I saw this on the Facebook and have no idea if it’s from Bill Gates or not, but the comments are brilliant for those willing to consider them:
Bill Gates was invited by a high school to give a lecture. This is what he said in five minutes:
1. Life isn’t easy — get used to it.
2. The world is not concerned about your self-esteem. The world expects you to do something useful for it BEFORE you feel good about yourself.
A former cleaning lady becomes a chef and fulfils her dream of having her own organic restaurant
True story: A simple (but powerful) gesture of kindness from a CEO
3. You will not earn $20,000 a month once you leave school. You won’t be vice president of a company with a car and phone available until you’ve managed to buy your own car and phone.
4. If you find your teacher rude, wait until you have a boss. He will not feel sorry for you.
5. Selling old newspapers or working while on vacation is not beneath your social standing. Your grandparents have a different word for it: they call it opportunity.
6. If you fail, it’s not your parents’ fault. So do not whine about your mistakes, learn from them.
7. Before you were born, your parents weren’t as critical as they are now. They only got that way from paying your bills, washing your clothes and hearing you say they’re “ridiculous.” So before saving the planet for the next generation wanting to fix the mistakes of your parent’s generation, try cleaning your own room.
8. Your school may have blurred the distinction between winners and losers, but life isn’t like that. In some schools, you don’t repeat more than a year and you have as many chances as you need to get it right. This looks like absolutely NOTHING in real life. If you step on the ball, you’re fired… STREET!!! Do it right the first time!
9. Life is not divided into semesters. You won’t always have summers off, and it’s unlikely that other employees will help you with your tasks at the end of each term.
10. Television is NOT real life. In real life, people have to leave the bar or the club and go to work.
11. Be nice to the CDFs (those students that others think are assholes). There is a high probability that you will work FOR one of them.”
A tender family love-story with heart-ache mixed, with dollops of Elvis for quirkiness. It could use another pass of reflection and revision.
From the Blyth website (sort of): “It’s 2019 in Clinton, ON. Newly retired and ready for adventure, Gord (J.D. Nicholsen) and Orillia (Caroline Gillis) have been Elvis fans since they were teenagers. In twenty-five years, they’ve never missed their annual pilgrimage to the Collingwood Elvis Festival. Having sold their business, they’re now ready to embrace nothing but Presley and the CPP. But when their only grandchild Dylan (Goldie Garratt) arrives on the doorstep at 1 am and they can’t find their daughter, Lauren (Amy Keating), everyone’s future plans are upended in ways no one dreamed.
A love-me-tender family drama about the King and kincare.”
Also. Gord and Orillia were preparing to take a very early morning flight to Hawaii to visit the various locations of the Elvis film, “Blue Hawaii,” when they saw that their granddaughter was at the door. They naturally had to cancel their plans. Gord gets invited to the Collingwood Elvis Festival to perform his Elvis impersonation. He’s thrilled and goes into overdrive to prepare. But then he learns this is the last year of the festival.
With Dylan (a very confident, assured Goldie Garratt) staying with them, Gord and Orillia have to make plans about taking care of her and perhaps applying for guardianship. Gord needs a job to take care of the added expenses and asks Ben (Cameron Laurie), the man who bought Gord’s garage business. Ben is agreeable. Ben is also a friend of Lauren’s and we learn, liked her a lot in high school, but Lauren never returned the affection to that extent. We wonder if Ben is Dylan’s father.
Playwright Gil Garratt has created a touching ache of a play about two seniors who want to enjoy their retirement but can’t because they have to take care of their young granddaughter. Their troubled daughter is nowhere to be found, and matters are fraught.
The characters of Gord and Orillia are well drawn, and beautifully played by J.D. Nicholsen and Caroline Gillis respectively. J.D. Nicholsen brings out the lively playfulness of Gord. He’s buoyant and almost boyish about the trip to Hawaii. Later he’s excited that he can do his Elvis impression one more time at the Collingwood Elvis Festival. Gord is matter of fact, perhaps a bit oblivious to things around him, like Orillia, but he is kind and has charm, thanks to J.D. Nicholsen’s playing of him.
Caroline Gillis as Orillia, is the ‘grown-up’ here. She constantly chides Gord for his silliness, but it’s done with love. Orillia, though, seems lost, she has lost herself in tending to her daughter when Lauren was growing up. She is still at sea and facing taking care of Dylan makes her anxious that she will lose herself again.
It’s also a play of forgiveness. Lauren seems to want to make a drastic decision regarding Dylan and Gord and Orillia plead with her not to do it, for her own sake. Gil Garratt has given a hint that Lauren (Amy Keating) does care for her daughter—when the police find her and return her to her parents late one night, Lauren wants to see her daughter. Because of her strung-out state and the lateness of the hour, the parents refuse. It’s a small scene, but we get the sense Lauren cares for her child. Amy Keating as Lauren is subdued as one embarrassed about her situation would be. There is a touching scene with Ben (Cameron Laurie) as Lauren and Ben reminisce. Cameron Laurie as Ben is a caring, decent man, who obviously has feelings for Lauren.
Director James MacDonald brings out the loving relationships in the play, and illuminates the beating heart of all the characters.
I think that the play needs another re-think and re-write. We need more information about Lauren and Ben individually and together. Lauren makes some huge decisions, one of which towards the end needs to be more developed so that the conclusion is not a surprise or startling. There obviously is more to the friendship between Ben and Lauren for Ben to give her advice on what to do. That needs to be developed more as well for us to trust why he is giving her advice.
It’s a lovely play, but it could be stronger with another edit.
Saturday, June 28, 2024. CRITICS CIRCLE, CIUT.fm 89.5. Paul and Linda Plan a Threesome at the Here for Now Theatre, Stratford, Ont. Playing until July 13, 2024.
The Story and performance. This is the world premiere of Jane Cooper Ford’s comedy. The title: Paul and Linda Plan a Threesome seems so staid, as if two efficient people are planning something normal such as a dinner party, or a meeting. What they are planning is anything but normal.
Paul (David Keeley) and Linda (Laura De Carteret) are married. They are accomplished people. He’s a judge and she’s a successful lawyer. But their marriage is in trouble and they need help. So Linda finds Sienna’s advertisement on Kijiji offering to perform a sexual threesome and arranges for Sienna to come to the house for the threesome. Linda tells Paul it’s either this to shake up their marriage, or a divorce and that shocks him. He never thought the marriage was in that much trouble, but there had to be some concern if he’s ageable to this arrangement.
On the appointed day of the threesome Linda is nervous and Paul is a bit uptight. Sienna (Shannon Taylor) arrives. She’s buoyant, charming, inquisitive about her two ‘clients’ and what they want from this arrangement. Sienna asks both Paul and Linda what they want her to do to them sexually. This throws Linda into a panic—no one has ever asked her before. And it kind of excites Paul.
And then Paul’s sister Gwen (Stacy Smith) arrives in a fury because she says she’s left her husband and children because of some argument or other. This then upends the whole dynamic and of course adds to the humour.
Gwen does not apologize for the intrusion, nor does she realize the tension in the room from Paul and Linda. Gwen is selfish, self-absorbed and doesn’t really put this situation together until later. Paul is annoyed because I think he might have been curious about sex in a threesome. Linda is just embarrassed and appalled by it all and comes close to calling it off. Sienna is again curious at this new person—Gwen– and what drives her. Sienna is watchful, observant and perceptive about what is going on there. She comes to a conclusion about Gwen that at first seems preposterous, but then upon reflection it’s probably true.
We’ve all seen situations like this before in plays/comedies; a marriage is in trouble and the couple try something drastic get them out of their rut. The couple go to a motel for a ‘dirty weekend’ and it’s a failure. Or they go to a marriage counsellor and the results could go either way. Paul and Linda Plan a Threesomeoffers an alternative with little twists and turns.
I love that while it looks like sex is the answer, of course it’s not. And we learn that from Sienna. She is really the ‘outside eye, the arm’s length observer here. She can size up situations more clearly and efficiently than Linda and Pau who are in the middle of it. That outside eye, the impartial observer is needed to see how Paul and Linda interact, to see the problem. Sienna could be the marriage counsellor, the psychotherapist etc. calm and cool, trying to find a solution. In the play, all she knows is that she is there for a threesome, she doesn’t know anything else about Paul and Linda.
Sienna is the one with the power here—she has something they think they need—sex with her in different configurations. Shannon Taylor as Sienna handles that power beautifully. She is always smiling and observing. She is never judgmental and that seems a novelty with Paul and Linda who are always judgmental. Sienna is the stranger here, so she innocently asks both Paul and Linda what they want in the sex. This leads to a deeper discovery—that when Paul and Linda have sex with each other they never ask what the other wants for pleasure. Linda gives Paul what she thinks he wants and Paul never asks Linda because she never complains. It slowly dawns on Paul and Linda that more consideration, communication and understanding of the other is in order to solve their marriage problems, not sex with a stranger.
Gwen is oblivious because she has her own issues. And of course, Sienna can size up Gwen as well, again, quicker and more precisely than Paul or Linda can. Truths are told, listened to, considered and thought about.
The production is terrific. The show is performed under a large tent on the grounds of the Stratford Perth Museum. The set by Rebecca Chaikin is an arrangement of overstuffed furniture—as befits a Rosedale couple who are well off. Rebecca Chaikin has also designed the costumes: stylish for Paul and Linda, jeans and blouse for Gwen, and a summery comfortable dress for Sienna that is not even close to trying to be seductive. She doesn’t need to be seductive, she just is.
They even have an assortment of cheese, nuts and apricots on offer for a snack and drinks at the ready, as if it’s just company before they have sex. I love how Paul and Linda keep up the appearance of normalcy and politeness.
Director Megan Watson establishes the relationships beautifully. There is energy: kinetic, nervous, anticipatory. Megan Watson keeps the pace steadily growing until Paul and Linda have to take a breath and see the real problem in their marriage is communication.
And the acting is dandy. Laura de Carteret as Linda is skittish, anxious and fidgety. David Keeley as Paul is also anxious and uptight. Both banter back and forth landing their jokes and funny situations with style and confidence. Shannon Taylor as Sienna is fascinating. She is very relaxed, again, as I said, she has the power. She also has a keen sense of the humour of the situation—this nervous couple who have no idea what to do in a threesome. Gwen offers a distraction but cause for more humour. Shannon Taylor is so watchful and subtlety reactive. She listens with easy intensity—you can see her sizing up the situations and the issues. She is slow to offer a comment, choosing instead to offer an observation that will be helpful for both Paul and Linda to help them solve their own issues. And of course they do discover a way forward by talking to one another and being more watchful and considerate.
As for Gwen, Stacy Smith is deliberately manic in her emotions, angry, giddy, confused and always funny. When she comes to a revelation about herself it’s like a mystery has been solved.
The plays is funny in the sense of relationships and attitudes and I would assume that a lot of people in the audience would identify with the problems illuminated in the relationships.
To re-iterate, Paul and Linda Plan a Threesome is a clever play about the importance of love, relationships, marriage, and communication with one’s partner. Sex is the least of it. It’s the easy part. Talking, communication and consideration is harder and where problems begin to be solved. I liked this play a lot and the production is terrific.
Here for Now Theatre presents:
Plays until July 13, 2024.
Running time: 50 minutes approx. (no intermission).
Music and lyrics by Anika Johnson and Britta Johnson
Book by Nick Green
Directed by Brian Hill
Choreographer, Genny Sermonia
Set and costume by Kelly Wolf
Lighting by Jareth Li
Sound by Josh Liebert
Video design by Cameron Davis
Music director, Jonathan Corkal-Astrorga
Produced by Michael Rubinoff
Sweet, accomplished, irreverent, funny, moving and proudly Canadian.
The Backstory. When a commercial company celebrates an anniversary, it might put on a sale or have give-aways. When Tim Hortons, the iconic Canadian coffee and donut behemoth, has an anniversary and wants to celebrate 60 years of service they hire a marketing company to look at the matter. The marketing company decides that a musical is the best way of celebrating all things donuts and coffee. The Tim Hortons Company reached out to the best in all matters musical. They first reached out to Britta Johnson because of her musical Life After, who then brought in writer Nick Green (Body Politic, Casey and Diana) and Anika Johnson (Britta’s composer-playwright sister) and then Michael Rubinoff joined the team. Michael Rubinoff. Rubinoff is the former Associate Dean of the program in Visual and Performing Arts at Sheridan College; he established the Canadian Music Theatre Project, an international incubator for the development of new musicals at Sheridan College; and he developed and produced a little epic called Come From Away as well as developed about 28 other musicals and counting. The man knows his stuff. Because Rubinoff is listed as the producer, one can assume he engaged the rest of the celebrated team. Brian Hill directs. A stella group of creatives did the set and lighting. And he engaged some of the finest musical theatre talent in the country to be in it.
The show was written, composed and put together in six months. The run is very short–five days—This is an anniversary celebration musical. There are ample opportunities to have a selfie taken with a giant Timbit in the lobby of the Elgin Theatre.
Note of information for my non-Canadian readers to my blog. Tim Hortons (no ‘s here, it’s a Canadian thing) is a chain of donut-coffee ‘restaurants.’ They do something called a ‘Timbit’, the round confection of cake that used to be the hole in a donut. Nothing is wasted at Tim Hortons in making a donut, not even the hole. Tim Hortons was started by hockey player, Tim Horton eons ago. He did rather well at it too until he died in a horrible car accident. The franchise continues and is revered in this country for its coffee (lots of debates about the quality vs other chains) its donuts, crullers and other sweet treats. The chili is wonderful. We forgive them the flatbread pizza creations. Sorry. (That’s Canadian too).
The Story. There is a snow storm. Olivia and her mother Michelle are driving in it. They are not getting along. Olivia migrates between her mother’s house and her dad’s. Her parents are divorced and Olivia just wants to go home to her dad’s. The storm closes the roads. There is no where to go except in the distance is a welcoming, familiar orangy-red sign that says “TIM HORTONS” (no ‘s). Olivia and Michelle drive there and meet other stranded folks, each with their own story. How do they pass the time? They drink coffee, order donuts and Timbits and keep to themselves until all that’s left is one Timbit. So they play games for points to win the last Timbit.
The Production. Have you ever been in a Tim Hortons restaurant? They are all the same. Designer Kelly Wolf has done a terrific job of re-creating the Tim Hortons here. The menu is above the counter with the illustrations of the food and the description in print you need glasses to read—even if your eyes are good. There is the promise of “fresh coffee every 20 minutes.” The counter has the selection of donuts. There are tables with people sitting by themselves keeping to themselves. Ellen (DeAnn DeGruijter) and Kathy (Barbara Fulton) are friends. They belong to a choir in their home town but are going on a trip. We learn why later. Chloe (Sara Farb) does not have a handle on her life. She wants perfection and is going to a party to try and fit in perfectly. Anton (Peter Millard) is a lonely widower who always comes there to his regular seat and table. Shane (Jake Epstein) is a slow-talking-confident-park ranger. He communes with animals. Nicole (Kimberly-Ann Truong) and Vince (Andrew Broderick) are best friends and influencers and are going to what they say is the party of the year to be seen, influence and be influenced. Charlie (Danté Prince) works there but knows Olivia (Kaya Kanashiro) from band class. They like each other but have not been brave enough to tell one other. Michelle (Chilina Kennedy) urges her daughter Olivia to tell Charlie how she feels. Lots of eye-rolling here from Olivia. Monty (Eric Craig) runs the place and is trying to entertain his customers and control them from being too anxious and bored.
The games the group has to do to win the last Timbit are funny, silly, communal, and disarming in getting the group to lower their barriers and embrace these strangers in their common pursuit to wait out the storm.
Anika Johson and her sister and writing partner, Britta Johnson, have written a score that is beautiful and varied with songs that are funny, tender, wistful and often lively and buoyant.
Why then is everything done for us NOT to hear this music and these lyrics easily? The band pounds out the music so relentlessly that it overpowers the singers, who then bellow louder to be heard. The result is that the lyrics get lost unless one leans forward trying to read lips. Josh Liebert is noted as the person who designed the sound. Please, PLEASE LOWER THE BLOODY SOUND ON THE BAND SO WE CAN HEAR THE MUSIC AND LYRICS!
And can you lighten up on the volume of the cast and mix the sound so the results are not earsplitting? Is there a secret code on musicals that all the hard work goes into creating the music and lyrics but then it gets destroyed by an overzealous band and sound mixer who don’t serve the piece?Pleeeezzz!!!
That said, Peter Millard as Anton is so heartbreakingly effective singing “Anton’s Song” about his late wife and their visits to Tim Hortons, for the very reason that the song is quiet and allowed to be heard and experienced. Ditto Chilina Kennedy as Michelle singing “Keep Driving.” It’s beautiful singing and poignant. The cast to a person is fine. The exuberance in the livelier moments is terrific. Director Brian Hill has created a buoyant, often moving production. Each performer shines. Now to help them all out and most of all, the audience, to actually give this show its due by being able to hear it properly.
Comment. Every single creative person involved in this endeavor took the assignment seriously and served the beautiful form of the musical with professionalism and seriousness. I love that The Last Timbit is billed as “A 60th Anniversary Musical.” It’s not billed as anything else; not pre-Broadway. Not the next Come from Away (even though the stories are quite similar). The show is a loving, quirky homage to a donut hole and the company that came up with it, who have been serving us fresh coffee every 20 minutes and sweet treats for 60 years. (We’ll forgive you the flatbread pizzas.) And it’s being celebrated with this lively, moving, impish tuneful, beautifully performed musical.
Book by Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins
Directed by Phyllida Lloyd
Choreography by Anthony Van Laast
Set and costumes by Mark Thompson
Lighting by Bruno Poet
Sound by Nevin Steinberg
Projections by Jeff Sugg
Cast: John Battagliese
Antonio Beverly
Sarah Bockel
Brianna Cameron
Omar Madden
Deon Releford-Lee
Carla Stewart
Zurin Villanueva
Dylan S. Wallace
Roz White
And a large, hard-working chorus.
A raucous, energy-filled musical about the roller-coaster life of super-star Tina Turner.
Tina Turner (born Anna Mae Bullock) had a life full of deep lows and exuberant success. Her mother ignored her perhaps because of jealousy and sent Anna Mae to live with her grandmother.
When Anna Mae was 17, she met and impressed Ike Turner with her singing. Ike was a smooth rock and roller and she joined his band. He was charming at first then physically abused her for the 17 years they were together. He changed her name to Tina, married her after which she took his last name. She recorded albums with Ike and found her true rock voice and stage abilities. When she could not bear Ike’s abuse any longer, she left him with only $.36 in her pocket. Through guts, will and determination her luck turned around for her after 40 when she was given a new chance at stardom on her own, and true love with a man who adored her.
Award-winning playwright Katori Hall with Frank Ketelaar and Kees Prins have created a book of the musical that touches on the basics of the story. There is no deep character development and no layered establishment of relationships in Tina, The Tina Turner Musical. Fans of Tina Turner’s work will probably already know the minutiae of her life. They certainly will know the Tina Turner song book. The creators of Tina, The Tina Turner Musical, uses Tina Turner’s hits to forward the story somewhat from “Let’s Stay Together”, “Proud Mary”, “Private Dancer”, “We Don’t Need Another Hero” etc.
Director Phyllida Lloyd, choreographer Anthony Van Laast and set and costume designer Mark Thompson worked together on the hugely successful Mamma Mia! and perhaps hope to strike gold again with Tina, The Tina Turner Musical.
Whoever is cast to play Tina will come under some scrutiny—can she pull it off and make us believe she is Tina Turner, that fireball of energy and grit? Will she have the chops and the voice that’s needed to carry over a stadium packed with fans. In the case of Zurin Villanueva who sang the role of Tina at my performance, the answer is a strong ‘yes.’ (She shares the role with Ari Groover)
Zurin Villanueva is a strong actor who can illuminate Tina’s vulnerability and her strong backbone. She has grit and tenderness. And she has the energetic body movements of Tina but does not play her as a copy or caricature. Villanueva brings her own interpretation to the role but still illuminates the essence of Tina Turner. And she has a belting voice. I just wished that I could understand what she was singing (and I know those songs). Enunciation is not a strong suit in this performance, and that’s a shame The energy required to be on stage for almost the whole three hours, to belt out song after song and to recreate the Tina’s particular choreography, requires the stamina of an athlete and Zurin Villanueva is certainly that.
As Ike, Deon Releford-Lee has a charm and smoothness that quickly gives way to a meanness that turns to violence. Ike was a serial womanizer and cocaine addict. But he had an eye for talent and he saw it in Tina. As Tina’s mother Zelma, Roz White is cold wisdom. Tina only wanted her mother’s love and acceptance and rarely got it. Roz White plays Zelma slowly revealing her own demons.
Director Phyllida Lloyd and choreographer, Anthony Van Laast have created a fast paced, swift moving show that is really a concert of Tina Turner’s song book. Bruno Poet’s lighting is dazzling, bombarding the audience with light. The effect is rousing and exhausting. Ultimately, we see what made Tina Turner so famous. We only need to hear her first name to know who that was.
Mirvish Productions presents:
Plays until July 28, 2024
Running time: 2 hours 40 minutes approx. but closer to 3 hours (1 intermission)
A muscular, nuanced production that pulses with emotion and intrigue.
The Story. The programme synopsis is long. I’ll go for the shorter version. “Innogen, the only daughter of Queen Cymbeline, marries Posthumus, a worthy yet low-born ward of the court. In fury, Cymbeline banishes Posthumus. The Duke, Cymbeline’s husband, plots to wed Innogen to his only son, her stepbrother, Cloten and to rally Britain against Rome. Iachimo, a wealthy nobleman, wagers that Innogen is not as pure as Posthumus thinks.” There is lots of intrigue, trickety, subplots and complications.
The Production. Director Esther Jun has done a fine job of telling the story clearly. She establishes various plot lines with Jupiter (a courtly Marcus Nance) indicating the many players and how they are connected.
There are also a few gender-bends in casting: Cymbeline is now a Queen played by a fiery, impassioned Lucy Peacock; that means her husband is a Duke played by a quietly slippery Rick Roberts; Pisano, usually played by a man is played by Irene Poole in a nuanced, compelling performance.
The acting in the production is fine. As Innogen, Allison Edwards-Crewe is a calm and committed presence. She is naturally upset when Posthumus (Jordin Hall) is banished, but she is clear-eyed about finding him when he leaves. Allison Edwards-Crewe gives a measured performance proving the loyalty and belief of her husband. As Posthumus, Jordin Hall is courtly in his bearing and faithful in believing Innogen is a faithful wife. Even when Iachimo (Tyrone Savage) gives ‘proof’ of Innogen’s disloyalty, Posthumus continues to trust her until the ‘proof’ is too much for Posthumus to disbelieve. Tyrone Savage moves like a dancer when he appears in Innogen’s bedroom, ready to fabricate the lie that she is untrue. Tyrone Savage is seductive, deceptive and compelling in Iachimo’s evilness.
Echo Zhou has designed an arresting set and Michelle Bohn’s costumes are evocative of an earthier, much earlier time when Britain’s people were rugged, warring and caught up in the world of impending battle.
Comment. Women often don’t get a fair break with Shakespeare. Take for example, Much Ado About Nothing written in either 1598 or 1599. At least twice during the play Hero is thought to be untrue. The villain Don John says so to Hero’s betrothed, Claudio and her father Leonato and they immediately believe him and not the chaste Hero. These guys don’t give a second thought to the source of the information—a villain. Don John says Hero is untrue and Claudio and Leonato believe him—twice. One sucks air at the stupidity.
But then in 1610, Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline and when Iachimo discredits Innogen, Posthumus continues to believe his wife is true until the information he is given about her cannot be denied (even though the information was gathered through sneaky means). What a difference 12 years in a playwright’s growth can make. Women stay the course in Shakespeare, it’s the fellahs who fail them.
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 50th 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 50th 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 & Nowis 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
