Live and in person at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Playing until the fall.
The Secret Garden
Based on the novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett
Adapted for the stage by Jay Turvey and Paul Sportelli
Directed by Jay Turvey
Music direction by Ryan deSouza
Set by Beyata Hackborn
Costumes by Judith Bowden
Lighting by Kevin Lamotte
Cast: David Adams
David Alan Anderson
Sharry Flett
Patty Jamieson
Gryphyn Karimloo
Tam Martin
Drew Plummer
Gabriella Sundar Singh
Jackqueline Thair
Two unhappy, spoiled children learn the value of generosity to others, respect and the value and healing power of a garden.
The Story. Mary is an orphan who has come from India to England to live with her uncle Archibald Craven, in his large house on the desolate moors. Mary is a self-absorbed spoiled brat who orders the servants around as if they were underlings not worthy of respect. They treat her much better than she does them.
Her uncle is in deep mourning after the death of his wife and does not want to have anything to do with his niece or the house he shared with his wife. It brings back too many memories. He is often away. Mary is eventually befriended by Martha, a servant in the house and Dickon her brother who knows everything about nature, plants and flowers.
Mary hears about a secret garden on the grounds and is curious to find it. She also hears strange sounds in the house as if it’s a child crying. She is curious to find the cause of the sounds as well.
Mary bonding with Martha and Dickon begins her road to being a decent human being, who is able to love her uncle and others, learn about the world, and the value of any garden, either secret or not.
Production. Director Jay Turvey gives us a sense of the size of Archibald Craven’s (David Alan Anderson) large house when Mary (an excellent Gabriella Sundar Singh) comes to the house and is lead through various imagined doors finally to her room. But I found Beyata Hackborn’s suggested rather than literal set and certainly of the final garden, to be a disappointment. When Mary, her sickly cousin Colin (Gryphyn Karimloo) and Dickon (a kindly Drew Plummer) decide to rehabilitate the secret garden, various hoops descended with some flowers around it. One would have expected something more lavish for all the build-up. This garden looked paltry. There is a sense of momentum with the cast seeming to be moving for most of this production.
The inclusion of traditional songs to set the tone and atmosphere is clever. I did think that the background song of Mary Quite Contrary could have stood more volume so we can hear the lyrics that set up the description of Mary at the time.
The Secret Garden is a lovely tale of how love and friendship are so powerful in a young person’s life to change them from being sullen and self-absorbed to being open-hearted and generous of spirit. When Mary and Colin have a purpose—to get Colin some fresh air and then get his help with the garden, then there is no stopping them. Gabriella Sunda Singh as Mary is confident, initially haughty and condescending, but then generous, curious, and eventually changed into a lively, creative young person. As Colin, Mary’s sickly cousin, Gryphyn Karimloo initially is irritable and demanding as the bed-ridden kid. But when he is discovered by Mary, he’s roused out of his lethargy and becomes a lively, healthy child.
The story has charm for kids young and old.
Shaw Festival presents:
Plays until Oct. 13, 2024
Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes (1 intermission)
The House That Will Not Stand
By Marcus Gardley
Directed by Philip Akin
Set and Costumes by Sean Mulcahy
Lighting by Kevin Lamotte
Original music and sound by Jacob Lin
Cast: Deborah Castrilli
Rais Clarke-Mendes
Nehassaiu deGannes
Cheryl Mullings
Ryanne Myers
Monica Parks
Sophia Walker
Note: Hmm this is interesting. The programme for the Shaw Festival production of The House That Will Not Stand says “A drama about the free women of colour in New Orleans, 1813.” Then on the cast page it says: “Faubourg Tremé, New Orleans, Louisiana. One Sunday (24 hours) in the summer of 1813.”
But in a copy of the text of the play it says “A drama about the free women of color in New Orleans, 1836.” And on the Characters page it says: Setting, Faubourg Tremé, New Orleans, Louisiana, twenty-four hours one summer in 1836.” There is also a reference in the play that the date it begins is 1836.
So, the playwright Marcus Gardley says the play takes place in 1836, but the Shaw Festival believes it’s 1813. Confusing.
Beartrice Albans (Monica Parks) is mourning the recent death of Lazare, her common-law husband. She has had three daughters by him even though he was formally married to another woman. Beartrice is a free woman of colour. Lazare was white. Beartrice was a placée, a woman, usually a quadroon who is part of the concubine system of plaçage (the system of concubibinge between free women of colour and white men who were in common-law marriages with them). The initial arrangement usually involved money. As part of the mourning process, Beartrice has declared that her daughters will stay in the house she Beartrice assumes she will inherit, for seven years of mourning. The daughters balk at this because they want the same advantages of placée as their mother. This is their way out from under her over-bearing authority. These are young women with raging hormones. Beartrice has other plans.
The play is about race, racism, class, passion, reputation and shadism, in which a light skinned daughter has more hope of finding a rich white man to take care of her than a dark-skinned daughter.
The House That Will Not Stand was written by Marcus Gardley in 2014. It is a direct echo of The House of Bernarda Alba by Spanish playwright Federico Garcia Lorca who wrote it in 1936, about a stern, commanding mother with five daughters, who is in morning for her philandering husband. She wants to keep the daughters in the house to mourn for several years. They want to go out and be with their boyfriends, or whom they think are their boyfriends. It ends badly.
Marcus Gardley’s writing is dazzling in many parts, full of colourful turns of phrases of the southern women of the time. Emotions are high and often take on a sense of being one note especially with Beartrice. In other parts of the play, Gardley’s efforts to be poetic are obvious and that tended to bog down the play.
While director Philip Akin keeps the pace and emotions driving forward, I could not help get the sense that the hectoring was relentless and without nuance. Monica Parks as Beartrice is driven with determination. Sophia Walker as Makeda the servant desperate for her freedom, is the comic relief but imbues it with perception, a wonderful sense of the humour and the cadence of Makeda’s language. Terrific performance.
The Shaw Festival Presents:
Plays until Oct. 12, 2024.
Running time 2 hours and 25 minutes. (1 intermission)
The Orphan of Chao
Based on the Classical Chinese drama, The Great Revenge of the Zhao Orphan by Ji Junxiang
Directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster
Set and lighting by Jareth Li
Costumes by Christine Ting-Huan Urquhart
Original music and sound by Heidi Wai Yee Chan
Cast: Eponine Lee
Richard Lee
John Ng
Donna Soares
Jonathan Tan
Lindsay Wu
A stunning and stylish rendering of this ancient Chinese drama of court intrigue, inherited revenge and bracing theatricality. Beautifully directed by Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster.
The Story. In very general terms it’s the story of the fall and rise of the Chao family in the state of Jin, in 6th century BCE. (from the program): “Chao Tun, a minister in the state of Jin is unjustly accused and destroyed by his rival Tu-An Ku who is determined to eliminate the entire Chao Clan. An orphan from the house of Chao survives, however, and grows up to wreak revenge.”
The Production. While the production is only one hour, the story is complex with multiple twists and turns of fate. That said, director Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster ensures the story is clearly told in a pace that gets more and more gripping.
Language here is so interesting. Because I live on this side of the world I use theatrical language that is Eurocentric to describe a completely different kind of theatre with gestures and conventions that come from Chinese opera. To say the story unfolds in a hugely theatrical way, just seems inadequate. The melding of Heidi Wai Yee Chan’s original music played on what sound like original instruments and sound scape, mixed with the stylized movement and positioning of the body (almost dance) of Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster’s blocking, and the beautiful flow of the costumes of Christine Ting-Huan Urquhart, is to witness how no piece of the production is more important than another. It is all of a piece. Watching this production that pays such attention and respect to the intention and tradition of the theatre and opera from China is a revelation. You get a sense of what it must have been like in the 6th century—the vibrant coloured silks, what seems like a formal design for the various members of the ruling class and those not etc. The story is brought forward in a way to today with a modern black puff jacket, what look like parachute pants and boots, worn by a character of the Chao clan today.
Tu-An Ku is ruthless in his efforts to wipe out the Chao clan. Tu-An Ku is played by Jonathan Tan. He is stoical, watchful and his calmness makes him terrifying in his cold-blooded pursuit of killing anyone in his way. Eponine Lee plays Cheng Bo the member of the Chao clan that will get revenge for the murder of the family.
What a terrific experience it was to see The Orphan of Chao produced with such attention to the detail and history of the piece; to learn of its background; to get just a hint of this rich culture.
The Shaw Festival presents:
Running until Oct. 5, 2024.
Running time: 60 minutes (no intermission)
One Man, Two Guvnors
Written by Richard Bean
Based on the Servant of Two Masters by Carlo Goldoni
With songs by Grant Olding
Directed by Chris Abraham
Set and Costumes by Julie Fox
Lighting by Kimberly Purtell
Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne
Cast: Matt Alfano
Fiona Byrne
Peter Fernandes
Patrick Galligan
Martin Happer
Andrew Lawrie
Lawrence Libor
Allan Louis
Allison McCaughey
Andre Morin
Jade Repeta
Tom Rooney
Kiera Sangster
Graeme Somerville
Frantically hilarious.
The Story. Francis Henshall is always hungry. He spends most of his time looking for a meal. To get the money for the food, he seems to have lucked into two jobs. Both ‘guvnors’ (or bosses) are shady folks and Francis doesn’t want to annoy either of them. The guvnors don’t know about the other. They think Francis only works for them. Added to this is the twin sister of a shady character posing as her diseased brother to connect with her true love. It’s complicated.
The Production. One Man, Two Guvnors by Richard Bean is based on the commedia dell’arte play The Servant of Two Masters—a raucous type of Italian comedy beginning in the 16th century in Europe. The action is fast, physical, farcical and hilarious.
With One Man, Two Guvnors a Skiffle Band warms us up, sets the tone and gets us in the mood. The band plays homemade instruments for the most part; a washboard, a pole with strings stuck in a bucket and played like a double bass alongside a guitar etc. The band looks like a motley crew until one looks closely and sees Patrick Galligan, Martin Happer, Graeme Somerville, Lawrence Libor, Jade Repeta and Matt Alfano.
The play is set in Brighton in 1963. There are lots of places selling food. Francis (Peter Fernandes) can take his pick if only he had the money. Even when he gets hired by two guvnors, Francis is asking for food. Peter Fernandes as Francis plays the audience. He asks people if they have anything to eat. One woman offers him her sandwich. “What kind is it?” he asks. “Hummus” she replies. “Hummus!!!” he says in horror. “No wonder you wanna give it away.” Even Francis has his limits.
Director Chris Abraham is a master of comedy in his productions and he ramps it up to warp speed here, ably helped by Peter Fernandes as Francis. In a restaurant scene, both guvnors are there in their own private room, unbeknownst to each other, and so Francis has to flit from each room to the other bringing food, taking it away, bringing more food, plates etc. Peter Fernandes as Francis is brimming with comedic invention, timing and most important, seriousness. Fernandes plays the laughs seriously, as does the whole cast, which makes it all so hilarious.
Francis is sort of helped by Alfie (a comic genius in Matt Alfano) who is an aged, shaky, unsteady waiter, on his first day of work. Unsuspecting audience members are engaged; water is showered on characters; doors are slammed as characters appear from over there through other doors.
Laughter is the constant sound one hears in this buoyant, bracing, gut-sore production.
The Shaw Festival presents:
Plays until Oct. 13, 2024.
Running time: 2 hours, 35 minutes. (1 intermission)
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