Lynn

Live and in person at Here for Now Theatre, at the Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Sept. 28, 2024.

www.herefornowtheatre.com

Written by Nick Green

Directed by Kelli Fox

Set by Darren Burkett

Costumes by Monique Lund

Cast: David Keeley

Rosie Simon

Jan Alexandra Smith

Bracingly written, exquisitely directed and acted. A play about legacy, being remembered, celebrity and the truth.

I first saw a version of Dinner with the DUCHESS in 2019 at the Next Stage Festival in Toronto. Nick Green has rewritten, expanded, solidified and refocused his play since then, and the difference is marked. The result is gripping, layered in subtext, and delves into the world of music and celebrity with precision and keen observation.

The Story. From the programme: “Fame. Power. Sexism. At the end of a storied career, a violin virtuoso Margaret gives her final interview to Helen, a young, savvy reporter. Aided by her ever-charming husband, David, Margaret must confront secrets and ghosts of the past to face the impossible question: how will she be remembered?”

The Production. Classical violin music plays as the audience files in. I assume it’s one of Margaret’s records playing, which is dispelled when the play starts. Margaret says she never plays music in the house and doesn’t own any of her records. We learn that’s not true.

As Margaret, Jan Alexandra Smith enters quickly, a bit agitated, flipping her perfectly coiffed hair back in nervous gestures. She wears a stunning black neck to toe dress/coat of sorts. It looks like she’s cocooned in it, protecting her against the outside world.  She nervously lights a cigarette, takes a few puffs and puts it out when she goes to meet Helen. Kudos to Monique Lund for the costumes which beautifully complete the characters.

The interview takes place in the condo Margaret (Jan Alexandra Smith) shares with her husband David (David Keeley). Margaret gives Helen (Rosie Simon) a tour of the condo, as if this is a very informal situation, friendly even. Hmmm. Margaret is trying to ease Helen into liking her, her home etc.

Darren Burkett has designed a very chic, minimalist set of the dining room/kitchen; a round glass table with black placemats is off from the kitchen, with three black candleholders with white candles.  There is a colourful bold painting on the wall of the ‘dining room.”  A grey bank with black high chairs separates the kitchen from the rest of the room. I assume people can eat at the ‘bank’ as easily as the round table.

Margaret’s speeches are peppered with little darts of comments that are self-deprecating, playful and very telling as the play goes on. David enters wearing beige linen: a loose shirt and comfortable pants. As David, David Keeley is buoyant, charming, watchful of Margaret and liberal with some snide remarks. Margaret shoots back a barb, with a smile. It’s the kind of cutting conversation that makes the observer suck air and hold on tight to something sturdy, as these two bait each other.  This is not the example of a loving couple that Margaret wants to convey to Helen.  

As Helen, Rosie Simon is smartly dressed in a top, skirt and stylish flat shoes. She has a notepad and tape-recorder. (Note: Rosie Simon also played in the previous production of Dinner with the DUCHESS that I saw in 2019. Her performance has grown and it was terrific in 2019.) Rosie Simon as Helen is also watchful of the situation, assessing what is going on with a clear eye. Helen has done buckets of research and knows deep background on Margaret that she might want to keep private.

To continue this up-close-and-personal-let’s-get-to-know-each-other tack, Helen is invited to dinner that is store bought but David will add his little touches, lemons and their zest factor. Margaret has snide comments about that too.

Helen has pitched the idea to her editors to do this interview. With no fanfare, announcement or celebratory party, Margaret is retiring from performing both in the orchestra where she is first violin and performing solo etc.

Margaret is assuming the interview will be easy and unchallenging but with questions that veer away from the usually banal, “how did you get started?” etc. We soon learn Helen has other ideas. Helen is very cool, confident and focused. She is not an easy pushover. She asks Margaret uncomfortable questions. At the top Helen asks: “How did she get the nickname “The Duchess”? Margaret is startled by the question and won’t answer it. Margaret’s demeanor becomes wary and cold. We are therefore curious about what is beneath Margaret’s charming veneer. Margaret is hiding a lot of secrets. She feels that she has fought tooth and nail against the men for her position in the music world. She feels she has been slighted and not given her due. This is a bitter woman who wants to control the agenda for this last interview about her legacy and Helen won’t let her.  

Kelli Fox has directed an exquisite production that is sensitive yet bristling with shimmering emotions, bitterness, regret and the search for the truth. While Margaret and Helen challenge each other in the interview, David Keeley as David is in the kitchen, but he is riveting as he watches the arguments. His stillness is compelling. The subtle touches of a character’s side-long glance at something being said speaks volumes.

Jan Alexandra Smith plays the part of Margaret with sleek sophistication and classiness that slowly gives way to the cracks in her veneer. This is a character driven by perceived slights and humiliations, both real and imagined. Her arguments about a woman in a man’s world are convincing, but the play goes deeper. But when Margaret goes into rapturous ecstasy in describing a piece of music and her playing of it, Jan Alexandra Smith takes her character into another world of musical perfection.  

As David, David Keeley is a charming man who is not timid about lobbing a well-placed cutting remark. As I said, all is not rosy in that relationship. Rosie Simon is quietly fierce as Helen. She senses a story there—a virtuoso musician retires without fanfare, is a story that goes deeper than credits and recordings. Rosie hears rumours about Margaret and hunts down the sources and the truth. The truth drives Helen, but she is not without compassion.

Nick Green has fashioned a fascinating story of an artist obsessed with playing and making music and what she had to endure to get to the top. His dialogue is bracing. He writes about the artist and the glorious music they make. He also makes us question if we can separate the glorious music from the less than generous, bitter person who makes it; and their lack of acknowledging that they might also be responsible for their situation.

Nick Green’s development of his play is a powerhouse work about art, music, beauty and the harshness of the truth. It is both eloquent and elegantly written. Terrific.

Here for Now Theatre presents:

Plays until September 28, 2024.

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes (no intermission)

www.herefornowtheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Oct. 6, 2024.

www.coalminetheatre.com

Written by Annie Baker

Directed by Jackie Maxwell

Set and costumes by Joyce Padua

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Sound by Olivia Wheeler

Cast: Brenda Bazinet

Ari Cohen

Kyra Harper

Christine Horne

Nancy Palk

Jean Yoon

Annie Baker’s latest play, Infinite Life, is challenging since the silences, pauses and side-long looks are as important as the dialogue. It’s a play about blind faith, trust and camaraderie.  Annie Baker makes you look, see and listen.

The Story. Five women and one man have come to a healing spa in Northern California to fast in order to cure their constant pain. The source of the pain and the intensity of it is individual to each person, but there is a sense of competition among the participants as to who is suffering the most. They all have faith in the elusive Dr. Urken that his prescribed process of fasting, drinking only water or juice in a few cases, will cure their cancer, mysterious ailments and various reasons for the pain. For some this is a repeat visit when their illness returns.

The Production. Jackie Maxwell’s direction is scrupulous in adhering to playwright Annie Baker’s languid, slow pace. As the participants fast over several days, the pace gets incrementally slower because they are weaker. It is so beautifully subtle and real.

Joyce Padua’s set of several pastel blue lounge chairs set against a pastel peachy coloured wall with lush foliage above, sets us in sunny California. The chairs are obviously outside where the various women and the man come out to lounge on the lounge chairs, sleep and feel the warm sun on their skin. Joyce Padua’s costumes a variation on sweat pants with a stylish scarf etc. for a little flamboyance. One gets that warm sun sensation from Steve Lucas’ lighting, and the facial expressions of the various loungers. It’s an expression that reflects the bright light and the position of the head is tilted to get the most of the warm sun.  

Each character has their own battles with pain and their reasons for being there. Sofi (Christine Horne) is the first to enter the space. She has to cope with more than pain. Her marriage is in trouble—she keeps calling her husband, demanding, pleading he answer her texts, e-mails and messages. She also calls another person with a different tone—seductive, teasing, sexual. She is reading a thick book which turns out to be “Daniel Deronda” by George Eliot. I note that not only is there a book mark in the place she left off reading, but the page is also turned down. Anal? Meticulous? Playwright Annie Baker always gets one to think about everything. Is Sofi’s choice of book symbolic? Is she a stand in for Gwendolen, the heroine of “Daniel Deronda”? Hmmm.

Eileen (Nancy Palk) arrives next. She is obviously in pain. She walks slowly, almost limping. Later in the play as her pain worsens, she will use a cane. Eileen is gracious and welcoming. She greets Sofi and strikes up a conversation.

Elaine (Brenda Bazinet) and Ginnie (Jean Yoon) arrive with their own stories and disappointments. Yvette (Kyra Harper) arrives next with such an extensive litany of ailments, operations, physical challenges and the many and various drugs she’s on, that it’s comic relief. And Kyra Harper is so upbeat and also matter of fact that she plays Yvette with such optimism though the reality makes one’s eyebrows knit.

Nelson (Ari Cohen) is the only man and often appears when the others are nowhere in sight. He is laidback, perhaps from his extensive fasting or from the ‘weed’ he smokes as an aid.

The women bond over their shared experiences. They are concerned for each other. In one aching scene, Eileen says to Sofi that her sore hips are relieved when her legs are raised. Her husband raised her legs when she was home. Here Sofi sits on the ground in front of Eileen’s lounge chair, Sofi’s back to it, and elevates Eileen’s legs by positioning them on her shoulders. The look on Nancy Palk’s face (as Eileen) is blissfully at peace. As Sofi, Christine Horne is sensitive and caring when she holds Eileen’s legs still on her shoulders. As she holds them Christine Horne’s thumb strokes Nancy Palk’s ankle. Is that the character showing such compassion or is it the actress showing care to a colleague—and does it matter because it works so well for the scene?

The acting is wonderful and subtle. What is interesting as these characters go through this process together, is that one doesn’t question what is happening in the ‘therapy’ of the pain. Is this a scam of vulnerable people, desperate for a cure of their pain and this doctor Urken is starving the pain out of them through fasting? They don’t question it? But again, Annie Baker got me wondering.  

Comment. Annie Baker challenges her audiences to stay the course with watching characters do seemingly ‘boring’ repetitive activities. In The Flick, her Pulitzer Prize winning play about an old-fashioned cinema, we watched sweepers slowly and methodically sweeping popcorn over the course of The Flick for several minutes at a time. Some dismissed it outright as boring, thus missing the subtle point. The sweeping illuminated the diligence and tenacity of the sweepers to do a responsible job for the place they loved.

In Infinite Life we are watching characters getting weaker and weaker from fasting (starving??) to cure their pain. The movement gets slower and slower from scene to scene. The conversation becomes more and more laboured, the voices weaker from the exertion of talking. We become invested in their lives and a hope for a cure. Challenging and compelling thanks to all involved. Typical Annie Baker.

The Coal Mine Theatre presents

Plays until Oct. 6, 2024.

Running time: 1 hour, 45 minutes (no intermission)

www.coalminetheatre.com

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Fall for Dance North’s 2024 Festival Lineup:

Homecoming: 2024 Signature Programme
Sept. 26 & 27: 7:30pm at The Creative School Chrysalis (43 Gerrard St East)

In his final festival, Artistic Director Ilter Ibrahimof curates Homecoming: 2024 Signature Programme, with a tryptic of works by choreographers whose careers were nurtured at FFDN. Featuring:

islands by Emma Portner, performed by The National Ballet of Canada
Feel no more by Anne Plamondon, performed by Ballet Edmonton
The Last Song by Daileidys Carrazana, performed by Malpaso Dance Company

Tkaronto Open II
Sept. 28: 12-5pm at Union Station’s Outdoor Plaza (65 Front Street West)
Co-presented by Union Station

Tkaronto Open returns to Union Station as a free festival programme. This powwow style competition will feature two categories: Women’s Jingle Dress and new this year: Men’s Fancy War vs. Women’s Fancy Shawl. Co-produced with Indigenous artists Freddy Gipp (Lawrence, KS) and Thunder Jack (Ontario).

8-COUNT: Short Dance Film Series
Sept. 29: 1pm at The Paradise Theatre (1006c Bloor St W)

8-COUNT returns to the festival for its third edition with a special one-night-only premiere screening on the big screen featuring a collection of exciting short dance films by national and international creators. Curated by a distinguished Selection Committee including Lisa La Touche, William Yong, Cara Hagan (NYC) and Milana Glumicic.

Autobiography V98 + V99 by Wayne McGregor, performed by Company Wayne McGregor
Oct. 1 & 2: 7:30pm at The Creative School Chrysalis (43 Gerrard St East)

Autobiography is multi-award-winning British choreographer Wayne McGregor’s exploration of the ‘body as archive’, a developing series of unique dance portraits inspired and determined by the sequencing of his own genetic code.

Big Time Miss by Alyssa Martin, performed by Rock Bottom Movement
Oct. 2-4: 7:30pm at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis St)
Oct. 5: 2pm at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis St)

Set within a shape-shifting cloud of theatrical potential, Big Time Miss is an absurdist dreamscape rooted in Rock Bottom Movement’s signature approach to unbridled, athletic contemporary dance theatre.

The Mars Project by Travis Knights, directed by Travis Knights and Lisa La Touche
Featuring live music
Oct. 4 & 5: 7:30pm at The Creative School Chrysalis (43 Gerrard St East)
Oct. 6: 2pm at The Creative School Chrysalis (43 Gerrard St East)

‘Waiting in the Wings No More’ by Propeller Dance
Oct. 4 & 6: 2pm at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis St)
Oct. 5: 7:30pm at Betty Oliphant Theatre (404 Jarvis St)
Co-presented by The Disability Collective

‘Waiting in the Wings No More’ combines two distinct but connected works created by internationally recognized inclusive dance choreographers Lucy Bennett and Renata Soutter. Leave your expectations of what dance can be at the door, and step into the beautiful world of Ottawa’s Propellor Dance.

Burn Baby, Burn by Guillaume Côté, performed by Côté Danse
Oct. 5: 7:30pm at The Fleck Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay W)
Oct. 6: 2pm at The Fleck Dance Theatre (207 Queens Quay W)

Flames are beautiful and tragically compelling – can we succeed in lighting an intentional backfire before global warming spirals out of control? The latest creation from Guillaume Côté, which will make its Toronto debut at FFDN 2024.

NIGHT/SHIFT
Oct. 3-5: 10pm at The Citadel: Ross Centre for Dance (304 Parliament St)
Co-presented and produced by Citadel + Compagnie

Programmed by distinguished dance artists Olga Barrios, Rachana Joshi and Samantha Sutherland, the 2024 edition of Night/Shift celebrates the many dance forms explored and practiced by Ontario-based movement makers. Featuring:

Programme 1 (Oct. 3)
Millina Fletcher
Neena Jayarajan
Eilish Shin-Culhane

Programme 2 (Oct. 4)
Sarah Di Iorio
Speakeasy
Priyanka Tope

Programme 3 (Oct. 5)
Marvel Itemuagbor
Carmen Romero
Logan Whyte

A variety of free in-person and digital ancillary events will also be offered throughout the festival, including the fifth season of FFDN’s podcast Mambo; workshops for both professionals and non-dancers; and artist talks. For FFDN ticketing, package information, and full festival details, please visit: ffdnorth.com

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Live and in person at the Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. until Oct. 2, 2024.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Based on the novel by Margaret Laurence

Text by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan

Directed by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier

Choreography by Cameron Carver

Set and lighting by Bretta Gerecke

Costumes by Jeff Chief

Composer, Andrina Turenne

Music director, arranger, additional composition and sound designer, MJ Dandeneau

Cast: Christopher Allen

Gabriel Antonacci

Dan Chameroy

Caleigh Crow

Allison Edward-Crewe

Jesse Gervais

Jonathan Goad

Josue Laboucane

Julie Lumsden

Irene Poole

Anthony Santiago

Tyrone Savage

Sara Topham

A beautifully rendered adaptation of Margaret Laurence’s classic novel, beautifully directed and acted.

Background: The Diviners is based on Margaret Laurence’s award-winning last novel, which she wrote in 1974. It’s been adapted for the Stratford stage by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan.

It’s a world premiere. It’s considered a classic of Canadian literature and has been taught across the country. It’s also one of the most banned books as well for its subject matter, depictions of racism, sex, class, colonialism, isolation and struggles of being an immigrant, a Métis and an outsider.

The Story.  It begins in 1972 and takes place in both Ontario and Manawaka, a fictional small town in Manitoba. It’s about the life and struggles of Morag Gunn. She’s struggling with excessive drinking and trying to write. Her adult daughter, Pique has announced that she’s leaving to go west to find her father and to learn the truth about her heritage because Morag never really told her. Pique’s father is Jules Tonnerre, a Metis and Morag’s on again off again lover. This conjures all sorts of memories for Morag.

Morag’s life was not easy. She was orphaned when she was young—her parents died of polio. She was raised in Manitoba, by Christie Logan, an army friend of her late father. Christie was a proud Scots.  He maintained the local dump and was therefore ridiculed by the town’s people. Christie was loving and kind to Morag and encouraged her in her life’s path. She loved reading and writing. She went to university to be a writer. She had an affair with her much older English professor, Brooke Skelton and eventually married him envisioning a life of writing and having children. That was not the plan of Brooke who treated Morag with disdain. He did not want children as much as he wanted someone to take care of his home. That’s when Jules Tonnerre re-appeared in her life—he was a traveling troubadour of sorts—and the result was Pique.

The Production.  Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan have adapted Margaret Laurence’s book beautifully with sensitivity, vision and a boldness to bring this tough story to the stage. Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan have created a work of wonderful collaboration. Yvette Nolan is Indigenous and a wonderful writer. Vern Thiessen is not Indigenous and is also a wonderful writer and together they created the world of the book for the stage. They don’t shy away from the vicious racism of the book and yet for all the brutality of the story, there are moments of breathtaking tenderness and heartbreak.

For example, Jules Tonnerre’s sister Piquette died in a fire and no one helped. The town’s folk called her all sorts of despicable names when she was alive, but when her father pulled her out of the fire, dead, all he did was scream, “my daughter” “my daughter.” For all those terrible words we’ve heard describing the missing Indigenous women and girls, they are at a basic level someone’s daughter, sister, niece and friend. The spirit/ghost of Piquette (played with quiet dignity by Caleigh Crow) followed Morag’s daughter Pique (Julie Lumsden) as if to protect her. It’s a lovely image that bonds the Indigenous world and the white world together.

The Diviners is directed with vivid imagery and creativity by Krista Jackson with Genevieve Pelletier. While the production flips back and forth in time, you are never in doubt what time we are immersed in. Bretta Gerecke has designed a wonderful set and evocative lighting for the production. Floating above the stage is a mass of stuff, a sleigh, children’s stuff, toys, etc. In a sense these are Morag’s jumbled but distinct memories that keep coming back to her which leads to another memory. Krista Jackson and Genevieve Pelletier establish the relationships of characters with sensitivity.

Morag is played by Irene Poole with a fierceness that is impressive. When she is writing she is focused and formidable. The fingers fly over the typewriter keys like some possessed demon. This is a perfect way to depict the need to write. Irene Poole realizes all the conflicting aspects of Morag’s life: loving Christie but wanting to get out of that small town and see the world; wanting to be loved as a wife but wanting to be a mother, and most important, wanting to write. Irene Poole clearly illuminated the obsession with writing and the frustration when the words didn’t come. Wonderful work.

Jesse Gervais, as Jules Tonnerre is a mix of boyish charm and shyness. There is a quiet grace about this performance that brings out the kindness of Jules. Jules Tonnerre loved Morag and never wanted to crowd her or force her into the role of wife and what a mother should be. Instead he respected her need for independence and let her get on her journey. He was also a proud father—although he rarely saw his daughter Pique, but when he did, they bonded. As Christie Jonathan Goad is a rough and tumble Scots, proud of his heritage and of his work at the dump. He’s a man who can’t be put down. And his fatherly love of Morag is lovely. “Go be who you are” is his wonderful advice to her as she leaves home to study English and writing. The cast is very fine. Everything about The Diviners is exquisite.

The play did get me thinking about recent accusations of appropriation of one’s culture and voice. Margaret Laurence was not Indigenous, yet she felt she could write a Métis character without being Métis. I can’t recall any objections to that.

History is full of writers who have imagined other lives without having experiencing it first hand and been successful.  Canadian playwright, Judith Thompson wrote a blistering play about Indigenous characters in their world in Crackwalkerand she’s not Indigenous.

Louise Fitzhugh wrote “Harriet the Spy” and “The Long Secret” about two white girls, but then wrote “Nobody’s Family is going to Change” about a Black middle class family in New York. Louise Fitzhugh was not Black. But she was a brilliant writer.

Of late the thought vigilantes believe that only a person who has experienced something can write about it. Gays should only write about gay issues; people of colour should only be the people who write about that experience etc.

This idea is blinkered and refuted soundly by such works as Margaret Laurence’s The Diviners because it’s the work of a gifted writer, which in turn is adapted by Vern Thiessen and Yvette Nolan, also two gifted writes.

Wonderful production.

Comment. I think The Diviners is both a classic and a target for banning for the same reasons, Margaret Laurence’s book is about Canada; it’s about the cultural divide in some cases: about being Métis and ostracized; being considered ‘other’, whether it was Jules Tonnerre for being a Métis or Christie Logan for working in the town dump and smelling all the time as a result. It’s about the sexual awakening of a young woman who lived outside the rules and was reprimanded for it. It’s about being independent, breaking rules for conduct, class consciousness, being Indigenous and what that entails, especially dealing with the judgements of one’s neighbours.

And of, course the thought and language vigilantes feel they must govern what people read and consider in matters of sex, society, cultural divides, independent thinking people and free spirits.

And I think it’s a classic because Margaret Laurence so captured the independent drive and spirit of Morag; her obsession to write; and Margaret Laurence also captured the sense of being other, because she was probably echoing her life to a certain extent in the novel. A treasure.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Oct. 2, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours 20 minutes (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person, produced by Bowtie Productions, at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto, Ont. Playing until Sept. 7, 2024.

www.bowtieproductions.ca

Text by John Cameron Mitchell

Music and lyrics by Stephen Trask

Directed and choreographed by Meredith Shedden

Music director, Ethan Rotenberg

Set, props by Quynh Diep

Costumes by Irene Ly

Lighting  by Niall Durcan

Sound by Parker Merlihan

Projections by Alex Grozdanis

Cast: Jessie James/James Petrasunias

Luca McPhee

The Band: Ethan Rotenberg, music director/keys

Michael Ippolito, bass

Steven John Dale, guitar

Nazariy Zymbovych, percussion

Irreverent, but strangely relevant today, considering the gender issues that are illuminated.

The Story. Hedwig was a ‘girlyboy’ born Hanschel in East Berlin (The Berlin Wall was still up). He always felt trapped: trapped in that section of the divided city, trapped in a man’s body when he considered himself something else and dressed that way; trapped in a society who did not accept this situation.

Hanschel had encounters with men. Tommy was one of them, a young man who wanted to be a rock star. Hanschel helped Tommy write many hit songs (without credit as it turned out). Tommy went on to rock stardom and left Hanschel behind.   Then Hanschel met and fell in love with Luther, a GI who wanted to marry him/her and take him/her back to the States. A little operation that would change Hanschel to Hedwig was necessary before they could to that. The operation was botched leaving “one angry inch” of what was once Hanschel. The result is Hedwig, described by book writer John Cameron Mitchell ‘as not a trans woman, but a genderqueer character.’ Hedwig is a person sheathed in glitter and sarcasm.

Hedwig tells her story with all the gory, angry bits kept in. She is her own kind of rock star and is aided by her long suffering “husband” Yitzhak.

The Production. Bowtie Productions is a gritty, fearless company that was formed in 2019 to produce theatrical and multimedia experiences for young and emerging artists. Hedwig and the Angry Inch certainly has its challenges and the company does very well with this tricky piece.

Quynh Diep has designed a grungy-looking set to depict the grungy world of Hedwig. There is a wall at the back (The Berlin Wall??) with graffiti on it with words like “Freedom” and “Trans”. “Trans” is a nod to our present day with our many and various gender references.  

Hedwig (Jessie James/James Petrasunias) makes her appearance in a burst of rock music and a blast of light above the stage. She wears exaggerated eye-make-up, an extravagant wig, a skimpy tied up vest, a skirt cut up to here revealing lots of leg and she wears chunky high heels. It’s a startling look and Jessie James/James Petrasunias plays it for all it’s worth. Hedwig is dripping in attitude and arrogance.

Jessie James/James Petrasunias as Hedwig is sassy, flirty and knows how to play an audience. And he sings in a strong, urgent, rock and roll voice.

Yitzhak (Luca McPhee) is a diminutive, androgynous creature with wild hair, baggy clothes, quiet rage and patience who is Hedwig’s stage hand, butt of her jokes and ‘husband.’ In ‘his’ quiet way Yitzhak makes known his contempt for Hedwig with some well-placed expletives and side-long glances at the audience that speak volumes. And since ‘he’ is played by Luca McPhee who is a powerful singer.

The mainspace at Theatre Passe Muraille is not a large space and often the band (especially the percussion) drowns out the singing. Hmmmm.

Director/choreographer, Meredith Shedden has a keen director’s eye and has created a raunchy, deliberately vulgar production with moments of touching sadness. It’s about loneliness with attitude to cover it up.

 Comment. When John Cameron Mitchell’s 1998 show first played Off Broadway in New York it was considered edgy, irreverent and bold. In 2024 at times the show seems dated with its references to the time of the Berlin Wall, and with some plays on words and phrases, instead of laughter, the reaction was silence. Perhaps it’s a generational thing.

But Hedwig and the Angry Inch isn’t just a raunchy romp; it’s a show about being ‘other’, not fitting in and trying hard to do so. It’s about politics, displacement, gender issues, androgyny and rock and roll. The run is short. The cast is hard working. Check it out.

NOTE: While Bowtie Productions is a newish company on the theatre scene, they get full marks for seeking out reviews to spread the word and their program is an example to even the most experienced of companies. First of all, there is a physical program!It lists everybody in the production and crew with  bios. There is a note about the show, the company and thoughts from the director. Most important to me is that the cover page has all the info one needs to know about the production: the title of the show and who wrote it; where it’s playing; the dates of the run; who is producing it; and how one can get tickets with a link. Now that is classy. Bravo.

Bowtie Productions presents:

Plays until Sept. 7, 2024.

Running time is 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.bowtieproductions.ca

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Live and in person at the Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford, Ont. Produced by Here for Now Theatre, playing until Sept. 7, 2024.

www.herefornowtheatre.com

Written by Julia Lederer

Directed by Marie Farsi

Set and costumes by Patricia Reilly

Sound by Dhanish Qumar Chinniah

Cast: Kate Lynch

Nicholas Santillo

Loretta Yu

With Love and a Major Organ by Julia Lederer is a quirky, whimsical comedy about love, loneliness, wanting to connect to another person, and searching for the perfect partner.

From the program note: “During her morning commute, a young woman falls in love with a total stranger she meets on the subway. After giving the man her actual beating heart, he disappears—leading this unlikely heroine on a quest to retrieve her heart, accidentally cracking open those of others she meets along the way.”

I first saw a version of the play at the Next Wave Festival in Toronto in 2013. The play has been revised but is still wonderfully quirky, eccentric and captures our sense of whimsy.

George is the young man on the subway. When he was a baby his mother Mona wanted to protect him from heartache so she gave him a heart made of paper, so as to save him from having his heart broken. Now this young woman, named Anabel, comes along and falls in love with him on the subway, and gives him her actual beating heart. It takes him some time to process this gift.

In the meantime, Mona is trying to make her own connection with another person when she goes on line and gets involved with speed-dating and seeks help with ‘an on-line shrink.’ You have to be charmed by playwright Julia Lederer’s sense of ‘the odd-ball.’ Lederer’s dialogue is also deliciously whimsical.

That idea of a chance meeting on the subway—we all know about—but having Anabel give her actual heart away to George because she is smitten and then searching for him to get it back, is sweet and quirky in equal measure.  Julia Lederer’s facility with language is terrific. She has a line that goes like this: “hours pass as slowly as kidney stones.” Brilliant. Her characters have a disarming sense of humour that is charming in its way.

Marie Farsi has envisioned and created a fine, efficient, smart production. Blood-purple is the major colour, as in a deep blood colour. Patricia Reilly has created an intriguing set of blood-purple cords hanging down from the flies; with three blood-purple coloured chairs for the three characters that are moved around for different locations. Some of Anabel’s clothes and bag are that same purple. Various letters are delivered by a pully system that has a letter attached with a clothes hook and then slid along a wire until it’s delivered to the correct person. Efficient and hilarious.

Both Kate Lynch as Mona and Nicholas Santillo as George, her son, play their comedy very straight, which makes it funnier. They both seem to float in a world where they are not quite at home, which has its own charm. As Anabel, Loretta Yu is lively, at times hyper-active, and that has its own humour as well.

With Love and a Major Organ is a gentle and sweet play about love when one least expects it, that cracks a heart open and makes one go and find the person who caused the feeling in the first place. Lovely.

Here for Now Theatre presents:

Plays until Sept. 7, 2024

Running time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (no intermission)

www.herefornowtheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Blyth Festival, Memorial Hall, Blyth, Ont. Playing until Sept. 7, 2024.

www.blythfestival.com

Written by Alison Lawrence

Inspired by the book by Bonnie Sitter and Shirleyan English

Directed by Severn Thompson

Set and costumes by Kelly Wolf

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Sound and original music by Heidi Chan

Cast: Shelayna Christante

Autumn Davis

Charlotte Dennis

Lucy Hill

Sachi Nisbet

Alicia Salvador

A wonderful production of the pluck and fortitude of young Ontario women to help farm when the men are away during WWII. And a heartening story of friendship and loyalty.

NOTE: This production of Onion Skins and Peach Fuzz: The Farmerettes is a co-production between 4^th Line Theatre Company in Millbrook, Ont. and the Blyth Festival in Blyth, Ont.

I will re-print part of the story from my review of the 4^th Line Theatre Production, but will also comment specifically about the Blyth Festival Production.

Because of impending bad weather, the Blyth Festival production was performed for this performance at the Memorial Hall.

The Story. Alison Lawrence has written a lively, loving, poignant play weaving the stories and experiences of the young women who signed up to be Farmerettes, working the farms while the men were away at the war. The young women were mainly high school students who often came from other places to work on the farms. There were about 40,000 of them who signed up.

Alison Lawrence has created a play in two parts over two summers. Act One, Peach Fuzz, is set in 1942 in Grimsby, Ontario; Act Two, Onion Skins, is set in Thedford, in 1945. The play is described as a work of fiction based on actual events. We get a wonderful sense of the enthusiasm of these young women for this new adventure. The Farmerettes, as they were soon called, soon got over their enthusiasm for the adventure after a day of working in the fields. Every bone and muscle ached.  There are hilarious stories of picking peaches and later in Act II, harvesting onions.

For many of the Farmerettes it was the first time they were away from home and homesickness was an issue in at least one case. In another case it was the first time a young woman had a bed to herself because she came from a large family and had to share her bed with two sisters. One young woman named Jay wrote chatty letters to her father who was fighting overseas. This perhaps was the most moving story. Jay (Charlotte Dennis) and her father argued before he left and she felt sad and guilty about it. The emotion was heighted because he was fighting in Dieppe.

The camaraderie of these young women is beautifully illuminated by playwright Alison Lawrence but she doesn’t shy away from some of the uglier attitudes of some of these women. One of the Farmerettes was a woman named Amalia (Lucy Hill). She was matter-of-act and generally kept to herself. She was viewed with a bit of suspicion by the other girls perhaps because she kept to herself; or perhaps because she had an accent they could not place. In fact, Amalia was Czech and had experienced war, while the others had not. She came to Canada for a better life. Over time the wariness she had for the others and the others had for her, dissolved with conversation and understanding.

In Act II, set in Thedford, Ont. in 1945, Alison Lawrence had the stories of two sisters, Sue (Alicia Salvador) and Lucy Tanaka (Sachi Nisbet), woven into the play. They were young women living in the area with their parents. Sue and Lucy were born in Canada of Japanese descent. Because of the war and racism, their parents saw their land taken away from them and they were put into an internment camp and considered “enemy aliens.” It didn’t matter that their father fought on the side of Canada in the war. It didn’t matter that the two girls were born in Canada. Because they were of Japanese descent they were automatically consider ‘enemies’. Sue tried to see the best in people. Lucy was bitter because of the treatment of her family. Again, the young women farmers came to realize the horrible situation for the Tanaka family. One of the girls stood up to her mother who had negative thoughts about the Tanaka family, and told her the Tanakas were good people. It was vital that that ugly part of Canadian history be in this play and Alison Lawrence rose to the occasion.

The Production. Severn Thompson has directed a wonderfully intimate production that accentuates the camaraderie of the various characters. Each character is given focused scenes to tell their story and reveal their character. Because of that we are able to observe each character at close range.  Their emotions are shimmering on the surface. Every crease of a brow is resounding. The acting of the cast, to a person, is heartfelt, true and committed.

As Jay, Charlotte Dennis bristles with emotions as the woman who writes to her father in Dieppe. There is regret because they had a fight before he left and Jay laments they parted on bad terms. Charlotte Dennis fills her work with detail and heart.

Shelayna Christante plays Joan in Act I and Nettie in Act II and does both with notable commitment. In Act 1, Alicia Salvador plays Ted, a hay-sucking farmer with little use for girl farmers, until he meets the love of his life and changes his tune. In Act II Alicia Salvador plays Sue Tanaka, who tries to find good in everyone. (NOTE: Alicia Salvador also played in the production at 4^th Line Theatre the only actress of this cast to play both productions only she played Lucy there—talented young woman). Autumn Davis plays Dot, Joan’s sister. She’s always cheerful, enthusiastic and positive. Sachi Nisbet plays Liz in Act I, a fastidious organizer of the Farmerettes, always a stickler for the rules; and in Act II she plays Lucy, the angry Tanaka sister who resents how her parents were treated. Lucy Hill plays many parts here with endless detail and creativity. She plays Amalia in Act I, a dour woman, watchful and knowing of how terrible war is; in Act II she plays Mrs. Franklin, a misery who resents cooking for the girls and feels that slop dropped on their plates is nourishment enough. Lucy Hill also also plays a fast moving, mischievous boy who taunts the girls. Hilarious.

Kelly Wolf has designed a simple set (meant for the Harvest Stage, but moved indoors because of weather to the Memorial Hall). Her costumes are work clothes and efficient for each character.

I loved the intimacy of this production, the true friendships and decency of these young women to step up and help the war effort, as well as each other.

The Blyth Festival Presents:

Plays until Sept. 7, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours, 30 minutes, approx. (1 intermission)

www.blythfestival.com

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Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Playing until September 28, 2024. A world première.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by Andrea Scott

Directed by André Sills

 Set and costumes by Sarah Uwadiae

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Composed and sound by Maddie Bautista

Cast: Celia Aloma

Conrad Coates

Savion Roach

Kim Roberts

Jennifer Villaverde

Bristling with angst, but written with open-hearted generosity, paying homage to Jamaican culture and linguistic poetry. A play about family with which everyone can identify.

Background. Get That Hope is the much-anticipated play by Andrea Scott, that is having its world première at the Stratford Festival. Andrea Scott is a powerhouse of a playwright. She wrote Controlled Damage about Viola Desmond and her struggles being a Black woman who just wanted to sit in good seats in a cinema in Nova Scotia and was denied the right even though she could pay for the ticket because she was Black. Viola Desmond is now the face on the Canadian $10 bill.

Andera Scott has written various other plays about the Black experience. She wrote for the tv series, Murdock Mysteries and because of her writing abilities, she was hired to write for Disney in Los Angeles. She is the first Black woman to have a play premiere at the Stratford Festival. I long for the day when we don’t have to make that distinction because it will be the norm.

The Story and comment. This is from the Stratford Website for starters: “Richard Whyte is determined to celebrate Jamaican Independence Day in style. The rice is soaking, the ginger beer is cooling and today his lottery ticket is finally going to hit it big! (It’s worth $70 million).

But Richard’s squabbling family have other ideas, and over the course of a single sweltering day in Toronto’s Little Jamaica, a lifetime of buried secrets and dreams will finally come to light.

Making its world première at the Studio Theatre, Get That Hope is a bittersweet drama of personal and cultural diasporas that brims with laughter and tears.”

As Richard says:  “YOU GOT TO TAKE A LIKKLE BIT OF SUFFERIN’ TO GET THAT HOPE.” 

Andrea Scott got the idea for the play while watching a Stratford production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night by Eugene O’Neil. It’s a play about a family at odds with lots of issues. Except that Get That Hope is not Andrea Scott’s version of Long Day’s Journey Into Night. I think Get That Hopeis more openhearted than that, more generous of spirit and more universal in its story.

So, to further flesh out the story, Richard Whyte is buoyant about celebrating Jamaican Independence Day. But his wife Margaret seems ill-tempered. Margaret is his second wife—Richard’s first wife is in Jamaica. Richard’s daughter Rachel, from the first marriage, lives with them and is anxious to get out on her own. Simeon Whyte, is Margaret’s son from her first marriage and is unemployed and troubled that a friend of his from the army has died. Simeon is going to the funeral. There is a friend of the family, Millicent Flores, who helps Margaret with things, and is sweet on Simeon. That’s the set up for the problems to emerge.

It seems that none of the family but Rachel works for one reason and another. And only Rachel’s pay cheque is helping. That’s why she is so anxious to move out and has made plans to do that but keeps the information from the family.

There is animosity between Rachel and Margaret. Rachel imagines that her mother in Jamaica is really her loving relative. She never felt that affection from Margaret. Simeon is bitter about his lot in life, that his friend has died and that he has no job and other issues.  Richard, the patriarch, seems oblivious to all this and just wants to celebrate International Jamaica Day. He is a proud Canadian, but just wants to celebrate this holiday with the traditional foods that he loves. And there are issues he has as well. This is all in Act I.

It would be neat if all the issues were resolved in Act II but rather than being a neat playwright, Andrea Scott is a smart one. And thoughtful. And intelligent. And a generous playwright to her characters.

In Act I the issues are presented and also how the assumptions about people are revealed. And there are further developments that leave one limp with the implications. But in Act II, rather than solve the issues, Andrea Scott does something more important. She gives her characters the hope and the resolve to recognize the issues, the truth, and the way forward. I thought that more profound than being neat.

The Production. Loved it.

Sarah Uwadiae has designed an apartment of this family in Little Jamaica. The couch is covered in plastic to protect it. How many people do that? Tons. Loved that touch. She has also designed the costumes which are functional, comfortable, and say a lot about the characters.  

Because there is constant construction in Little Jamaica because of the impending subway line, there is an undercurrent of noise, nicely designed by Maddie Bautista. Her sound and music capture the essence of this Jamaican family.

It’s directed by Andre Sills, a fine actor, developing into a thoughtful, sensitive director. The production is directed with care so that the stories unfold in a measured way so we are aware of the issues of each character and can assess them carefully. Each character has issues important to them. It’s important not to make the play seem like a bunch of characters ranting. André Sills does a lovely job illuminating each character’s issues with nuance and detail. The accents are pronounced and unapologetic. There is an elegant and confident lilt to the music of the expressions and patois favoured by the people in this family. I loved the challenge of keeping up with listening.

Conrad Coates plays Richard Whyte and Kim Roberts plays his wife Margaret Whyte. It’s lovely seeing these two fine actors on the stage again after too long an absence. Conrad Coates is an enthusiastic, joyful Richard Whyte. He’s expecting to win the lottery and to enjoy all his favourite Jamaican foods. Kim Roberts as Margaret is watchful, laid-back and pointed in presenting her arguments. She is totally in control; supports her son but has bristling issues with her step-daughter, Rachel. Celia Aloma as Rachel is responsible, exhausted from her work, and cheerful at the thought of moving out until she gets some shocking news. Savion Roach is proud as Simeon but also wounded at how his world seems to be crashing. He had been in the military and his ram-rod straight posture has a hold on that former life. And Jennifer Villaverde plays Millicent Flores, the family friend, with sweetness and concern.

Andrea Scott as the playwright and André Sills as the director, make us care about these folks, their issues and recognize ourselves in their issues, even though we might not be the same ethnicity.

That’s the beauty of theatre to connect our similarities.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Sept. 28, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person at the Mandeville Theatre, Ridley College, St. Catharines, Ont. Part of the Foster Festival. Playing until Aug. 25, 2024.

www.fosterfestival.com

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Emily Oriold

Set by Beckie Morris

Costumes by Alex Amini

Lighting by Alex Sykes

Cast: Isaiah Kolundzic

Emily Lukasik

Daniel Reale

Kelly J Seo

Playwright Norm Foster’s most famous play about sibling love and rivalry produced with style and gentle humour.

The Story. Brother’s Lee and Owen are spending the weekend at their uncle’s cottage for some fishing and relaxation before Lee has to go back to the city for his ‘treatment.’ The facts are revealed slowly and we learn Lee’s not well and has to get treatment for his condition.

Lee is the foreman at the plant. He is married with children and a responsible man. Owen is a good-time-Charlie, a bit of a goof with little sense of responsibility. He works at the plant but just as a worker. He’s to be married in three weeks but you would hardly know it. He is so over-the-top enthusiastic about this weekend he has no time to actually check in on his brother’s health. It becomes clear. He’s in denial.

They are visited by two local sisters, Mary and Loretta and they match the brothers in temperament. Mary is separated from her husband and she is very responsible, and runs the local convenience store. Loretta is selfish, self-absorbed and doesn’t care about anyone. She does TV commercials of sorts for a local business.

The Production and comment. Beckie Morris has designed a rustic cottage of wood, with clever cut-outs of spruce trees around the property; old fashioned furniture and appliances, and other stuff that packs the place as a family cottage. Alex Amini’s costumes are reflective of the characters: jeans and work shirts for the men, with Lee being neater and more careful than Owen; casual for Mary and seductive for Loretta.

As Owen, Daniel Reale bursts into the cottage with a rifle in hand, pretending to be scoping out the place. He’s exuberant, almost giddy with the happiness of being at the cottage. He’s like a boy-man. Lee, as played by Isaiah Kolundzic is more laid-back, thoughtful. When they meet the two women Owen gravitates to Loretta (Kelly J Seo) and her seductiveness. She is flirty but standoffish. As Mary, Emily Lukasik is a bit awkward—she’s rusty at dating and being seductive since her husband left her.

The pairing of the characters is a natural thing and not forced in Norm Foster’s play. Both Owen and Loretta don’t think of anyone else but their own selfish pleasures and are perfect in this instance. We see their true colours here. Owen might be avoiding his brother’s issues  because he really cares, but on the surface he’s still selfish. He does have an epiphany in the play that is heartening for better things to come. Loretta is true to her nature. Director Emily Oriold carefully guides the action and the actors to navigate the many humourous instances that Norm Foster has generously added to The Melville Boys.

Norm Foster does not provide the brothers with great insights about life and the world. These are two men lurching through life, dealing with its difficulties in their own separate ways, as are the women. There are a few changes in some of the characters’ direction, but they are gently natural and not forced. Loretta is wonderfully the same; self-serving and narcissistic. She has never indicated she would be anything but that. I love that honesty in the writing.

Lovey play and production.

The Foster Festival Presents:

Plays until Aug. 25, 2024.

Running Time: 2 hours, (1 intermission.)

www.fosterfestival.com

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