Lynn

Live and in person at the Streetcar Crowsnest Studio. A Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre Co-production, playing until Oct. 29, 2023.

www.crowstheatre.com

Written by Will Arbery

Directed by Philip Akin

Set and props by Wes Babcock

Lighting by Logan Raju Cracknell

Costumes by Laura Delchiaro

Sound by Jacob Lin

Cast: Mac Fyfe

Ruth Goodwin

Cameron Laurie

Maria Ricossa

Hallie Saline

Explosive in every way. Listen, consider, ruminate on another point of view: the Christian right in America, and engage.

The Story. Wyoming. 2017. Four college friends (Justin, Teresa, Kevin and Emily), all graduated, have come back to their college, Transfiguration College of Wyoming, to celebrate their former professor (Gina Presson) who has been appointed the president of the school. The college is focused on Catholic teachings (anti-abortion, anti-gay). The four friends gather at the home of Justin who has organized a party in celebration of their professor’s promotion and wait for her to appear. The conversation indicates varying degrees of Conservative to right-wing thinking, intellectual rigor, delusion and blinkered attitudes. In some quarters these ideas might be considered terrifying.   

The Production. Wes Babcock has transformed the Studio Theatre at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre, into a stylish back drop of Justin’s (Mac Fyfe) home. A sliding glass door separates the back of the house from the backyard. There is a neat bar with bottles of liquor on the other side of the sliding door. There is a bench in the back yard, some stumps used as seat, a place for the storage of wood, a shed stage left and woods beyond. It’s both modern and rustic.

Justin (Mac Fyfe) quietly appears from inside the house—jeans, work shirt, boots.  He is imposing and thoughtful. He is bookish. He works at the college. He sees something in the distance. He quietly goes into another part of the house and brings back a rifle. He aims it into the distance and shoots. He goes off in that direction and comes back carrying a dead deer (?) on his back. He hangs it up on the shed and when he tries to skin it his hand cramps, several times. He hides the deer. I note that something is attached to his belt. It’s a handgun in a pouch. Justin is hosting a party for his former professor and he needs to wear a handgun on his belt. (Kudos to costume designer Laura Delchiaro and perhaps Wes Babcock too).

Emily (Hallie Seline) appears. She is a young woman but she uses a cane. She is in pain most of the time. She is nicely dressed in an understated dress. Justin is very attentive towards her, checking on her health, wanting to know if she wants to go home. There is no romance, just friendship.  There is mention of ticks as a possible cause of her medical issue. I’m thinking she has Lyme’s disease, but this seems worse. She is the daughter of Gina Presson, the woman being celebrated. Emily has texted her several times to hurry up and arrive. Emily seems frustrated when her mother doesn’t appear.

Kevin (Cameron Laurie), in shirt and slacks, is an anxious, awkward man who tries to be upbeat and jokey. He just comes off as confused and needy. He’s in a job he hates.  He’s desperate for a girlfriend. He drinks a lot–he has a bottle of liquor in his back pants pocket.   

The fourth member of this quartet of friends is Teresa (Ruth Goodwin). She is the ‘star’ of the group. She is smartly dressed in a form-fitting dress and heels. She is making a statement with her sophisticated clothes. She moved away to New York to work in the media, as a political writer for a website. We get the sense it’s a right-wing website from what Teresa says during the play. She reveres Donald Trump and Steve Bannon. She lives in Brooklyn and prides herself that it’s close to a place that George Washington fought a battle. Perhaps this makes Teresa think she is broad minded—to live in such a place, close to those who represent ‘the other side’ of political ideology with such a history. She is about to be married but worries that the wedding will not be as beautiful as she hopes.

Teresa and Justin had a relationship when they were students. She finds him alone in the backyard and chats him up. As Teresa, Ruth Goodwin is flirty, coy and very confident. She is not overt in her body language, not physically pushy as such. She’s ‘careful.’ She loves the ‘chase,’ the tease. As Justin, Mac Fyfe is quiet, reserved, thoughtful and does not play into the flirting.

Teresa knows her ability to be the center of attention. She’s teasing and off-handed with Kevin when they are alone in the backyard. Cameron Laurie as Kevin plays his desperation for a girlfriend so well, he practically lunges at her. She dispatches his ardor with a flip remark and just a hint of disdain.  

The discourse and politics of the group gets ramped up when the four friends talk about politics, abortion and attitudes. This is where Teresa comes into her element and Ruth Goodwin is wonderfully terrifying. She almost seems to lecture her friends about the state of the world: the philosophy and history of the cyclical “Fourth Turning,” Plato, religion, etc. She likens abortion to the Holocaust. Emily is horrified and challenges her on this. Teresa stares that down and offers another stunning statement saying, “It’s true. You can look it up,” as if that phrase gives nonsense credibility.  We learn Emily works in Chicago at a “pro-life” organization counselling women. She is not as blinkered as her friends. She has friends who are pro-choice and gay.

With every self-righteous statement Teresa makes, Emily counters with moral indignation. While Ruth Goodwin as Teresa is measured, nuanced and matter of fact, Hallie Seline as Emily is more and more emotional and agitated. It is a beautifully created scene between these two gifted actors.

And then Gina Presson (Maria Ricossa) arrives. She is buoyant with the joy of becoming president of the college. She’s delighted to see her former students, although her daughter Emily is not happy she had to wait so long for her arrival. And in short order Gina Presson engages with her former students. Their attitudes and character are further revealed. As Teresa demolished everybody’s attitudes, that’s as efficiently Gina stares down Teresa. With a beautiful mix of terms that could be at once affectionate and condescending, Gina reveales how Teresa is blinkered, rigid, and incapable of seeing any side but her own. As Gina, Maria Ricossa is always calm, intellectually nimble and gracious. The result is devastating.

Philip Akin has directed the play with the most delicate of touches, always in control, always keeping things coiled until matters unravel and you sit back in your seat (for protection, certainly not to relax) and breathe deeply. Akin’s sensitive handling of the most explosive scenes never let the emotion run away with the play, but illuminated it. These are intelligent, educated people who are not idiots or clowns. They are riddled with contradictions and Philip Akin’s direction of his terrific cast carefully reveals that.

Comment. Playwright Will Arbery wrote the play when Donald Trump became president. Arbery’s family is Republican and his father was the president of a Catholic University in Wyoming. He knows these people. He’s not ridiculing them. He’s revealing them. They are articulate, searching, affectionate, challenging and insecure, no matter how secure they seem. He’s written a play which represents ‘the other side.’ They have something to say. We should listen, consider, ponder, assess, although not necessarily agree.

Arbery also has a ‘character,’ unlisted who ‘inhabits’ (haunts?) Emily. She is someone none of these characters really considered with their vaulting ideas about the world, abortion, society, etc. She is a Black woman, desperate for an abortion, and her words come out of Emily’s mouth (a stunning performance by Hallie Seline) in a torrent of rage, invective, hopelessness and desperation at the world she lives in.  Heroes of the Fourth Turning is a complex, challenging, unsettling play. Perfect for our unsettling times.

A co-production between The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre present:

Plays until Oct. 29, 2023.

Running time: 2 hour, 10 minutes (no intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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Live and in person at the 1000 Islands Playhouse, Gananoque, Ont. Playing until Oct. 22, 2023.

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

Music and lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová

Book by Enda Walsh

Based on the motion picture written and directed by John Carney

Directed and choreographed by Julie Tomaino

Musical direction by Chris Barillaro

Set by Joe Pagnan

Costumes by Ming Wong

Lighting by Michelle Ramsay

Sound by Brian Kenny

Cast: Tyler Check

Sandy Crawley

Vera Deodato

Kevin Forster

Alexa MacDougall

Jon-Alex MacFarlane

Melissa MacKenzie

Em Siobhan McCourt

Brea Oatway

Alex Panneton

Daniel Williston

Juno Wong-Clayton

Seana-Lee Wood

Haneul Yi

A beautiful ache of a musical about love at the wrong time but with the right people.

Girl (Melissa MacKenzie) hears Guy (Tyler Check) busking on the street in Dublin. His song is beautiful and mournful. She compliments him and wants to know for whom he wrote the song. It was a woman who left to go to New York. Girl is on her way to get her vacuum cleaner fixed. It happens that Guy works for his father (Da) fixing vacuum cleaners. Guy fixes Girl’s vacuum cleaner and Guy and Girl find themselves getting closer to each other. He gives her a CD of his songs. She introduces him to her mother and her young daughter (it’s complicated). Guy says that in just a few days, Girl has changed his life. He’s invested in his music again. Girl says that Guy must go to New York to talk to his love there. It’s unfinished business. But there are stronger and stronger feelings between Guy and Girl.  

Director/choreographer, Julie Tomaino has created an exquisite, heartfelt, heartache of a production. As with other productions of Once, it’s deliberate that Girl and Guy to not kiss, or even touch each other, much as the audience wants them to. Julie Tomaino has created looks between Tyler Check as Guy and Melissa MacKenzie as Girl that are subtle, even furtive. At one point Guy and Girl are standing side by side looking out. He looks at her with a look of tenderness though she doesn’t see it, then he looks away back looking out, then Girl looks at him as tenderly. But their eyes don’t catch each other, what one might call an ‘if only’ look. It raises the emotional ante.  (Spoiler alert—director Julie Tomaino does take pity on the audience. While the production might not have Guy and Girl touch each other, at the bow Tyler Check and Melissa MacKenzie take their bow and then, ever so quickly they join hands firmly and then they unclasp their hands. It’s enough to give the audience some kind of emotional release).

As Guy, Tyler Check sings beautifully and with true emotion. He is that quintessential quiet man with deep emotions, grappling with unspoken feelings for his girlfriend in New York, and this new woman who has changed his life for the better in a matter of days. His quietness is compelling. As Girl, Melissa MacKenzie is watchful and somber. She says she never jokes because she is Czech, which is pretty funny in itself. She too sings beautifully. The performances for the whole production are lovely, lively, vibrant and briming with heart.

Joe Pagnan has created a stylish set that has a guitar motif. Guy plays the guitar so there are echoes of that around the set. There is a circle above with what look like strings going over it; panels are suspended above that look like frets of a guitar neck; the floor is of wood.

Once is that special kind of theatre that tells a simple story with elegance, humour, tenderness, wit, and open-hearted generosity.  And of course, you should see it, ideally more than once.

Thousand Islands Playhouse presents:

Plays until Oct. 22, 2023

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

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Live and in person at Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ont. Plays until Oct. 14, 2023

www.theatreaquarius.org

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Mary Francis Moore

Set by Beckie Morris

Costumes by Sonia Nardi Lewis

Lighting by Tim Rodrigues

Original music and sound by Christopher Stanton

Cast: Anna Chatterton

Jeff Braunstein

Barry Flatman

Part situation comedy, part stand-up only with a partner and all heart.

Barry (Jeff Braunstein) is in a seniors home because his daughter Rosie (Anna Chatterton) thought he would be better off there since she works there. Barry is a man of a certain age. He’s divorced. He was a dentist who strayed and his wife left him. Rosie feels she can keep an eye on him and see that he’s alright. He spends most of his time sitting on the terrace, reading a newspaper. Rosie keeps checking on him and putting a blanket on his legs.

One day Jonas (Barry Flatman) arrives. He is dapper, energetic, curious about the residents, especially the ladies, and makes notes in a little note pad he carries. He made a lot of money when he wrote a love song to his ‘late’ wife, who he adored.

Jonas sees in Barry a fellow traveler, a person with whom he can kibbitz and impress with his zest for life and his jokes. There is also Jonas’ success with women, no matter their ambulatory state.

Is Jonas too good to be true? Does he have secrets? Does Barry have secrets? You betcha, this is after all a Norm Foster play. The humour and banter of these two mature men comes from their experience in life, their wounds, scars and their ability to laugh through it. The humour comes from two characters who are observant, thoughtful, curious and even wise when it counts. Barry talking to Rosie and she to him reveals a sweet love between father and daughter. There is no bitterness that Barry cheated on Rosie’s mother—the mother has gone on to a better life.

Beckie Morris has designed a beautiful terrace for this seniors home that oozes charm. It’s full of greenery, calming colours and comfortable furniture. It’s welcoming. We hear from Rosie that there are plenty of activities, but Barry choses to sit, and do little. That changes when Jonas arrives.

Director, Mary Francis Moore has engaged a terrific cast and has guided them so that their collective theatre experience gently takes the audience into their world. Relationships are carefully, delicately established. As Rosie, Anna Chatterton is the caring daughter and seniors home administrator who puts all her attention in tending to her charges, one of whom is her father. Her tone is buoyant, cheerful and attentive, until we see deeper into her ‘cheerfulness.’

As Barry, Jeff Braunstein is a good-natured curmudgeon. He choses to sit and read because he might have been convinced that that is all he needs to do, until Jonas provides another course of action.

Jonas, a lively, erudite Barry Flatman, rarely sits. He’s too busy scoping out the territory, deciding on what woman he will charm. He keeps flipping his note pad full of information about the residents. What is his secret? What’s his story? Why is he there? He doesn’t act like he should be. And certainly the relationship of Barry Flatman as Jonas and Jeff Braunstein as Barry is beautifully established by these two gifted actors. The one liners are lobbed through the air with ease and finesse. The humour is always realized.  

The beauty of a Norm Foster play is that it’s full of humour, but also an engaging story that slowly grabs you. Jonas and Barry in the Home does that totally.

Theatre Aquarius presents:

Plays until Oct. 14, 2023.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission).

www.theatreaquarius.org

Overheard in the audience before the show began:

Senior fella sitting in his seat as a woman, a bit younger, approached wanting to pass:

He: I can’t bend this leg. (as an excuse for not getting up).

She: I can hop over you. I promise not to land in your lap.

He: Go for it.

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Heads up for the week of Oct. 9-15, 2023.

INFLUENCED

Oct. 12, 13, 14.

At Sweet Action Theatre, 180 Shaw St. Toronto, Ont.

Written and performed by Sam Chaulk

Buffon clown show about our addiction to the internet, social media etc.

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/influenced-sweet-action-theatre-tickets-710228531657?aff=oddtdtcreator

Jonas and Barry in the Home

Plays until Oct. 14

Theatre Aquarius, Hamilton, Ont.

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Mary Francis Moore

Two men of a certain age, meet in a seniors home and become friends.

Sweet and funny.

www.theatreaquarius.org

ONCE

Plays until Oct. 22

Thousand Islands Playhouse, Gananoque, Ont.

Book by Enda Walsh; Music and Lyrics by Glen Hansard and Markéta Irglová.

Directed and choreographed by Julie Tomaino

Guy and Girl meet when he is busking on the street. She needs her vacuum cleaner fixed. It doesn’t suck. He fixes it. They fall in love. It’s not that simple. Wonderful production.

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

Heroes of the Fourth Turning

Plays until Oct. 29

Streetcar Crowsnest, Studio

Written by Will Arbery

Directed by Philip Akin

A group of right-wing Christian Americans, talk about issues, politics, religion, one upping each other. They vary from confused to self-righteous and frightening. A bristling, unsettling play. Should be seen.

www.crowstheatre.com

Wildwoman

Oct. 5-Oct. 29.  OPENS OCT. 12

Soulpepper, Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

Written and directed by Kat Sandler

Wild Women through history.

www.soulpepper.ca

(Everyone I Love Has) A Terrible Fate (Befall Them)

Oct. 10- Nov. 4. OPENS Oct. 12.

VideoCabaret’s Deanne Taylor Theatre, 10 Busy St.

Written and performed by Cliff Cardinal

Directed by Karin Randoja

About life, death and what’s in between.

It’s by Cliff Cardinal. You show up.

www.crowstheatre.com

Goblin: Macbeth

Oct. 12- Oct. 28

At the Studio Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont.

Written by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak

Directed by Rebecca Northan

Three goblins stumble onto the works of William Shakespeare and mayhem and brilliance ensues.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Bittergirl (The Musical)

Playing until Dec. 24

St. Jacobs Schoolhouse Theatre, St. Jacobs, Ont.

By Annabel Fitzsimmons, Alison Lawrence, Mary Francis Moore

Directed  by Mary Francis Moore

Three women lament and sing about the men who dumped them and left them bitter, the trials and tribulations and recovery.

Everybody will relate.

www.draytonentertainment.com

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Live and in person at the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre, Toronto, Ont. played until Oct. 22, 2023.

www.canadianstage.com

Written by Suzan-Lori Parks

Directed by Tawiah M’Carthy

Set by Rachel Forbes

Costumes by Joyce Padua

Lighting by Jareth Li

Sound by Stephen Surlin

Cast: Mazin Elsadig

Sébastien Heins

A powerful play about brotherly love, resentment and the destructive worm of violence that haunts these two Black brothers.

Booth and Lincoln are brothers who live in a shabby room. Booth has the bed and Lincoln sleeps in a lazyboy chair. Booth is helping out his brother Lincoln by letting him stay in the room. Booth is a petty thief. Lincoln works in an arcade impersonating President Abraham Lincoln so that the public can pay money to shoot him. Both brothers are Black. As Lincoln says, his father had a ‘sense of humour’ if he could name both brothers Booth and Lincoln.

Booth (underdog) has visions of being a master of “3- card monte” as his brother once was and practices his banter and flipping the cards on a cardboard balanced on milk crate in the room.  Lincoln was hugely successful (top dog) at the game and made a lot of money in the past, but gave it up because he lost the spark that made him play. So he now works in the arcade and was worried he might lose even that job.

The two men banter, tease and talk. They certainly had a hard life. Their parents left them when they were teens. First the mother then the father. They had to fend for themselves. Booth wants nothing more than for his brother to teach him the finer points of 3-card monte, but Lincoln hesitates. He doesn’t think his brother has the discipline to learn the finer points of the game. When Lincoln does try to teach Booth, emotions run high and the results are explosive.

Director Tawiah M’Carthy and his set designer Rachel Forbes have envisioned that the whole production should look like a boxing ring motif. The shabby room is encircled by the configuration of a boxing ring. Scenes are ended and introduced by a bell, as in boxing.

It’s an interesting concept but I don’t think it works here. Boxing requires both brawn as well as smarts to win. Of the two brothers, Booth (a wonderful Mazin Elsadig) is the more violent, the aggressor. 3-card monte requires skill, smarts and wiliness, and Lincoln (an equally impressive Sébastien Heins) has that in spades. He knows how to size up the opponent and the world around the opponent. Booth just charges in without the patience to think first.  I also found the room a bit too large and spacious to suggest the claustrophobia needed to ‘encase’ these two brothers in their isolated world. Just an observation.

Mazin Elsadig as Booth and Sébastien Heins as Lincoln danced a dance together that was loving, funny, impish, teasing and brutal. They challenged each other, both as actors and characters, to reach heights that made one grip the arm rest of the seat. Lovely work. Terrific play.

Canadian Stage Presents:

Played until Oct. 22, 2023.

Running time: approx. 3 hours.

www.canadianstage.com

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Live and in person at the Berkeley Street Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Théâtre Français de Toronto, closed on Oct. 1, 2023.

https://theatrefrancais.com/fr

Written by Lara Arabian

Directed by: Djennie Laguerre
Lighting and set by Sébastian Marziali
Sound by Armen Bazarian
Costumes and props by Sophie Duguin

Cast: Lara Arabian

Sheila Ingabire Isaro

Nabil Traboulsi

The run was very short for this intriguing play, but certainly worth comment.

The Khourrys: Michel the husband, Silvie, his wife and Zara their daughter, are  a family of Lebanese-Canadian origin, and have recently moved to a Toronto suburb. Michel is desperately trying to get a job as a marketer/publicist and is constantly disappointed when the answer is no. They left Lebanon because of the political situation there and the religious intolerance they experienced.

Zara is a lonely kid. She suffers from social anxiety. She has no friends in the new school she’s going to.  She can’t get any of her classmates to accept her as a Facebook friend.  But then the family’s beliefs are soon tested when 13-year-old Zara begins to hear a mysterious voice speaking to her.

It’s the voice of a biblical character—the daughter of Jephthah. Jephthah prays to God to help him win a battle and in exchange Jephthah will present as a burnt offering the first thing that comes out of his house. As it turns out, Jephthah’s daughter rushes out to greet him. Jephthah keeps his promise. He sacrifices his daughter and wins the battle. The daughter’s voice is what Zara hears and acts upon. She is driven by the voice and its message.

Michel sees in Zara and her voices, his chance at using that to make his mark. He arranges events where Zara will give inspirational speeches as a conduit to Jephthah’s daughter. The result is that the internet explodes with ‘likes’, ‘shares’, etc. Zara is ‘friended’ often. She is popular. Michel is empowered and Silvie is horrified at what is happening to their family. And then Zara stops hearing the voices. The end. (since the show has closed, this is not a spoiler alert).

Lara Arabian is reflecting our fractured world in Convictions. It’s a world that values celebrity, the instant recognition that comes from social media (anti-social media??). The power of the pandemic to isolate us from our friends and family, make us hermits, unable to engage in the world. And Lara Arabian explores the world of the immigrant—what they have to do to find safety, belonging, acceptance, to fit. Michel, Silvie and Zara have their own issues as immigrants.

The production was terrific. Djennie Laguerre directed the production with simplicity—moving a set piece around the space to suggest different locations and scenes. We are sure of each character because of the careful direction and compelling acting.

As Zara, Sheila Ingabire-Isaro is an eager young woman who pushes herself to train as a runner because she wanted to please her high school coach. She is a dutiful daughter but is anxious and withdrawn. She gasps and is unsettled when she is visited by the specter of Jephthah’s daughter. As Silvie, Lara Arabian looks drawn with worry for her daughter and her husband who is desperate for work. She is concerned with the whole idea of religious fervor, after all that was one of the reasons they left Lebanon. The swirl and speed of the internet can twist anybody up, and it did its work here.  

As Michel, Nabil Traboulsi is desperate, ingratiating, measured and anxious with each phone call he has to make to try to get work. The smile is tight while he hears more bad news of yet another job that slips through his hand. He wants to move to the next level of accomplishment and not be stuck in his depressing job forever. Nabil Traboulsi gives Michel a clarity, a desperation, a need that is so true that it grips you, as do all the characters.

Lara Arabian asks a lot of questions in her play. Loved thinking about that.

Théâtre Français de Toronto presents:

Closed: played until Oct. 1, 2023.

Running time: 90 minutes, (no intermission)

https://theatrefrancais.com/fr

NOTE: Théâtre Français de Toronto has a wonderful initiative for those not fluent in French—special glasses that have the translation in English in the lenses. It does not distract from the acting on stage, in fact it enhances it and you know instantly what is being said. I have found the surtitles a bit difficult to read because of the placement on the far left and right of the stage of the panels on which the surtitles are projected. A panel suspended in the middle of the stage would be helpful. In any case those special glasses are terrific. Bravo to Théâtre Français de Toronto.

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Live and in person at the Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Oct. 26, 2023.

www.coalminetheatre.com

Written by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins

Directed by Ted Dykstra

Co-det designers, Steve Lucas and Rebecca Morris

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Sound by Deanna H. Choi and Michael Wanless

Costumes by Des’ree Gray

Cast: Alison Beckwith

Raquel Duffy

Ruari Hamman

Amy Lee

Hannah Levinson

Gray Powell

Andy Trithardt

Mackenzie Wojcik

Woow! Talk about turning the word “appropriate” on its ear. A stellar cast plays a dysfunctional, morally bankrupt family that has many secrets they are desperate to keep.  

The Story. Siblings Toni Lafayette, Bo Lafayette and Frank Lafayette and their families, have gathered at their late father’s home/plantation in Arkansas, to sell it. Frank is the outcast of the family having been away for 10 years for various reasons, a charge of pedophilia being one. He has arrived with his girlfriend River who is acting as his support group in dealing with his siblings. He wants his fair share of the sale. Toni is there with her son, Rhys, because she was their father’s care giver of sorts and is busy clearing stuff away for the sale. Bo is there with his wife and two children. He wants the sale to go smoothly. He’s been paying the bills for his father’s care and the house bills.

And then they find the photo album with hideous photos in it of dead Black people. We can use our imaginations because there are enough suggestions of what the horrified people are looking at, at first, and then they become fascinated. Did the album belong to the father? Was the father a racist? What to do with the photos? They don’t know, at first. But change their mind when they realize there is value in such photos.

The Production and comment. A curtain is drawn across the stage. The audience is tested at the get-go by both the playwright, Branden Jacobs-Jenkins and director Ted Dykstra. The audience sits in the dark ready for the play to begin. And sits. And sits. Gradually a strange sound is heard. It’s the sound of crickets and cicadas. It gets louder and more complex with other sounds blending in until the sound is very loud. All the while the audience sits in the dark. The lights very slowly come up on a shabby room in what is a rundown house. The walls are stained and some of the plaster is gone in some places. The furniture is shabby. Kudos to Steve Lucas and Rebecca Morris, co-set designers, for their creation of the family home.

When the siblings’ mother died, their father lived in the house. He planned to turn it into a bed and breakfast establishment but he spent so much time hoarding stuff that never happened. Now that the father has died, they have to clean up the house and get it ready for an auction/estate sale. The siblings and their children gather. Frank (Andy Trithardt) is the son who has not seen his family for 10 years because of various issues/jail etc. He has arrived with his girlfriend River (Alison Beckwith).

The battle lines are soon drawn with Toni (Raquel Duffy) wrangling with her brother Bo (Gray Powell) about who was more selfless with their father. She was there taking care of him to the detriment of her marriage and other family situations that have left her bitter.  As Toni, Raquel Duffy is fearless in hurling the vitriol. Her anger that she illuminates is eye-popping. There is not a shred of sentiment in Raquel Duffy’s performance of Toni. It’s ferocious. Toni’s son Rhys ( Mackenzie Wojcik) is sullen and distant. That also adds to Toni’s bitterness.

Her brother Bo gets his dibs in by calmly saying that he paid all the bills and plans to arrange the details of the sale of the house. He knows information he does not tell her and she gets even by planning her own revenge. Gray Powell plays Bo as a man who solves problems, knows how to get things done but is obviously burdened with things going on in his life. Gray Powell plays Bo with a barely controlled effort to keep things together. He is there with his wife Rachael (Amy Lee), a whiny, insecure woman who spends her time screaming at her children, Ainsley aged eight (Ruary Hamman) who is uncontrollable and Cassie (Hannah Levinson) aged 13, who never met an awkward moment she doesn’t record on her cell phone to put on Facebook without a thought of its appropriateness. At 13 Cassie says she’s ‘almost an adult.’ Yes, almost an adult without a clue about responsibility, conscience, and consequences because her parents never taught her.  

The mystery is why is Frank there? How did he find out about the sale? Frank has obviously gone through some serious stuff and initially we learn he’s there to apologize. He haltingly reads his prepared speech to his family. I assume he is going through the program at Alcoholics Anonymous, in which he has to tell the truth to the people he hurt—hence the speech. As Frank Andy Trithardt is ingratiating, almost fragile.

Frank’s girlfriend River, played with calm confidence by Alison Beckwith, is there as his support. She quietly mouths the speech Frank is reading making me think that River is also Frank’s AA sponsor.

We learn that Frank received money and support from his father, unbeknownst to the siblings. More wrangling. More animosity that is slowly building. While we are told that the father was educated at Harvard, was a supreme court judge and was hugely respected, he also might have been a racist. A photo album is discovered on a shelf out in the open. The family is shocked at the photos of dead Black people. We can use our imaginations to discover what they are from the description. But while they are considered hideous at first, the family can’t stop looking at them. It’s assumed that the album is their father’s. Bo reasons it could be anybody’s and deflects any blame from his father.  And because they all seem morally bankrupt, they don’t know what to do with the album, until they realize they can make money from its sale.

More damning artifacts of racism are discovered. More excuses. A confederate flag appears leaning against a wall after there has been a major tidy of the house.

Ted Dykstra has directed Appropriate with great care and attention to detail. He is not afraid to test the endurance of the audience—the first several moments in the dark listening to a building sound scape. Dykstra establishes the relationships in a steady, relentless build.

Appropriate is another play in the oeuvre of playwright Branden Jacob-Jenkins that continues to establish him as a gifted, creative playwright. He says in a segment of the programme that his plays: An Octoroon, Neighbors and Appropriate—“are about rejecting narratives that claim to be ‘about race,’ or ‘Blackness.’ They’re more about revealing and testing the values of the people who show up to watch.” Hmm. But that’s always the case for the audience. They take from every play they see, how it applies to them and there is certainly a lot to chew on with Appropriate.

In the director’s note Associate Director, Matthew D. Brown notes that Branden Jacob-Jenkins was also interested in the double meaning of the word appropriate (when considering it can be pronounced differently): ap_pro_priate/appropri_ate. People wonder which is correct for the play. Matthew D. Brown then goes on to say he thinks both.

He talks about the family trying to stay together in the face of racism. How they want to heal and belong. Can they forgive someone who has done a hideous thing? Do they feel responsible for the many dead Black people buried on the property. How can they reconcile the pain they have caused.

We also read in essays in the programme about how various peoples have ‘appropriated’ the stories of others. Recently we have been told that if one has not experienced something, like being a minority, or gay, or another gender, then one can’t write about it. It’s ‘appropriating’ their story. I think Mr. Jacobs-Jenkins puts that nonsense to rest quite nicely. If one is talented, creative and has something to say, they can write about anything, as has been proven in 4000 years of theatre and its stories, Appropriate being one of them.

Not to put too fine of a point to it, Mr. Jacob-Jenkins is a playwright who is Black. He is writing about a white family from his own point of view. Every single one of them, including the children, are hideous people and morally bankrupt, except for River who is the unwitting witness to it. Can we say they are the way they are because their father was a racist? One of the prickly points of the play easily answered.

There is one delicious moment of moral responsibility at the end (is this a spoiler alert?). The house is cleared out. A Black man (Matthew G. Brown) knocks at the door and no one answers. A few moments later he appears from the basement with a clipboard—is he an inspector taking note because he’ will buy the house? He sees the confederate flag. He sneers and makes the sound of ‘kissing his teeth’ indicating his disgust. At last, a true expression of contempt for something that is racist.

Terrific, challenging play, given a gripping production.    

The Coal Mine Theatre presents:

Playing until Oct. 26, 2023.

Running Time: 2 hours 40 minutes (2 intermissions).

www.coalminetheatre.com

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Live and in person at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont. until November 12, 2023.

Presented by David Mirvish and John Sachs for Eclipse Live and Sony Music.

www.mirvish.com

Music by Roy Orbison

Bood by David West Read

Directed  by Luke Sheppard

Choreographed by Fabian Aloise

Set by Arnulfo Maldonado

Costumes by Fay Fullerton

Lighting by Howard Hudson

Sound by Tom Marshall

Video design by George Reeve

Cast: Leon Craig

Alma Cuervo

Lena Hall

Manuel Pacific

Sian Reese-Williams

Nasim Ramírez

Noël Sullivan

Oliver Tompsett

Richard Trinder

Writer David West Read has written the book of In Dreams with depth, smarts and heart. Using the music of Roy Orbison to advance the story and flesh our characters, is inspired. This is one of the tightest most thought provoking ‘juke-box’ musicals around. Moving and joyful.

The Story. Kenna Ryan is living the carefree life of a country-rock and roll singer who always seems on the road. She gets some startling news from her doctor and we assume it’s bad. She sees an ad for a family run restaurant in New Mexico that specializes in Mexican food and memorials to commemorate the dead.  Kenna wants one of those—a memorial for herself–and she plans on inviting bandmates of her former rock group, Jane and Donovan, but not the drummer, Ramsey, because they had a relationship and they broke up. And Kenna will also attend her memorial.  Her bad health isn’t a spoiler. We learn this in the first 10 minutes and she spends the rest of the show keeping the bad news from her friends. Kenna lost track of her band-mates when they broke up and this will give her a chance to connect and make amends before the end.

The people who own the restaurant also have their issues. The place is run by Oscar, his pregnant wife Nicole and Oscar’s grandmother, Ana Sofia. Oscar is still mourning the death of his parents. He does not feel able to confide in Nicole. Ana Sofia proves to be a center of wisdom and sense when she secretly invites Ramsey as well. If Kenna is going to make amends with her friends, it should be all of her friends.

The Production. Writer David West Read has worked his wonders again. His previous musical hit was & Juliet, a re-imagining of what might have happened to Juliet (as in Romeo and Juliet) had she lived, set to established music. With In Dreams David West Read has created a story of a country-rock singer who has to face her life when she thinks it might be ending and reconnect with the relationships that she has neglected.  The story is connected with the stunning music of Roy Orbison. Roy Orbison’s music is full of longing, dreaming, wondering, loving, and regretting. Songs such as “Crying”, “It’s Over”, “Love Hurts” “In Dreams” (both in English and Spanish) all have such resonance in telling the story and fleshing out character that their meshing in the story is seamless.  David West Read’s script is funny, moving and goes right to the heart of these characters.  

Luke Sheppard directs In Dreams (as he did with & Juliet) creating a dynamic duo with David West Read. Luke Sheppard’s direction is economical, never flashy and always serves the piece and the characters. Relationships are beautifully established.
  

Front and center in this sparkling production is Kenna Ryan, played with full-throated, rocking energy by Lena Hall. She appears before the stage curtain ready to rock. There is swagger and attitude in her first appearance. When Kenna gets a call from her doctor with the bad news, that thing at the back of her mind, her health, now adds a touch of regret and vulnerability. She also has anger when Ramsey shows up—anger at him for their breakup and for the fact that he was even secretly invited. Lena Hall illuminates all these emotions.

Oliver Tompsett plays Ramsey with kinetic energy and a rousing voice. There is chemistry between Ramsey and Kenna because of the powerful performances of Oliver Tompsett and Lena Hall.

Alma Cuervo plays Ana Sofia with wisdom and a glint of mischief. What a privilege it is to see her on a stage. Her singing and interpretation of “Blue Bayou” will make you sit up and pay a new kind of attention to a song you thought you knew.

Manuel Pacific play Oscar with a quiet sadness. It’s a lovely performance of a man who is lost and can’t find his way to confide in his wife. Nasim Ramírez as Nicole is a strong presence, a wise partner who knows how to help her husband. The whole cast is very strong and play characters that are full bodied and surprising.

Set designer Arnulfo Maldonado has created the restaurant that is a mix of garish with neon signs that announce the menu and commemorative of the past souls that have been remembered. Along a shelf at the top of a wall are pictures and other memorabilia of those who have passed away.

In Dreams is a celebration of life, dreams, relationships and friends. And you will probably want to reacquaint yourself with all the music of Roy Orbison once you’ve heard some of it here.

Presented by David Mirvish and John Sachs for Eclipse Live and Sony Music.

Plays until Nov. 12, 2023.

Running Time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (1 intermission).

www.mirvish.com

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Heads Up for the Week of Oct. 1 to Oct. 8 and beyond.

Fall for Dance North Festival

Oct 1-Oct. 7, 2023.

For FFDN tickets and information, visit: ffdnorth.com

Swan Song
Oct. 3: 7:30pm at Meridian Hall (1 Front St. East)
In partnership with The National Ballet of Canada

Audience members will enjoy a sneak preview of the immersive new CBC documentary series, as well as an artist chat with Karen Kain, a group of National Ballet dancers featured in the series, and members of the series’ creative team, plus a live performance of excerpts from Swan Lake.

HEARTBEATS: Signature Programme 1
Oct. 4 & 5: 7:30pm at Meridian Hall (1 Front St. East)
In partnership with TO Live

Through four distinct works, the diverse choreographic voices of HEARTBEATS: Signature Programme 1 approach themes of love and human connection from different angles, perspectives and dance forms. Featuring:

Mascara by Pulga Muchochoma (Toronto) – with live music
Bliss by Johan Inger (Sweden), performed by Gibney Company (New York)
I think we should start over by Jamaal Burkmar (UK), performed by Candoco (London)
Heart Drive by Marne & Imre Van Opstal (The Netherlands), performed by Ballet BC (Vancouver)

NIGHT/SHIFT
Oct. 5-7: 10pm at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St)
Co-presented and produced by Citadel + Compagnie

Programmed by distinguished dance artists Penny Couchie, Christine Friday and Dedra McDermott, the 2023 edition of Night/Shift celebrates the many dance forms explored and practiced by Ontario-based movement makers. Featuring:

Thursday Shift (Oct. 5)
A History of Silencing Dance by Alireza Keymanesh
“Tarantos” – Alma de Mujeres by Maria Serrano
SEED by Shameka Blake

Friday Shift (Oct. 6)
Polyrhythms by Cori Giannotta
V.A.T.O. by Fer Camacho – Collective of Scenic Exchange
Experiences Of A Moment by Rumi Jeraj

Saturday Shift (Oct. 7)
Y3N Kw33 by Baffour Kwasi Obeng – Adjei
Act II by MillO Dance Projects
Seeker by Serwaa Daley

UNBOWED: Signature Programme 2
Oct. 6 & 7: 7:30pm at Meridian Hall (1 Front St. East)
In partnership with TO Live

UNBOWED: Signature Programme 2 showcases today’s most promising international contemporary voices and the brave steps they are taking in the dance world. This is a journey of dance that encompasses the spirit of unwavering resistance, tireless love, and promise of evolution through activism and vigour. Featuring:

Light-Print by Jesse Obremski (USA, Gibney Company artist), performed by TMU School of Performance (Toronto)

Oh Courage! By Sonya Tayeh (USA), performed by Gibney Company (New York), with live music by The Bengsons

My Mother’s Son by Mthuthuzeli November (Zolani), performed by Mthuthuzeli & Siphesihle November (Zolani)

NINA: By Whatever Means by Mthuthuzeli November (Zolani), performed by Cassa Pancho’s Ballet Black (London)

Oct. 1- 7, 2023.

SPACIOUSNESS

At Fort York, Toronto.

The History of Fort York and the War of 1812 from the point of view of those obscured in the history books.

Absolutely brilliant. Truly.

Here’s my review and then buy tickets.

https://slotkinletter.com/?s=Spaciousness

The Last Epistle of Tightrope Time

Plays until Oct. 15, 2023.

At Tarragon Theatre.

Worth your time: my review:

Review: THE LAST EPISTLE OF TIGHTROPE TIME

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