Measure for Measure
Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Streetcar Crowsnest, 345 Carlaw at Dundas, in Toronto, Ont. House & Body in association with Crow’s Theatre. Running until March 16, 2025.
Adapted by Christopher Manousos, after William Shakespeare
Directed by Christopher Manousos
Lighting designer, Chris Malkowski
Sound by Riel Reddick-Stevens
Cast: Jamie Cavanagh
Katherine Gauthier
Sébastien Heins
Beck Lloyd
Danté Prince
Let’s put Christopher Manousos on our radar as a creative, inventive theatre creator. His work as a director and adaptor of Measure for Measure is eye-popping. His gift for theatrical invention makes you sit up and lean into the production. He has adapted Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure to a brisk two hours and 20 minutes with an intermission without losing any of the drive, emotion or detail of the story.
Briefly, the play is about lust, trust, betrayal and trying to live by one’s convictions. The Duke of Vienna has managed to let all rule of law slide and to fix it he puts his deputy Angelo in charge, while he, the Duke, leaves the city. Angelo is a strict-by-the-book man. He sentences a man named Claudio to death for getting his fiancé pregnant. For this act, Claudio must die. Claudio’s sister, Isabella, about to become a nun, goes to Angelo to plead for her bother. Angelo is firm, but is so taken with her looks and eloquence that he offers her a solution: If Isabella sleeps with him, Angelo will spare Claudio. Exhale.
Chrisopher Manousos has adapted Measure for Measure as a play within a play. It takes place in a sound studio and a group of actors and technicians gather to present the play as a radio play complete with foley sounds that the actors etc. will create.
Two white tables, full of microphones, a pair of shoes, chains and other paraphernalia for making noise, are center stage. There is a narrator (Danté Prince) who will call out the act and scene of each selection. A husband and wife (Katherine Gauthier and Sébastien Heins) connected with the sound studio are also actors in the show. Another actor (Beck Lloyd) is hired at the last minute when someone drops out.
The acting is robust, assured and compelling when they are playing Measure for Measure. Sébastien Heins as Angelo and Beck Lloyd as Isabella are particularly fine. The others are dandy as well. When they are doing scenes outside the play the actors are flirty, contemporary and nuanced.
Some directorial choices seem contradictory. This is a radio show of Measure for Measure so initially the cast reads their scripts and speaks in front of microphones. But as the play progresses the actors negotiate the space reciting the text as memorized as if presenting a stage play for an audience. I’m sure Christopher Manousos has his reasons for this decision. I don’t know what it is, but the man is so inventive in his staging and so efficient in his adapting of the text, I didn’t mind. I’m looking forward to whatever he plans in the future.
House & Body in association with Crow’s Theatre Present:
Playing until March 16, 2025
Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (1 intermission)
The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
Live and in person at the AKI Studio, Daniels Spectrum, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Shifting Ground Collective. Playing until March 15, 2025.
www.shiftinggroundcollective.com
Music and lyrics by William Finn
Book by Rachel Sheinkin
Conceived by Rebecca Feldman
Directed by Jennifer Walls
Choreographed by Nicholas Rocque
Music directed by Michael Ippolito
Production designed by Jason Dauvin
Lighting designed by Niall Durcan
Sound designed by Al Starkey
Cast: Olivia Daniels
Nam Nguyen
Diana Del Rosario
Berkley Silverman
Jameson Mosher
Lauren Taylor Scott
Zoe Virola
Ben Ridd
Misha Sharivker
Band:
Conductor and keys by Mr. Mike “Uncle” Ippolito
Madie Lawrence on synth
Emily Morse on reeds
Dante Alaimo on cello
Amiel Ang on percussion
Delightful and tender.
The future of musical theatre in Toronto is bright if Shifting Ground Collective has anything to do with it. This is a collective of eager, musically enthusiastic, creative, tenacious young people who love musical theatre, the more challenging the better. They formed in 2022 and produced Ordinary Days followed by a nearly sold out run of Merrily We Roll Along. And now we have the quirky, heartwarming show, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
From the website: “At the 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, a group of passionate middle schoolers compete for the chance to prove to the world (and themselves) that the things that make them different are the things that make them winners—and maybe learn a little more about themselves along the way.”
There are six regular contestants, perhaps considered misfits by others, but each has their own angst and tenacity. The adenoidal William Barfée (Jameson Mosher) had a special way of spelling and the frustration of having to keep correcting the pronunciation of his last name. Rona Lisa Peretti (Olivia Daniels) fretted because both her parents weren’t there. Logainne SchwartzandGrubenniere fretted because both her fathers were so smothering and demanding. The others were hampered by a sense they were or should be perfect, or were terribly insecure and not perfect, etc.
There are ‘adults’: the kindly Olive Ostrovsky (Berkley Silverman) who is a former spelling bee winner, and Douglas Plance (Nam Nguyen), a cynical, perhaps bored supplier of the words and other information. Mitch Mahoney (Diana Del Rosario) is the imposing, stern soul who escorts the losers off the stage with a hint of a hug and a juice box.
There are also three volunteer spellers from the audience who bring their own fun. At my performance one young man noted as a special mention that he had been to the Taylor Swift concert twice—once in Toronto, once in Vancouver—now that is devotion!
The cast, including the volunteers, are wonderful to a person. They have a sense of the humour of the piece and know how to think on their feet. The professionals know how to sing and sell a song.
Jeniffer Walls is the inventive smart director. The pace is fast; the timing perfect; the charm and the humour is beautifully expressed. Wonderful work.
Shifting Ground Collective presents:
Playing until March 15, 2025
Running time: 100 minutes.