her back is straight; she is matter-of-fact with the children and has no time for bad manners. She corrects bad behaviour with a quiet but firm voice and never lingers on a reprimand. Everybody she comes in contact with, loves her it seems. But she is stingy with her affection. When Michael (a sweet Hayden Baertsoen) says, “I love you, Mary Poppins” at the end, Hay looks at him with a tight smile and a glimmer of a tremble of emotion at such a comment. She never says she loves him back because it’s not what he really needs. He really needs to fly kites with his father. Mary Poppins’ humanity, thanks to the shimmering work of Hay, is never in doubt.

As Mr. Banks, Ben Carlson is stodgy, on the cusp of being careful with his anger and frustration and harried. As Mrs. Banks, Alexis Gordon has that look of anticipation along with an effort to being unobtrusive. Mark Uhre as Bert is honey-voiced and good-natured. Uhre is so present and joyful in the part. Jan Alexandra Smith is a wonderful horror as Miss Andrew, Mr. Banks’ nanny. Phoebe Hu is an irreverent Mrs. Brill and Giovanni Spina is a well-intentioned klutz as Robertson Ay.

With imagination, talent, wit, compassion, understanding and kindness, this is a terrific production of P.L. Travers’ Mary Poppins.

The Grand Theatre presents:

Began: Nov. 26, 2019.

Closes: Dec. 29, 2019.

Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, approx.

www.grandtheater.com

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At the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Book by Seven Levenson

Music and lyrics by Benj Pasek and Justin Paul

Directed by Michael Greif

Scenic design by David Korins

Projections by Peter Nigrini

Costumes by Emily Rebholz

Lighting by Japhy Weideman

Sound by Nevin Steinberg

Cast: Evan Biuliung

Allessandro Costantini

Shakura Dickson

Dean Patrick Dolan

Robert Markus

Claire Rankin

Jessica Sherman

Dear Evan Hansen is an envelope-pushing musical for the 21^st century about teenage depression, coping and the people it affects. The production is terrific.

 The Story. Evan Hansen is a 17 year old teen who is suffering from depression and anxiety. His single mother Heidi does the best she can in trying to emotionally support him, encouraging him with choices and championing him when he does well.  His therapist recommends he write himself a letter, hence “Dear Evan Hansen”, telling himself that it’s a good day and why. He reluctantly writes the letter but instead it details how depressed he is except for his warm feelings for a girl named Zoe.

Connor Murphy, another misfit, finds the letter in the copy machine at school and sounds Evan out about the reference to Zoe. Zoe is Connor’s sister and he doesn’t take too kindly to Evan writing about her. Connor takes the letter and disappears. He is found three days later with the letter. Connor has killed himself and his parents believe that Evan’s letter was really Connor’s suicide note to Evan. The parents didn’t know Connor had a friend. Evan is so consumed with doubt he can’t bring himself to tell them the truth. The lie spirals out of control. We learn all this in the first 10 minutes so there are no spoiler alerts.

 The Production. Director Michael Greif has envisioned this musical in the world of computer games and endlessly changing technology. His production captures the incredible speed in which information is shot into the world, even before it can be corrected should it be incorrect, and that is often.

As we file into the theatre, we are met with David Korins’ set of  banks of computer screen projections on stage blinking, blipping, pinging, with all manner of sound effects accompanying each change of a screen. The information is bombarded out to us at a dazzling speed.

When the show begins the projections of the computer screens disappear and a rather spare set appears.  The set pieces are minimal. Stage right, Evan Hansen (a remarkable Robert Markus) sits on his bed his computer is open in front of him. He wears a cast on his right arm. While Evan would like nothing better than to stay in his room all day, his mother Heidi (Jessica Sherman) urges him to write the letter that his therapist suggested. As Evan, Robert Marcus is lethargic when talking to his mother, keeping dialogue to a minimum, (“ok”), barely rousing himself to any occasion and obviously suffering from whatever is keeping him in that room.

It’s Heidi Hansen (Evan’s mother) who has the first song, “Anybody Have a Map” that expresses the attitude and urgency for everybody in that show. It’s not only Evan Hansen who is lost, it’s his mother who is at a loss to communicate with him; it’s Connor Murphy who finds solace from his loneliness in drugs and attitude; it’s Connor’s parents who take to criticizing him when he is morose and later who are consumed with guilt about it when he kills himself.

Evan then expresses his desperation in “Waving Through a Window”. It’s impassioned, heartfelt and so telling. The music of Benj Pasek and Justin Paul has a throbbing, driving pulse to it. The music is snappy, almost like pop, but that’s the audience they are mainly writing about, so the music should be familiar to the target audience and their parents. The lyrics pointedly express what loneliness its characters are experiencing—Evan is outside looking inside, tapping on the glass to be noticed. It’s an image with which we can all identify. We can also identify with the desperation of the parents trying to communicate with their uncommunicative, troubled children.

Steven Levenson’s book captures that sense of depression, loss and isolation. He also captures the speed with which decisions are made without thinking and the lack of conscience when a mistake is ignored. A school friend of Evan’s sends out information about Connor in order to create a memorial for him without asking or checking with Evan. The information is incorrect and the person who sent it is not troubled by that. Another friend of Evan’s creates made up e-mails as if they were sent by Evan to Connor and back from Connor to Evan, promoting the lie that they were friends, again without a care about the fact it was not true.

We live in troubling times, when misinformation and fake news is shot into the air without thought of the consequences. Dear Evan Hansen captures that world to a ‘t’.

Director Michael Greif creates the momentum in which Evan’s world is unraveling. The staging is quick. As Evan, Robert Markus has that deer-in-headlights-look, fearful, unable to decide what to do or where to run. And he sings with a strong, pure voice that captures the ache of the music. He is such a compelling actor and he hits right to the heart. Also hitting the heart is Jessica Sherman as Heidi, Evan’s mother. Her pain is of a different type. Her lost kid has shut her out and she keeps ‘tap, tap, tapping’ to break through his isolation and help him. In her own way she too is outside looking in. As Connor, Sean Patrick Dolan has the swagger and careless attitude of a person who has run out of options. Dolan captures Connor’s arrogance and also his need to belong. Evan Buliung as Larry Murphy, Connor’s father is quick with a snide remark because that’s the only way of dealing with his frustration in not being able to reach his son. It’s a valid attitude, different from Heidi Hansen, but still believable as a parent who feels inadequate. Alessandro Costantini plays Jared, the young man who makes up the e-mails. Costantini is so charming, so impish that it’s very easy to be beguiled by him, and that’s frightening. The character has no moral centre, does not care about that, and yet we are amused by him. Lovely performance of a scary character.

Comment.  The musical is the most popular form of theatre, not only for light entertainment, but also for dealing with heavy subjects perhaps more successfully than a straight play. For example: Carousel (a woman loves a man who hits her in frustration), Cabaret (the coming of the Nazis to Germany and how people in the Cabaret ignore it), anything by Stephen Sondheim, Fun Home (coming out to ones parents and finding out ones father is gay and he’s still in the closet with disastrous results. And now Dear Evan Hansen about teenage depression and how it affects everybody.

Along with Fun Home and the upcoming Next to Normal that deals with adult depression etc. Dear Evan Hansen pushes the envelope of the musical form to deal with tough, daring subjects.

Dear Evan Hansen is one of a growing list of the new face of musicals—tough, unapologetic, perceptive and true. Loved it.

Mirvish Productions presents:

Opened: March 28, 2019.

Closes: Sept. 29, 2019.

Running Time: 2 hours and 35 minutes.

www.mirvish.com

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At the Fleck Dance Theatre, Harbourfront, Toronto, Ont.

Written by John Ross Bowie

Directed by Richard Ouzounian

Set and lighting by Nick Blais

Costumes by Ming Wong

Sound by James Smith

Projections by Alex Williams

Cast: Justin Goodhand

Cyrus Lane

Ron Pederson

Paolo Santalucia

James Smith

Vanessa Smythe

A cheeky play about the Ramones and their nightmare dealing with recording genius Phil Spector. Cheeky because it’s a play about a musical group without any singing. The acting is great and Richard Ouzounian’s direction illuminates that raw, dark wild world. 

The Story. On May 1, 1979 the American punk rock group, The Ramones, went into a recording studio to record what would be End of the Century with Phil Spector. He was the legendary recording producer who hadn’t had a hit in seven years. They were a group that needed to go to the next level and their recording company thought working with Phil Spector would be the key. Little did they know.

Spector was the wild, unpredictable, gun-toting eccentric who bullied, cajoled and threatened artists to produce. He honed into their weaknesses and drilled at them until he got what he wanted even if it took hours and hours of takes. The Ramones were no different. There was Joey, an obsessive/compulsive; Johnny, a control freak and almost always angry; Dee Dee, going deeper and deeper into drugs to get him through; Marky who never met a drink he didn’t like to excess.

 The Production. It’s 1979. Nick Blais has created a dark set with an extensive drum kit at the back. This is cheeky because this isn’t a musical and except for a few short drum riffs, no music is played by the group. (There is a concert (of Ramone songs?? Don’t know) by a band who come on after the play, but it’s cheeky to have the kit there and not play it.)

There are set pieces that easily slide on and off to suggest the spooky and vast home of Phil Spector. Characters constantly mentioned that they got lost in the place, it was so large.

The four long-haired men of the Ramones are decked out in Ming Wong’s grunge costumes: torn jeans, black leather jackets, t-shirts in various stages of “worn”. Johnny (Cyrus Lane) counts and re-counts their share of the take from a recent concert. It always comes up short. The promoter shafted them on their share. Cyrus Lane instills an impatience, a need to pace up and down as he stews over some transgression done to him or the group. Lane has that straight-ahead gaze and clear headedness that would be needed to keep the band afloat since the others were incapable. Lane shows us a driven, humourless man who always has his eyes on the prize. When Phil Spector asks the band to play another chord, Johnny balks.

Joey (Justin Goodhand) is a tall, lanky man who has obsessive-compulsive disorder. His girlfriend Linda (a confident Vanessa Smythe) is understanding to a point. Goodhand portrays a fragile minded man, good natured but of course obsessive with wild behaviour (he doesn’t take off his shoes for months, until he experiences a shock—Linda leaves him for Johnny).  This being 1979 women who are ‘friends’ of band members are treated off-handedly. The man is the boss. She does what he says. She is a sexual plaything.  From the perspective of 2019 this is unacceptable. But we must consider the time and accept it as behaviour that was acceptable then.

Dee Dee is played beautifully by Paolo Santalucia. As the play goes on Dee Dee gets deeper and deeper into drugs. He is strung out most of the time. Santalucia’s eyes droop more and more, his word are said slowly and are slurred. The shift is subtle and yet resounding. Marky as played by James Smith is played as a fun loving drinker of anything that will create a buzz. The various demons of Dee Dee, Joey and Marky, make Johnny the natural leader of the group. Then there is Phil Spector himself, played with control and danger by Ron Pederson. He arrives in total control in a suit over which is an over coat slung over his shoulders. Spector knew how to manipulate an artist because in the room he was the only artist that counted.

Spector had a reputation for creating great sounds from bands, but how he got there—by bullying, cajoling, threatening and turning violent got results—was off concern. In the play he pulls a gun out of his pants waist band. He didn’t shoot it then or later—please hold the Chekhov references, this isn’t Chekhov and we are dealing with a true incident in 1979—but his unpredictability is established.

Spector needed the Ramones to give him a hit after seven lean years and they needed him to give them a hit at last. As the program says, “Phil Spector made the Ramones a legend and destroyed the band.”

John Ross Bowie is an actor (“The Big Bang Theory”) who has written Four Chords and a Gun about the Ramones. It gives us a glimpse into their murky world of mad geniuses (Phil Spector), sex drugs and rock and roll. Director Richard Ouzounian does a valiant job of creating that world and guiding his talented cast to get under the skin of their characters.

Comment. The program states that ‘it’s a fictional account inspired by a true-life event. In other words, John Ross Bowie is writing about the making of one recording, “End of the Century” and how the Ramones coped with it all. It’s not a docudrama about the history of the band; they don’t play their noted hits or even sing any of their less notable hits; we get a smattering if biography of each band member as they prepare, in their own way, to record with Phil Spector. Criticizing Four Chords and a Gun for what it isn’t is like going into McDonald’s and winging that it doesn’t have any Swiss Chalet chicken.

If you accept the play for what it is and not criticize it for what it isn’t, you’ll be fine.

Starvox Entertainment/Corey Ross presents:

Opened: April 10, 2019.

Closes: April 29, 2019.

Running Time: 90 minutes.

https://www.4chordsplay.com

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The Monkey Queen

At the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ont.

Written by Diana Tso

Directed and choreographed by William Yong

Music by Nick Storring and Brandon Valdivia

Scenic design by William Yong

Lighting by Rebecca Picherack

Projections by Elysha Poirier

Costumes by Robin Fisher

Cast: Nicholas Eddie

Diana Tso

No is a powerful word.

It can lead to all sorts of good things, such as Diana Tso’s The Monkey Queen now at the Theatre Centre.

Tso grew up on “The Monkey King” stories from Wu Cheng’En’s 16 century epic novel, “The Journey to the West” about a Monkey King warrior on a journey from the East to the West, fighting everything from Heaven and all manner of opposition.

One day Tso heard of a new play with the central character being The Monkey King. She wanted to audition for it but couldn’t because they were only auditioning men for the part. In true plucky Diana Tso fashion she began writing her own epic story only this time she placed herself in it as the Monkey Queen, only this time the journey is from the West to the East, where Tso/the Monkey Queen, looks for her roots. The Monkey Queen is part of a trilogy.

As Tso says in her program note: “I re-imagined this myth through the perspective of the female warrior, giving voice to her quest, which is shadowed by the traditional formula of the hero.

The story is dense with encounters with a white clad shaman, mystic creatures, angels, birds and a polar bear etc. all of which test the Monkey Queen. Through energetic wit and smarts she stares down all opposition and prevails.

The production is directed and choreographed by William Yong and it is wonderful. The multi-leveled set, also by William Yong, offers platforms and ramp on which to jump, flip and literally fly over.

Diana Tso plays the Monkey Queen with a steely energy that is compelling. She is diminutive and fierce. She flips through the air and negotiates the levels of the set with ease. She also conveys the urgency of the Monkey Queen’s journey and determination to complete it.

Playing all the other parts from the Shaman Lady to the polar bear is Nicholas Eddie, as diminutive as Tso is, Eddie towers over her. Of course one should not mention the physicality of artists, but I couldn’t help but be aware of the contrast to the diminutive dynamo of Diana Tso and the tall, graceful elegance of Nicholas Eddie. Added to that, it’s obvious Eddie has no bones in his body. In their place are ribbons. I’m sure of it. His gracefulness is jaw dropping. His arms flowing back and forth behind him look like feathers floating on a breeze.

William Yong has such economy in his direction and creates such vivid images, the Shaman woman in a white shawl becoming the polar bear being one image, that you keep shaking your head in disbelief and the artistry of it all.

Bravo to Diana Tso for not taking “no” for an answer and creating her own Monkey Queen.

 The Red Snow Collective presents:

Began: Nov. 16, 2018.

Closes: Dec. 2, 2018.

Running Time:  1 hour

www.boxoffice@theatrecentre.org

 

The Barber Shop Chronicles

At the Grand Theatre, London, Ont.

Written by Inua Ellams

Directed by Bijan Sheibani

Designed by Rae Smith

Lighting by Jack Knowles

Movement by Aline David

Sound by Gareth Fry

Music by Michael Henry

Cast: Tuwaine Barrett

Mohammed Mansaray

Maynard Eziashi

Alhaji Fofana

Eliot Edusah

Solomon Israel

Patrice Naiambana

Anthony Ofoegbu

Kenneth Omole

Ekow Quartey

Jo Servi

David Webber

Bless Dennis Garnhum, Artistic Director of the Grand Theatre in London, Ont.

Garnhum saw The Barber Shop Chronicles in London, England at the National Theatre a couple of years ago (where I also first saw it) and immediately began making plans to have the company bring the show to ‘our’ London.

The troupe was doing a tour of the States and he lured them to make a stop in Canada, at the Grand (the only Canadian stop on their tour).

It plays at the Grand Theatre until Nov. 24, 2018. It only plays 12 performances.

Inua Ellams’ glorious, moving, funny play takes place in one day, in six barber shops—one in London, England and the rest in African cities: Johannesburg, Accra, Lagos, Harare and Kampala.

Men come into each shop to kibitz, talk politics, philosophize, seek comfort, acceptance, to rant, complain, rejoice, explain, confess and forgive. Some stories carry over into others. A father in Africa seeks the son he abandoned years before;  the son in London thinks wistfully of his absent father in Africa.

Bijan Sheibani’s pulsing production is suffused with vibrant music. The cast invite members of the audience up on stage for a hair cut before the show starts. The colourful coverings are flipped out with a flourish and then carefully wrapped around the person in the barber’s chair. Electric clippers are passed around the head, above the hair. Scissors clip furiously a few inches away from the hair. Each customer is treated to some chat, a smile, jokes and graciousness by the ‘barbers.’

The signs for the various barber shops are suspended above the stage. When a scene takes place in the various cities, the sign for the shop is illuminated. There is also a revolving outline of the various African countries in which the cities are located. Again, the outline of the African country is illuminated and prominent during those scenes. The cast wheels the chairs and other set pieces on and off the stage for each new location. It’s quick, efficient and usually accompanied by the cast singing traditional songs.

The cast to a person is accomplished, animated, lively, touching and wonderfully engaging. It certainly captures the life of a black man from various African countries, England, and probably around the world. Will other nationalities of men see similarities in their lives as well? Probably, which is part of the charm and poignancy of The Barber Shop Chronicles.

A Fuel, National Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse production:

Began: Nov. 15, 2018.

Closes: Nov. 24, 2018.

Running Time:  1 hour, 40 minutes.

www.grandtheatre.com

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At the AKI Studio, 585 Dundas St. E., Toronto, Ont.

Marion Newman,
Photo by Dahlia Katz

 

Written by Jani Lauzon

Directed by Marjorie Chan

Musical director, Jerod Impichchaachaaha Tate

Set by Christine Urquhart

Costumes by Snezana Pesic

Lighting by Kaitlin Hickey

Sound by Marc Meriläinen

Cast: Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster

Howard Davis

Richard Greenblatt

Marion Newman

Aaron Wells

A fascinating play about Tsianina Redfeather, a Creek/Cherokee who was an opera singer in the early 1900s. The production is a busy swirl of movement but the deep implications of the story rise above the distractions.

The Story. This is a fascinating play that Jani Lauzon has written. A character named William Morin is a music student who is going off to University on an Indigenous scholarship.  While he is a classically trained pianist his aim is to discover the music of his Indigenous roots.

As he researches and investigates he learns about Tsianina Redfeather, a Creek/Cherokee opera singer who lived and sung in the early part of the 20^th century.  The spirit of Tsianina Redfeather seems to oversee William Morin as he struggles to fit in, to find his voice as an Indigenous artist and to discover true Indigenous music that has been appropriated by white musicians and return it to its pure form.

And then Redfeather appears to him and they have an on-going dialogue.  William Morin learns that Tsianina Redfeather also wanted to bring native songs to a white audience and to do it she travelled with Charles Wakefield Cadman, a white American musician who lectured on the American Indian in his travels.  He arranged the music and in a way appropriated it but not in a mean way. Perhaps he was just blinkered. But Tsianina Redfeather went along with it to bring that music and the stories of her people to a larger audience.  Cadman wrote an opera semi-based on Redfeather’s life and it was performed at the Metropolitan Opera in 1918 but Tsianina Redfeather did not insist on singing the title role there. She did sing it on tour and in Los Angeles.

The Production. Designer Christine Urquhart’s set is spare. A curtain of opaque strips hands upstage. A grand piano is stage right. When William Morin is at the piano we see a ghostly woman in Indigenous garb (beaded head-band, traditional dress and moccasins) illuminated behind the curtain, watching him. (I do get a little concerned when William plops his backpack on the top of the piano—a no-no for a piano—but he doesn’t do that again

But when William (Aaron Wells) ‘meets’ Tsianina Redfeather (Marion Newman) and digs deeper into her life and the life of other Indigenous artists, the play deals with deeper issues of appropriation, the total dismissing of the Indigenous voice in their music, stories and history.  It’s interesting to see how both William Morin and Tsianina Redfeather deal with the difficulties they meet in their efforts to be heard and to tell their stories.

It’s different: Redfeather is patient, thoughtful and has wisdom in solving the problems; William is impatient, frustrated but firm and eventually he finds his way through.

Marjorie Chan directs and quite often the staging is busy.  New information flees at us as the stage is a swirl of characters circling each other, flitting from one corner of the space to another and clarity becomes an issue. There is a traditional Indigenous reason for characters to circle each other, but it’s just too busy with five characters circling, moving and interacting,

Marion Newman plays Tsianina Redfeather with quiet wisdom that is compelling. And she sings the music beautifully, conveying their message with clarity.  She wears a traditional Indigenous costume with her headband and moccasins made by Jani Lauzon.

There is care in every detail.

Aaron Wells plays William Morin with a growing frustration of wanting to take advantage of the opportunity he has been given until he realizes he will have to find another way to discover his people’s music. Then he becomes driven but focused. And he too sings in a strong tenor voice.

Richard Greenblatt provides expert piano accompaniment as well as playing Charles Wakefield Cadman, a fussy, fastidious man who thought he was doing good by lecturing on the American Indian. Cadman wrote the opera Shanewis (The Robin Woman) which is partially based on Tsianina Redfeather’s life.

There certainly is a lot to consider with this challenging piece.

Comment. Initially I get the sense I Call myself Princess is more a collection of facts, information and history rather than a cohesive play. At times there are speeches by William Morin that seem simplistic whining about the plight of the Indigenous people.

He has a fight with his partner who is a light-skinned black man on who has suffered more.  I’m not sure that kind of dialogue is useful in trying to get a point across. It seems clichéd. But as the play goes on, playwright Jani Lauzon brings up all sorts of thorny issues of appropriation and deals with them in a thoughtful, measured way.

That issue of appropriation and not allowing an Indigenous voice to speak for itself has certainly filled our media of late.  I think of Robert Lepage not casting any Indigenous actors to be in his production of KANATA which is about the history of the Indigenous people in Canada. This is an attitude that is so blinkered it’s stunning.

That kind of cavalier attitude certainly informs Jani Lauzon’s play but it’s not handled as a rant by the character of Tsianina Redfeather. Lauzon has written her as such a wise woman. She has grace and a watchfulness that allows her to pick her battles.

Redfeather speaks up when she disagrees with Cadman regarding the ending of Shenewis and he goes along with her argument and adjusts the ending. Bravo to Jani Lauzon for introducing us to Tsianina Redfeather, her voice, her story and her accomplishments.

Produced by Paper Canoe Projects and Cahoots Theatre Productions in association with Native Earth Performing Arts.

Opened: Sept. 13, 2018.

Closes: Sept. 30, 2018.

Running Time: 2 hours.

www.nativeearth.ca

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Orlando

At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

Written by Virginia Woolf

Adapted by Sarah Ruhl

Directed by Katrina Darychuk

Set and lighting by Lorenzo Savoini

Costumes by Gillian Gallow

Sound and composed by Thomas Ryder Payne

Cast: Sarah Afful

Maev Beaty

John Jarvis

Craig Lauzon

Alex McCooeye

This is a perfect example of how a beautifully written, densely described book does not necessarily translate to the stage, no matter how talented the playwright. A deadly production regardless of the fancy-footwork of the director.

 The Story. It’s about Orlando who lived for about 400 years ago first as a man beginning in the time of Queen Elizabeth I until he was 30 and then as a woman for the rest of her life into the 20^th century. What Virginia Woolf is writing about is an entire history of English Literature, history, philosophy, politics, and sexual politics as seen through the eyes and experienced through the mind and body of Orlando.

He was born a boy into privilege in the time of Elizabeth 1, who fancied him.  He fell in love with a Russian princess of sorts named Sasha.  When Orlando was 30 he went to sleep and woke up as a woman and remained so for three centuries. She never changed her name.  She fell in love and married but her husband’s sexuality might have been in question too.

The Production. American playwright Sarah Ruhl has adapted the book into a play. The story is told as narrative in the third person by various characters. Occasionally Orlando  interacts directly with other characters and so the story gets told in various ways, but mostly as narrative and direct conversation to the audience.

The director, Katrina Darychuk has the audience on three sides of a rectangular playing in the middle of the theatre. Lorenzo Savoini, the set and lighting designer has a blotch of something shiny, seemingly liquid on the stage. Perhaps it represents the water of the Thames or ice the few times in its history that the Thames froze. There is a wall with a door suspended a bit above the floor. It looks impressive but I don’t know why it’s suspended. There is one chair outside the playing area that is one of the few props. Members of the chorus who also play characters are positioned at each corner of the rectangular playing area: one in a dark suit with a ruffled shirt, one in a regular suit, one in what looks like a monks robe.  Gillian Gallow’s costumes are stylish even witty. At one point Orlando is helped out of her tight 19^th century women’s corsets and form-fitting clothes into the more flowing garb of the 20^th century where she can be clothed comfortably and can actually breathe easy.

The various members of the chorus describe Orlando at sixteen and how he was born into privilege. The words of Virginia Woolf are used for the narrative and they are highly literary and dense in their description. We learn that Orlando is a courtier in the court of Elizabeth 1 and those scenes are acted out between Orlando, played by an expressive, courtly Sarah Afful. Elizabeth 1 is played with prissy affectation by John Jarvis in pants, an auburn wig, with a corset of sorts around his middle. You can see how besotted Orlando is when he meets and falls in love with the mysterious Russian princess, Sasha, played with flirty coyness by Maev Beaty, in skin-tight leather pants.

So much of Virginia Woolf’s novel is densely descriptive and yet compelling. But this does not translate into a vibrant play. In fact the play is deadly dull when great swaths of the narrative are presented in tact in the play.  And these actors are dull conveying the narrative as well.  They are good actors in other plays but here they are defeated by the play.

It’s directed by Katrina Darychuk who is a member of the Soulpepper Academy as a director—in other words she’s advancing her training here. She’s not ready for such a difficult play. She has stuffed her production with all manner of techno bells and whistles, flashing lights, balloons suspended above the stage only to be pricked for effect by a character. None of it helps to tell the story or make this leaden play lighter.

Comment.  Virginia Woolf was exploring sexuality in various guises in Orlando among other subjects. She dedicated the book to Vita Sackville-West, her one-time lover, whose life forms the framework for Orlando. Vita Sackville-West was married to a man but had affairs with women. It’s a dense book, full of long descriptions and musings.

Virginia Woolf has written a fascinating, complex novel about gender issues, literature, science and the world and as a novel it’s compelling. Sarah Ruhl has tried to take that compelling novel and make it an equally compelling play and it doesn’t work.

She is a gifted playwright, but sometimes even gifted writers stumble.  Orlando is a big stumble and this production doesn’t help.

 

Presented by Soulpepper Theatre Company

Plays until July 29, 2018.

Running time: 2 hours, 10 minutes, including one intermission.

www.soulpepper.ca

 

Pygmalion

At the Guild Park and Gardens, Scarborough, Ont.

Written by George Bernard Shaw

Directed by Jeannette Lambermont-Morey

Set and costumes by Rachel Forbes

Music director, Micaela Morey

Lighting by Cosette Pin

Cast: Devon Bryan

Shane Carty

Manon Ens-LaPointe

Tracey Ferencz

Emma Ferreira

Siobhan O’Malley

David John Phillips

Ashlie White

“Eynsford Hill” (Band): Manon Ens-LaPointe

Emma Ferreira

Ashlie White.

Generally a thoughtful, smart production of Shaw’s wonderful play that skewers the British class system and the importance of kindness in shaping a person.

The Story. Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw is perhaps Shaw’s most popular play, about a common flower girl in Covent Garden, London, England who is taught by Professor Henry Higgins how to speak properly and behave beautifully and it changes her life.  Professor Henry Higgins, a professor of phonetics, wagers that he can teach Eliza to speak properly and then present her at a garden party at Buckingham Palace. It’s the basis of the Lerner and Loewe musical My Fair Lady.

This of course references the Greek story of Pygmalion, a sculptor who creates a statue of a beautifully woman falls in love with it.

The Production. It’s being presented out doors at the beautiful Guild Park and Gardens in front of a kind of Grecian façade, in Scarborough. They had a terrific turnout and there were even some kids in the audience. The setting is beautiful but bring bug spray. Chairs are set up for the audience.

This is full of Shaw’s wit, perception about society, politics and psychology of people and how they relate. He skewers the British class system and how a plumy accent will get you promoted and a working class accent will keep one in the gutter. It’s about how to treat a person for the best results.

Higgins is off-handed, often short-tempered and rude to Eliza and generally everybody except Pickering. Shane Carty plays Higgins with confidence, perhaps a touch of arrogance and a simmering irritation at most things.  Higgins doesn’t care about anybody’s feelings and is a man who does not quite fit in to ordinary society. But there are clues that Higgins does have feelings and certainly for Eliza.  Carty is able to pop off those bon-mots about how he treats everybody the same—badly. He behaves badly when he’s crossed or challenged.  He’s a fascinating character and Shane Carty brings that out.

Pickering does care about everybody in the kindest way.  It’s not the first time in his plays that Shaw has said that the most important aspect of an interaction between characters is kindness.

Colonel Pickering (David John Phillips) is Higgins’ partner in this endeavor and the person who made the wager. Pickering treats Eliza with the utmost respect and courtesy and in a way taught her the manners she develops in the play. David John Phillips as Pickering is courtly, gracious and gentlemanly to all he meets, especially Eliza.

A lovely surprise is newcomer Siobhan O’Malley as Eliza Doolittle.  She is feisty without being screechy, a woman of character with plenty of pluck. As the transformed Eliza, O’Malley is poised, confident and able to spar with Higgins on his level.

I look forward to seeing more work from her.

Henry Higgins’ mother Mrs. Higgins as played by Tracy Ferencz has style, class and consideration, qualities that have not been passed on to her disagreeable son. Ferencz also plays Mrs. Pearce the no-nonsense housekeeper with a sweet conscience.

Director Jeannette Lambermont-Morey has done a lovely, smart job of directing this with clarity and imagination.  It’s a delicate dance establishing the prickly relationship between Higgins and Eliza, and the kind, respectful relationship between Pickering and Eliza but Lambermont-Morey does it beautifully. She uses the space well, solves the tricky ending of the play and gets strong performances from her cast.  So while this is a fine production in this idyllic setting but I have a few concerns.

Janet Heise is the producer for this show and before she told us to turn off our cell-phones she gave us about a 10 minute history of the park and the Grecian pillars. That history lesson should be cut.  Save it for a tour or a note in the program but giving this speech before a play we are to see is deadly to the whole enterprise.

Also, Director Jeannette Lambermont-Morey and her hard working musical director Micaela Morey have a trio of singers who play roles in the play. Collectively they are called “Eynsford Hill”, and sing four songs before the production, beginning with “Scarborough Fair” as a tip of the hat to Scarborough, where the play is taking place. Perhaps the songs are to get us in the mood for the play.

This is a mistake. We don’t need music to get us in the mood. The play does that. These songs only stop things in their tracks along with the history lesson. And “Eynsford Hill” also provides musical sound effects during some scenes. It’s distracting.  All the music should be cut.  We don’t need to be put in the mood with music. The songs only delay the proceedings. Other than that, I was glad I drove to Scarborough to see this production.

Guild Festival Theatre presents:

Began: July 11, 2018.

Closes: August 12, 2018.

Running Time: 2 hours, 15 minutes  (approx)

https://www.guildfestivaltheatre.ca/

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