Lynn

Live and in person at the Bluma Appel Theatre, produced by Canadian Stage, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Dec. 2, 2023.

www.canadianstage.com

Written by Stefano Massini

Adapted by Ben Power

Directed by Philip Akin

Set by Camellia Koo

Costumes by Dana Osborne

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Sound by Miquelon Rodriguez

Cast: Ben Carlson

Jordan Pettle

Graeme Somerville

A blockbuster of a play, huge in scope, perception and full of depth. A play and production about a little Jewish immigrant family who started a financial empire with spectacular results, both good and bad.

The Story. It’s billed as “A family and a company that changed the world.” The story begins in 1844 on a New York City dock. Chaim Lehman (pronounced “Laymahn”) has just arrived by boat after months from Bavaria and he talks with conviction of the American Dream. He has come there to the centre of that dream–America– to make his way in the world.

But first he must deal with people, like the customs person who can’t pronounce Chaim (that ‘ch’ sound from the German) or Lehman, so Chaim becomes Henry, and Lehman becomes Lehman (pronounced Leeman). Henry starts a small shop in Mongomery, Alabama that sells fabric. He is soon joined by his two brothers, Emmanuel, the middle brother and Mayer, the youngest. Still there are not many Jews in Montgomery, Alabama.

Henry is considered the ‘head’, the man with the ideas who is always right. Emmanuel is known as ‘the arm’, who has the brawn or energy. And Mayer who has a baby-face like a potato refers to himself as ‘the potato’ acts as the calming presence between his two demanding brothers.

All of them reveal an affinity for business, knowing an opportunity when it appears and taking full advantage of those opportunities. The brothers were full of ingenuity. They saw an opportunity to keep the store open on Sundays while everybody else went to church, and presented an opportunity for the churchgoers to also buy fabric etc. The etc. became shovels and seeds. When disaster struck—many plantations had their cotton crops go up in flames and thus it affected the creation of fabric–so the Lehman Brothers then went into the business of buying raw cotton where they could and then selling that to the fabric maker—in a sense creating the idea of the middle man. They became brokers. They began dealing with “the north” when Emmanuel went to New York to see what kind of business they could drum up up there and decided they should open an office there that he would run. They expanded the business to concentrate in making money, this led to them eventually becoming bankers. They went from Lehman Brothers Cotton to Lehman Brothers Bank. To Lehman Brothers financial, each time expanding the business and shifting its focus.  

They experienced disappointment when there was a problem—such as fires, war, the depression—and they took those problems and saw opportunities. The family expanded. Each brother married and had children. The children displayed the same imagination and creativity to contribute to the business. And each generation of Lehmans out-thought the previous generation with new ideas, focus and the way of dealing with the changing world.

And then, in 2008, 163 years after they established the firm, it collapsed into bankruptcy and either triggered or was part of one of the largest financial crises in history. Interestingly at the time, there was no Lehman in the company, the last one sold his involvement and soon after, the company collapsed. Of course, that was the time in the States, people were irresponsibly loaned huge amounts of money they could never pay back—and that was part of the financial crisis. But for the most part Lehman Brothers, the huge company, was held responsible for the triggering.

The Production. The play is presented in three parts over the evening—it’s a huge production lasting three hours and fifteen minutes, with two intermissions. There are three brothers so each one is spotlighted with his own story. Three actors play all the parts

Ben Carlson plays ‘the head,’ Henry Lehman plus other members of the family. Graeme Somerville plays ‘the arm,’ strong-willed Emmanuel Lehman. Jordan Pettle plays ‘the potato,’  the diplomatic Mayer Lehman. They are all, individually and collectively brilliant in realizing these fascinating characters.

As Henry, Ben Carlson is measured in his speech, confident in his decisions because he is never wrong, and not arrogant. He is a businessman, wily and wise in his decisions and brilliant in his ability to ‘read the room’ and see the endless possibilities for the business.

Graeme Somerville plays Emmanuel Lehman as a determined man who also see where opportunities are and goes after them. He saw the potential of doing business in New York City and went about establishing an office of the company there. He was determined to marry Pauline Sondheim who was already engaged to someone else. And he was persistent and patient. He kept asking her to marry him, weekly for months until she relented. Graeme Somerville plays Emmanuel with a subtle gruffness. Emmanuel has no time for small talk or chit chat. He goes right to the heart of things.

Jordan Pettle plays Mayer Lehman with the diplomacy of the brother who kept peace between his two older, more combative brothers. Mayer was also smart and perceptive. He could solve problems. He was an asset to the company and they all were.

Philip Akin has directed the production with great skill and sensitivity. There is a delicate scene of one of the brothers kissing a mezuzah on his door well that is so subtly, beautifully done I thought it was breathtaking. Akin establishes relationships simply and efficiently. And while Akin is in command of the production, I had a lot of trouble with Camellia Koo’s set and how Akin had to negotiate his cast over this unwieldy set.  

Camellia Koo is usually a fine designer. But this set had me shaking my head in confusion. It looks like several tiers or bleachers of wood structures that the actors climb up and down or walk up and along for the whole show. Often the cast of three pull out boxes that form the structure to perhaps suggest a different location or scene. But I gotta tell ya, I was exhausted watching those guys go up and down those levels, endlessly for the whole show. Why? Is all that climbing and moving of boxes symbolic of them climbing to the top of industry?  Perhaps but then they are also scurrying down the levels, so that can’t be it. I have to assume that this is the set that director, Philip Akin wanted. I just don’t understand the point of that unwieldy structure.

There is also something fascinating. The whole structure is on a raised platform with perhaps several inches between the platform and the stage floor. If you look closely, crammed in that space are bare feet. Are they suggesting the cramped quarters on the boat that immigrants like Henry endured—with people packed into steerage—crammed together?

We don’t hear of the people the Lehman Brothers defeated in business. Are the feet supposed to be symbolic of all the people trampled when their businesses collapsed? I don’t know, but those feet made my eyebrows raise wondering who they represent.

The Lehman Trilogy is a stunning play. In simple scenes, with economic language (bravo to the translation by Ben Power), you get the whole breadth of the thinking and philosophy of these immigrant brothers who came to America seeking their dream and making it a reality. And the people in their family were primed to carry on the family business. Is it about greed? Thinking too big? Hubris? It’s all of that and more. And Philip Akin and his strong cast have brought it to life with verve, conviction and strong legs to get up down that ‘mountain’ of a set.

Comment. I first saw The Lehman Trilogy in London a few years ago. This time I looked at it in a different light because the world has changed. I bring a certain perspective to the play.

I look at those three Jewish immigrant brothers,  all the initiatives, the thinking to read a situation and make an advantage of it to do business, to then shift into banking to make more money, and I see aspects that play into a perceived stereotype for antisemitism, If the Lehman Brothers were not Jewish would I be thinking that or not at all? Questions that arise with good theatre.

Canadian Stage Presents:

Opened: Nov. 17, 2023

Running time: 3 hours, 15 minutes (2 intermissions)

www.canadianstage.com

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Live and in person at the Theatre Centre, Franco Boni Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Necessary Angel. Running until Dec. 3. 2023.

www.necessaryangel.com

By Sarah Ruhl

Based on the book by Sarah Ruhl and Max Ritvo

Directed by Alan Dilworth

Set and Costumes by Michelle Tracey

Lighting by Rebecca Picherack

Sound by Debashis Sinha

Choreography by Monica Dottor

Cast: Maev Beaty

Jesse LaVercombe

When Max Ritvo was 20-years-old he applied to be a student in playwright Sarah Ruhl’s playwrighting class at Yale. On his application he wrote that he had never written a play. He was a poet and a member of a comedy troupe. Sarah Ruhl’s teaching assistant put Ritvo’s application in the “no” pile. When Sarah Ruhl reviewed the “no” applications, she was struck by Max Ritvo’s intriguing way of expression, that he was a poet and that he purported to be funny—a combination she really appreciated. She accepted him instantly. When Sarah Ruhl (Maev Beaty) first met Max Ritvo (Jesse LaVercombe) in person in class, she was charmed by his irreverence, joy for life, thoughtfulness and the ‘light’ that seemed to be around him.

Early on in the course (2012) he said he would have to leave early because he had tickets to Philip Glass’s opera Einstein on the Beach and needed to leave early to eat—his digestive system had been compromised by chemo when he had pediatric Ewings Sarcoma when he was a teenager. Sarah Ruhl was impressed that he got tickets—she was unable to secure them for herself—and assigned him a task: he had to give a five-minute review of the experience to the class. Max Ritvo took more than an hour to review the experience for the class, giving particular attention to the slowness of scenes and the slow counting of numbers in scenes. Einstein on the Beach was five hours long, without an intermission. One of the women in the class was incensed that this young man had taken so much of the class time with the ‘review.’ We are told by Sarah Ruhl that the woman became one of Max Ritvo’s best friends, such was his charm and effect on people.

Max Ritvo was a tireless writer. He lived to write, mainly poetry. But there were his many e-mails to Sarah Ruhl which were initially formally respectful (“Dear Professor Ruhl”…) and then after the second e-mail (we are told from Professor Ruhl) it was “Dear Sarah.” The e-mails were plentiful on both sides. In Max, Sarah Ruhl found a student (initially) who was bright, smart, hugely intelligent, literary, esoteric, philosophical and briming with insight and life. That last part is ironic because Max Ritvo was dying—no spoiler, we are told the cancer came back. Then it was as if Max was living at warp speed, to cram all his living, his writing and experiencing love and marriage into one short time.

He wrote poems, many to Sarah—dense, thoughtful, complex. He coaxed her to show him her poems. Sarah Ruhl was his teacher but he became hers as he showed her (and us?) how to live while dying from a disease and dealing with the treatment of it.

Over the course of the class and after—Ritvo was accepted in a Master’s English program at Columbia—the e-mails continued, from across the country, or across the city, many detailing his daily trials with cancer. He and Sarah became loving friends without any sexual relationship. Ritvo became that gifted student teachers dream of. He and Sarah could talk about anything and everything with a literary bent, joke, eat soup—soup factors heavily in Letters From Max, a ritual. They gushed over each other’s work without reservation.

One day Sarah Ruhl suggested that they take their correspondence and have it published in a ‘little book.’  He was stunned, but delighted at this. It’s a natural assumption when you are celebrated Sarah Ruhl to have everything your write, published.  (It’s usually not that easy). Max Ritvo had his book of poetry, Four Reincarnations, rejected by 25 publishers before it was published (posthumously).  

The book “Letters from Max, a ritual” is 309 pages long. Sarah Ruhl edited the letters down to this two hour and 15-minute play. It had a short run in New York City last year. This production produced by Necessary Angel is the Canadian premier. Alan Dilworth, the Artistic Director of Necessary Angel has a particular affinity with Sarah Ruhl, who he knows, and whose work he has often produced and directed.

There is a special feeling with Letters From Max, a ritual, almost reverential—gifted writers finding each other, soulmates, sharing thoughts, dreams, fears, ideas, humour and one of them will die at 25 in 2016. Crushing. At one time or another we have all dealt with disease, loss and death in one form or another. That too connects one to the work.

The cast of Maev Beaty as Sarah and Jesse LaVercombe as Max is a winning combination. Maev Beaty is an encouraging presence towards Max when they first meet, turning almost motherly when he becomes depressed at his ill-health, and tender and compassionate when he is sick, scared, but still provocatively creative. Jesse LaVercombe as Max is ‘present’, curious, intensely self-confident, esoteric in his expressions, impish and comfortable in his being accepted as an equal by this gifted playwright. At times this mutual admiration between the two seems to close off the audience from being included.

The set and costumes by Michelle Tracey are simple and evocative. There are two desks, one on either side of the stage with chairs at each. There is a mug for tea on each and bowls for soup on one of the desks. The costumes for Sarah are simple, long sweater, slacks—the long sweater seems almost Virginia Woolf-like. Max wears a scarf jauntily wrapped around his neck, a top and pants. The shoes are interesting: comfortable black shoes with red shoe laces, Max being an extravert right down to his laces.    

Director Alan Dilworth obviously respects and loves this work. His direction is initially simple—the chairs are moved to suggest different locations, scenes, times etc. but after a time the moving of the chairs becames bothersome and not helpful. At one point Max recites something and writes “There is NO God” in chalk on the floor at the same time that Sarah is talking—distracting and symbolism writ large. While Maev Beaty’s Sarah is determined to be buoyant for Max as he gets sicker, Alan Dilworth either deliberately or inadvertently falls for the sentimentality trap when he directs Maev Beaty to pause longer than needed to say that Max had died. It just makes the whole enterprise seem deliberately precious.

Letters from Max, a ritual is moving to be sure when one of the creators is no longer with us. Whether it’s good theatre for a curious audience or more fitting for an audience that likes esoteric, intellectual musings between intellectuals, is another matter.

Necessary Angel presents:

Opened: Nov. 15, 2023

Runs until Dec. 3, 2023

Running time: 2 hours, 15 minutes (1 intermission)

www.necessaryangel.com

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Hi Folks,

Nov.13-19, 2023 is CIUT FM’s Fall fundraising drive. This is my shameless plea to donate to keep the only independent radio station in Toronto going that covers the arts unlike any other outlet. The mainstream media has drastically cut down its arts coverage. Not CIUT FM. On my show, CRITICS CIRCLE, Saturdays from 9 am to 10 am, we do theatre and film reviews every week, plus interviews. I review theatre around the city and the province. We give voice to those who need to be heard. Our shows are all volunteer. Please go to https://ciut.fm noting CRITICS CIRCLE and donate so we can continue to provide needed arts coverage. Thanks. Lynn

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Live and in person at Koerner Hall, produced by the Musical Stage Company, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Nov. 17, 2023.

www.musicalstagecompany.com

Arrangements, orchestrations and music co-supervision, Kevin Wong

Co-arranger, co-orchestrator, and music co-supervisor, Jonathan Corkal-Astorga

Script curation, Jason Spetter

Staging, Kaylee Harwood

Lighting by Mathilda Kane

Cast: Jully Black

Nathan Carroll

Sara Farb

Eva Foote

Kelly Holiff

Lydia Persaud

Vinnie Alberto

Taylor Garwood

The Orchestra:

Piano/conductor/violin, Kevin Wong

Piano/guitar, Jonathan Corkal-Astorga

Drums/percussion, Jamie Drake

Bass, Eric Larson

Over the last several years the Musical Stage Company has created concerts devoted to the music of specific artists such as: The Beatles, ABBA and Dolly Parton, for example. The concerts are called “Uncovered” because the company delves deeply into the music and lyrics to uncover their secrets and inner lives.

This year’s offering is “Uncovered: Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.” The songs in the concert are curated by Kevin Wong, arranger, orchestrator and music co-supervisor and Kaylee Harwood who staged the work and was responsible for dramaturgy. Jason Spetter was responsible for the script curation. Much research went into not only the songs, but also the history of each band, culling information from interviews, quotes and biographical material. Most of the quotes are from band members and in a few cases, the members of the cast.

Much was made of the tension involved in each band. Both Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles were groups in which the band members were always at odds with each other. In the Eagles the members were: Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Vince Gill, Deacon Frey, Glenn Frey, Bernie Leadon, Randy Meisner and Don Felder. There were feuds, firings, jealousies, disagreements, fights, disbandments and reuniting.

The members of Fleetwood Mac were: Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Mick Fleetwood. In this case it also involved pairings and unpairings between the women of the band and the men. Since both bands were composed of musicians who also wrote the songs, matters could get complicated with jealousies and often produced the most incredible albums of music.

Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac is quoted as saying how depressing it was to spend the whole day with band members with whom you had a personal relationship but the few hours on stage singing and making music together was sublime. Anyone who has heard the albums of both bands knows what Stevie Nicks meant. The words and music conjure such emotions of love, regret, disappointment, uncertainty, joy, and ecstasy.

Some of the best musical interpreters are in the cast of “Uncovered: Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles.” Sara Farb has a way with a mournful song like “Go Your Own Way” by Lindsey Buckingham; Nathan Carroll brings out a wistfulness in “Hotel California, (Don Felder, Don Henley, & J.D. Souther), ” Kelly Holiff is rousing in whatever she sings (Desperado by Glenn Frey & Don Henley, Rocky Mountain Way by Joe Walsh, Rocke Grace, Kenny Passarelli & Joe Vitale), Eva Foote brings a thoughtfulness to “The Boys of Summer” (Don Henley and Mike Campbell), and in just two songs Jully Black illuminates why she is at the top of her game singing “Edge of Seventeen” (Stevie Nicks) and the “Heart of the Matter” (Mike Campbell, Don Henley, & J.D. Souther). They were joined by Lydia Persaud and Vinnie Alberto and Taylor Garwood, the last two are the 2022-23 Syd and Shirley Banks Prize winners. Kevin Wong did multiple duty, besides doing the arrangements, orchestrations and music co-supervision, he also played the piano, violin and sang “Landslide” (Stevie Nicks).

It’s obvious care was taken to try and illuminate the depth of the music and the lyrics. Kaylee Harwood not only stages the concert, she provided dramaturgy to the script. It’s presented in Koerner Hall, probably one of the most acoustically pristine halls in the country if not wider.

Why, then, did I find the whole enterprise so disappointing and dispiriting? Let’s start with the music and lyrics—some of my favourite works—I couldn’t hear them. While most songs began quietly, slowly, thoughtfully, at a certain point near the beginning of each number, the band bashed in, playing as loudly as possible, mixed with the back up groups, singing as loudly as possible and the lead singer(s) also singing as loudly as possible. The sound was ear-splitting. The music and lyrics were drowned out. In some cases—hello Kevin Wong—the enunciation was non-existent. I have one word written next to the song “Rocky Mountain Way”—noise!

Perhaps I was too close in about the fifth row. During intermission I moved to the last row, behind the creative folks and the man ‘regulating’ the sound. Same thing—unintelligible. It’s called “Uncovered” It’s not a rock concert in a huge venue. It’s a concert that delves deeply into the music and lyrics of two leading, iconic, music changing bands, presented in a hall noted for its acoustics, and I can’t hear the music and lyrics—the reason why I’m in the room in the first place. Does no one check for this imbalance? Obviously not since this problem is on going for the Musical Stage Company. Is it not important? Think again.

The Musical Stage Company presents:

Playing until Nov. 17, 2023.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.musicalstagecompany.com

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Heads Up For the Week of Nov. 13-19, 2023.                                      

Nov. 14-17, 2023. At 8:00 pm

Uncovered: The Music of Fleetwood Mac& The Eagles

Produced by the Musical Stage Company

Koerner Hall

This year’s concert spotlights the music of two of the most influential bands of the past 50 years – Fleetwood Mac and The Eagles. This annual sell-out concert is developed and performed by some of Canada’s most celebrated musical theatre artists as they re-imagine the songbooks of legendary singers/songwriters through a storytelling lens.  

https://www.rcmusic.com/tickets/seats/311601

Nov. 15—Dec. 3, 2023. 8:00 pm

Letters from Max- A Ritual

Produced by Necessary Angel

At the Theatre Center

Letters between playwright Sarah Ruhl and her student and later friend, Max Ritvo.

About living a good life.

Letters From Max, a ritual

Nov. 15-Dec. 3, 2023.

Withrow Park

Written by Morris Panych

Produced by Tarragon Theatre

Three people gaze out their living room window as the days pass. Across the street in Withrow Park life goes on – or is it a dream?
Then a knock at the door. Time has found them, hiding in plain sight. Or possibly it’s just a man in a wrinkled suit. But they must act, now, or forever be devoured by their own indifference. Logan Avenue awaits, and beyond it, heaven, perhaps. They can no longer live on the periphery of their own lives. They must invite the young man to dinner.

Withrow Park asks what we see in the darkness, and who is watching us from the light.

www.tarragontheatre.com

Nov. 15-Dec. 10, 2023.

Prophesy Fog

By Jani Lauzon

Created and Performed by Jani Lauzon

Prophecy Fog begins with a journey into the Mojave Desert in search of Giant Rock, armed with the question: can a site still be sacred if it has been desecrated?

www.coalminetheatre.com

Note of frustration: The three productions listed above ALL open on Nov. 15. Ridiculous. Don’t these theatre people speak to each other to prevent this stuff, to give them a fighting chance to grab an audience?

Mindboggling.

Nov. 16-Dec. 2, 2023.

The Lehman Trilogy

By Stefano Massini

About the rise and fall of the Lehman banking family.

www.canadianstage.com

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Live and in person at the Studio Theatre of Streetcar Crowsnest, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Crow’s Theatre. Playing until Dec. 3, 2023.

www.crowstheatre.com

Written by Natal’ya Vorozhbit

Translated by Sasha Dugdale

Directed by Andrew Kushnir

Set and props by Sim Suzer

Costumes by Snezana Pesic

Lighting by Christian Horoszczak

Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne

Cast: Andrew Chown

Katherine Gauthier

Craig Lauzon

Diego Matamoros

Seana McKenna

Michelle Monteith

Shauna Thompson

A gripping, harrowing look at war from one of Ukraine’s leading playwrights.

Some background. Andrew Kushnir is an actor, playwright and director. He is also a proud Canadian-Ukrainian. He noticed that there are all sorts of plays by Russian playwrights being produced—Chekov, Bulgakov, Tolstoy etc. but none by Ukrainians. He decided to change that so he lobbied heavily and Crow’s Theatre is now producing Bad Roads by Natal’ya Vorozhbit. And while it’s about war, it’s not about the war in Ukraine raging now. This is the 2014 war when Russia invaded Ukraine to annex Crimea.

The Story. It’s war in the Donbas region. The horrors are seen from various points of view. The play is based on testimonies from the outset of the invasion. And it mainly focuses on the effects of the war on women, relationships and the country’s society. There are scenes illuminating love, sex, violence, loss, trauma, resistance and even humour.  What’s it like to be human during that time; or is humanity destroyed?

The Production. There are six scenes/vignettes established through blackouts that lead from one to the other.

A journalist (Michelle Monteith) takes a research trip to the front line and finds herself falling in love with her military escort.

Teenage girls (Katherine Gauthier, Michelle Monteith, Shauna Thompson) eating seeds, wait for soldiers on a bench, sure that the men love them.

A medic (a beautifully distraught Shauna Thompson) mourns her lover killed in action while she is driven to safety by a soldier (Craig Lauzon illuminating the soldier’s frustration and sense of loss).

A man (Diego Matamoros) is stopped at a checkpoint by two soldiers (Craig Lauzon, Andrew Chown). He doesn’t have his passport. He took his wife’s passport by mistake, but something doesn’t seem right to the soldiers who stopped him.

A woman reporter (Katherine Gauthier) is held captive by a crazed Russian soldier (Andrew Chown) who wants to rape her and inflict pain.

And this last scene takes place before the war, when a woman (Shauna Thompson) is distraught because she has run over a farmer’s hen, admits it and is then toyed with by the farmer (Diego Matamoros) and his wife (Seana McKenna) who try and take advantage of her, until something suddenly makes them stop.

One looks at war from various points of view from the soldiers on both sides, to reporters/journalists/ teenagers, innocent women, a terrified older man with the wrong passport and from people who want to take advantage of a naïve women.

I liked Bad Roads a lot. First of all, the play by Natal’ya Vorozhbit and the translation by Sasha Dugdale is gritty, funny, raw, violent, poetic and an emotional rollercoaster of loss, love, disillusion, rage, a desire to kill and regret about that. At times you’re not sure if characters have multiple involvements because each actor plays a few parts.

For example, is the commander in one scene the same one mentioned in another scene in which he is having an affair with a journalist? I don’t find it confusing, just interesting how war effects so many people and coincidences do happen. What Natal’ya Vorozhbit has done is put a human face on war. We hear from a Ukrainian character who finds that both the Russians and the Ukrainians are less than respectable in war. Both sides feel dehumanized. I thought that equitable vision interesting and fair minded, if such a word can be applied to war.

The production is astonishing in its emotional impact, simplicity, vision and masterful images, all because of the bracing production of director Andrew Kushnir. The playing space is small so every inch counts. Sim Suzer has designed a set in which there is black rubber bits on the ground that makes it look like the earth is blackened through war. There is a bench on one side and a set of steps and a platform on the other side.

The lighting by Christian Horoszczak is stark and creates the sense of foreboding.  Danger is in every shadow. Thomas Ryder Payne’s soundscape of war, bombs and explosions puts you in the middle of it. One finds oneself ducking to miss falling debris. The power of suggestion.  

In the first scene Michelle Monteith plays a knowing journalist who is in love with her soldier escort who is taking her to the front to write about it. She is irreverent, observant about what is going on in the war and keenly aware that she is falling in love with her escort. It’s interesting to see her circle the space in a slow pace, ruminating on every idea and point. Michelle Monteith gives a performance as the journalist (known only as Woman in the programme) that is knowing and moving. She knows the situation is hopeless but she aches with love for the escort, who is married.

There is a scene towards the end in which Katherine Gauthier plays a young woman held captive by Andrew Chown as a soldier. It takes place mainly in the dark but illuminated by one flashlight. The soldier has contempt for the woman and wants to rape her and she is pleading for him not to do it. She tries to reason with him, appealing to him as a person. He feels he has become less than human, crazed. It’s violent, raw and frightening because of the aggressive way he treats her, throws her around the space and hits her.  And you see none of it. The scene and the whole play for that matter, is so well staged by Andrew Kushnir, that your imagination works overboard assuming he is doing to her what it sounds like he is doing. Yet there is never any physical connection.

Andrew Chown as the soldier believes he is less than human at this point. He bashes a bench with his fist, over here, twirling the flashlight so the light is erratic and jarring, while Katherine Gauthier as a woman over there is sliding on the floor, crying, grunting, and appearing to take the abuse. The physicality is brutal because of the way it’s staged (thanks to Andrew Kushnir and flight director Anita Nittoly). All the more remarkable, because the soldier never touches the woman. We only imagine he does.

The performances from Andrew Chown and Katherine Gauthier are stunning.

People acted brutally even before the war. Shauna Thompson is distraught as the woman who ran over the farmer’s chicken. She wants to pay to replace it. The farmer (Diego Matamoros) and his wife (Seana McKenna) quietly ‘play’ the woman and offer her a price. She says she will be back the next day with the money. When she arrives the farmer and his wife don’t over react, but the wife, a quiet, wily, calculating performance by Seana McKenna, begins to recount the value of the dead chicken, the lost revenue from the lack of eggs and one feels uncomfortable for the woman and the duplicity of the couple. But then there is a sound that brings the wife back to humanity and the realization of how badly she has behaved. The horrors of war are beautifully realized in this bracing play.

Comment. When you least expect it, another war comes along and displaces a previous one from the media.The Middle East displaces Ukraine from our media headlines and Bad Roads resonates with both places at the same time.The world has gone insane, but playwrights and theatre people illuminate the humanity and horror of it all.

Crow’s Theatre presents:

Runs until Dec. 3, 2023.

Running time: 1 hour 55 minutes (No intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Streetcar Crowsnest, Toronto, Ont. A Tapestry Opera Production in association with Crow’s Theatre. Runs until Nov. 12, 2023.

www.crowstheatre.com

Composer, Gareth Williams

Librettist, Anna Chatterton

Director, Michael Hidetoshi Mori

Music director, Kamna Gupta

Costumes by Ming Wong

Lighting by Echo Zhou

Set by Jawon Kang

Cast: Lucia Cesaroni

Alex Hetherington

Keith Klassen

Midori Marsh

Peter McGillivray

Asitha Tennekoon

Korin Thomas-Smith

Anika Venkatesh

Background info. The opera Rocking Horse Winner is based on the short story “The Rocking Horse Winner” by D.H. Lawrence. In transitioning from the short story to the opera, the “The” in the title of the short story was dropped for the opera. I don’t know why. One of life’s mysteries.  

Tapestry Opera first produced Rocking Horse Winner in 2016, winning a 2017 Dora Mavor Moore Award for Best Production and Best Direction among others, in the Opera Division. Tapestry Opera and Crow’s Theatre have collaborated to remount the production.

The Story. From the Tapestry Opera website: “This is the story of Ava and her son Paul. Their house and an old rocking horse whisper words only Paul can hear. When the voice of the house grows more urgent in whispering, “There must be more money,” Paul enlists his lucky rocking horse to tell him the names of live horse race winners. He begins betting with great success, but each win comes at an enormous cost.”

The phrase: “The love of money is the root of all evil” is certainly true in Ava’s case. She feels that it’s better to be lucky than rich because one can be rich but lose the money. If one is lucky one has money constantly. Eva laments that her husband had no luck and for Eva there was never enough money to keep her in the style to which she wanted to be accustomed. It is now only her and her son Paul in the house.

Paul is a fragile minded man-child. He lives at home and is mindful of his unhappy, unsmiling mother. He wants to make her happy. He wants to be lucky. He discovers a secret way to do it. He finds that if he rides his over-sized wood rocking horse frantically to a frenzy the name of the winning horse in a future local horse-race will come to him. The theory is tested when his uncle Oscar and Bassett the family servant take Paul to the races. They bet on the horse Paul picks and win for the most part.

His mother is happy, for a time.

The Production. NOTE: Because this is in part an Opera, I’m not commenting on the singing or the music. Not my vocabulary. I will comment on the theatricality of the production.

Jawon Kang has done a terrific job designing a set that gives the sense of size and former grandeur. The house is two storied. There is a winding staircase to the second floor stage left. The sense of light pours in from large windows. On the first floor Eva (Lucia Cesaroni) drinks sherry and when Paul (Asitha Tennekoon) starts making money on his betting, she changes to champagne. There is a grand piano. The more luck Paul has with his winning the louder “The House” whispers “There must be more money.” A chorus of four singers, usually in shadow, represent “The House.”  Eva’s need to feed her extravagant life-style, regardless of there being money or not, is the reason the house is haunted with those whispers, and why Paul is obsessed in winning.

Michael Hidetoshi Mori directs with clarity, economy and passion. The frenzy in which Paul rides the horse is unmistakably sexual—you can’t have work based on a D. H. Lawrence short story and not mention the sex. As soon as Paul reaches his climax of frenzy and finds the name of the next winner he is spent, exhausted. All this pressure to find the winner; the frenzied riding; and the toll on his body makes Paul weaker and weaker with dire consequences.

Librettist Anna Chatterton realizes the elegance, subtlety and subtext in D. H. Lawrence’s short story, and creates a story as gripping.

Rocking Horse Winner is a terrific piece of theatre, pulsing with energy, passion, ecstasy and the desperation for love. All Paul wants/needs is to make his distant mother happy and because of her failings it becomes his as well. Emotion packed.

A Tapestry Opera Production in Association with Crow’s Theatre presents:

Runs until Nov. 12, 2023.

Running time: 60 minutes (no intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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Huge congratulations to Cliff Cardinal for winning the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama for his play “William Shakespeare’s As You Like It, a Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal. “

When it first played at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto, I hated it. Reaction was loud and swift.   Ooohh were the comments “interesting.” People went to see the show. I love that!! Imagine a theatre critic who actually wants people to go to the theatre, even when one doesn’t like a play.

It then played The Great Canadian Theatre Company in Ottawa. I sensed from the title it was slightly different. I saw it again, to see what I missed. Cliff Cardinal re-wrote the play. Changed it from top to bottom. He still kept his anger but it was different.

I loved this version and reviewed it.

He then brought it to Toronto under the Mirvish banner with an even bigger change, but still the same cheek and ire.

Loved it again and reviewed it again.

He changed his play and I changed my mind. That’s what happens when one is open to different ideas and thoughts.

Here are the three iterations of the review:

Review: THE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT, or As You Like It.

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Live and in person at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Wren Theatre in association with Rhyno Equity Group. Plays until Nov. 12, 2023.

www.redsandcastletheatre.com

Written by Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlaskalic

Directed by Tatum Lee

Technical supervisor, Gillian Macleod

Cast: Amanda D’Souza

Adrianna Prosser

Vikki Velenosi

A challenging play given a bold production full of interesting directorial decisions that don’t always work, but the commitment from all involved is impressive.

The Story. The Drowning Girls recounts the story of Bessie, Alice and Margaret, three of the many wives of George Joseph Smith, an Edwardian opportunist who made a living marrying women, taking out life insurance policies for them and subsequently drowning them in their baths. Based on true events.

The Production. A lace curtain goes from one side of the stage to the other. Behind it are three old-fashioned-claw-foot white bathtubs. There is a body in each, submerged in some water. The legs of each body drape over the end of the tub. There is a silver looking box of sorts at the foot of each bathtub on the floor.  

Three ghostly brides surface from the bathtubs, to gather evidence against their womanizing, murderous, husband by reliving the shocking events leading up to their deaths. As they make their case, they discover how they have been victimized not only by George Joseph Smith, the husband in question, but also by society at large.

Bessie (Vikki Velenosi), Alice (Amanda D’Souza) and Margaret (Adrianna Prosser) are submerged wearing white undergarments. Director Tatum Lee has each character wear white contact lenses that create that ghost-like-zombie-like look. An interesting choice but perhaps a bit out of place, if not distracting, since much of the show is taken up with the characters telling us the story that led up to their meeting their husbands, being charmed by him, swept off their feet and quickly married after which they saw his true, mean self and then their deaths.

Much of the characters’ first scenes are presented with the women in their tubs with their backs to the audience, talking of their lives and recollections. Interesting idea, to present the characters with them facing away from us. The rest of the production is presented with the characters facing full on.

One might ask: “How is it possible that three mature women could be so fooled by a man into marrying him after knowing him for a few days or weeks, taking out a life insurance policy leaving everything to him, should she die, and cutting their families out of their lives because the families object to the man?” How is that possible?

It’s possible because it’s the early part of the last century and to be unmarried in 1912, 1913 and 1914 is an embarrassment. At all cost, a woman did not want to be called ‘a spinster.’ It’s possible because George Joseph Smith (one of his aliases) knew how to charm mature women and make them think they were desirable rather than almost past the chance of getting married. Getting married was what a woman was meant to do. She could lament not being able to work or vote, but in society at that time, getting married was her main job. George Joseph Smith knew that and preyed on vulnerable women to look at him as their only hope for respectability.

We hear of horror stories like that. Playwrights Beth Graham, Charlie Tomlinson and Daniela Vlakalic put a human face to these stories along with humour and wit. The cast of Bessie (Vikki Velenosi), Alice (Amanda D’Souza) and Margaret (Adrianna Prosser) also put heart and soul to that human face. In one case the husband insists on taking care of his wife’s money because ‘she doesn’t have pockets.’ It’s a feather of a line that floats in the air with such meaning.

Director Tatum Lee’s vision and imagination is certainly industrious and challenging. She created scenes that bring out the angst and uncertainty of these women, illuminated their vulnerability. Lovely work there. But I also found the production often unnecessarily busy and fussy. There is much moving from one tub to another for example, and flitting around the set.  I have faith that with more experience Tatum Lee will realize that less is best.

Comment. My concerns notwithstanding, The Drowning Girls still has resonance. The production is worth a look.             

Wren Theatre in association with Rhyno Equity Group presents:

Opened: Nov. 7, 2023.

Closes: Nov. 12, 2023.

Running time: 80 minutes (no intermission)

www.redsandcastletheatre.com

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