I’m interviewing Craig Pike (Craig’s Cookies, That Choir, That Theatre Company) as he readies his production of ANGELS IN AMERICA opening at Buddies next week. I’m interviewing him Sat. Nov. 25 at 9 am on Critics Circle CIUT.fm 89.5. he has a lot to say. Listen in.
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Presented by Mirvish Productions. Plays until Nov. 27, 2023.
Written by Aaron Sorkin
Based on Harper Lee’s novel
Direct by Bartlett Sher
Original music by Adam Guettel
Scenic design by Miriam Buether
Costumes design by Ann Roth
Lighting design by Jennifer Tipton
Sound design by Scott Lehrer
Cast: Mary Badham
Ian Bedford
Anne-Marie Cusson
Christopher R. Ellis
Travis Johns
Steven Lee Johnson
Ted Koch
Mariah Lee
Justin Mark
Melanie Moore
Jeff Still
Richard Thomas
Yaegel T. Welch
Jacqueline Williams
Gregg Wood
A terrific dramatization by Aaron Sorkin of Harper Lee’s stunning novel given a respectable, if obvious, production. Richard Thomas gives a fine performance of the courtly, honourable Atticus Finch.
The Story. It’s based on the beautiful 1960 novel “To Kill A Mockingbird” by southern writer, Harper Lee. The story is narrated by a young tom-boy nicknamed Scout by her family and her brother named Jem. Their father is Atticus Finch, a fair-minded lawyer and a widower. They have a housekeeper named Calpurnia. One summer in 1935 their idyllic lives change when Atticus defends a black man named Tom Robinson, accused of raping and beating up a 19-year-old neighbour, Mayelle Ewell, who is white.
During the trial Scout, Jem and a new friend, Dill Harris, sneak into the courthouse to see Atticus defend the man. The children are given a rude awakening about how black people are perceived and treated by whites at that time. They see how fair-minded and serious Atticus is. Atticus proves that Tom Robinson didn’t commit the crime and points suspicion elsewhere. The person who is suspected threatens to get even with Atticus. He almost achieves his goal too.
There is also a mysterious neighbour named Boo Radley. The children have never seen him but often talk about him and wonder what he is like. In a sense Boo Radley is another example of how people treat those who they perceive as different in some way. Something happened in Mr. Radley’s life and he has almost never stepped foot out of his house, as far as anyone can tell. Mr. Radley comes to Scout and Jem’s rescue when they are threatened one night. They learn another lesson in tolerance and understanding by that experience.
The Production. Playwright, Aaron Sorkin has shifted the order of the details in the novel: the trial of Tom Robinson comes at the end of the book, in the play, the trial is front and center, including the part that Atticus Finch (Richard Thomas) had to be convinced to take the case. He didn’t think he was a good defense lawyer, but the judge in the case, Judge Taylor (a wonderfully laid back and honourable Jeff Still) convinced him in a bit of gross lack of ‘professionalism.’ Judge Taylor is as decent as Atticus and knew that Tom Robinson needed a smart, good lawyer and made the move to ensure that Atticus took up the case.
Miriam Buether has designed an efficient set of moving parts that move on to be Atticus Finch’s house, the court room and the local jail, among others. Ann Roth has designed functional clothes dark clothes for the majority of the characters with a light tanned coloured suit for Atticus, so that he stands out.
Bartlett Sher had staged a lot of activity at the beginning of the production. Scout (Melanie Moore) enters with conviction and purpose to begin the story. Melanie Moore as Scout is a bit forced in trying to convey she’s playing a young girl. She is followed by Jem Finch (Justin Mark) Scout’s older brother by three years. Justin Mark as Jem has that older-brother-seriousness when dealing with his young sister. Then their young friend Dill Harris (Steven Lee Johnson) arrives who is between Scout and Jem in age, enters to add other aspects of the story. Steven Lee Johnson as Dill has that lovely mix of precociousness and an eagerness to please his friends. I found Mr. Johnson the best of the three actors playing children. (Note: Truman Capote was a childhood friend of Harper Lee and is the model for Dill).
Once the story is established set pieces are pushed on, chairs arranged, tables positioned. A lot of activity is going on. So, when Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch makes his anticipated entrance, all the activity stops and Richard Thomas makes his star-entrance along the top of the stage down stage, walking with a purpose, briefcase in hand, to expected applause. Loved that set up. I never get tired watching a smart director nudge the audience into recognizing the star and reacting appropriately.
Richard Thomas as Atticus Finch has that relaxed demeanor of a decent, honourable man. He believes in the decency and goodness of his neighbours until his Black housekeeper Calpurnia (a wonderful Jacqueline Williams who is watchful, quiet and knowing about the fact that the neighbours are far from decent) sets him straight. Atticus is respectful of all his fellow citizens. He treats Tom Robinson (a fine performance by Yaegel T. Welch) with respect and kindness. This is beautifully illuminated in Richard Thomas’ performance.
I love Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of the novel. And there are lovely touches of business in Bartlett Sher’s direction: Scout tenderly putting her head on her father’s shoulder; Bob Ewell looking sideways menacingly at his daughter Mayelle in court to terrify her into lying about what happened to her. But overall, I think this touring production is obvious, forced in some of the acting, and almost too amplified. It’s as if the creators need to tick all the boxes and underline the points to ensure the audience hears everything, instead of trusting them to listen and pay attention to the details. The story represents a terrible miscarriage of justice, representative of a racist mindset—have faith that the audience will ‘get it’ without having to present it with broad strokes, and too slow a pace of the ending that it overplayed the poignancy.
Mirvish Productions present:
Opened: Nov. 21, 2023
Plays until Nov. 27, 2023 but returns May 28 to June 2, 2024
Running time: 2 hours, 50 minutes (1 intermission)
www.mirvish.com
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person for one performance only at the Meridian Hall, presented by TO Live, Toronto, Ont. Nov. 17, 2023.
Directed and created by Scott Wittman
Music director, Joseph Thalken
Starring: Patti LuPone
It was presented as a concert. It had the trappings of a concert. There was a program that had a picture of Patti LuPone sitting in a chair, sideways, provocative, top hat, and the title was “”Patti LuPone: Don’t Monkey with Broadway.” That’s why I took time off from my mad theatre going to see this concert. There was a grand piano on the stage. There was a microphone hovering close to where the accompanist would sit. On the piano was ‘ball’ of bright red roses in a pot. There was a lace (?) covering on the piano that draped down over the side. Very stylish. There was a glass of water on the piano. And a stand microphone. A concert. But it wasn’t a concert, and that left me miffed when it dawned on me…THIS IS NOT A CONCERT, DAMNIT!!!
It was in fact a MASTERCLASS in how to give a concert by a brilliant artist. Truly astonishing.
Joseph Thalken, the music director/accompanist walked out to applause and screaming from the two people beside me, indicating they knew him and wanted everybody in the place to know they knew him. He sat and got comfortable.
Then with no introduction out walked Patti LuPone. The audience exploded with cheering. She stopped momentarily, as if startled by the reception. I smiled and thought, “Oh come on. You’re not going to tell me you don’t always get that reception as a matter of course! You’re Patti LuPone, for heaven’s sake.” I do like that bit of “what, for me..” reaction staged by director Scott Wittman.
She sang Broadway standards: “They Say That Falling In Love is Wonderful” (Irving Berlin, Annie Get Your Gun), “How Are Things In Glocca Morra (Burton Lane, E.Y. Harburg, Finian’s Rainbow) because, as she said, no one would ever cast her as an Irish lass; “Ya Got Trouble” (Meredith Willson, The Music Man) because no one is going to tell her she can’t sing a song sung by a man in a musical, and it’s her show and she can do what she wants to, and it was wild, breathless and impassioned.
She auditioned for a tour of a musical and sang a song called “Big Spender” (“The minute you walked in the joint/I could see you were a man of distinction, a real big spender/good lookin/so refined/say wouldn’t you like to know what’s goin on in my mind/…..I don’t pop my cork for every guy I see”) (Cy Coleman, Dorothy Fields, Sweet Charity). She sang sounding bored, dull, uninvolved. When she finished she said with real self-deprecation, “HOW COULD I NOT KNOW SHE WAS A HOOKER!?”
She sang classics in that strong, pure voice of hers. The lyrics were clear and beautifully interpreted. She served the music and the message. None of these contorted faces one sees with other singers who want you to know how they are spilling their guts to convey the message.
She had one piano and the accompanist was microphoned and that was it–she was NOT blared out by the piano. Joseph Thalken, her music director and wonderful accompanist was always in synch with her. They always ended together when they were supposed to. He never drowned her out.
She sang “Somewhere” (Leonard Bernstein/Stephen Sondheim West Side Story) a love song but with Patti LuPone and with one gesture, her arms out to the audience, it changed from a love song between a man and a woman, and became a plea for peace and acceptance. My jaw dropped at that simple interpretation.
Time and again she would sing a song that ended softly and not with a roar. That’s daring and one had to shake ones head at the guts of it. She sang the songs one expected because when you win three Tony’s it is expected: “Don’t Cry for Me, Argentina” (Andrew Lloyd Webber/Tim Rice, Evita). She put her arms out and raised them in three steps and brought the house down and the music was still playing to the end; “Everything’s Coming Up Roses” (Jule Styne, Stephen Sondheim, Gypsy). Fierce, desperate, heartbreaking.
She finished the show to great cheers and roaring and of course an encore was expected. She came back on with a martini glass in her hand. “Ladies Who Lunch” (Stephen Sondheim, Company) was the fitting encore, ending on that last forceful command “Rise!” She flipped the contents of the martini glass towards the audience–but not really–and the liquid flopped on the stage.
I thought, ok. Good, you are done. But no. She stayed. I couldn’t believe she would over stay her welcome after such a rousing end. But then she sang these lyrics, quiet, gentle, lilting:
Of all the money that e’er I had
I have spent it in good company
Oh and all the harm I’ve ever done
Alas, it was to none but me
And all I’ve done for want of wit
To memory now I can’t recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be to you all
So fill to me the parting glass
And drink a health whate’er befalls
Then gently rise and softly call
Good night and joy be to you all
I could not believe that girl. ARE YOU KIDDING???? You are flipping me again!!!!! you are ending with “The Parting Glass” a traditional Scottish song of farewell, often sung in Ireland (one of my favourite songs). Yes, she was ending her show with this gorgeous soft song of farewell. And it was stunning.
Damn it. I expected a concert and I didn’t get it. I got so much more. I got a masterclass in giving a concert from a MASTER. A beautifully arranged, curated selection of songs that meant something to her. The show was full of irreverent humour, wit, grace and true artistry. I wept all the way to the subway. Brilliant woman.
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person at the Coal Mine Theatre, produced by Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave., Toronto, Ont. Running until Dec. 10, 2023.
Created and performed by Jani Lauzon
Directed by Franco Boni
Environmental design by Melissa Joakim
Movement consultant, Julia Aplin
A show that is really a ceremony that is a deeply moving, eloquent exploration of what is sacred from the sky, the stars, a pebble to a rock.
The Story and production. Prophecy Fog by Jani Lauzon explores the question: “Can a site still be sacred if it has been desecrated?” Lauzon comes to the question with lots of experience and background. She is Métis and has had her elders, her mother, grandmother and daughter teach her to appreciate the world in which she lives: the air, rocks, water, sky, stars and earth. She has been collecting rocks of all sorts her whole life. She says that each one has a story. She says that if you rub the stones in your hands and feel the warmth, you release the story.
Melissa Joakim’s environmental design of the set in the small Coal Mine Theatre, is amazing in establishing Lauzon’s connection to rocks. In keeping with respecting the space of the ceremony, the audience is asked to remove their shoes and put them on shelves in the lobby. The audience sits in a circle in chairs. Inside the circle are bowls and bowls of rocks of various shapes and sizes from boulders to pebbles. Above the space is a circular panel ringing the audience. Projections will be projected on the panel so that the whole audience can get the benefit of the projections.
As the audience files in, Jani Lauzon stands in the center of the circle, swaying and dancing inside a ridged circle which is on a larger round piece of red/orange material with spokes of material jutting out from it; it’s the sun I assume. Lauzon’s white hair cascades in front of her face and down her back. When the audience is settled and the ceremony continues, Lauzon carefully takes the ‘spokes’ of the material and movers them to fit around the curve of the material so that they are all safely wrapped.
Jani Lauzon comments on the importance of rocks and stones in her life and the stories they have told her. At various times in the 75 minute ‘ceremony,’ Lauzon upends the bowls of rocks, spreads them around the space, and even holds various rocks up and tells us where she found it and what it means. While she is careful in picking up and holding the rocks, she is deliberate and not delicate when spreading them around. They have been around for thousands of years. They are tough and Lauzon knows it.
Lauzon chose to investigate her question: “Can a site still be sacred if it has been desecrated?” by going to the Mojave Desert in California, specifically to Giant Rock which had been revered by and deemed sacred to the Indigenous peoples of the area. Lauzon and her daughter drove to the site of Giant Rock and captured it on video. The video is projected onto the circular panel above the audience. Lauzon approached the rock and then laid her back on it in reverence and after a time, walked away.
On first sighting Giant Rock is majestic and imposing. When Lauzon walks away, one gets a closer look and sees it is splattered with graffiti, some of it with despicable comments (“White power”) and two swastikas under it. There are not just one or two slogans; the face of the rock seems splattered with this graffiti. So, when Lauzon was filmed delicately, reverentially passing her hand over the rock, even including those areas with graffiti, she illuminated the sacredness of the rock in spite of the desecration. Giant Rock will always be sacred. Those who defaced it will always be morons.
As with all wonderful theatre, we listen to Lauzon’s story, but we hear it as it pertains to each of us. Her pilgrimage to Giant Rock made me think of my trip to Uluru (Ayers Rock) in the Australian Desert. Uluru is sacred to the many Aboriginal peoples of Australia. To see it from a distance is to have your breath taken away. As you move close and closer to it, it’s over powering. While it’s not covered in graffiti, tourist climbed it, in spite of it being a sacred place, leaving their garbage and even dirty diapers at the top. Finally, the Australian government made it illegal to climb on the rock, thus respecting the wishes of the Aboriginal peoples. I thought of that, while experiencing Jani Lauzon’s ceremony with her rocks.
Lauzon is a compelling storyteller with a dancer’s grace. The piece is directed with care by Franco Boni. There are moments of stillness, joy, sadness and a real sense of wonder at Jani Lauzon’s vast collection of rocks and her respect for them and their stories.
Comment. Janie Lauzon’s ceremony for her rocks and their stories is a wonderful, embracing, inclusive experience. We might not know of the many and various aspects to her ceremony but we have a deep respect and appreciation for it. We won’t look at rocks in the same way after this show.
Coal Mine Theatre Presents:
Opened: Nov. 15, 2023.
Saw it: Nov. 19, 2023
Plays until: Dec. 10, 2023.
Running Time: 75 minutes, (no intermission).
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person at the Bluma Appel Theatre, produced by Canadian Stage, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Dec. 2, 2023.
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)
{ 8 comments }
Live and in person at the Theatre Centre, Franco Boni Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Necessary Angel. Running until Dec. 3. 2023.
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)
{ 0 comments }
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
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person at Koerner Hall, produced by the Musical Stage Company, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Nov. 17, 2023.
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)
{ 1 comment }
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
{ 0 comments }
Live and in person at the Studio Theatre of Streetcar Crowsnest, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Crow’s Theatre. Playing until Dec. 3, 2023.
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
{ 0 comments }