Lynn

The wonderful Wee Festival for very young children from 6 months to 5 years old concludes this weekend.

The shows are Rawums, Solalie and Aria. The shows are delightful, engaging, fun and embracing of the young mind and even those a bit older. I have never been disappointed with the various works that have been programmed from around the world and around the country. Artistic Director, Lynda Hill is a master at knowing what engages children.

Check out the schedule and information here: communications@weefestival.ca

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Live and in person at the Festival Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Plays until Oct. 26, 2024.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Seana McKenna

Set and costumes by Christina Poddubiuk

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Composer, Paul Shildon

Sound by Verne Good

Choreographer, Stephanie Graham

Cast:  David Collins

Laura Condlln

Sarah Dodd

Austin Eckert

Deborah Hay

Jessica B. Hill

Andrew Iles

Tarique Lewis

Vanessa Sears

André Sills

Emilio Vieira

Scott Wentworth

Rylan Wilkie

And a chorus

A beautiful production, both acted and directed, that illuminates love in its many forms.

The Story. Twelfth Night is a play about love in many guises. It starts with Duke Orsino of Illyria who is smitten with the Countess Olivia. But she spurns his many entreaties because she is in mourning for her brother’s death. She has sworn off men for seven years!

In the meantime, there has been a storm that has separated twins, Viola and her brother Sebastian. She thinks he’s dead. He’s not…separately they wash ashore on Illyria.

Viola decides to dress as a man (for protection) and go to work for the Duke as his page named Cesario. But instantly, she falls secretly in love with him. Orsino uses Cesario to curry the favour of Olivia. And as luck would have it Olivia is smitten with Cesario too.

Sebastian also appears to complicate matters further. So now we have mistaken identity with Cesario spurning the advances of Olivia, which changes when Sebastian enters the scene.

There is also Malvolio who works for Olivia. Malvolio is the officious head of Olivia’s household and is secretly smitten with Olivia. Other members of Olivia’s household tend to make fun of Malvolio. So there is lots going on in this comedy with dark touches. 

Twelfth Night is a wonderful, funny, bitter-sweet play of unrequited and requited love, mistaken identity and yearning.

The Production. Designer Christina Poddubiuk has created a spare and elegant design for this production, (set in 1967) where a few round rock-like props etc. at the bottom of the stairs suggest the tasteful richness of both Duke Orsino’s and the Countess Olivia’s houses. A mobile that looks like various sails is suspended above the stage, echoing the sailing-storm motif at the beginning of the production.

Poddubiuk’s costumes beautifully illuminate the characters, their social standing and their elegance. Duke Orsino (André Sills) wears casual but tasteful pastel shirts, jackets and pants. André Sills plays Orsino as a man comfortable in his style. He’s briming with emotion, his love for Olivia (a regal Vanessa Sears) and his yearning to win her over. He is giddy when he hears of her devotion to her dead brother—in mourning for seven years which means she’s giving up men and their dalliances. There is delicious confusion from Orsino when he develops a closeness to his page Cesario (Viola in disguise, with Jessica B. Hill playing him). The furtive looks to Cesario, Cesario’s secret looks back to the Duke, are beautifully orchestrated by director Seana McKenna who directs with care and supreme intelligence.

Seana McKenna does something I’ve never seen a director do with Twelfth Night—she visually establishes the love and affection that Viola and Sebastian (Austin Eckert) have for one another by having both brother and sister appear on the boat (before the storm that will separate them). They good naturedly josh one another (a gentle, joking tap on the arm) and reveal their closeness in affection. Then with a thunderclap there is a startled reaction when they realize they will be separated and they will think the other has drowned. It’s such a simple bit of theatrical business, but it’s resounding in establishing the huge emotional cost it is for Viola to think she has lost her brother. This makes Viola emotionally fragile and desperate to move forward, to offer her services as a page to the Duke.

Jessica B. Hill is a gracious, graceful Viola. She speaks the dialogue with assurance and confidence. As Cesario, Jessica B. Hill is a revelation. She wears a trim man’s blue suit, vest and tie and a short, curly wig to hide her long hair. The result is the understated essence of a young, courtly man who can charm both a Duke and a Countess who think this is a man. Jessica B. Hill doesn’t force the masculinity of Cesario, rather she underplays it. A leg placed just so and a hand in the pants pocket is the subtlest relaxed pose of a young man. And there is such yearning and longing in her love for the Duke, certainly since she must suppress any overt show of it.

While the Countess is subdued in her mourning (wearing all black, initially, until she sees and is smitten by Cesario), her household is raucous. Her drunken uncle Sir Toby Belch (an irreverent Scott Wentworth) is trying to gull money from his dim-witted friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played with great humour by Rylan Wilkie because of Sir Andrew’s cluelessness. Joining them in irreverence is Sarah Dodd as Maria, a saucy, mischievous confident to Olivia, but in cahoots with Sir Toby.  The character that Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria plot to bedevil is Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, usually played as a man, but here played by Laura Condlln who is simply brilliant.

Malvolio is a repressed, officious soul. She is dressed in a black skirt and jacket that is fitted and buttoned to the neck. She wears black, flat shoes. Her facial expression is pinched and disdainful of everything around her. Her arms are tight to her body. When she makes notes of transgressions, it’s in a little black book so you can imagine how small and tight her handwriting is. Everything in this performance screams ‘repressed.’ So that when Malvolio finds a letter to her thinking it’s a love letter from Olivia—when it really is a trick of Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew–Malvolio’s body language becomes free, expansive and joyful. It’s both funny and heartbreaking.

Offering clownish wisdom and song to both Orsino’s and Olivia’s houses, is Feste a clown and musician, played as a free-spirited hippy by Deborah Hay. Her voice is pure and wistful and her comic timing is impeccable.

Comment. Seana McKenna has beautifully illuminated the heart and soul of the play, never tipping it too much into comedy and sacrificing the ache of it, but also balancing both the comedy and the heartache in equal measure.  I loved this production.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Oct. 26, 2024.

Running Time: 3 hours approx. (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Lynn Slotkin

@Slotkinletter

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1s

I’m giving short reviews of Twelfth Night, Something Rotten! and Hedda Gabler, at Stratford, tomorrow (Sat. June 1) at 9 am on CRITICS CIRCLE, http://CIUT.fm 89.5

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Live and in person at the Lighthouse Theatre, Port Dover, Ont. Playing until June 8, 2024.

www.lighthousetheatre.com

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Jane Spence

Set by William Chesney

Costumes by Alex Amini

Lighting by Kevin Fraser

Cast: Ian Deakin

Melanie Janzen

Brigitte Robinson

Norm Foster is an equal opportunity writer, with a huge heart. He first wrote a play called: Jonas and Barry in the Home about two vastly different men who meet in a senior’s home and become friends. He says he had such fun writing it he wrote another play, Doris and Ivy in the Home,  this time focusing on two women. The plays are not carbon copies of the other.

“Doris and Ivy in the Home is about two women who are from different parts of the world. Doris is a boisterous retired prison guard from Alberta. Ivy is a disgraced Olympic skier from Austria. These two women are as different as the day is long, but as always happens, life throws us a curve and we befriend people we never expected to get close to. And so it happens with Doris and Ivy. “

Both women were married at one point. Doris stayed married to her husband but it seemed a loveless marriage until he died. Ivy married often and not successfully. Ivy is being pursued in the home by Arthur but she is not ready to accept his ardent advances, but they are friendly.

As with all his plays, Norm Foster sees the humour and humanity in the ordinary, easy-going situations in life. Doris, as played by Melanie Janzen is lively, flamboyant—perhaps a bit too much so—and offers her own charm. As Ivy, Brigitte Robinson is elegant, sophisticated and gracious, except when having to correct Doris when she keeps thinking Ivy is from Germany and not Austria. Both women form a bond that plays off the other. They find a common ground and appreciation of the other.

As Arthur, Ian Deakin plays him as a robust man, an intellectual and curious about the world. He is smitten by Ivy and gently but steadily pursues her. It’s touching not predatory. The whole production is directed with sensitive care by Jane Spence.

William Chesney has created a lovely set that is serene, calm and depicts a well-cared for patio. Alex Amini’s costumes are casual for Doris and Arthur and a touch elegant for Ivy.   

Doris and Ivy in the Home is a sweet play about two characters you would never imagine would be friends, and when they do, it’s as natural as anything.

Lighthouse Festival presents:

Plays at Port Dover until June 8.

Plays at Port Colborne from June 12-June 23, 2024.

Running time: two hours (1 Intermission)

www.lighthousetheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until June 16.

www.crowstheatre.com

Written by Zahida Rahemtulla

Directed by Paolo Santalucia

Set and lighting by Ken Mackenzie

Costumes by Ming Wong

Sound by Jacob Lin

Cast: Bren Eastcott

Zaittun Esmail

Nimet Kanji

Vijay Mehta

Salim Rahemtulla

Sharjil Rasool

Pamela Mala Sinha

Parm Soor

Sugith Varughese

From the play information: “Bashir Ladha, a bohemian philosophy podcaster, finds himself unwittingly thrust into the spotlight when he is chosen to assume a distinguished religious position that his parents have eagerly accepted on his behalf. Before Bashir can object, two committee representatives are at his door to congratulate him. As the representatives start to suspect a mistake has been made, Bashir’s jubilant grandparents and relatives arrive to commemorate the honour. A charming farce ensues, prompting questions around whether the seemingly wrong Bashir may, in fact, be the right one.”

This is the debut by Zahida Rahemtulla and looks “ at values passed down through generations, the ties of community, and how we are shaped by those who love us most— even when we try to run away from them.”

The Wrong Bashir deals with generational issues within families, Bashir (Sharjil Rasool) and his father Sultan (Sugith Varughese) are always at odds. Sultan had to give up an opportunity to go to university to help his family financially. He became a bus driver for the TTC (Toronto Transit Commission). Sultan does not want Bashir to squander his chances at a better life, which involves university. Bashir wants to go his own way and, in a way, looks down on his father’s lost chances. Each is disappointed in the other, but neither of them talks to the other to set any record straight.

While this situation is particular to this family, anyone watching the play would see resonance in their own experience—hence the beauty of theatre to bridge our similarities and connect us. I loved how the various characters peppered their English dialogue with particular expressions in their own dialect. Translation was not necessary because one never feels left out of information in the main. But I loved hearing the roar of approval and knowledge by the South Asian audience I was with.  That’s also part of the joy of seeing theatre that is outside one’s experience—to hear how others who know, react to an expression or situation. Wonderful.

Director Paolo Santalucia has created an energetic production that realizes the heightened emotions of the characters. As Bashir, Sharjil Rasool beautifully conveys the ennui, angst, and concern of Bashir when he thinks he might have to accept this honour. This is a young man who knows the truth about his situation, which he can’t share with his family because they would be so disappointed. And it’s to writer Zahida Rahemtulla’s credit that the emotion was ramped up for Bashir.

As Sultan, Sugith Varughese brings a quiet dignity to his role. Sultan is at odds with Bashir, wants the best for him, and is frustrated that they can’t see eye to eye. Varughese is quietly resigned about his situation but has the dignity to know he made the right decision in his life. Sultan is a calming influence in that family, a thoughtful presence. Nimet Kanji plays Najma, the mother of the family. She is a worrier, a bit mournful and tends to see the dark side of a situation. She is quite funny in her mournfulness.  As Nafisa, the daughter, Bren Eastcott realizes Nafisa’s independence, smarts and resolve. She knows her brother and does not hesitate to try and clearly set him straight.

Gulzar (Pamela Mala Sinha) is a family friend, and it seems the community gossip. She knows everything and spreads what she knows to one and all, whether it’s true or not. Pamela Mala Sinha plays her with impish understatement, although she is the only character in traditional garb, that is colourful and arresting. You are never in doubt as to who wants to be the centre of attention. It’s a delicious performance.

What a brave, huge accomplishment for Zahida Rahemtulla to create a play with nine characters, all lively, well drawn and members of the Ismaili community, which one rarely sees on a mainstream stage. Such a welcome addition. Sweet, charming, funny and loving.

Crow’s Theatre presents:

Plays until June 16, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (with one Intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Tarragon Theatre, Mainspace, Toronto, Ont. Playing until June 9, 2024.

www.tarragontheatre.com

Written by Audrey Dwyer

Directed by Mike Payette

Set by Jawon Kang

Costumes by Christine Ting-Huan Urquhart

Lighting by Michelle Ramsay

Sound and composers, Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magowan

Cast: Troy Adams

Helen Belay

Daren A. Herbert

Nicole Joy-Fraser

Emerjade Simms

Unsettled Scores: Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magowan

From the programme notes:

“When John Hall is confronted by his ancestors, he is forced to revisit his entire life.

Worlds collide as he travels back through time rediscovering life as a husband, father, son, war scout and freedom fighter. As he relives his dangerous past, John must decide – continue life as the oldest man, abandon everything and serve those on the earthly plane or exist in the Unknown.

Based on true events, Come Home – The Legend of Daddy Hall is told through poetic text, music and song. A play about the afterlife, love, legacy and being legendary. Come Home asks where we come from, where we’re headed and what we may be asked to do when we get there.”

From the playwright: “John Hall walked in this very neighbourhood (around Tarragon Theatre) hundreds of years ago. He lived throughout Ontario. He was married multiple times, had many children, escaped enslavement twice (crossing through deep bodies of water), was in the War of 1812, and died at a very old age. My research provided numerous tales of major differences and a few similarities. One thing was made clear: John spent miles travelling searching for home.

I begin to think about John’s relationship with his family, the land he lived on and the relationships he made along the way. He was guided by those he met and surely, those who left him far too early. I considered John’s long life and the ways certain relationships were severed. It made me think of ancestral lineage and what it means to cross over. Can your steps from life to death be legendary?….”

Audrey Dwyer.

This is a full-bodied production. The set by Jawon Kang is magical and mysterious as we peer through the tangle of hanging ‘branches’ ‘foliage’ overgrowth over time, until the growth is pushed aside and we see into the action of John Hall’s (Daren A. Herbert) life.

Similarly Christine Ting-Huan Urquhart’s costumes are vibrant and evocative. Michelle Ramsay’s lighting is eerie with the sense of the past and deep mystery. As always the score of Unsettled Scores, Spy Dénommé-Welch and Catherine Magawon is almost like another character, adding to the feeling of the story.

Daren A. Herbert as John “Daddy” Hall is both an innocent, a charmer and a rascal as the ever-attractive Daddy Hall, who never met a person, man or woman, he could not charm. The rest of the cast is does good work.

There is directorial detail in Mike Payette’s direction. He conveys the sense of the mystery of John Hall’s life.

Audrey Dwyer’s text is like lyrical poetry with line after line of description that again adds to the mystery of John Hall’s life. But I must confess that without the programme notes, or explanations of the play and the wonderful Google, I would have no idea what this show is about, who John Hall was, why he mattered, who he was, or that it flipped back and forth in time. I can appreciate wanting to find home and find out who he was (was he a Black man? And Indigenous person? Both?), but without a clear narrative along with the esoteric poetry this ‘play’ left me confused and frustrated.

Tarragon Theatre Presents:

Plays until June 9, 2024.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.tarragontheatre.com

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Hi Folks,

This is my semi-annual shameless plea for the CIUT.FM fundraiser.

We are aiming to raise $100,000 in this fund-raising session.

CIUT.FM including the radio show I do, CRITICS CIRCLE CIUT fm, 89.5 fm, is almost all volunteer. We are the only community radio station in the city and it seems the only radio station still doing theatre reviews.

I also do interviews with people making theatre that matters. I recently interviewed Seana McKenna about her upcoming Stratford Festival production of 12th Night.

We give voice to radio that people want to hear dealing with stories worth telling.

We don’t get government funding, hence our fundraiser.

Please go to CIUT.fm and donate and please note CRITICS CIRCLE.

Much thanks as always.

Lynn

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Live and in person at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Playing until Dec. 22, 2024.

www.shawfest.com

Book and lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner

Music by Frederick Loewe

Adapted from the George Bernard Shaw play Pygmalion

Co-directed by Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad

Choregraphed by Kimberley Rampersad

Music director, Paul Sportelli

Set by Lorenzo Savoini

Costumes by Joyce Padua

Lighting by Mikael Kangas

Sound by John Lott

Cast: David Adams

David Alan Anderson

Alana Bridgewater

Shane Carty

Sharry Flett

Kristi Frank

J.J. Gerber

Patty Jamieson

Allan Louis

Tom Rooney

Taurian Teelucksingh

And a chorus

A beautiful classic musical, with some wonderful performances, but on the whole I found it underwhelming.

The Story. My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe, is one of the most beloved musical of all time. It’s based on George Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion which is in turn is based on the Ovid poem in his Metamorphosis of a sculptor named Pygmalion who created a sculpture of the perfect woman and then fell in love with her. The gods brought her to life.

We are in Edwardian London (1901-1919). Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics and speech. He wagers his friend Colonel Pickering that he can take a cockney accented flower girl named Eliza Doolittle whom he discovered in Covent Garden one evening, change her accent and demeanor and pass her off as a duchess in six months.

George Bernard Shaw was writing about the class-conscious English and how an accent can keep a person back from success—regardless of ability, intelligence and talent. Lyricist and book writer, Alan Jay Lerner was an educated, erudite man—he studied at Harvard. And he respected Shaw’s philosophical, shewed, social commentary in the play and kept most of the dialogue intact. It was Lerner’s partnership with the elegant European composer Frederick Loewe that resulted in such a strong and successful collaboration. My Fair Lady was one of Lerner and Loewe’s most successful musicals.

The Production and comment. Lorenzo Savoini has designed a gleaming set that is both the grunge of Covent Garden (1901-1919) and the elegance of the Ambassador’s Ball. There is a walkway above the stage for some scenes and a projection of St. Paul’s Church in the distance.  Higgins’ house is a two storied affair with a wall of books on the upper level and a winding staircase down to the stage and all manner of gadgets and gizmos for recording the voice.

Joyce Padua’s costumes are wonderful. For the Covent Garden scenes they are well worn, rough, dark in colour and sturdy. For the upper-class Ascot scene or Ambassador’s Ball they are beautifully tailored for the men and women. The men wear top hats, the women wear fascinators.

My Fair Lady is a wonderful love story between Professor Henry Higgins (Tom Rooney) and Eliza Doolittle (Kristi Frank), but of course it’s not that simple.  It also has one of the most romantic, lush scores by Frederick Loewe with classic after classic: “Wouldn’t it Be Loverly”, With a Little Bit of Luck”; “I’ve grown accustomed to her Face”: “On the Street Where You Live, “ “I Could Have Danced All Night.” And on and on.

Alan Jay Lerner’s book and lyrics are witty, elegant and intellectual. He has taken Shaw’s play and been true to its philosophy, the social aspects of the class distinctions and the power of an attitude that thinks an accent suggests ability. His lyrics are full of nuance, subtlety and lyrical beauty.

Higgins is fascinating. We have seen the elegant and sophisticated curmudgeon of Rex Harrison. I’ve also seen Higgins played as if he’s on the autism spectrum—highly functional but a social cretin. He is rude, arrogant, pompous, a confirmed bachelor who seems to love his upper-class mother and drops in on her often. He also respects his mature housekeeper, Mrs. Pierce. He sees the phony world he lives in and has no time for the upper-class folks in it. He certainly knows how these snobs operate and can play in that world.  He is a confirmed bachelor. Interestingly he gets on well with Pickering who in turn appreciates Higgins’ phonetic work.

One might call Higgins misogynistic. Certainly his song: “I’m An Ordinary Man” (in which everything is fine until you ‘let a woman in your life.’) But he then changes enough to appreciate Eliza (“I’ve Grown Accustomed to Her Face.”) One has to consider the times and the attitudes towards women of the time. Then of course there is the perceived snobbishness of the British towards anyone ‘other.’ (“Why Can’t the English”).

Tom Rooney is one of our most gifted actors.  He mines his roles for clues and hints about his characters. And so I’m surprised that Tom Rooney as Higgins seems so understated, perhaps even underwhelming. This performance is less a social cretin and awkward, and more someone who is just ill-tempered and bored. He both knows the world in which he lives and works, and is clueless about the people in it, except as something to observe.  

Eliza Doolittle is perhaps in her 20s.  She sells flowers in Convent Garden—the first scene is late at night, raining but she is hustling to sell her flowers to the people coming from the opera house. She works long and hard hours to pay for her expenses. She wants to elevate herself out of her current state. She is intrigued by Higgins’ bet and takes him up on it to teach her/Eliza proper English, comportment and how to behave. Her main repeated refrain is “I’m a good girl, I am.” Which means she’s not a prostitute. Her biggest fear seems to be that she will be taken for a streetwalker.

This is not a throw-away line; she is fighting constantly for her sense of self-worth. She is illegitimate; her father ignores her and she just wants to do better, but because of her class and poverty, that is all but impossible, until Higgins arrives.

As Eliza, Kristi Frank has a lovely voice and gives a respectable performance, but she can go deeper to mine the many facets of Eliza. She has charm, but she is also driven, angry, and determined. I thought Kristi Frank just skimmed the surface in realizing Eliza in more detail.

For all their differences in their lives and upbringing, both Higgins and Eliza warm to each other as he toils away teaching her how to speak, act and carry herself.  He in a way is creating his ideal woman, who will be independent to a point, banter and volley with him and not want to change him.

Higgins changes Eliza or rather just gives her the means to be the best person she always was, only this time with encouragement, support and instruction of how to act. While she has feelings for Higgins, and he tries to get over his aversion to touch anyone, she responds instantly to the consideration and good manners of Pickering. He treats her with respect and as if she was a lady. Higgins says that he treats all people the same and that seems fair to him.  He does treat them the same, with disdain.

One would think the Shaw Festival was the ideal place to produce a musical based on a Shaw play. There are indeed some wonderful performances in My Fair Lady. Sharry Flett is Mrs. Higgins and every gesture, pause and turn of the head speaks volumes about her wit, elegance and keen idea about how to inhabit that upper-class world. Mrs. Higgins listens to what is going on around her. If ever there is a character who does treat everyone the same—that is to say with respect—it’s Mrs. Higgins.

David Adams plays Alfred P. Doolittle beautifully, as a rough talking dustman. He has the accent, the swagger and the inebriated manner of a man of the lower classes. When Mr. Doolittle becomes a successful public speaker he becomes prosperous and rises up in class and that too is believable. If ‘clothes make the man’ it helps if the man knows how to wear the clothes, and David Adams is true both as a dirty, rough dustman, and a man who can wear a good suit.

Taurian Teelucksingh as Freddy Eynsford-Hill is terrific. He’s elegant, comfortable in that world, and beautiful suit and he can sing.

As Mrs. Pearce Patty Jamieson has the bearing of a woman who knows the importance of her place as the housekeeper. While Higgins and Pickering see no problem with Eliza living in the house with them, while she is instructed, Mrs. Pearce is wise, smart and watchful, and knows exactly what the optics look like. She also plays the small part of the Queen of Transylvania and she is royally elegant from top to tow. Her one word: “Charming” spoke volumes about the graciousness of that Queen.

I wish I could be as positive about the rest of the production which strikes me as unremarkable (this for a musical that is remarkable). I found in too many places It lacks attention to detail and rigor.

It’s directed by both Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad. She also choreographs. This is Tim Carroll’s first musical so he wanted Kimberley Rampersad to co-direct with him because she is familiar with the musical genre. That might be true, but this musical is dripping in the class consciousness of the time. There is a way of holding oneself, wearing the clothes, knowing the difference between a person in the upper and lower classes, and that was hardly addressed, especially with the chorus here. They didn’t look at all comfortable in those beautifully tailored costumes—nor did they look like they knew how to wear those clothes or ‘work’ the clothes. A top hat has to be worn a certain way—news to some of them.  Sharry Flett is credited as a great resource at the Shaw to address these questions of style etc. Don’t they teach this in theatre schools anymore? Pity.

Everybody is microphoned as is the orchestra so there is a blaring to the sound.

Kimberley Rampersad’s choreography is generic and why they are choreographed to do the CanCan in Edwardian London is a mystery I can’t figure out.

The ending of the show has always been tricky—how does one deal with Eliza coming back? Co-directors Tim Carroll and Kimberley Rampersad handle it with sensitivity.

I think the text offers insight….Eliza argues point for point with Higgins, something she never did before. He celebrates that he made her into a real woman—this is London in the early 1900s so it’s offensive to our modern ears. Consider the times.  She says that he treats people badly and others treat her well. His argument is that he treats everybody the same and does not fluctuate – true…he treats everybody rudely. Eliza will hold her ground.  Higgins gives the impression he might be ‘weakening’ into a decent human being….Interesting. I was glad of that, but wished that more rigor had gone into the whole enterprise.

The Shaw Festival Presents:

Plays until Dec. 22, 2024.

Running time: 3 hours (1 intermission)

www.shawfest.com

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Live and in person at the Daniels Spectrum, in association with The Wee Festival, Toronto, Ont. Produced by ak Entrepôt (from Strasbourg)

This Production plays until Sunday, May 26, 2024.

www.weefestival.ca

Concept and direction, Laurance Henry

Performed by Harrison Mpaya and Jordan Malfoy

Costumes by Sophie Hoarau

Philosophical gaze and dialogue by Dominique Paquet

Music by Sylvain Robine

Two characters meet, each has their own language of speaking, of moving. They try to connect and communicate – through dance, through play!

Each uses a large wood block to create their own world, unbeknownst to the other, until they discover one another and one tries to get the attention and make friends with the other, and the other ignores him. This motivates the first person to be persistent and continue to try and challenge the other to be friends. The blocks are wonderful and contain stuff for the imagination. The physicality of the two performers and their whimsy is wonderful. The young children are totally engaged.

ak Entrepôt presents:

Plays until May 26 at 11 am and 2 pm

Running time: 40 minutes

www.weefestival.ca

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