Lynn

Live and in person at the Hamilton Family Theatre, Cambridge, Ont. Until Aug. 6.

www.draytonentertainment.com

Written by Ernest Thompson

Directed by Marti Maraden

Set by Allan Wilbee

Costumes by Jennifer Wonnacott

Lighting by Kevin Fraser

Cast: Justin Bott

Benedict Campbell

Janet-Laine Green

Evan Kearns

Cyrus Lane

Stacy Smith

Prickly and sweet.

The Story. We are at the summer home (cottage?) of Norman Thayer Jr. and his wife Ethel, in Maine, on Golden Pond. They have arrived for the summer to open the place. Norman is a retired English professor. He is about to celebrate his 80^th birthday and he’s not happy about it. He’s irritable, irascible and forgetting too many things of late, which probably is making him irritable. He and Ethel are expecting their daughter Chelsea who is coming with her present boyfriend. Norman is probably uneasy about that too. He and Chelsea don’t get along. Ethel seems to be the referee between them.

The Production. Designer Allan Wilbee has created a large, two-story rustic cottage of wood, beams and walls full of pictures and other memorabilia of a life well lived. The furniture has been covered with sheets for the winter, until Norman (Benedict Campbell) and Ethel (Janet-Laine Green) return for the summer. We can see the lake through the many windows on the back wall. We will hear the birds chirp and the loons make whatever sound they make over the course of the play. Ethel will revel in that and make Norman join her.

Norman enters first, slowly, a bit hunched. He opens the back door then tries to open the screen door that completely falls away from its hinges and falls on the back porch. He tries to hide that by putting the door up by the outside wall. When Ethel sees it he says he will fix it. An on-going joke is that the door continues to NOT be fixed and connected to its hinges, because Norman sure takes his time doing it.

Norman goes to a wall with photos and can’t recognize who’s in one picture. He is not sure the phone is working so he calls the operator to try calling his number. He can’t remember the number but assures the operator ‘it’s in the book.’ When she does call back, he forgets why she’s calling. We get the picture; Norman is slowly losing his memory. It preys on him.

As Norman, Benedict Campbell is gruff, irritated, very funny in his angst and obviously worried about his health. As Ethel, Janet-Laine Green is spry, sprightly, industrious, understanding and always trying to cheer up Norman. When Chelsea (Stacy Smith) arrives, Ethel is also the peace-keeper between Norman and Chelsea, who do not get along. Chelsea feels she is a disappointment to her accomplished father and she can’t break through her father’s stubbornness.

As Chelsea, Stacy Smith is anxious and tentative when first seeing her father for obvious reasons and more relaxed with her mother, who is encouraging.  Chelsea would also be anxious because she’s brought her boyfriend Bill Ray (Cyrus Lane) on the trip. Bill is a dentist, divorced and has a 13-year-old son named Billy (Evan Kearns), who has also accompanied Chelsea and Bill.  

To add a bit more spice to the mix, Norman and Ethel are visited by Charlie Martin (Justin Bott), the mailman for the area, a sweet man but not intellectually swift. He had thought that he and Chelsea might have been a couple when they were younger, but Chelsea was not interested. We get a good sense of Charlie’s personality by how Justin Bott plays him. Charlie laughs at everything, in a high, increasingly intense laugh. He is well meaning, kind and lonely. He is anxious to see Chelsea again, perhaps to rekindle something but is disappointed when he realizes that Chelsea has someone in her life. Justin Bott plays Charlie with sensitivity and an open heart.

Bill (Cyrus Lane) arrives. He’s wearing a suit and tie. (pause). He, his son and Chelsea have driven from California to Maine for a vacation (!) and he’s wearing a suit and tie. (Kudos to costume designer Jennifer Wonnacott who has designed wonderfully appropriate cottage clothes for everyone except Bill, who thinks he’s still at the office filling people’s teeth). Cyrus Lane as Bill is courtly, measured and respectful, especially to Norman. He’s obviously heard that Norman always gave Chelsea’s boyfriends a hard time. When Bill has had one too many insults from Norman, he lets him have it in the most respectful, quiet manner; that he knows Norman’s game and it won’t work. One doubts that Norman ever got anyone to answer him back with as much respect and confidence as Bill. Cyrus Lane has one scene and he does it beautifully.

As Billy, Evan Kearns also has that sweet brashness of a 13-year-old kid. He’s funny, a bit flippant, but he has to contend with Norman. Billy represents Norman’s second chance at living. Norman asks if Billy fishes—Norman loves to fish. Norman teaches Billy to fish. And how about reading? Norman suggests Billy read one chapter of a book he suggests and to give him a report about it. And thus begins the wonderful, giddy friendship of this 80-year-old man and this young teenager.

It’s decided that Billy will spend a month with Norman and Ethel while Chelsea and Bill go to Europe. We see the difference that month has made. Norman is now moving a bit quicker, straighter and with gusto. Billy is eager to fish and read.

Marti Maraden has directed this with a careful eye to the text. She does not give in to sentimentality. The relationships are beautifully created and crafted.  We have seen this story before, often: angry older person, thinks their life is nearly over; angry at the world; and then something happens to change it. It’s not a boring ‘seen-that-done-that-story’. It’s something we’ve all experienced and seeing it again from someone else’s perspective makes the story come alive. It’s sweet and prickly and kind. We can use that in our angry world.  

Comment. Playwright Ernest Thompson wrote On Golden Pond when he was 28. It opened Off-Broadway in 1978 and had great success after that, moving to Broadway, being made into a film, for which he won the Academy Award for best adaptation. Well worth a trip to Cambridge.

Drayton Entertainment presents:

Plays until: Aug. 6, 2022.

Running Time: 2 hours approx. (1 intermission)

www.draytonentertainment.com

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Life and in person at the Falstaff Family Centre, Stratford, Ont. until Aug. 7, 2022.

www.hearfornowtheare.com

Written by Dennis Kelly

Directed by Lucy Jane Atkinson

Lighting and sound by Stephen Degenstein

Costumes and set by Bonnie Deakin

Cast: Fiona Mongillo

Astonishing in every single way.

The Story. The Programme says it all without telling the secrets: “An unexpected meeting at an airport leads to an intense, passionate, head-over-heels relationship. Before long they begin to settle down, buy a house, juggle careers, have kids—theirs is an ordinary family.

But then their world starts to unravel and things take a disturbing turn.

Note: Girls & Boys is intended for a mature audience and contains graphic descriptions of violence.”

The Production. Bonnie Deakin has designed a simple white set. There is a large white comfortable chair on the stage floor stage right. There is a squat white round table beside it on the stage floor. There is a glass of water on the table. To the left of the chair and table is a raised, large, white square platform.

Our narrator, who is never named, is played with controlled brilliance by Fiona Mongillo. For the most of the play she stands on the raised platform telling us the story.   One scene is played  with the woman sitting in the chair. She often drinks from the glass of water except towards the end of the play. When she sits in the chair the glass of water is conveniently close on the table beside it. When she is standing on the platform, she has to lean over and bend down slightly to get the glass. That seems a bit awkward. Can’t the chair and table be moved onto the platform for convenience? Or just move the table to the platform and ditch the chair altogether?

Our narrator details how she was at the airport, in line to check in to go on vacation to Italy. She was rather aimless at the time, not ambitious in work but looking for a good time in Italy. She describes the man in line in front of her, reading a book. He is never named either. Two women, who are described as models, sidled up to him to chat him up and therefore maneuver from where they were at the back of the line, to getting ahead in the line. Our narrator watched at the cheek of the two models and the coolness of the man reading. He knew what was happening. He knew he was being played by these two women and he called them out. He did it in a quiet, thoughtful, direct way. This impressed our narrator no end.  

Next scene,  our narrator is talking to her two children: Leanne and Danny. Danny is younger but both are young enough to challenge their mother at every turn; about going to bed; about whose toy is whose; about Danny teasing his sister and the Mother trying to keep some kind of control.

Our Narrator is very proud of her now husband and his resourcefulness in business—he sells wardrobes and has found a clever way of making that business pay. He in turn seems to be proud of his wife and cheers her on at every turn. Our Narrator applied for a job in documentary films, that she was sure she was not going to get, but was bold and resourceful in her own right and got the job.

Our Narrator often has conversations with her children. The daughter is accommodating. The  son seems into the violence of the culture—guns etc. The husband’s business was thriving and then there was trouble in the business. We listen, rapt, because of the gripping way Fiona Mongillo is telling the story.

Fiona Mongillo is recounting the whole breadth of her relationship with this intriguing man she met in an airport line, to getting married and having children to success in business for the both of them, to the unravelling, startling end. One of the many astonishing things about Fiona Mongillo’s performance is that she never telegraphs the less than happy end of the play. So often I’ve seen this in other plays with many other actors, but not here. Not once.

Mongillo goes through Dennis Kelly’s detailed, complex story as if she is reliving every event as if for the first time. There is joy and curiosity as our Narrator recounts the arrogance of the two models who want to get further up in line and will “use” this “innocent” man for their purposes; then he quietly puts these women in their place. Our Narrator sees the value of the character of the man and is further intrigued. Mongillo is buoyant, smiling and almost still in the telling. We don’t need endless movement to engage us. We ‘just’ need a gifted actor who knows the power of the playwright’s words and how to say them that grips the audience.

Mongillo is beautifully partnered by director Lucy Jane Atkinson who is a master of the nuance and subtlety of the piece. There is not one second of showy direction, just the careful, quiet, attention to the detail in the words.

When the Narrator is dealing with her children it is as a carrying mother who bends down or gets down on all fours to talk to her children on their level. She is not showing them a stance of power by standing over them. She is facing them head on, dealing with them as a concerned parent. There is that give and take between parent and child that is fascinating. The mother wants them to go to bed now. The kids want to negotiate. As the Mother, Mongillo is careful, patient, controlled, loving, and perhaps trying to give the children what they might want, but still ‘controlling’ the narrative. Fascinating.

The audience is given information during the telling, late in the play that is startling. The unravelling begins. It’s not done in a rush, but as controlled as the telling before. This time, the buoyant smile of Mongillo is not there, but she is as compelling because of the calmness of the telling of what happened. Astonishing play and production. Mongillo is such a gifted actor.  

Comment. Here for Now Theatre has produced bracing, compelling theatre since it has begun producing this summer festival in Stratford, Ont. Girls & Boys is one of the best they have done, and they have done some pretty fine work. See this.

Here for Now Theatre presents:

Plays until: Aug. 7, 2022.

Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes (no intermission).

www.herefornowtheatre.com

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Live and in person at various outdoor venues around ONTARIO until Aug. 21, 2022.

www.driftwoodtheatre.com

Written by William Shakespeare

Adapted and directed by D. Jeremy Smith

Lyrics by Germaine Konji

Music by Kelsi James and Germaine Konji

Production designer, Julia Kim

Cast: Hume Baugh

Richard Alan Campbell

Ximena Huizi

Rosalie Tremblay

Ben Yoganathan

King Henry Five is Driftwood Theatre’s return to live performance after a three-year hiatus.

D. Jeremy Smith, the always daring, inventive Artistic Director of Driftwood Theatre has adapted Henry IV pts 1 & 2, Henry V resulting in King Henry Five. D. Jeremy Smith wanted to create one play, culled from three of Shakespeare’s history plays, that would show the clear development of Prince Hal from irresponsible prince, to the maturity needed to be a king.

From the programme note: “An ambitious adaptation of three Shakespeare plays, King Henry Five is a powerful story about community, the families we inherit and those we choose, and the legacies we leave behind. Set against the backdrop of a contemporary patio bar and featuring Driftwood’s signature blend of music, puppetry and Shakespeare’s captivating poetry, King Henry Five rolls into outdoor community spaces across Ontario this summer.

As with all of Driftwood’s production, D. Jeremy Smith has directed a lively production of King Henry Five that uses the breadth of the outdoor space (in this case it was Withrow Park). Exits and entrances are through the attentive audience or around them. Costume changes are often done on the fly and are as entertaining as watching the actors portray their characters.

The cast is a mix of veteran actors: Hume Baugh as Falstaff and others and Richard Alan Campbell as King Henry 1V and “Quickly” among others, and those making impressive debuts: Ben Yoganathan as Prince Hall and later King Henry Five and Rosalie Tremblay who sings the various songs beautifully and plays a compelling Catherine.

The production tours Ontario and returns to Toronto Aug. 16, 17 and will play Christie Pits Park for those two performances. All tickets are pay-what-you-can. For details on the touring dates please go to:

www.driftwoodthetare.com

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Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. until Oct. 1, 2022.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by Sunny Drake

Directed by ted witzel

Set by Michelle Tracey

Costumes by Joshua Quinlan

Lighting by Jareth Li

Composer and sound designer, Dasha Plett

Cast: Marion Adler

Verónica Hortigűela

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff

Robert King

John Koensgen

Richard Lam

Antonette Rudder (understudy to Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah

Rose Tuong

Every Little Nookie is a lively farce-like sex romp involving intergenerational groupings; ‘re-inventing’ a family unit of polyamorous and platonic room-mates searching for affordable housing and failing, and a sexually frustrated wife who can’t seem to just tell her husband what she ‘wants’ but has discovered the thrill of swingers parties. To some this might seem innovative, refreshingly bold and provocative. To those who are familiar with the theatre and the world, it’s derivative, tired and just a little bit infuriating.

The Story.  I’ll copy the programme note to ensure that every single point is introduced: “Empty-nest boomer couple Margaret and Kenneth lead a comfortable conventional life in the suburbs, enjoying their cozy routine of Scrabble, bridge and weekends at the cottage. Their polyamorous daughter, Annabel, lives downtown in a less-than-lavish rented property she shares with three others: her partner, Grace (a self-described social justice warrior who has just landed an improbable gig as a mall Santa); her non-binary friend Smash, who has now also become Grace’s lover; and her friend Crystal, a feminist academic who moonlights as a sex worker.

To help support themselves Annabel and her roommates secretly host weekend swingers’ parties for middle-aged suburbanites, using Annabel’s family home when her parents are away at the cottage. Returning unexpectedly one night, Margaret and Kenneth are initially shocked to find these orgiastic proceedings in full swing-et both eventually has to admit that they are also intrigued.

Meanwhile, Annabel has embarked on a new relationship with Matt, a straight single father. As she tries to sort out her feelings about her lovers and her life in general, and as Kenneth and Margaret try to figure out where their marriage is heading, a plethora of new complications arise. The search is on for creative solutions to all these conundrums. “

The Production. Before anything, you notice designer Michelle Tracey’s impressive wood slide that goes the whole width of the upper landing at the Studio Theatre down to the stage floor below, curving and then flattening out onto the stage. If characters need to get from the upper level to the stage they slide down, rarely taking the side staircase. Occasionally characters scamper up that daunting incline from the bottom to the top. (One does worry about the physical safety of any actor ‘asked’ to negotiate such a maneuver)

A bed, with a duvet and many cushions and pillows cover the curve of the slide to the flattened section. We are in the large suburban home of Margaret (Marion Adler) and Kenneth (John Koensgen). They enter in pajamas and together toss the many pillows and cushions from the top of the bed to the floor in front of the bed. They get under the duvet and begin to play scrabble with each other on their iPads. The banter is easy between these long-married boomers. But Margaret is obviously concerned by a lack of intimacy at this point in the marriage. She undoes a few buttons of her pajamas, trying to entice Kenneth. He doesn’t notice. Marion Adler, as Margaret, has a gentleness that seems to prevent her from addressing the issue. As Kenneth, John Koensgen is a kindly man, pre-occupied with issues at his office, not thinking of retiring and not aware of his needy wife. It’s a familiar situation: the physical intimacy going out of a marriage and a reluctance to address it. It’s the stuff of lots and lots of comedies.

Meanwhile, downtown Annabel (Rose Tuong), Margaret and Kenneth’s adopted queer daughter, is a struggling artist who lives with her roommates and ‘fam’ members who are: her non-binary friend Smash (they/them) (Stephen Jackman-Torkoff), Grace (Antonette Rudder) is Annabel’s partner, and spouts sound-bites, about social injustice, capitalism and the housing crisis. Grace is now also Smash’s lover; and finally rounding out the ‘fam’ is Crystal (Verónica Hortigűela), a feminist academic who moonlights as a sex worker to help facilitate the swinger parties.

Annabel ekes out a living trying to sell her art and by delivering food for UBER eats and helping with Smash’s swinger parties by ‘secretly’ loaning out her parents’ home to Smash for the parties.  Of course, Margaret and Kenneth return home unexpectedly to see the party in full swing. This proves to be the impetus for Margaret to be more daring sexually. She pairs off with Phoenix, a long-haired hippie from another era, played with laid-back ease by Robert King. One might say that Phoenix rises to the occasion that Margaret needs. (Well why else would you name him “Phoenix”?). Kenneth finds a good conversationalist in Crystal as they talk about life, art and sex in the quieter moments of the parties. And then Annabel begins a relationship with Matt (an accommodating Richard Lam), a straight, single father.

The dialogue seems more like talking points of note on economics, social welfare, housing, sex, capitalism, the haves vs the have nots and wretched excess rather than conversation between believable, fully developed characters. For example, Smash (an energetic Stephen Jackman-Torkoff) seems less a character and more an example of a couch-surfing lost soul with little substance, although they took kindly on Margaret. In all of these relationships, there seems to be a lack of responsibility of consequences of one’s actions.  

While not a farce in the buffoon sense of the word, Every Little Nookie has that complicated story in which all you want to do is say: “Stop! You, talk to that person and explain your problem. You, deal with your friends and family with more clarity. Ask permission. Get some character. You know how to solve this problem because it’s in front of you and it’s in the suburbs.” But of course, that’s not realistic in such an unnecessarily complicated play.

Director ted witzel has directed an energetic production with characters overemoting, scurrying all over the set, sliding down the slide and even charging up the incline. Jareth Li’s lighting is a complex array of cues that witzel maneuvers with ease.  In his esoteric, intellectual program note witzel dwells on queerness in the rehearsal hall and how this made the cast and other participants move with care and the importance of consent. Rightly so.

Now let’s continue that with the audience. There is one scene in which characters come into the audience and approach someone in the first row and give them a gift-wrapped box and ask them to open it now. Inside is a funny saying that the person might or might not have agreed with but the joke is told—on them? In future, let’s institute a new rule to embrace, should a director or playwright feel the need to come into the audience to make a little joke work by having them ‘participate’; ask their consent first. Truly. The place where the audience sits is their ‘safe space.’ Respect it! (The pandemic has made me militant about a couple of things—start on time because we are almost all in the room, and so is the cast, crew etc. and don’t even think of audience participation in which you generally make fun of them, without asking permission/consent first.)

There is a gratuitous nude scene in which Margaret is on the upper level, naked except for something she holds in front of her pubic area. As Margaret, Marion Adler is quiet and even nonchalant as she tweezes some pubic hairs to the horror of Annabel below. A bit of ageism there after all the effort of trying to look embracing to everybody; so much for the idea of the beauty of the naked body, but not if it’s one’s boomer parent. I found it interesting that Annabel’s body part of choice in her artwork is the vagina. One of her paintings is used as a table for a dinner party of the ‘fam.’ Is the nude scene for shock value? (Sigh).

Comment. Playwright Sunny Drake is a talented theatre maker. His previous show, CHILD-ish had adult actors give verbatim performances of children’s exact words on love, the world and life, that was sensitive, thoughtful, perceptive and embracing of both the world of the child and the adult. It was wonderful.

Every Little Nookie misses in trying to suggest a new paradigm for the future of intergenerational connection, relationships, sharing everything, or negotiating the world, because  it’s so derivative. Countless plays before have done it already and done it better.

In another program note between Philip Geller, the Assistant Director of the play and Syrus Marcus Ware, a Vanier Scholar whose work explores social justice among others, writes: “This play is exciting, in part because you see something you don’t always see, which is that the parents are in the role of the learners.” Excuse me? In play after play in which there is a generational divide, it’s common to see the young generation teaching the older generation (not just parents). For example, if you go outside the Studio Theatre and over several blocks to the Festival Theatre, you will come to a production of Hamlet in which Hamlet spends part of the play teaching his mother the truth about the death of his father/her husband. Hamlet instructs his killer-uncle he knows the truth. In another production at the Tom Patterson Theatre is All’s Well That Ends Well in which Helen teaches her adoptive mother of her character and the King of France of her abilities and integrity. And later in the season there will be a play in which young people teach their elders a new truth about how they see All’s Well That Ends Well. I so love programme notes. We see how directors and scholars muse on the play, and then see how the play and other works contradict the programme note.

Every Little Nookie both the play and the production offer a weak attempt at the younger generation embracing the older generation because of its veiled smugness. The play is unnecessarily complicated but that’s where the attempt at humour lies. And the solutions are obvious if only the characters would stop navel-gazing and see it. It’s quite telling that the solution for those seeking shelter is in the suburbs, where they have all escaped from.

Every Little Nookie is ageist, contradictory to its all-embracing message and full of characters who blather woke soundbites without a sense of character or responsibility. Being irresponsible for ones’ actions and ignoring the consequences of those actions are for someone else to solve.  Every Little Nookie left me cranky.     

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until: Oct. 1, 2022.

Running time: 2 hours, 5 minutes. (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person as part of the Here for Now Theatre Summer Festival at the Falstaff Family Centre, 35 Waterloo St. N, Stratford, Ont. until July 31, 2022.

www.herefornowtheatre.com

Written by Deanna Kruger

Directed by Rebecca Cuthbertson

Costumes and set by Bonnie Deakin

Lighting and sound by Stephen Degenstein

Cast: Martha Farrell

Kristin Gauthier

A gentle play about loss, grieving and a symbolic birthday photograph and its implications.

The Story. Trish is going through a hard time. She is nearing her 47^th birthday. Her father always noted each birthday with a photograph, posed in a certain way, before a specific backdrop as he always did with the previous 46 photographs. But her father has recently died and Trish is having a hard time coping. She spends time at her father’s apartment, ostensibly to begin cleaning it out. Her younger sister Maddy has arrived from out of town to help her in the clearing. They are close but there obviously are issues between the sisters, as there often are in families. Secrets are revealed. Trish was not just close to her father; it almost seems inordinately close to him. Maddy did not have that same relationship. In fact, while Maddy was in Trish’s birthday photograph from the time Trish was eight years old and Maddy was 14 months old, Maddy never had the a photograph taken on her birthday. A bit of sibling jealousy there. And it goes deep.

Playwright Deanna Kruger carefully reveals the secrets and hurts between the sisters and the family, as well as the deep love.

The Production. Bonnie Deakin has designed a simple set of the late father’s apartment. Boxes of stuff are everywhere. A sofa has a rumpled blanket on it. Trish (Kristin Gauthier) has been sleeping there on that sofa. There are some boxes ready to be filled. There is a desk and a bookshelf with some books.

The production begins with Trish making a phone call to someone apologizing for bad behaviour  and hoping the person will meet her on their favourite park bench. She stays on that part bench for some time. The time on the bench is broken up with a clever lighting cue—kudos to director Rebecca Cuthbertson and lighting director Stephen Degenstein. In keeping with the photograph motif, the lighting cue to end a scene is a gentle flash of light as if a flash photo has being taken. This is followed by regular lighting that gently comes up to illuminate the new scene.

Considering the real story of the play as it unfolds, that first scene with Trish asking that someone to forgive her and meet her on the bench seems out of place. We find out who she is waiting for three quarters through the play and the person seems less than central to the story, although the person matters to Trish.  Structurally I think Deanna Kruger might reconsider that beginning and create another scene that is more in keeping with the whole play.

The layers of Forty-Seven are slowly peeled away as both Trish and Maddy (Martha Farrell) deal with each other, establish what must have been a set way each sister always dealt with each other, and have to acknowledge that both are different people now with their own new set of issues. Both Kristin Gauthier as Trish and Martha Farrell as Maddy are confident, compelling actors. Gauthier illuminates the emotional fragility of Trish and Farrell reveals that Maddy is not as in control as she might appear. There are little grievances between the sisters that come bubbling up over Maddy’s stay. But there is kindness and generosity.

There is a wonderful scene that speaks volumes about the ills of old age and in particular, Trish and Maddy’s father. I give credit to both Deanne Kruger and director Rebecca Cuthbertson for this telling scene. Trish has a small shopping bag full of prescription drugs in which she takes each vial of pills from the shopping bag, looks at the label and then puts the vial in a bigger garbage bag. They are her father’s various prescriptions. There must be 20 of them. Trish asks if Maddy needs a tube of  antiseptic cream because the prescription is still good. With very little dialogue, and just the sorting of those many vials of pills we get a clear sense of the pharmaceutical life of a frail senior citizen.

If I do have a concern-quibble, it’s that the pace seemed almost too slow. At one hour and 20 minutes, time could have been shaved, with a slightly quicker pace, that would not have destroyed the delicacy of the piece.

Comment. Deanne Kruger has written an interesting family drama of sisters coping in different ways with the death of their father, as well as dealing with their own difficulties. Trish obviously has issues and has had them for a long time. One wonders, was there no help for her? Was she so stuck that she couldn’t get any help for herself? Stuff to keep you thinking.

Here for Now Theatre Presents:

Plays until: July 31, 2022.

Running Time: 1 hour, 20 minutes (no intermission).

www.herefornowtheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Stratford Festival, Tom Patterson Theatre, until Oct. 29, 2022.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Scott Wentworth

Designed by Michelle Bohn

Lighting by Louise Guinand

Composer and sound designer, Paul Shifton

Choreographer, Adrienne Gould

Cast: Sean Arbuckle

Peter M. Bailey

Nigel Bennett

Wayne Best

Michael Blake

Ben Carlson

Jon de Leon

Allison Edwards-Crewe

Jordin Hall

Jessica B. Hill

Kim Horsman

Hilary McCormack

Seana McKenna

Irene Poole

André Sills

Ryland Wilkie

And others…..

A thoughtful, beautifully created production about finding one’s way, growing up, facing the truth and finding love.

The Story.  Bertram is the son of the Countess Rossillion whose husband has recently died.  Helen is the orphaned daughter of a renowned doctor who worked in the court of the Countess. In a way the Countess raised both Bertram and Helen. Over time Helen came to love Bertram as a future husband. Growing up, Bertram looked on Helen as a playmate, but not as a wife. Because Bertram’s father has recently passed away the King of France became his guardian. Bertram had hopes of going to see the King to get permission to then go to Italy and enlist in the service of the King of Florence. The King of France wanted Bertram to wait another year. This did not sit too well with Bertram.

At the same time, the King of France suffered from a debilitating fistula that none of the court doctors could cure. Helen felt that with her father’s tutelage in medicine she could help him. She went to the court, cured the King and as a reward was told she could choose her husband from any of the courtiers there. Helen chose Bertram. Bertram was aghast and refused. Was it because she was not of the same class as he was? Was it because he wanted to chose his own wife? Was it because he was not ready to marry? No matter. The King was adamant that Bertram and Helen marry, which they did, but Bertram ran off before they could consummate the marriage. He left a cryptic note that said when she got a sacred ring off his finger and became pregnant by him, she could consider him her husband, the implication was that these two things would never happen. Helen was not to be deterred. She set off after Bertram to change his mind.   

The Production. Director Scott Wentworth has envisioned a spare, elegant production. To that end designer Michelle Bohn has lined the thrust stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre with 12 beautiful matching chairs. One could imagine them in the Countess’s (Seana McKenna) dining room.

Michell Bohn’s  costumes are somber but rich looking—since the Count Rossillion has recently passed away, the whole court would still be in mourning, hence the somber costumes. In the case of Parolles (Ryland Wilkie), Bertram’s foppish, blustering, older companion he is dressed in flashy colours with contrasting colored sashes and ribbons. As Parolles, Ryland Wilkie postures and preens until he gets his comeuppance.  

The play is about the folly of youth (hello, Bertram (Jordin Hall) and the wisdom of the older characters (the Countess and the King of France (Ben Carlson)) who do their best to guide the immature folk to grow up. It’s about the maturity and patience of Helen (Jessica B. Hill) to show Bertram the error of his ways in thinking she is not worthy of him. In a tangential story, there is the character of Diana (Allison Edwards-Crewe) who Bertram tries to compromise but in a bit of trickery, doesn’t compromise her. As Diana, Allison Edwards-Crewe stands her ground when facing Bertram. Could one be sexist and say that the young women in the play have more maturity and smarts than this privileged, immature, irresponsible young man? The play does argue the case.

And there are echoes of other plays in All’s Well That Ends Well. The Countess Rossillion gives Bertram sound advice as he sets off for the Court of the King of France:

                                    “Be thou blest, Bertram! And succeed they father

In manners, as in shape! thy blood and virtue

Contend for empire in thee, and they goodness

Share with thy birthright! Love all, trust a few,

Do wrong to none; be able for thine enemy

Rather in power than use, and keep thy friend

Under they own life’s key; be checkt for silence,

But never taxt for speech….”

As played by Seana McKenna, the Countess is loving to Bertram. She obviously will miss him terribly. She is not hectoring in her advice but is thoughtful, gracious and is trying to pass on the wisdom of being a decent human being, mindful of his father as a perfect example of how to behave in the world. There is a quiet, compelling grace to this Countess as played by Seana McKenna.

Compare this sound advice with that of Polonius (in Hamlet) to his departing son Laertes:

                                    …There, my blessing with thee,

And these few precepts in thy memory

Look thou character. Give thy thoughts no tongue,

Nor any unproportioned thought his act:

Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar;

….Neither a borrower nor a lender be,

For loan oft loses both itself and friend,

And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry:

This above all, to thine own self be true,

And it must follow, as the night the days,

Thou canst not then be false to any man.”

This advice is sound too, but because Polonius is frequently depicted as a silly man, we are more mindful of his silliness than the intelligence of the advice.

There are echoes of the immature, young nobleman and his buffoon older friend in both All’s Well That Ends Well and Henry IV, Part 1. In All’s Well That Ends Well Bertram is devoted to the unfaithful buffoon, Parolles, a posturing, posing Ryland Wilkie. In Henry IV, Part 1 Prince Hal is devoted to the blustering buffoon, Falstaff. In both cases, the young men mature and realize they were dazzled by their flashy and funny older friend, and come to their senses.

The real strength of this production is the acting. Bertram seems such an immature young man, but as played by Jordin Hall there is a courtliness in his bearing that adds a layer to the performance. Again and again Bertram is given an opportunity to do better, but gives in to temptation and lying—his refusal of Helen, his denigrating the character of Diana. But there are so many other people around him with intelligence who do have faith in him, that we can’t discount him outright.  Only when he is faced with the terrible consequences of what he has done to Helen does he grow up and be worthy of Helen.

Jessica B. Hill gives her performance of Helen a maturity and regal bearing. This is a wise, thoughtful performance of a character who is intellectually nimble and able to think on her feet. Ben Carlson plays the King of France with a furrowed brow full of the pain of that fistula, but also mindful that he is the King and has to conduct himself as a ruler, no matter how sick he is. When the King is cured, Carlson is robust, energetic and forceful in his decisions.

Lavatch is the Sexton and a comic character. As with any comic character in Shakespeare they speak the truth. As Lavatch, André Sills gives such a brash, bold buoyant performance that it shimmers with energy. The comic truth is spoken with conviction and without apology. Sills’ acting with the elegant, regal Seana McKenna as the Countess Rossillion is to watch two masters sparring with barely concealed delight. Stunning work.   

Comment. All’s Well That Ends Well is one of those problem plays that often makes you wonder if indeed it did end well. Under Scott Wentworth’s careful direction and his committed cast, there was no doubt in my mind.

Stratford Festival Presents:

Playing until: Oct. 29, 2022.

Running Time: Approx. 3 hours, (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person at ‘1871’ Berkeley Church, 315 Queen St. East, Toronto, Ont. until July 20, 2022.

www.eclipsetheatre.ca

Book and story by Andrew Seok

Additional book by Kyle Brown

Directed by Andrew Seok

Musical Director, Andrew Ascenzo

Choreographer, Nickesha Garrick

Arranger, Andew Seok

Lighting by Imogen Wilson

Sound engineer, Jeremy Michelle

Cast: Ashaya Babiuk

Daniela Bauer

Jillian Cooper

Tatyana Doran

Nickesha Garrick

Zara Jestadt

Elena Juatco

Lily Librach

Allistair (Allie) McDonald

Jeff Madden

Sera-Lys McArthur

Annick Robledo

Kimberly-Ann Truong

Tan Vu

The Live Band:

Andrew Ascenzo—Musical director, cello, guitar and piano

Virtual Orchestra:

Andrew Seok—Piano, guitar, bass, drums, trombone, saxophone

Alix Toskov-violin, viola

Andrew Ascenzo-cello

Chris Staig-guitar

Scott Metcalfe-piano

A well-intentioned, very earnest, song cycle about what it was like coping with the pandemic.

Precious little information was given beforehand about this first show, which was intentional according to Andrew Seok, who got the idea for the story and wrote the book. During the pandemic, he wrote to various composer/lyricists to write a song for the show about how they were coping during the pandemic Seok then took the songs and arranged them for the evening. There are offerings from: Andrew Seok himself, Susan Aglukark, Leslie Arden, Jewelle Blackman, Marcia Johnson, Britta Johnson, Chilina Kennedy, Richard Ouzounian and David Hein, to name some of them.

We were all given a card with the show title, ‘Til Then’ that noted there were 17 news songs, three stories and one defining era. And at the back of the card it asks “In the past 2 years, what was your biggest regret? What was your biggest triumph or struggle? What is your happiest/funniest memory?”

The audience was invited to answer one of these questions and submit the card where it might be selected and read during the show. One of the audience comments though was touching and wonderful, regarding “regret.” The writer regretted not going to the hospital to see their ill grandpa because they were afraid of seeing him sick. Touching.

I can appreciate that these are really hard times for theatres but not having a complete program for this show listing the full cast, creatives, the songs, who wrote them and who sings them, was really unfortunate and clicking on a QR code doesn’t do it if you can’t turn on your phone to look at the program.

I call the show, well-intentioned and earnest because the songs touch on loneliness; walking and appreciating nature, trees and birds; trying to cope with isolation; living with another person when you might want to be alone; knowing you are loved; appreciating the life cycle of a cicada; awkwardly getting back into dating and actually talking to another person; and missing funerals and grieving for friends because of being in lockdown.

This is all well-meaning except that we have heard these themes in various forms, for the last two years, either in other original shows, on social media, in sketch comedy, personal essays, etc. In a way ‘Til Then  is actually out of date and derivative because it’s been done and said before about many and various experiences of the pandemic.  One of the songs, “You Are Loved” was reprised it seemed more than the on-line program suggested, almost as if they were trying to convince us.  It’s almost as if the good people of Eclipse Theatre Company actually thought the audience in attendance hadn’t been to a theatre in two years and this material would seem fresh.  That’s just so hard to believe because theatres have been coming back fearlessly in one way or another for at least a year.  

The cast of 14 (!!!) is first rate and all fine singers with eight leads and six ensemble but too often the stage just seemed cluttered with two leads singing and the ensemble directed by Andrew Seok to move in the background, which I thought just pulled focus.

As is often the cast, whether in a bone fide theatre or a church, as was the case here, the balance of sound was off. Too often the microphoned cast is drowned out by the microphoned live band or virtual orchestra. It’s frustrating if one actually wants to hear the lyrics.

Regrettably ‘Til Then is a miss.

Eclipse Theatre Company  

Runs until: July 20, 2022.

Running time: 1 hour, 20 minutes.

www.eclipsetheatre.ca

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Live and in person at the Falstaff Family Centre, 35 Waterloo St. N, Stratford, Ont. Plays until July 17, 2022.

https://www.herefornowtheatre.com

Written by Mark Weatherley

Directed by Sara-Jeanne Hosie

Lighting and sound design by Stephen Degenstein

Costumes by Bonnie Deakin

Cast: Lauren Bowler

Daniela Vlaskalic

Mark Weatherley

A punningly funny, wonderfully researched, bracing play about the women entrepreneurs who made and sold ale and then some in the 1300s in England.

The Story. It’s 1340, England. The beer brewers were women. (from the programme): “Agnes and Margaret are two brewers in a small English village…forced to fight the Reeve, the priest, the Aletaster and the Bailiff for the right to chart their own destiny.” In other words, Agnes and Margaret had to use their considerable wits to succeed in this man’s world. How times have not changed.

The Production. Playwright Mark Weatherley has obviously done considerable research into the subject of ale making, the history of it; perhaps even the source of the word “toast” when offering a raised glass in celebration to someone or something; and how customers knew that ale was available for sale at the tavern—a broom was put at the top of a ladder as the sign. Fascinating. The language is a combination of the language of the 1300s (or so we believe) and the language of today.

Agnes (Daniela Vlaskalic) owns the tavern and Margaret (Lauren Bowler) is her co-worker. Agnes is given a fine performance by Daniela Vlaskalic, Agnes is methodical, tenacious knowledgeable about her business and wary of the precarious world she works in. Margaret is rather wily. For every trick that one of the overlords holds over the business, Margaret comes up with a scheme. As played by Lauren Bowler, Margaret is never flustered, rattled or unsettled by the many and various schemes that the Reeve the Aletaster or the Bailiff came up with. One of the male scammers wants to fine the two women for future transgressions. This gives them the idea of selling shares in the tavern for future sales. The women learn well from their ‘teachers’. The women deal with frustration upon frustration when dealing with men who want to cheat them, and we see how Agnes and Margaret beat them at their own game.

Mark Weatherley gives us a peak into ale making of the 1300s; how a mistake can lead to another kind of brew; how in some drinks, hops were added for more taste, and on and on. And he shows the utter tenacity of the women to meet every scheme the men can throw at them.

Mark Weatherley plays all the men in varying degrees of humour, venality, smarmy-charm, and real low-down-scummy. Each character is distinct even when one is off-stage and never seen. He’s a fine comedic writer as well as a compelling actor.

The whole production is directed by Sara-Jeanne Hosie with a sense of how to use the small space and props that always serves the play. At one point a blind is raised to reveal the lush greenery of the actual land outside the window that is so effective. Bonnie Deakin has designed the set with jugs, barrels, what looks like a broom of the time, and other props that look appropriate for 1340. The same goes for the costumes that are rustic and workmanlike.

Comment. As usual, Here for Now Theatre has begun its welcome festival with a fascinating play, Ale Wives, about how women made all the ale in the 1300s in England and what they had to contend with. It whets your appetite to learn more and of course it whets your whistle for a nice brew, too.

Here for Now Theatre presents:

Plays until: July 17, 2022.

Running Time: 70 minutes.

www.herefornowtheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Coal Mine Theatre, 1450 Danforth Ave. Toronto, Ont. until Aug. 7, 2022.

www.coalminetheatre.com

Written by Lisa D’Amour

Directed by Jill Harper

Set by Ken MacDonald

Costumes by Melanie McNeill

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Sound by Tim Lindsay

Cast: Diana Bentley

Sergio Di Zio

Craig Lauzon

Louise Lambert

Eric Peterson

Time changes everything since this play premiered in 2010. Then it was referencing the financial fallout of 2008 in the U.S. Now we can’t ignore how our isolation of the past two years has influenced how we look at this sly, bracing, unsettling play. The production is dandy.

The Story. Mary and Ben have invited their next-door neighbours, Kenny and Sharon, over for a barbeque. It’s noted that it’s so rare for neighbours to interact. No one goes to a neighbour’s anymore to borrow a cup of sugar. So, this sign of neighbourliness is noted and appreciated by Kenny and Sharon and by Mary and Ben, as well.

Mary and Ben own their finished house, though their sliding screen-door to the backyard is ‘wonky’ and gets stuck. They have a patio with patio furniture, although the umbrella doesn’t stay up, and they have a nifty barbeque. Mary works in an office. Ben has just been laid off as a loans officer, but is working on building a website to offer consulting.

Kenny and Sharon are staying in the house next door as it’s Kenny’s aunt’s house. Kenny works in construction. Sharon works at a call centre. They met at re-hab. Mary notes that there is no furniture to speak of in Kenny and Sharon’s house. Practically none. Gradually, as the play unfolds, cracks appear in each couple’s story.

The Production. Director Jill Harper has directed a tight, detail-filled production that serves the play beautifully. The Coal Mine Theatre is so intimate, the audience is so close to the action and the playing area so small that every reaction, gesture and side-long glance speaks volumes.

Ken MacDonald has designed a set that shows the difference in the two neighbouring houses. Mary (Diana Bentley) and Ben’s (Sergio Di Zio) house has that sticky door that needs a simple adjustment and Kenny (Craig Lauzon) does that quickly. Ben doesn’t seem to be ‘handy.’ The top of the sliding door has a spoke-like design that might look a little off, so in some areas the house might need some upkeep that it’s not getting. Perhaps we are to surmise that with two people working (at the time) simple upkeep was not top priority.

Mary and Ben’s patio has a modern barbeque. The patio furniture is efficient and useful but the umbrella won’t stay up and this makes Mary anxious, who is trying to keep the umbrella up. Ben does some fiddling and the umbrella stays up, temporarily. The patio floor seems finished.

The house and patio of Kenny and Sharon’s (Louise Lambert) house suggests that it hasn’t been occupied in a long time. The patio, if that’s what it can be called, is bare. It’s more a desolate backyard. The door leading from the backyard to the inside of the house is simple.

Melanie McNeill has dressed Mary and Ben in preppy, casual clothes. Kenny and Sharon are in ‘grungier’ clothes, not as a fashion statement but because they can’t afford better clothing.

Initially when Mary and Ben welcome Kenny and Sharon, Diana Bentley, as Mary and Sergio Di Zio, as Ben are gracious, buoyant in their welcome but perhaps a bit over the top We can see an effort in being gracious hosts. As Mary tries to keep the umbrella up Diana Bentley gives Mary a tight smile, trying to keep her anxiety in check. As Ben, Sergio Di Zio takes over and gingerly fixes the umbrella but only temporarily.  Tempers flare between Mary and Ben and it’s only the beginning.

Mary and Ben serve steaks and potato salad for the barbeque meal. One wonders if this is showing off, since Ben has lost his job. Playwright Lisa D’Amour has us thinking such things in her play. When the meal is served Craig Lauzon as Kenny dives into the food with such gusto, it might seem that he hasn’t eaten in a long time. He carves his steak with fierceness and chews it quickly and gulps down each piece and the potato salad. He’s finished before anyone else. Director Jill Harper and Craig Lauzon are making a clear and pointed comment about Kenny.

While cracks gradually appear in the relationship between Mary and Ben, the relationship between Kenny and Sharon initially seems tight. Craig Lauzon as Kenny and Louise Lambert as Sharon do have their private asides in public but they seem accommodating. These two have been damaged with their drug abuse and cling to and depend on each other. Clues about their relationship also gradually appear and it’s not as idyllic as one assumes. Craig Lauzon as Kenny is imposing and because he speaks quietly that only magnifies his effect. As Sharon, Louise Lambert is more demonstrative and comfortable with Ben and Mary than Kenny is, but that makes her as interesting as Kenny is quiet. Eric Peterson as Frank offers some interesting information that, even when we think the play might have concluded, unsettles us even further. Eric Peterson plays Frank as a man who would be a good neighbour; who would be helpful with that cup of sugar.

Playwright Lisa D’Amour peels away the layers of this intriguing play slowly but with an ever-relentless pace until its astonishing conclusion.  

Comment. Program notes are always interesting so see what the playwright was thinking when the play was written. The temptation is to take that at face value. Times have changed since Lisa D’Amour wrote her play, wanting to illuminate the financial crisis of 2008. In 2022 we are coming off a two year ‘isolation’ from theater, friends, borrowing a cup of sugar, and the play has a difference resonance. But as with all theatre, each member of the audience will bring their own experiences to the play and get a different outcome than might have been intended. And that will be right as well. There are no wrong answers in theatre.

Bravo to Coal Mine Theatre for another play to unsettle, shake us up and heartily entertain.

Coal Mine Theatre presents:

Plays until: Aug. 7, 2022.

Running Time: 1 hour, 30 minutes.

www.coalminetheatre.com

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