Live and in person at the Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. until Oct. 2, 2024.
Based on the novel by Margaret Laurence
Text by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan
Directed by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier
Choreography by Cameron Carver
Set and lighting by Bretta Gerecke
Costumes by Jeff Chief
Composer, Andrina Turenne
Music director, arranger, additional composition and sound designer, MJ Dandeneau
Cast: Christopher Allen
Gabriel Antonacci
Dan Chameroy
Caleigh Crow
Allison Edward-Crewe
Jesse Gervais
Jonathan Goad
Josue Laboucane
Julie Lumsden
Irene Poole
Anthony Santiago
Tyrone Savage
Sara Topham
A beautifully rendered adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s classic novel, beautifully directed and acted.
Background: The Diviners is based on Margaret Laurence’s award-winning last novel, which she wrote in 1974. It’s been adapted for the Stratford stage by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan.
It’s a world premiere. It’s considered a classic of Canadian literature and has been taught across the country. It’s also one of the most banned books as well for its subject matter, depictions of racism, sex, class, colonialism, isolation and struggles of being an immigrant, a Métis and an outsider.
The Story. It begins in 1972 and takes place in both Ontario and Manawaka, a fictional small town in Manitoba. It’s about the life and struggles of Morag Gunn. She’s struggling with excessive drinking and trying to write. Her adult daughter, Pique has announced that she’s leaving to go west to find her father and to learn the truth about her heritage because Morag never really told her. Pique’s father is Jules Tonnerre, a Metis and Morag’s on again off again lover. This conjures all sorts of memories for Morag.
Morag’s life was not easy. She was orphaned when she was young—her parents died of polio. She was raised in Manitoba, by Christie Logan, an army friend of her late father. Christie was a proud Scots. He maintained the local dump and was therefore ridiculed by the town’s people. Christie was loving and kind to Morag and encouraged her in her life’s path. She loved reading and writing. She went to university to be a writer. She had an affair with her much older English professor, Brooke Skelton and eventually married him envisioning a life of writing and having children. That was not the plan of Brooke who treated Morag with disdain. He did not want children as much as he wanted someone to take care of his home. That’s when Jules Tonnerre re-appeared in her life—he was a traveling troubadour of sorts—and the result was Pique.
The Production. Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan have adapted Margaret Laurence’s book beautifully with sensitivity, vision and a boldness to bring this tough story to the stage. Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan have created a work of wonderful collaboration. Yvette Nolan is Indigenous and a wonderful writer. Vern Thiessen is not Indigenous and is also a wonderful writer and together they created the world of the book for the stage. They don’t shy away from the vicious racism of the book and yet for all the brutality of the story, there are moments of breathtaking tenderness and heartbreak.
For example, Jules Tonnerre’s sister Piquette died in a fire and no one helped. The town’s folk called her all sorts of despicable names when she was alive, but when her father pulled her out of the fire, dead, all he did was scream, “my daughter” “my daughter.” For all those terrible words we’ve heard describing the missing Indigenous women and girls, they are at a basic level someone’s daughter, sister, niece and friend. The spirit/ghost of Piquette (played with quiet dignity by Caleigh Crow) followed Morag’s daughter Pique (Julie Lumsden) as if to protect her. It’s a lovely image that bonds the Indigenous world and the white world together.
The Diviners is directed with vivid imagery and creativity by Krista Jackson with Genevieve Pelletier. While the production flips back and forth in time, you are never in doubt what time we are immersed in. Bretta Gerecke has designed a wonderful set and evocative lighting for the production. Floating above the stage is a mass of stuff, a sleigh, children’s stuff, toys, etc. In a sense these are Morag’s jumbled but distinct memories that keep coming back to her which leads to another memory. Krista Jackson and Genevieve Pelletier establish the relationships of characters with sensitivity.
Morag is played by Irene Poole with a fierceness that is impressive. When she is writing she is focused and formidable. The fingers fly over the typewriter keys like some possessed demon. This is a perfect way to depict the need to write. Irene Poole realizes all the conflicting aspects of Morag’s life: loving Christie but wanting to get out of that small town and see the world; wanting to be loved as a wife but wanting to be a mother, and most important, wanting to write. Irene Poole clearly illuminated the obsession with writing and the frustration when the words didn’t come. Wonderful work.
Jesse Gervais, as Jules Tonnerre is a mix of boyish charm and shyness. There is a quiet grace about this performance that brings out the kindness of Jules. Jules Tonnerre loved Morag and never wanted to crowd her or force her into the role of wife and what a mother should be. Instead he respected her need for independence and let her get on her journey. He was also a proud father—although he rarely saw his daughter Pique, but when he did, they bonded. As Christie Jonathan Goad is a rough and tumble Scots, proud of his heritage and of his work at the dump. He’s a man who can’t be put down. And his fatherly love of Morag is lovely. “Go be who you are” is his wonderful advice to her as she leaves home to study English and writing. The cast is very fine. Everything about The Diviners is exquisite.
The play did get me thinking about recent accusations of appropriation of one’s culture and voice. Margaret Laurence was not Indigenous, yet she felt she could write a Métis character without being Métis. I can’t recall any objections to that.
History is full of writers who have imagined other lives without having experiencing it first hand and been successful. Canadian playwright, Judith Thompson wrote a blistering play about Indigenous characters in their world in Crackwalkerand she’s not Indigenous.
Louise Fitzhugh wrote “Harriet the Spy” and “The Long Secret” about two white girls, but then wrote “Nobody’s Family is going to Change” about a Black middle class family in New York. Louise Fitzhugh was not Black. But she was a brilliant writer.
Of late the thought vigilantes believe that only a person who has experienced something can write about it. Gays should only write about gay issues; people of colour should only be the people who write about that experience etc.
This idea is blinkered and refuted soundly by such works as Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners because it’s the work of a gifted writer, which in turn is adapted by Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan, also two gifted writes.
Wonderful production.
Comment. I think The Diviners is both a classic and a target for banning for the same reasons, Margaret Laurence’s book is about Canada; it’s about the cultural divide in some cases: about being Métis and ostracized; being considered ‘other’, whether it was Jules Tonnerre for being a Métis or Christie Logan for working in the town dump and smelling all the time as a result. It’s about the sexual awakening of a young woman who lived outside the rules and was reprimanded for it. It’s about being independent, breaking rules for conduct, class consciousness, being Indigenous and what that entails, especially dealing with the judgements of one’s neighbours.
And of, course the thought and language vigilantes feel they must govern what people read and consider in matters of sex, society, cultural divides, independent thinking people and free spirits.
And I think it’s a classic because Margaret Laurence so captured the independent drive and spirit of Morag; her obsession to write; and Margaret Laurence also captured the sense of being other, because she was probably echoing her life to a certain extent in the novel. A treasure.
The Stratford Festival presents:
Plays until Oct. 2, 2024.
Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (1 intermission)