Lynn

Photo by Gemma James Smith l-r: Fiona Mongillo, Landon Doak, Jamie Mac, Geoffrey Armour, Hallie Seline

Live and in person on the Harvest Stage, Blyth Festival, Blyth, Ont. Playing until Aug. 4, 2024.

www.blythfestival.com

Written by Theatre Passe Muraille with new additions by the Company (the Blyth Company)

Directed by Gil Garratt

Set and lighting by Beth Kates

Costumes by Jenifer Triemstra-Johnson

Sound by Lyon Smith

Cast: Geoffrey Armour

Landon Doak

Jamie Mac

Fiona Mongillo

Hallie Seline

A truly once in a lifetime experience for so many reasons, not the least is seeing this iconic play in the area where it was created with many of the original creators in the audience, watching the new generation re-create it.

BACKGROUNED. In 1971, Paul Thompson went to the movies with his friend Ted Johns. The movie was about a Russian farmer who fell in love with his tractor, literally. At the time, Paul Thompson was the Artistic Director of Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto. The film gave Thompson an idea. The next year (1972) Paul Thompson and a group of Theatre Passe Muraille actors would go to farm country around Clinton and Blyth, Ont. for three months, and would interview farmers and their families etc. about the work and life of a farmer. At the time there were family farms filling that area. Sometimes the actors would do chores and work in the fields etc. of the farm for the experience of what a farmer does all day.  At the end of the day, the actors would gather their various stories and shape them into a play. Paul Thompson would direct it. The result was the celebrated Farm Show. The first performance was done in the barn of Ray Bird, one of the farmers interviewed. The original company of actors for that show were: Ann Anglin, David Fox, Al Jones, Fina MacDonell and Miles Potter.

Fast forward to 2024. This is the 50^th anniversary of the Blyth Festival, which does original Canadian plays usually focused on the area around Blyth, Clinton etc. Gil Garratt is the Artistic Director of the Blyth Festival. Gil Garratt felt it would be appropriate for the Blyth Festival to commemorate it’s 50^th anniversary with this ‘version’ of The Farm Show: Then & Now with the new cast of actors recreating  the stories as well as adding new stories to the mix.

Thrilling, moving, celebratory.

The Story. These are vignettes, interviews and re-enactments of life as a farmer in rural Ontario, around Clinton and Blyth, Ont. The stories of how the actors pitched in and ‘helped’ with the grueling work are hilarious. The stories of the work, the worry about crops, the family and the economy are sobering. The re-enactment of the animals on the farm, to the majesty of a tractor in the fields, are impressive and vivid.

The Production.  There is a warning of foul language. I assume that means liberal mentions of chickens, roosters and the like.

Beth Kates has created a set of a farm kitchen and other locations, that is spare and effective. There are two pews on either side of the playing area with a few folks watching the action, as if we all are in church. There is a map of the area with the various farms and the families who run them. They were all neighbours who knew each other and pitched in when help was needed.

Jamie Mac, says that his fellow actors will be playing actors who are playing farmers. Actors (Geoffrey Armour in particular) put their arms under their armpits, and walk exaggeratedly around the set, suggesting animals, birds, and fowl. Jamie Mac will play many characters including a spare-talking farmer who gets right to the point. He also has a monologue that references the financial/economic worry of a farmer who sees the price of his produce rise in the store but does not see it equally rise in his income. The monologue is detailed, nuanced and gives a chilling idea of the cost to the farmer it is to farm.

All five actors arrange themselves with Landon Doak on the shoulders of Jamie Mac creating a tractor traveling the fields. Majestic.

Landon Doak plays an actor named Miles Potter from the original production who has to move huge bales of hay. It’s back-breaking work and if one is not dressed properly for it, can shred one’s thighs. Apparently, Miles Potter wore shorts. Landon Doak’s performance is hilarious, sweat-inducing, and makes one cross one’s legs carefully in sympathy and the horrible shredding the hay caused to the thighs.

Fiona Mongillo plays, among others, a harried mother of seven, trying to manage all the chores with little help from her rambunctious children or her pre-occupied husband. Hallie Seline plays various characters, who are cheerful, stoical and resourceful.  

There are original songs sung and played on instruments by the cast. They are clever, funny and reflect that challenging life.

The whole wonderful production is directed with loving humour and care by Gil Garratt.

The production is dedicated to the memory of both Ray Bird and David Fox. The first production of The Farm Show was performed by the original cast in Ray Bird’s barn. David Fox was one of the original actors in the company.

Gil Garratt reached out to Miles Potter to write something for this production about David Fox. Gil Garratt read it on the opening night. It was very funny, thoughtful and moving.

If I have a quibble, it’s that we don’t need even a hint of explanation at the top of the show that says we will be required to use our imaginations; that sometimes they will use implements/props that will suggest other things. The audiences who have supported this wonderful festival for 50 years get it and know that.

This production of The Farm Show: Then & Now is glorious. It celebrates the dedicated folks who feed us—farmers. It is done in a way that also celebrates the gritty, fearless, artfully imaginative actors and their director, then and now.

Comment. Opening night of this production of The Farm Show: Then & Now was thrilling for those of us who have been around a bit to know who was there. Over there, with his magnificent white hair and beard, was Paul Thompson, the original director of The Farm Show, who also conceived of the idea. He was with his wife of many years, Ann Anglin, who was in the original production. Behind him was Ted Johns, and actor and important in those early years of Theatre Passe Muraille—who went to the movie with Paul Thompson that gave him the idea. He was with his wife of many years, Janet Amos, who was also in the original production of The Farm Show. Over there a few rows back, was a smiling Miles Potter, watching an actor play him 52 years before. This time Mr. Potter was wearing long pants. Years before, when The Farm Show played in Toronto at Theatre Passe Muraille for the first time, a high school class went to see the production. A fifteen-year-old member of that class was Seana McKenna (now one of this country’s most celebrated actors). She thought one of the actors in the company was cute. That was Miles Potter. They have been together since 1980. She was sitting with Miles Potter in that opening night audience as well, smiling.

What a privilege it was to be there.

The Blyth Festival Presents:

Playing until Aug. 4, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes approx. (1 intermission)

www.blythfestival.com

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At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Toronto, Ont. Runs until July 7, 2024.

www.soulpepper.ca

NOTE: This is a remount of the 2019 Soulpepper production with the same creatives and with a few cast changes. The review will repeat those aspects that are pertinent and expand on areas worth reflection.  

Written by Tennessee Williams

Directed by Weyni Mengesha

Set by Lorenzo Savoini

Sound by Debashis Sinha

Costumes by Rachel Forbes

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Cast: Divine Brown

Oliver Dennis

Shakura Dickson

Mac Fyfe

Kaleb Horn

Sebastian Marziali

Lindsay Owen Pierre

Gregory Prest

Amy Rutherford

Ordena Stephens-Thompson

A gripping production with some moments that are revelatory.

The Story. Fragile-minded, genteel Blanche DuBois comes to New Orleans to stay with her sister Stella and brother-in-law Stanley. Her nerves are frazzled. She’s been let go of her job as a teacher and she needs comfort.  She yearns for the glory days of her past when the family owned a stately plantation in Mississippi, now gone. What she finds in New Orleans is noise, confusion, the cacophony and oppression of close quarters and Stanley who doesn’t hide his contempt of her.

The Production. Director, Weyni Mengesha has envisioned a place that is alive with the noise of people living in close quarters and sometimes are short tempered about it. People bellow instead of talk. Fights break out at a simple poker game because people are impatient to win. It’s a place sticky with heat and pulsing with music. A band appears occasionally in a section of Lorenzo Savoini’s simple set. Stella (Shakura Dickson) and Stanley (Mac Fyfe) live in a tiny one bedroom apartment. A curtain separates the bedroom from the kitchen. Blanche (Amy Rutherford) will sleep on a cot in the kitchen. The bathroom is off the bedroom.  Outside Stella and Stanley’s apartment is an open space with a staircase that leads up to the second level and another apartment where Eunice (Ordena Stephens-Thompson) and her husband Steve (Lindsay Owen Pierre) live.

Playwright Tennessee Williams immediately sets up the world into which Blanche enters, which is so far and away from what she is used to. Stanley bellows Stella’s name. She tells him not to holler at her. Then he yells “Catch” and hurls a package at her saying, “Meat,” which she catches and laughs. It’s primal.

Blanche enters alone pulling her suitcase after her. She is dressed in a flowing dress and wide brimmed hat (kudos to Rachel Forbes for the costumes). The dingy, squalid surroundings appall her. She is used to a more refined, genteel world, at least in her imagination and memory. Her expectations will be challenged and diminished as the play goes on. She is there for several months, living as if Stella and Stanley are there to serve her. Blanche sneaks his liquor. She takes long baths to calm her nerves which always need calming, disrupting their routine as well. It’s to the credit of this production that we wonder how the three managed to stand each other for that long.

Sex is central to this production. As Blanche, Amy Rutherford has an almost chaste sexuality. We know she’s had a ‘past.’ never stops flirting and toying ‘innocently’ with men, especially young ones. Her voice is a southern purr. Her manner is genteel. Some men such as the innocent Mitch (a wonderful, understated performance by Gregory Prest) and the awkward Young Collector (a lovely performance by Kaleb Horn but please speak up—we need to hear you, and that goes for many others on that stage–PLEASE SPEAK UP AND SPEAK CLEARLY) are either captivated or unsettled by Blanche.

Stanley is another matter. As Stanley, Mac Fyfe plays him as he slowly boils at being toyed with and ‘played’ by Blanche. He is not captivated. He’s fed up and he’s going to teach her a lesson. Stanley is a sexual animal too but is more instinctive and predatory. Emotions have run high in that household and goes off the rails at Stanley’s poker game. He hits Stella. She runs out up the stairs to Eunice’s. Stanley stands at the bottom of the stairs and bellows Stella’s name in that most famous of scenes from the play. Over the years that bellow of “STELLA” has lost its meaning, certainly after the film of the play in which Marlon Brando played Stanley. It’s almost a joke. Until now.

Mac Fyfe bellows the name and it’s full of Stanley’s despair that he might lose her, regret that he’s gone too far and emotional pain from his guts. It sounds like an animal caught in a trap in the woods. In her turn Stella, played with lively sexuality by Shakura Dickson, comes out of Eunice’s apartment and rather than rushing down the stairs into Stanley’s arms full of forgiveness, she walks down slowly, seriously making him wait, and she leads with her hips. She’s won. She’s in control. She better than her sister, knows ‘how to play’ Stanley. That scene alone is devastating and thrilling.

Director Weyni Mengesha has tweaked the scene when Stanley and Blanche have their reconning—it’s sudden, brutish and brilliant.

Stanley and Stella can’t live without each other. But when Blanche obviously tells Stella what Stanley did to her, Stella can’t/won’t believe it. She tells Eunice she could not live with him if that is the case. But when Blanche is lead off by a Doctor and his nurse because her fragile mind has snapped it’s Stella who reacts with soul-crushing despair. Stanley holds her back, trying to comfort her. And in that wonderful directing and playing of the scene we know that Stella knows the truth of what happened.

Devastating and terrific production.

Comment. Director Weyni Mengesha has read the play through her lens. She believes that Stella left the plantation in Mississippi and all its airs and attitudes and came to New Orleans, Louisiana for a different life and outlook. She moved into the crowded, raucous, multi-ethnic, multi-cultural French Quarter with her robust, sexually driven, macho husband Stanley Kowalski. He is as far away from the imagined genteel manner of Blanche’s ideal as you can get. It’s interesting that Stella would also contend with Stanley’s occasional violence to her to be with him. For various reasons, Weyni Mengesha believes that Stella is Black and so has cast Shakura Dickson in the roll. Sounds reasonable.

Produced by Soulpepper

Opened: June 18, 2024.

Closes: July 7, 2024.

Running Time: 3 hours, 15 minutes. (1 intermission)

www.soulpepper.ca

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Live and in person in the Courtyard of the Aga Khan Museum, 77 Wynford Dr. Toronto, Ont. Produced by Modern Times Stage Company and the Aga Khan Museum in association with Theatre Artaud.

Plays until June 26.

www.moderntimesstage.com

Written by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani

Based on Rumi’s Masnavi.

Directed by Rafeh Mahmud

Scenic design, lighting and props by Waleed Ansari

Costumes designed by Niloufar Ziaee

Sound design and score by John Gzowski

Cast: Michaela Lily Davies

Rouvan Silogix

Navtej Sandhu

From the production’s program: “In the Courtyard of the Aga Khan Museum, witness a re-imagining and radical adaptation of Rumi’s “Masnavi”: The Caged Bird Sings reveals a cage within a cage as this surreal piece unfolds for audiences in the round.

An original piece written by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani, The Caged Bird Sings holds three prisoners: two star-crossed lovers and scientists, Rumi and Jin, who share a cell with Sal, a mysterious vagrant. As they navigate their new-found reality and reconcile their past lives, they are haunted by ghosts and demons of their own making. The piece explores Sufi mysticism, ideas of Fanafillah, the prisons—literal and the metaphorical—that we are put in, that we put ourselves in and that we create ourselves, and how and whether it’s possible to escape such prisons.”

From the all-knowing-Google: “Jalāl al-Dīn Muḥammad Rūmī, or simply Rumi, was a 13th-century poet, Hanafi faqih, Islamic scholar, Maturidi theologian, and Sufi mystic originally from Greater Khorasan in Greater Iran. Rumi’s works were written mostly in Persian, but occasionally he also used Turkish, Arabic and Greek in his verse.”

“The Masnavi, is an extensive poem written in Persian by Jalal al-Din Muhammad Rumi, also known as Rumi. The Masnavi is one of the most influential works of Sufism, ascribed to be like a “Quran in Persian”. The Masnavi is a series of six books of poetry that together amount to around 25,000 verses or 50,000 lines. It is a spiritual text that teaches Sufis how to reach their goal of being truly in love with God.“

Waleed Ansari has designed a beautiful set of the cell/prison that looks like a kind of birdcage. There are ornate rugs on the floor with two simple cots for sleeping. One bed has pillows that look embroidered in vibrant colours. Sal (Rouvan Silogix) sleeps on that cot. Rumi (Mikaela Lily Davies) and Jin (Navtej Sandhu) alternate with the other cot.

The text of Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani is divided into three parts: Fortune, Frenzy and Fanaa. Each part is then divided into sections, eight sections for the first part, six for the second part and seven sections for the third part. A section might deal with an ancient story, some esoteric musings etc.

The basic story is that two women, Rumi and Jin, are lovers and partners in a business that sells a love potion they created. One feels it would help humanity. The other wants to make money. They seem to have a difference of opinion of what is important. Sal says that he has been in that cell for a thousand years and is a former king who fell in love with one of his slaves, which is forbidden.

As Rumi, Mikaela Lily Davies gives a nuanced, impassioned performance. As Jin, Navtej Sandhu is emotional, driven and committed. Rouvan Silogix plays Sal with deliberately ‘over-the-top’ enthusiasm. One can imagine such enthusiasm because for the first time in a thousand years of captivity, Sal has company to ease his burden. These are three fascinating performances.

The writing is a combination of contemporary colloquialisms, poetic lyricism, vivid imagery and  creative metaphors. The stories are arresting with the occasional one being impenetrable for its meaning.

Rafeh Mahmud has directed an elegant, beautifully imagined world of realism and mysticism. Mahmud has conjured a world of antiquity and one of now. It’s a wonderful exercise to discover the mysteries of the piece: what is the prison cell? Can they really escape? Why are they there? Are they prisoners of their own imagination? What an adventure to delve into poet Rumi’s world as realize by Rouvan Silogix, Rafeh Mahmud and Ahad Lakhani.

One of the notes for the production lamented the quality of translations/adaptations of Rumi, in that sometimes aspects were ‘erased’, hence the version the three co-writers created. It’s a pity that the program didn’t list any translations/adaptations the three co-writers found acceptable. Those of us who are curious would love to seek out these versions.

If you go, remember that the show is done outdoors in the courtyard of the beautiful Aha Khan Museum. Dress appropriately.

The Caged Bird Sings

Modern Times Stage Company and the Aga Khan Museum in association with Theatre Artaud, present, at 77 Wynford Dr. Toronto, Ont.

Playing until June 26, 2024.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.moderntimesstage.com

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Live and in person at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Sept. 28, 2024.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by Henrik Ibsen

In a new version by Patrick Marber

From a literal translation by Karin and Ann Bamborough

Directed by Molly Atkinson

Set and costumes by Lorenzo Savoini

Lighting by Kaileigh Krysztofiak

Composer and sound by Mishelle Cuttler

Cast: Bola Aiyeola

Joella Crichton

Brad Hodder

Kim Horsman

Tom McCamus

Gordon S. Miller

Sara Topham

Some fine acting and scenes of inventive direction, but the overall effect is an uneven, disappointing production.

The Story. Hedda Gabler is a strong-willed woman living at a time when women had to conform to a certain code of behaviour in order to be considered respectable. She was brought up by General Gabler, who instilled in her a way to expect to live. She should marry well, have servants and would entertain in a grand house.

Hedda was attracted to wild men of questionable character, such as Judge Brack and Eilert Lovborg. But she knew a close association with them would be socially wrong. So she married the only respectable man who showed interest, Tesman, a nerdy scholar who wanted to marry her and hoped that a professorship would lead to a good living.

They have just returned from an extended honeymoon where Hedda was bored to say the least. In the meantime, Tesman went into debt to buy Hedda’s ideal house. Judge Brack worked in the background to help secure the house. Tesman’s Aunt Juliana put up her annuity to secure the furniture, which concerned Tesman when he found out. And Tesman learns that Lovborg might be vying for the same professorship now that he has written a hugely successful book. Things begin to unravel quickly and Hedda felt not only bored in this marriage, but also trapped and desperate when she realizes that her social status might be jeopardized by ‘slippery’ Judge Brack.

The Production.  Lorenzo Savoini has designed a beautiful set to suggest the grand size of the house. There is only a chaise downstage and a fireplace upstage, otherwise the stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre is bare. A lighting effect on the whole width of the stage of the theatre illuminates the shadows of two large window settings, which also give the sense of the size of the house.Bravo for this simple and effective lighting by Kaileigh Krysztofiak.

When Aunt Juliana (Bola Aiyeola) arrives to see her nephew Tesman (Gordon S. Miller) and his new bride Hedda (Sara Topham) she looks up and around the space, adding another means of suggesting the size of the place—Kudos to director Molly Atkinson. Gordon S. Miller is a lively Tesman who is passionate about his work, and eventually stands up for his rights with Hedda.

When Hedda (Sara Topham) makes her entrance she is cool, regal, haughty and in command. The emptiness of the Tom Patterson stage provides an expanse over which Hedda can rule.

Sara Topham as Hedda strides across the stage, owning it.  The problem is that too often it looks like Molly Atkinson could not stage characters to appear as if they were having ordinary conversations on such a large stage. There is often such a distance between them, as if that is how she could ‘fill up’ the space.   Interestingly Molly Atkinson is more successful in staging/directing intimate scenes that take place on the chaise between Hedda Gabler and Lovborg (Brad Hodder) a former lover. The attempt at secrecy and reliving their former seductive connection is nicely achieved.

While Sara Topham has the hauteur of Hedda Gabler, the regal bearing and arrogant condescension, it seems as if she is skimming the surface of this deeply complex woman. There is more nuance to Hedda than Topham has invested.  

As Lovborg, Brad Hodder is a combination of a man who needs to appear as if he is reformed from his previous wild reputation, but also show that that wildness is close to the surface. The audience also gets an intriguing look at Judge Brack (Tom McCamus), an elegant and outwardly charming man, who keeps his darker purpose hidden for the most part. Judge Brack is one of Hedda’s wild, inappropriate men in her past, who will tighten his grip on her (figuratively and literally), leading her to make a drastic decision about her future. Tom McCamus is both seductive and dangerous.

Joella Crichton is a good actress, as was seen last year in her performance in The Wedding Band, but in Hedda Gabler she makes Mrs. Elvsted seem flighty and light-weight. Mrs. Elvsted has more depth than that. And I got the sense that Joella Chrichton was given line readings by her director, with deliberate pauses before words, thus making the performance seem laboured and tentative.  

Patrick Marber is a wonderful playwright, director and adaptor in his own right, but I found his new version of Ibsen’s classic, problematic. Most important is that this version seems wrong for this production. Patrick Marber initially adapted Hedda Gabler for the 2016 production directed by Ivo Van Hove for the National Theatre in London. In an Ivo Van Hove production more often than not, it’s about the director and his ‘vision’ rather than the playwright’s vision of the play (an exception would be his thrilling production of A View from the Bridge).  

This version is blunt where nuance, irony and subtlety are in order. When Hedda says they will have to fire the maid because she has left an old hat on the chaise, Auntie Juliana defends herself because it’s her hat and she bought it especially to impress Hedda. As Aunt Juliana, Bola Aiyeola shows her hurt but then she says to Hedda with an edge, “Don’t be mean.” Really? In a thousand years that character would never say that to Hedda because she was always careful not to put her nephew in jeopardy with his wife. That line or even a hint of it is not in any production I’ve seen or the various adaptations I have. I reckon that Patrick Marber put that line in because Ivo Van Hove told him to—playing fast and loose with the text.

Also, there is little here to suggest that Hedda and Brack are on the same wavelength even though they toy humourously with each other at the expense of others. I think of the ‘triangle-train’ reference in other versions of the play. Brack wants to be an important part of a domestic connection to a husband and wife that will form a triangle between Hedda, Tesman and himself.  Hedda says that she longed for another person on the train besides her boring husband to amuse her. Brack suggests that he would have loved that position. He says this to Hedda when Tesman is away. When Tesman returns, Brack says quietly to Hedda something like: “The triangle is complete….” In other productions Hedda would say, (in perfect balance) “The train moves on.” This dialogue illuminates the seductive connection between Brack and Hedda—secretive and eventually dangerous. To remove it from the adaptation diminishes the connection.     

Comment. There are some good aspects of this production but the overall effect is one of disappointment.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until September 28.

Running time: 1 hour, 58 minutes (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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This brilliant post is from Sky Gilbert’s blog: ANOTHER BLOG THAT NOBODY READS. It’s from Sat. 2, Sept. 2023. It’s vita reading in these self-absorbed, fragile-minded, timorous, angry, fractious times, when bravery, guts, and a good dose of a sense of humour are needed to deal with the every day.

Saturday 2 September 2023

When Theatre Was Fun

(Apologies to Joe Brainard)

I remember when theatre was fun

I remember when we used to anticipate rehearsal with longing, not fear

I remember when directors were not perfect (no one was)

I remember when there were no rules about being together and rules about touching one another

I remember when actors wanted to be vulnerable

I remember when actors went into psychotherapy but they wanted to know how fucked up they were instead of being afraid of it

I remember Marylin Monroe

I remember James Dean

I remember when actors were brave and eager to confront startling issues and ‘hot topics’ and to play crazy characters (and you could say the word ‘crazy’) and it was all part of the fun

I remember when my friend David Roche used to call theatre ‘four people being rude in a room’ 

I remember ‘hump the hostess’ and ‘get the guests’ and ‘what a dump!’

I remember when people with mental health issues didn’t have to apply for their own grants in a special category but worked with us — because a lot of real artists have mental health issues anyway — and the whole theatre community understood that and welcomed people with mental health issues with open arms, as art itself was a mental health issue

I remember the imagination

I remember the subconscious

I remember dreams

I remember ‘madness’

I remember not policing language

I remember jokes

I remember real sensitivity, not when people broke the unspoken terrifying politically correct rules, but real people were sensitive to real human things in the moment

I remember when we didn’t lie except in the right way

I remember when we didn’t do lip service piously to all sorts of dogma that we didn’t really believe in — but we now think that we must — in order to continue our work

I remember when art was political, but you didn’t have to agree with the politics to do it

I remember when it was about your body and your soul and most of all your heart and not your social justice ideas

I remember when theatre was surprising and unsettling

I remember when actors and writers and directors didn’t hold artists up to impossible expectations that they.could never realize themselves

I remember when we had to learn how NOT to judge, instead of  HOW to judge

I remember when thought was free

I remember when no idea was a crime

I remember when everyone knew that a lot of artists have been criminals, and artists weren’t afraid to welcome the criminal element in their work which, after all, to quote Penny Arcade, is what separates art ‘from academia’

I remember when theatre was yeah sexy and boozy and in your face

I remember when actors used to yell at the audience directly — not religiously and passive aggressively lecture them about politically correct dogma

I remember the God DIonysus

I remember when there were awful bad people in the theatre and there were things like sexism and homophobia; but we tried to deal with it without demonizing everybody, and turning acting and directing into a terrifying nightmare in which we were all afraid to be honest with each other

I remember feeling things, as a group

I remember when theatre was a place where —  though we were often wearing a mask — we could be ourselves

I remember hiding in theatre, in a very good way

I remember catharsis

I remember seeing horrible images in rehearsal and onstage, and not turning away or asking for sensitivity training or check-in days, or crayons to do colouring

I remember laughing from the gut and not feeling guilty 

I remember when theatre was fun

Do you?

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Live and in person at the Princess of Wales Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Plays until July 21, 2024.

www.mirvish.com

Music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz

Book by Winnie Holzman

Based on the novel by Gregory Maguire

Directed by Joe Mantello

Set by Eugene Lee

Costumes by Susan Hilferty

Lighting by Kenneth Posner

Sound by Tony Meola

Projections by Elaine J. McCarthy

Cast: Austen Danielle Bohmer

Aymee Garcia

Kayla Goldsberry

Blake Hammond

Erica Ito

Kingsley Leggs

Xavier McKinnon

Lauren Samuels

Wayne Schroder

Tregoney Shepherd

Mitchell Tobin

Alex Vinh

Lively, energetic, tuneful, with some strong performances. But as seems to be the norm with touring Broadway musicals, the orchestra drowns out the singers and the singers try to compensate by pushing their voices resulting in the lyrics get muddied. And the story has always been problematic.

The Story. From the Mirvish Website: “SO MUCH HAPPENED BEFORE DOROTHY DROPPED IN.

WICKED, the Broadway sensation, looks at what happened in the Land of Oz…but from a different angle. Long before Dorothy arrives, there is another young woman, born with emerald green skin—smart, fiery, misunderstood, and possessing an extraordinary talent. When she meets a bubbly blonde who is exceptionally popular, their initial rivalry turns into the unlikeliest of friendships…until the world decides to call one “good,” and the other one “wicked….The untold ‘true’ story of the Witches of Oz.”

An unhappily married woman has a one-night-stand with a ‘snake-oil-salesman’ who offers her an emerald green elixir to ‘calm her down.’ When she gives birth nine months later, she and her unsuspecting husband are horrified that the baby has emerald green skin. The child is named Elphaba. She is smart, bright and has magical powers, but nothing will get her father to love her. Elphaba is sent away to a private school where she is shunned by her classmates because of her skin colour. She is roomed with Glinda, blonde, beautiful and very popular. Glinda is not smart, wise or briming with character. She loathes Elphaba and the feeling is returned. Then a dashing, but superficial prince named Fiyero, arrives. Glinda zeroes in on him and the attention is returned. But slowly his attentions turn to Elphaba. There is also the Wizard of Oz who intrigues Elphaba because of her magic abilities. She wants to meet him and feels they would be kindred spirits. Terrible complications arise. Glinda will become ‘The Good Witch,’ and Elphaba will be known as “The Wicked Witch of the West.”

The Production and comment. Background Note. Wicked has been running on Broadway since 2003. It has garnered all sorts of Awards including Tony Awards and Grammy Awards. It has had successful runs in the West End in London and internationally. In other words, it’s a huge success.

When the orchestra strikes up, I note the word LOUD! in my programme. When the flying monkeys and other citizens of Oz scurry on bellowing that the wicked witch is dead, I write ‘ear-splitting’ in my programme. T’was ever thus with most touring Broadway musicals. The powers that be who control the sound levels feel the audience must experience an explosion of sound rather than experience a reasonable sound level that allows them to actually hear the lyrics and music clearly. This is not the fault of the theatre (and Mirvish Producitons, which is presenting this show), it’s the originating creator of sound—Tony Meola, take a bow. One complains about this recurring noise of sound that is too loud and is ignored. Perhaps the sound folks are deaf. But to continue….

Eugene Lee’s Tony Award winning set of Oz etc. is a huge neon creation of large gears and a huge clock and above the set is a forbidding red-eyed (metal?) monster of a bird-thing. The reason for the gears and monster is explained in Gregory Maguire’s book on which this musical is based, but not actually explained in Winnie Holzman’s book of the musical.

The citizens of Oz sing “No One Mourns the Wicked” in the first song, which is really the end of the story (the story will then flash back to how it all started). Glinda, the Good Witch (Austen Danielle Bohmer) is in a large bubble that floats above the folks below, smiling but looking troubled as her followers/and fans sing of how they are glad of the death of the Wicked Witch. Glinda doesn’t say anything to change their minds.  As the story does unfold we learn the truth about the so called Wicked Witch (Elphaba, played wonderfully by Lauren Samuels). Joe Mantello directs with a grand vision and attention to the breathtaking pace.

On the surface Wicked looks like it’s a story of two different women who become friends. Glinda is smiley and bubbly in attitude, attractive to everybody, and thought to be the “Good Witch.” It’s not that she’s good. Rather it’s that she’s compliant, accommodating, never challenges anyone because she wants to be liked and popular.

Elphaba is generally loathed because of her emerald green skin. She’s different and different is to be shunned. Elphaba has a conscience and lives a principled life. She has ethics. She can spot phoniness a mile off and has Glinda’s number. She believes initially Glinda is vapid and without backbone. And Elphaba’s moral fiber shows when she is furious when she learns the decree that animals can no longer teach at her school. That means that her beloved Doctor Dillamond (Kingsley Leggs), a goat, cannot teach her any longer.  Elphaba is also horrified that an Ozian Official wants to keep uncooperative animals (and humans?) in cages to calm them down.

Overtime Glinda and Elphaba became friends, sort of. Perhaps Elphaba just comes to accept Glinda’s innate silliness and Glinda comes to see Elphaba’s goodness. They have a song in Act II called “For Good” in which Glinda and Elphaba sing of their friendship in the most whimsical, philosophical leanings.  

“Who can say if I’ve been changed for the better
But because I knew you
I have been changed for good.”

All I can say is “ohhhhh PULLLLLeeeeze!!” You wonder if composer/lyricist Stephen Schwartz and writer Winnie Holzman were in the same room or if they both looked at the other’s work. It’s a very clever play on the words of ‘better’ and ‘good’ but the song is dishonest because neither character changed because of knowing the other. Glinda never developed a deepened character and Elphaba never lost her moral fiber.

On a deeper level Wicked is a metaphor for the dangers of exclusion, segregation, racism, dictatorship, Fascism, and how quickly lies can spread by blinkered, lemming-like people who are so stupid they would believe anything, as they have believed the lies about Elphaba. Fiyero (a fine performance of grace and style by Xavier McKinnon) has a wonderful line in which he wonders if people can be that stupid that they would believe the lies about Elphaba—and of course they can be that stupid, just look at ‘social’ media. Fiyero is the one whose consciousness has been raised by knowing Elphaba.

Elphaba is so fed up with people thinking her evil that she decides to play that game and act it. Lauren Samuels as Elphaba sings the rousing “Defying Gravity” in which Elphaba will live by her own rules and not others. Lauren Samuels has a stunning strong voice, and her acting chops are dandy. By contrast Austen Danielle Bohmer as Glinda is tentative in her acting and unsteady in her high notes. She fares better in duets with Lauren Samuels.

When Elphaba is planning an escape she asks Glinda to promise her that she (Glinda) will not tell the citizens the truth about her (Elphaba), that she was in fact a decent person. Glinda agrees. Here is my endless concern with this work—why does Elphaba want the citizens to believe a lie and not the truth about her? It’s never explained and Glinda (of course) never asks—always wanting to be compliant and agreeable to the end. Elphaba’s planned escape will be permanent, so why the mystery about her true nature?  

Wicked is rousing, lively and tuneful. It’s based on Gregory Maguire’s clever book of the same name and has just enough seriousness and depth of the story to make it look like it’s about something important.

Mirvish Productions presents:

Plays until July 21, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes (1 Intermission)

www.mirvish.com

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Live and in person at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts. Soulpepper presents the Soho Theatre and Haley McGee Production in association with Luminato Festival Toronto. Plays until June 23.

www.soulpepper.ca

Written and performed by Haley McGee

Directed by Mitchell Cushman

Scenic designer, Zoë Hurwitz

Lighting by Daniel Carter-Brennan

Sound by Robert Moutey

An exquisite piece of theatre.

Age is a Feeling is written and performed by Haley McGee who first did this at the Edinburgh Festival, where it won a Festival First Award. It then played the Soho Theatre in London, England where it was nominated for an Olivier Award.

Now Haley McGee, who is Canadian but living in London, England for the last six years, has brought her show ‘home’, to the Young Centre for the Performing Arts until June 23.

It’s the journey of a woman’s life through the years from the age of 25 until about 90 years old, when she dies. It’s about her searching for happiness, love, fulfillment, adventure, the meaning of mortality and life. It’s not necessarily autobiographical (as her previous show The Ex-Boyfriend Yard Sale), but parts of it could be.

According to the show’s information “Age is a Feeling celebrates the glorious and melancholy unknowability of human life. Inspired by hospices, mystics and trips to the cemetery, Age is a Feeling wrestles with our endless chances to change course while we’re alive. A covert rallying cry against cynicism and regret. A call to seize our time.”

Zoë Hurwitz has created a beautiful, calm set full of mystery and flowers. In the center of it all a bit upstage, is Haley McGee sitting in a high lifeguard chair, looking out at the audience, the world, etc. That lifeguard chair seems a fitting metaphor—the person who sits there potentially saves lives, and here McGee tells her long, vivid, complex story of a suggested life, full of incident and events. On the stage are 12 perpendicular formations of flowers in pots on which is a large sign with one word on the sign such as: egg, dog, crabapple, oyster, bus, plane etc.

Haley McGee takes some of the signs off the flowers and fans them out to the front row, so that they can’t see the word, asking an audience member to pick two of the cards. Depending on which cards the audience member picks, dog, egg etc. those are the stories Haley McGee will tell. The other stories will not be told that performance. If one does want to know the stories that were not told, one can buy Haley McGee’s book and read it for all the stories.  

For my performance Haley McGee told stories about meeting a man on the bus and chatting to him, and how they formed a relationship. Another was about wanting a dog and finally getting one and loving it intensely. Another was about planting a crabapple tree when a loved one died.

Each story was richly detailed, beautifully told, usually about searching for love, or friendship or trying to cheer up a distant person. Haley McGee’s observations on life, love, the search for fulfillment, are exquisite. There is such a depth of emotion and humour in each story and in the telling.

And she is masterful in telling them, she is never rushed, so that you are hanging on to every word as she goes through the spectrum of emotions in the story-telling.  She talks of the love between friends, between an old couple that have been together for years, the blush of young love.

It’s beautifully, sensitively directed by Mitchell Cushman.

Age is a Feeling is exquisite and will leave you feeling buoyed, exhilarated, tingling, and glad you saw it.

Soulpepper presents the Soho Theatre and Haley McGee Production in association with Luminato Festival Toronto.

Plays until June 23, 2024.

Running time: 75 minutes, (no intermission)

www.soulpepper.ca

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Live and in person at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque, Ont. Plays until June 22, 2024.

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Written by Sophia Fabiilli

Directed by Krista Jackson

Set and costumes by Sue LePage

Lighting by Louise Guinand

Sound by Lyon Smith

Cast: Deborah Drakeford

Lucy Hill

Nora McLellan

Justin Otto

Courtenay Stevens

Note: I first saw Liars at a Funeral last summer at the Blyth Festival. It had the same cast as this one except for two new actors (Deborah Drakeford and Courtenay Stevens) here at Thousand Islands Playhouse. This is not a remount. It’s more like a refresh with director Krista Jackson revisiting the production to see if scenes can be funnier, re-imagined and deeply felt. She has also used the many and various strengths of Deborah Drakeford and Courtenay Stevens to re-imagine the characters, and not do a copy of the previous actors. The result is a fresh, very funny and moving production. Much of the following review re-uses the Blyth review with appropriate changes to reflect the new actors and scenes that have been heightened. I was so glad I saw Liars at a Funeral in Thousand Islands Playhouse.

“Buoyant, very funny, lively and leaves you breathless with laughing.”

As Tolstoy said (at the beginning of “Anna Karenina:”) “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” He could be talking about Mavis (Nora McLellan) and her family in Liars at a Funeral.

No one is talking to anyone in the family: Mavis’ daughter, Evelyn (Deborah Drakeford), is estranged and living in Montreal; Evelyn’s marriage broke up and her husband Wayne (Courtenay Stevens) married Evelyn’s twin sister Sheila, who has since passed away. Needless to say, the sisters didn’t talk to each other. And Mavis’ twin granddaughters, Dee Dee and Mia (both played by Lucy Hill) are not talking to each other as well. There seems to be a curse in that family of twin girls who then don’t talk to each other for whatever reasons. Mavis has to do something drastic to stop the curse and get the family talking to each other again. So she plans her own ‘fake’ death and her funeral too, which, she figures, will get everybody to attend and hence come together. Only her granddaughter Dee Dee (Lucy Hill) and Dee Dee’s friend Quint (Justin Otto) who works at the funeral home, know about the plan.

But things go wrong, as they do, when the funeral home director, Leorah (Deborah Drakeford), comes back early after being away.  Things go into overdrive in trying to keep Leorah from seeing Mavis (who spends a lot of time climbing into and out of her casket as she tries to bring off this trick).

Playwright Sophia Fabiilli has written a devilishly funny, complicated farce. Fabiilli has a wonderful facility with language and the jokes come naturally from people who are funny and irreverent. To ramp up the laughs not only do people enter and exit rooms just as someone arrives that they should not see, Fabiilli does it with twins. To further complicated matters and raise the humour bar, almost the whole cast plays two parts. You can imagine…. Doors are always swinging open or shut with characters entering and exiting and it’s done quickly, as farces should move.

Director Krista Jackson has a keen sense of timing, pace and humour. How does one keep it all straight? Who comes in the room just as someone is leaving? What twin is it? Did the actor put on the right costume for the right character? Most important, is this the scene where the ‘zipper’ is up or down? And of course, a neat trick that got my eyes popping—if a twin sister climbs into the casket to hear how things are going ‘out there,’ how did she then get out of the casket (without us seeing her) to play the other twin who just came in the door?

The cast is terrific . Nora McLellan is Mavis, buoyant, committed, funny, anxious that this scheme work and loving her family. Nora McLellan invests Mavis with such good will and energy you want this to work out even if she might not have been the best of mothers in the past. And McLellan has a gift in being funny and moving at the same time. Her determination as Mavis to keep things upbeat but knowing it could all go bust at any time. There is an urgency to ensuring this works. Nora McLellan is terrific.

Deborah Drakeford plays Evelyn the estranged daughter, with an uptight anxiety at being there at all. She has secrets she can’t share but knows she needs to be at this funeral because she has been estranged from her mother, and regrets it. Evelyn is a caring woman, kind, loving and wary of what is going on around her. As Leorah, the raunchy, sexually charged funeral home director Deborah Drakeford is commanding in her tight leather pants, free-spirited, coy and alluring. As uptight as Evelyn is, Leorah is as prowling and sexually charged.  Courtenay Stevens plays both Frank and Wayne and brings his considerable talents as a clown to both roles. He has a dexterousness in his body language and knows how to mind a line for a laugh. Frank is ‘posing’ as Evelyn’s boyfriend from Montreal. He is attentive and tries hard to appear ‘macho.’ Courtenay Stevens also plays Wayne, Evelyn’s ex-husband. Wayne drinks too much and is a bit of a pushy boor. Again, Stevens is varied and very funny.  

Lucy Hill plays both Dee Dee and Mia, twin sisters with different attitudes and personalities. Justin Otto plays both Quint the awkward, insecure assistant at the funeral home who is sweet on Dee Dee, and Justin Otto also plays Cam, a lively jock who loves Mia.  I was mighty impressed with Lucy Hill and Justin Otto last year at Blyth—two young actors who were new to me. This year their performances are deeper, funnier and very confident.

Sue LePage’s set design of the funeral home is tasteful and efficient. The décor is deep purple. There are four doors for fast entrances and exits. Sue LePage’s costumes are witty, sly and slinky in the case of Leorah who wears a form-fitting top and patterned black tights or leather pants and black boots. Louise Guinand shines a flattering light on the whole enterprise.

Liar’s at a Funeral is wildly funny and made more so in this production. See it at the Thousand Islands Playhouse to get your heart pumping with the humour and joy of it, and then go out on the deck of the theatre and calm yourself by looking at the beauty of those thousand islands in the shimmering water.

Thousand Islands Playhouse presents:

Runs until June 22, 2024

Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes (1 intermission)

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Live and in person at the Tarragon Extra Space, The Wee Festival, presents Florschűtz & Döhnert (Germany), Toronto, Ont. Playing until Sunday, June 9, 2024.

www.weefestival.ca

This show is absolutely delightful. Magical even, To hear a room full of children two years old to about five laughing together, without hesitation is stunning. How do these artists know how a child will take to an image?

 A man sitting on a ladder holds a fishing pole and line out over a circle. A woman wearing a hat stands in the circle. The man carefully places the end of the line on the hat of the woman and slowly lifts the hat off her head. The children roar with delight.  With every lift of the hat, they roar again. Magical.

She finds an egg that she calls a bird. She places it in her hat for safekeeping. Also there are feathers. He takes a feather and drops it, watching it float down, saying “Rawums” because that is the sound they imagine a falling object makes. The young audience roars with delight again.

He takes a small, heavy bag and drops it, waiting for it to float down, which it doesn’t…Thud. Laughter. Balloons are used to lift a bird, a chair, a house. The images created by such artistry is stunning. The children squeal with delight.

Michael Döhnert is the man and Melanie Florschütz is the woman. They got the idea, created the objects, balloons, birds, houses.

It was a privilege to sit in this audience of young children, watching theatre artists who know how to create magic for young audiences. And the older ones too. Please see this if you can.

Fri. June 7: 10 am (PA day)

Sat. June 8: 4 pm

Sun. June 9, 11 am.

www.weefestival.ca

RAWUMS (:)

Florschütz & Döhnert (Germany)

A trip to the wonderful world of Gravity!

“Rawums” according to the artists behind the piece, is the sound of something falling. Two curious characters explore and discover the laws of gravity! Why does a feather hover gently in the air, while a bag crashes heavily on the ground? But then what about a house? a chair? or even a person? Can they fly? They’re determined to find out!

A show about floating, flying, and falling.

Production: florschütz & döhnert
Coproduction: Theater o.N./ZINNOBER and SCHAUBUDE BERLIN
Artistic cooperation: Werner Hennrich
Idea, scenography, objects, play: Michael Döhnert and Melanie Florschütz

About Florschütz & Döhnert

The theatre company Florschütz & Döhnert is based in Berlin, Germany, and tours around the world. Artists Melanie Florschütz and Michael Döhnert have been working together since 1996, the company Florschütz & Döhnert was formed in 2004: Melanie studied the art of puppetry in Stuttgart, Germany; while Michael is a composer, guitarist and singer. At the centre of Florschütz’ & Döhnert’s productions is the idea of the actor as author. In their numerous productions for children they always seek a synthesis of music, the various means of expression of puppet and object theatre and human acting. The subject of the play determines the theatrical form it will take, always aiming for poetry and diversity.

Accessibility of our shows:
All shows by florschütz & döhnert invite the audience to experience theater with their individual prior experience and abilities. The productions work without words and are visually comprehensible. The associative visual language is open to people of all ages! Beyond language skills, the productions offer a “reading” between the lines and complex sensory impressions on several levels, which can be experienced according to ability. The resonance from deaf and hard of hearing people, people with limited mobility, cognitive and mental impairments and other 

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