Search: Dark Heart

Live and in person at Here for Now Theatre, Stratford Perth Museum, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Aug. 16, 2024.

www.herefornowtheatre.com

Written by Deirdre Kinahan

Directed by Brenda Bazinet

Set by Fiona Mongillo

Sound by Dhanish Qumar Chinniah

Cast: Rosemary Dunsmore

Robert Gerow

Devastating, compelling, beautifully written and wonderfully acted and directed.

The Story. From the programme notes: “There’s a new man in Máire’s life. But some people aren’t happy. On the morning of her 67^th birthday, Máire sits up in bed enjoying a cigarette. There is a man downstairs. She is blooming.”

The man downstairs is Martin. He’s young enough to be Máire’s son. She met him at Church. He’s a devout young man. Máire and Martin hit it off. He begins doing odd jobs for her at her home: fixing things, cutting the grass. They developed a close rapport and they went to bed together on her birthday. Máire’s son Mel arrives to tell her that he’s done some checking and Martin is not who he says he is.

The Production. Fiona Mongillo’s set is carefully assembled by a young man played by Robert Gerow. We aren’t sure who he is at the moment, but he is almost reverential in his putting the set pieces together around the space. There is a murphy bed that is brought down from the wall, a table, a ‘cupboard’ of sorts, and other aspects of Máire’s bedroom are established.

Máire (Rosemary Dunsmore) sits up in bed, reaching for a cigarette (that was started by the young man assembling the set). She is smiling broadly at the revery of her night of passion with Martin. He has awakened feelings in her that she never thought possible. One could almost feel the tingle of sexual satisfaction on the skin of Máire’ because of the buoyant way that Rosemary Dunsmore plays her. Máire’ revels in the memory of the sex with Martin, the night before. One  feels like a voyeur observing her luxuriating in the memory. Rosemary Dunsmore’s performance here is intoxicating.

But from such euphoria comes the memories of times gone by that were not so happy. Máire was married to Colm for years, happily at the beginning. He was a caring husband, at the beginning. They had children together. He died about a year before and Máire was lost, searching for meaning. We assume she found solace in the Church and in Jesus, whom she always talked to. And before that there were the truly dark days.

When Máire was about nine years old her father got a job in England. (The play takes place in Ireland). Her father could not take her with him so he gave her to the Catholic Church to take care of her and that meant putting her to work in one of the laundries. If one knows what that is, one sucks air at the horror that little kid must have endured.

The Catholic Church ran what were called “The Magdalene Laundries,” places where pregnant unmarried women were dumped by their families, boyfriends etc. because of the embarrassment of being in the family way. The women were put to work doing the laundry using abrasive (lye soap) and no rubber gloves. When the women came to term their babies were taken away from them and put up for adoption. They never saw them again. And because of the stigma they didn’t seem to leave the laundry, except in a few cases, Máire being one of them.  

Máire describes it as “that place without mercy.” The nuns were abusive and cruel. It seemed to be a place without forgiveness. Rosemary Dunsmore’s performance went from the glow of sexual release to the horrible memories of the laundries. Her face was contorted because of the debilitating memories of what she endured as a kid and for years. Rosemary Dunsmore took you delicately to the edge of your seat and held you there, squeezing your heart for so many reasons, with this nuanced, gripping, shattering performance.

We never see Martin. We see Mel, played by Robert Gerow. Mel is Máire’s son. He is in a happy gay marriage, something Máire cannot quite understand in this modern Ireland. He wants the best for his mother, but he is frustrated because of Máire’s reluctance to believe him about Martin. Of course, Máire does not want to know the truth. Martin has given her some rare pleasure and does not want to believe he is somebody other than who he says he is.

Robert Gerow as Mel is caring, determined and urgent in his need to convince Máire that Martin is not who he says he is. Robert Gerow proves very capable of rising to the occasion of playing with Rosemary Dunsmore. He’s an actor to watch.

Brenda Bazinet has directed The Saviour withattention to the details of the story, with creativity, sensitivity and without a shred of sentimentality. She is not afraid of bringing out all the brutality of the story with simplicity and understatement. The result is resounding.

Comment. Deirdre Kinahan is one of Ireland’s major contemporary playwrights. She writes about issues that affect modern Ireland as well as the issues that have clouded its past. She is a masterful, poetic writer, with a way with a phrase that just dazzles. All of that is clear in The Saviour.

Here for Now Theatre presents:

Playing until Aug. 16, 2024.

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

www.herefornowtheatre.com

{ 0 comments }

Live and in person at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Playing until the fall.

www.shawfest.com

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)

www.shawfest.com

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)

www.shawfest.com

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 6^th 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 6^th 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)

www.shawfest.com

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 16^th 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)

www.shawfest.com

{ 2 comments }

Live and in person at the Festival Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Plays until Oct. 26, 2024.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by Seana McKenna

Set and costumes by Christina Poddubiuk

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Composer, Paul Shildon

Sound by Verne Good

Choreographer, Stephanie Graham

Cast:  David Collins

Laura Condlln

Sarah Dodd

Austin Eckert

Deborah Hay

Jessica B. Hill

Andrew Iles

Tarique Lewis

Vanessa Sears

André Sills

Emilio Vieira

Scott Wentworth

Rylan Wilkie

And a chorus

A beautiful production, both acted and directed, that illuminates love in its many forms.

The Story. Twelfth Night is a play about love in many guises. It starts with Duke Orsino of Illyria who is smitten with the Countess Olivia. But she spurns his many entreaties because she is in mourning for her brother’s death. She has sworn off men for seven years!

In the meantime, there has been a storm that has separated twins, Viola and her brother Sebastian. She thinks he’s dead. He’s not…separately they wash ashore on Illyria.

Viola decides to dress as a man (for protection) and go to work for the Duke as his page named Cesario. But instantly, she falls secretly in love with him. Orsino uses Cesario to curry the favour of Olivia. And as luck would have it Olivia is smitten with Cesario too.

Sebastian also appears to complicate matters further. So now we have mistaken identity with Cesario spurning the advances of Olivia, which changes when Sebastian enters the scene.

There is also Malvolio who works for Olivia. Malvolio is the officious head of Olivia’s household and is secretly smitten with Olivia. Other members of Olivia’s household tend to make fun of Malvolio. So there is lots going on in this comedy with dark touches. 

Twelfth Night is a wonderful, funny, bitter-sweet play of unrequited and requited love, mistaken identity and yearning.

The Production. Designer Christina Poddubiuk has created a spare and elegant design for this production, (set in 1967) where a few round rock-like props etc. at the bottom of the stairs suggest the tasteful richness of both Duke Orsino’s and the Countess Olivia’s houses. A mobile that looks like various sails is suspended above the stage, echoing the sailing-storm motif at the beginning of the production.

Poddubiuk’s costumes beautifully illuminate the characters, their social standing and their elegance. Duke Orsino (André Sills) wears casual but tasteful pastel shirts, jackets and pants. André Sills plays Orsino as a man comfortable in his style. He’s briming with emotion, his love for Olivia (a regal Vanessa Sears) and his yearning to win her over. He is giddy when he hears of her devotion to her dead brother—in mourning for seven years which means she’s giving up men and their dalliances. There is delicious confusion from Orsino when he develops a closeness to his page Cesario (Viola in disguise, with Jessica B. Hill playing him). The furtive looks to Cesario, Cesario’s secret looks back to the Duke, are beautifully orchestrated by director Seana McKenna who directs with care and supreme intelligence.

Seana McKenna does something I’ve never seen a director do with Twelfth Night—she visually establishes the love and affection that Viola and Sebastian (Austin Eckert) have for one another by having both brother and sister appear on the boat (before the storm that will separate them). They good naturedly josh one another (a gentle, joking tap on the arm) and reveal their closeness in affection. Then with a thunderclap there is a startled reaction when they realize they will be separated and they will think the other has drowned. It’s such a simple bit of theatrical business, but it’s resounding in establishing the huge emotional cost it is for Viola to think she has lost her brother. This makes Viola emotionally fragile and desperate to move forward, to offer her services as a page to the Duke.

Jessica B. Hill is a gracious, graceful Viola. She speaks the dialogue with assurance and confidence. As Cesario, Jessica B. Hill is a revelation. She wears a trim man’s blue suit, vest and tie and a short, curly wig to hide her long hair. The result is the understated essence of a young, courtly man who can charm both a Duke and a Countess who think this is a man. Jessica B. Hill doesn’t force the masculinity of Cesario, rather she underplays it. A leg placed just so and a hand in the pants pocket is the subtlest relaxed pose of a young man. And there is such yearning and longing in her love for the Duke, certainly since she must suppress any overt show of it.

While the Countess is subdued in her mourning (wearing all black, initially, until she sees and is smitten by Cesario), her household is raucous. Her drunken uncle Sir Toby Belch (an irreverent Scott Wentworth) is trying to gull money from his dim-witted friend Sir Andrew Aguecheek, played with great humour by Rylan Wilkie because of Sir Andrew’s cluelessness. Joining them in irreverence is Sarah Dodd as Maria, a saucy, mischievous confident to Olivia, but in cahoots with Sir Toby.  The character that Sir Toby, Sir Andrew and Maria plot to bedevil is Olivia’s steward, Malvolio, usually played as a man, but here played by Laura Condlln who is simply brilliant.

Malvolio is a repressed, officious soul. She is dressed in a black skirt and jacket that is fitted and buttoned to the neck. She wears black, flat shoes. Her facial expression is pinched and disdainful of everything around her. Her arms are tight to her body. When she makes notes of transgressions, it’s in a little black book so you can imagine how small and tight her handwriting is. Everything in this performance screams ‘repressed.’ So that when Malvolio finds a letter to her thinking it’s a love letter from Olivia—when it really is a trick of Maria, Sir Toby and Sir Andrew–Malvolio’s body language becomes free, expansive and joyful. It’s both funny and heartbreaking.

Offering clownish wisdom and song to both Orsino’s and Olivia’s houses, is Feste a clown and musician, played as a free-spirited hippy by Deborah Hay. Her voice is pure and wistful and her comic timing is impeccable.

Comment. Seana McKenna has beautifully illuminated the heart and soul of the play, never tipping it too much into comedy and sacrificing the ache of it, but also balancing both the comedy and the heartache in equal measure.  I loved this production.

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Oct. 26, 2024.

Running Time: 3 hours approx. (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

{ 2 comments }

Live and in person at the Marilyn & Charles Baillie Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Created by Quote Unquote Collective commissioned by BroadStage, Santa Monica, in association with Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, presented by Canadian Stage.  Playing until February 25, 2024.

www.canadianstage.com

Book by Amy Nostbakken and Nora Sadava

Music and lyrics by Amy Nostbakken

Story by Akosua Amo-Adem

Vicky Araico

Seiko Nakazawa

Amy Nostbakken

Norah Sadava

Stephanie Sourial

Jokes by Mónica Garrido Huerta

Director, Amy Nostbakken

Choreographer, Orian Michaeli

Music director, Alex Samaras

Set by Lorenzo Savoini and Michelle Tracey

Costumes by Christine Ting-Huan Urquhart

Lighting by Andre du Toit

Addition sound design and sound consultant, Matt Smith

Projection designer, potatoCakes_digital

Cast: Joema Frith

Mónica Garrido Huerta

Germaine Konji

Norah Sadava

Alex Samaras

Fiona Sauder

Takako Segawa

Anika Venkatesh

Although earnest and well-intentioned, Universal Child Care is a relentless bombardment of data and lamenting stories passing themselves off as a concert and/or a theatrical event and it’s neither.

Amy Nosbakken and Norah Sadava who comprise Quote Unquote Collective, are certainly gifted theatre creators as exemplified by their award-winning play Mouthpiece about coping with death, finding one’s voice and dealing with who you are. It played internationally and was celebrated everywhere it played.

What then to make of Universal Child Care? Amy Nosbakken and Norah Sadava have created a show that shines a light on how four of the richest countries in the world–Japan, the United Kingdom (UK), the United States and Canada–deal with health care. In all cases it’s dire.

In Japan Takako Segawa plays a dancer who is married and therefore is not eligible for child care. She ponders divorce but needs to dance to feed her art but it doesn’t pay enough for child care. A vicious circle.

In the UK a lesbian couple (musicians/singers) have a child and want another one but can’t afford to live in London if that happens. They would have to move and that does not guarantee child care. A vicious circle.

In the US a loving couple have a baby and the husband works two jobs and it’s not enough money to pay for child care. A vicious circle.

In Canada a woman is on maternity leave, her husband works, and she finds out that the person taking over her maternity leave will be doing her job permanently. She has lost her job. There is either not enough money for child care or there is no space in a day care facility for another child and the wait time for a space is years. A vicious circle.

The despairing stories of the various couples are depressing. For 90 minutes we are bombarded with statistics and data projected onto the screened walls of the two levelled structure of the set, each painting a darker story than the last. In one case we are told 16% of the people on maternity leave will lose their jobs; 4% will file an appeal. Are we to assume that 16% of the people on maternity leave that lose their jobs work for unethical bosses with little regard for the law? Is that wishful thinking? Little information is offered.

Lorenzo Savoini and Michelle Tracey have designed this two leveled structure that is divided into four sections, each section representing a couple’s dwelling. There are no stairs joining the two levels. One wonders how the hard-working actors manage to go from the stage to the upper level of the set. The actors scurry up and down that structure by ladders affixed to the outside walls of the structure. It seems a perverse way of providing an actor with a 90 minute-workout as well as a performance, but I digress.

A stream of information of the cost of child care and other expenses in the US is projected so fast on the set one can’t register it properly. Fiona Sauder playing one of the UK couple sings a dense rap song so deliberately quickly, itemizing the many and various problems of child care, one had trouble processing the torrent of information. Is that the point?

The US character played by Joema Frith recites a poem to parenthood that is poignant, moving, beautifully spoken with passion and it was electrifying—at last—something one could consider, ponder properly and appreciate. But then the character receives a letter (about a job???) that again is projected in a scroll on the uneven walls of the set that the result is unreadable. Is that the point, that we are not supposed to know what the letter said—at least from my seat? Frustrating.  

Amy Nostbakken has directed this show that involves songs (which she wrote), choreography (Orian Michaeli), a cast that sings background sounds when others characters are talking, and generally a sense that it’s all a deliberate swirl of activity to create the breathless sense of losing one’s grip. Really?

The always compelling Germaine Konji begins the show by re-enacting giving birth in the most compelling scene of pain, screaming and doubled-over agony only to have relief when she ‘delivers’ a glowing orb of light that is gently passed from character to character, scene to scene (clever).

Mónica Garrido Huerta plays an undocumented immigrant who does stand-up and acts as the emcee of the evening, delivering jokes that are not funny and generally don’t land because they are overplayed.

One can be caught up in the manipulative emotion of these characters and their situations, but that does not translate into a viable theatrical endeavor. Aside from being a polemic about the failed social services in four rich countries, what is the point of this sprawling, unfocused bombardment of facts and data? It’s not a concert of compelling songs or a play with dramatic tension. Frustrating.

Comment. The irony has not escaped me that Universal Child Care is playing at a 144 seat subsidized theatre in which the top ticket price is $99 and the cheapest seat is $29 in the last row of the balcony, and is being seen by an audience in which child care is not an issue. It’s heartening to know that the companies that are co-producing the production (Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre, the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund and Canadian Stage) are providing child care for the cast while they rehearsed and perform the show. Now if they can also offer the same child care to the audience who needs it, they might attract the next generation of theatre goers.

Created by Quote Unquote Collective commissioned by BroadStage, Santa Monica, in association with Nightwood Theatre, Why Not Theatre and the National Arts Centre’s National Creation Fund, presented by Canadian Stage.  

Plays until Feb. 25, 2024

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.canadianstage.com

NOTE: Respectful comments are accepted on this site as long as they are accompanied by a verifiable name and a verifiable e-mail address. Posts that are slanderous, libelous or personally derogatory will not be approved.

{ 0 comments }

Live and in person at the Streetcar Crowsnest, Toronto. A Nowadays Theatre Production in association with Crow’s Theatre.  Playing until March 3, 2024.

www.crowstheatre.com

Written and directed by Mohammad Yaghoubi

 Set by Amin Shirazi

Lighting by David DeGrow

Sound by Sina Shoaie

Photographer and videographer, Ali Mostolizadeh

Cast: Parya Heravi

Aida Keykhaii

Amir Maghami

Amir Zavosh

Mohammad Yaghoubi illuminates life in Iran and Canada from the point of view of Homa who embraces her freedom in Canada to express herself.

The Story. Homa is a stylish woman who emigrated from Iran to Canada. We get the sense from what she says that she found Iran oppressive to women and free speech. She revels in her life in Canada. She produces a podcast in which she muses on politics, ethics, freedom of speech etc.

Her adult son, Pendar lives with her but there is a complication. Pendar has a girlfriend, Fatemeh, who has a pet dog.

Fatemeh’s father is visiting from Iran and is strict about his culture and religion and feels the dog is unclean.  So the dog is living with Homa and Pendar, temporarily. Homa is not happy about this since she walks the dog, but she wants to do right for her son.

Fatemeh invites Homa and Pendar for a meal to meet her father. Homa and Pendar spend some time discussing what she should wear. Homa knows that Fatemeh’s father will want her to wear the hijab and she objects to Pendar, but eventually reaches a compromise after much discussion. When Homa is at Fatemeh’s place, her father doesn’t look at Homa because she is a woman. But Homa looks at him and thinks there is something familiar about him. And so a mystery is established about the father. The play explores that and lots of other ideas.  

The Production.  Writer-director Mohammad Yaghoubi is from Iran and came to Canada in 2015. I’ve been lucky to see his earlier plays: Winter of 88 and Heart of a Dog. Those plays reflected life in Iran. With Earworm he has opened up his focus to include life in Canada and Iran and thus broaden his audience reach. Earworm has some performances in Farsi with English surtitles, and most other performances are in English with the occasional Farsi translation. The audience is never disadvantaged by not knowing what is being said or read. Mohammad Yaghoubi takes care of his audiences. Scenes are titled and the name is projected in English and Farsi on the screened back wall of Amin Shirazi’s stylish set.

In fact, Mohammad Yagoubi wanted to open up his play to include a broader audience and not just Iranians, so all audiences are welcome to experience a voice who writes about a world we might not be familiar with.

The first Act has a lot of banter between Homa, beautifully played by Aida Keykhaii (Fertility Slippers, Heart of a Dog, Winter of 88 and Swim Team, this last as a director) and Pendar (Amir Maghami) who is always fiddling with his cell phone. He is devoted to his girlfriend Fatemeh (Parya Heravi)—they are always texting.

We also find out that Homa is invited with Pendar to Fatemeh’s apartment for dinner to meet her father. This will be tricky. Homa is a modern woman who dresses like she pleases. She knows that Fatemeh’s father is traditional in his ways and how he expects women to dress, i.e. to wear the hijab. She decides on a compromise but getting there is rather funny.

Homa is a take charge woman. She is proud of her uncompromising podcasts and the people who write her, usually from Iran, are grateful for her honesty.

At times Homa directly addresses the audience for comment. Homa believes that in Canada she can express her opinion and not lose her job. She asks the audience what they think. We have seen a lot of upheaval in our world of late, so the spread of opinions is interesting.

Act II is takes place in Fatemeh’s apartment where we meet her father, Mohammad, played by Amir Zavosh, who is quiet speaking and hardly looks at Homa because she is a woman. Homa stares at him with a puzzled look on her face. Aida Keykhaii as Homa is watchful, perhaps a bit agitated. He seems familiar but she can’t place him until she does.

Earworm has echoes in it of Death and the Maiden, Ariel Dorfman’s Chilean drama about a man who brings home a good Samaritan one night who helped him when his car breaks down. The man’s wife hears them come in and recognizes the Samaritan’s voice, which conjures all sorts of memories for her, all terrible.

Playwright Mohammad Yaghoubi shines a light on Iran, its rigidity in how differently women are treated from men. The culture is rich and that’s illuminated too. In Earworm we also see the very dark side of what Homa left behind when she came to Canada and that is revealed slowly but relentlessly.

And in a truly theatrical turn, Mohammad Yaghoubi provides two endings to the play, and when you see the play, you see why. I thought that was fascinating. He makes one look at theatre in a different light and perspective rather than what we think a play should be and how it should be structured.

I love being unbalanced by a gifted playwright and director—and in this instance I didn’t mind that Mohammad Yaghoubi is both the writer and director here because he pulls it off beautifully.

A Nowadays Theate Production in association with Crow’s Theatre presents:

Plays until March 3, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

NOTE: Respectful comments are accepted on this site as long as they are accompanied by a verifiable name and a verifiable e-mail address. Posts that are slanderous, libelous or personally derogatory will not be approved.

{ 0 comments }

Live and in person at the Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto. Produced by Coal Mine Theatre. Playing until March 3, 2024.

www.coalminetheatre.com

Composed by Ted Dykstra

Libretto by Steven Mayoff

Directed by Peter Hinton Davis

Musical director, Bob Foster

Choreographer, Kiera Sangster

Set and costumes by Scott Penner

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Sound by Tim Lindsay

Cast: Max Borowski

Saccha Dennis

Kaden Forsberg

Allan Louis

Allister MacDonald

Jacob MacInnis

SATE

Carly Street

Kelsey Verzotti

Band: Piano, Bob Foster

Guitar, Percussion, Haneul Yi

Bass, Kat McLevey

Seductive, provocative and disruptive, with a compelling performance by Jacob MacInnis as Dion.

The Story. The story is based on The Bacchae by Euripides. Dionysus is the God of wine, intoxication, sensual pleasure, you name it. In this case, the name is Dion (they/them), a non-binary, self-proclaimed Demi-God). The god Zeus was their father and the mortal Semele was their mother. She died in childbirth. Dion has come to lead the people (mainly women) of a city-state (Thebes) “somewhere in time,” into the hills to drink intoxicants, dance naked and enjoy a state of ecstasy. They have ulterior motives for all this.

Pentheus, the hot-headed, right-wing leader of this city-state, arrives back from being away to learn of this troubling situation. Pentheus’ mother Agave is one of the runaways, as is his uncle Cadmus. Agave has issues with her father Cadmus because he loved her dead sister Semele more than he loved Agave and that’s left her bitter and angry. Cadmus in the meantime is in deep mourning for his dead daughter.

Pentheus decides to find Dion in the hills and face them with the truth—that Semele was wanton and not a ‘bride’ of Zeus; that Dion is human and not at all God-like. Dion seeks and gets their revenge on Pentheus for such a slander.

The Production and Comment. Composer Ted Dykstra and librettist, Steven Mayoff have created a sung-through rock opera based on Dionysus, or Dion for short. And while it’s based on a Greek myth, DION is a theatrical creation for our modern times.

Scott Penner has created an evocative set. The audience sits on either side of a red strip playing area that runs the length of the space. At either end is a pedestal on which is either a statue of a naked man or a naked woman, draped with a swath of material, looking into a mirror. There are two chairs at either end facing the playing area. Two members of the chorus sit quietly in the chairs at either end, as the audience files in. Again, Scott Penner has designed costumes that are seductive—bare-midriffs, fishnet stockings, boots, pants with wild phrases on them: “EVOE,” “divinity,” “sex,” etc. They are also witty. I note crowns peppered in the material of one member of the chorus that is reminiscent of Jean-Michel Basquiat’s crowns in his artwork. The crowns seem like a witty choice to include for a follower of the equally iconoclastic, Dion.

Tiresias enters, played by the exquisite SATE, and sings “The Word Evoe.” It’s an archaic word that means “the exclamation of Bacchic frenzy.” Ted Dykstra’s music up-ends our expectations of a rousing rock opera opening. The music is intoxicatingly melodic and understated. Steven Mayoff’s lyrics are crisply, expressively sung by SATE as the blind Tiresias. Tiresias sings that Evoe can mean joy or pain and many other things. “The Word Is Evoe” is a perfect song for a world that has gone insane. One can imagine that Evoe is part of the word “devotion” at its most crazed intensity. The song gently brings the audience into the dark world of director Peter Hinton-Davis’s vision for the piece.

Dykstra’s music is melodic and throbbing like a heart-beat or like sexual panting. Steven Mayoff’s libretto is bristling with intelligence, wit and envisions the wild, almost out of control world the characters and we live in.     

Dion (a mesmerizing Jacob MacInnis) is a supreme influencer of the hedonistic life, with ulterior motives of revenge. Through manipulation, seductive cajoling and a careful supplying of intoxicants, Jacob MacInnis as Dion ‘gently’ addles the brains of their followers to do their bidding. It’s more than fandom for rock stars. It’s more insidious than that.  MacInnis is watchful—their deep-set eyes pierce into the abyss and into the troubled soul of any doubter. Each song is sung in a clear, pure voice. The movement is never rushed—the hold they have on their followers is tight. It’s a mesmerizing performance of an artist with compelling power.

On the other hand, Pentheus, as played by Allister MacDonald, is an explosion of constant rage. Pentheus has the makings of a perfect dictator as energetically portrayed by Allister MacDonald. He has nothing good to say about those who work for him. He is a master of technology and spews lies and invective through his texts and his bombastic speech. He is all threats and swagger. He is easy pray for Dion.

Agave (Carly Street) and Cadmus (Allan Louis) are the wounded souls at the other end of the spectrum. Agave pines to be loved by her father Cadmus. Carly Street plays Agave with a ground-down grace; in this world she is lost and angry at her father. Allan Louis first appears as Cadmus, fastidiously dressed in a tailored suit and gleamingly shined shoes. When they both meet as part of Dion’s followers their decorum has been shed and they are in the throws of the intoxicating revere. It’s then that they are able forget their rage and grief and forge a new respect, that is until Dion has one last trick to play.

Kiera Sangster has choreographed the piece with a lively sexuality involving the Chorus and the various participants. Bonnie Beecher’s lighting is vivid. At times cones of light encase both Dion at one end of the space and Pentheus at the other. For Dion it’s empowering. For Pentheus it seems confining. There is a lot of impressive work done by the Chorus who flip and twirl florescent rods of changing light.

The confining and hedonistic world of DION is beautifully rendered in Peter Hinton-Davis’ vision of this world. Sordid? Intoxicating? Mesmerizing? It’s all of them.

Coal Mine Theatre presents:

Plays until March 3, 2024.

Running time: 70 minutes (no intermission).

www.coalminetheatre.com

NOTE: Respectful comments are accepted on this site as long as they are accompanied by a verifiable name and a verifiable e-mail address. Posts that are slanderous, libelous or personally derogatory will not be approved.

{ 1 comment }

Live and in person, presented by Other Hearts in association with VideoCabaret, at VideoCabaret, 10 Busy Street, Toronto, Ont. Plays until Jan 21, 2024.

https://quartet.brownpapertickets.com

Written by Heiner Muller

Translated by Marc Von Henning

Directed by Harri Thomas

Set and costumes by Eija Loponen Stephenson

Cast: Sebastian Marziali

Silvae Mercedes

Bold, challenging, raw and creative.

I can’t remember another time when the audience was as well taken care of as Other Hearts Collective takes care of their audience for Quartet. We are warmly greeted at the door and our name is checked off a list. We can read the copy of the programme that is laid out on a table or we can take a photo of the QR code and download it to our device. We are told when we will be allowed into the theatre and when the show will start after that and how long the performance is and there is no intermission. There are content warnings that are delivered carefully: Explicit Images, simulated sex and kink, violent and sexually explicit language, simulated blood, flashing lights, references to death/sickness/suicide. Pornography is mentioned. We are invited to explore the set by Eija Loponen Stephenson because it’s also an art instillation. The audience knows exactly what they are to see. No one has blundered here by mistake looking for 42^nd Street.

​Quartet is a play written in 1980 by Heiner Muller and inspired by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Les Liasons Dangereuses (first published in 1782). As the play information for Quarter states: “in a space that is equal parts “a drawing room before the French Revolution/ an air raid shelter after WWIII, two people remain: the Marquise de Merteuil (M) and the Vicomte de Valmont (V).”

In Les Liaisons Dangereuses the Marquise de Merteuil and the Vicomte de Valmont are two amoral lovers-turned-rivals who amuse themselves by ruining others through sex and manipulative games and who ultimately destroy each other.

The audience sits on either side of the playing space. The whole room is ‘curated’/designed with video screens around the room so the audience can always see what is being live streamed. There are video cameras, sound machines and recording devices that the actors operate. Opaque plastic sheets encase the room, and sometimes act as clever costumes. There are mannequins, some with dildoes attached, in various spaces. S & M gear is arranged around the room. An old-fashioned bath tub filled with swaths of plastic sheeting is at one end of the room. Stuff to observe and look at are scattered around the space.

When the production starts, the plastic sheeting in the tub is rustled, moves and then reveals Merteuil (Silvae Mercedes-she/they). She breathes with the aid of an oxygen mask attached by a tube to a canister. She slowly gets out of the tub—she wears a flimsy ‘negligée’ revealing she wears panties but is topless. She slowly walks to a side of the space, hauling her canister after her, where she binds her bare breasts with lengths of narrow material that she wraps around her.

When she returns to the tub and settles into it, it seems as if she deliberately removes the oxygen mask and gasps for air. At this moment Valmont (Sebastian Marziali – they/them)) bursts into the room (taking off their coat) and tends to the gasping Merteuil by putting on her oxygen mask, saving her.

Valmont dressed as Merteuil is—briefs and there is binding with the same narrow strips of material around their upper body but under their bare pecs. What follows are games of seduction, manipulation, flirtation, role-playing and reversal role-playing in which both switch roles, or voice other characters.  Silvae Mercedes as Merteuil and Sebastian Marziali as Valmont, are measured and tempered in their delivery, each toying with the other, each getting an upper hand only to loose it subtly later.

By having both characters dress the same director Harri Thomas is exploring gender-fluidity. One wonders of Merteuil and Valmont are the same person from different points of view and the views get blurred. That adds a depth of inquiry to a play that is challenging on its own.

Playwright Heiner Mueller’s language, with thanks to translator Marc Von Henning, is poetic, esoteric, dense, obtuse, obscure and fascinating.   The result is a kinky, pornographic, raunchy look into a dark world of sexual games-playing, that occasionally seems a bit boring with the effort to be provocative.

What is never in question is director Harri Thomas’s inventive, creative mind to establish startling images (along with designer Eija Loponen Stephenson) that are beautiful and arresting. Not for all tastes, but thought-provoking all the same.

Other Hearts in association with VideoCabaret present:

Plays until Jan. 21, 2024.

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes (no intermission)

https://quartet.brownpapertickets.com

{ 0 comments }

Heads up for the Week of Jan. 15-21, 2024

Jan. 15-28, 2024.

Migraaants

Theatre Passe Muraille

By Matei Visniec

Translated by Nick Awde

Directed by Siavash Shabanpour

In Matei Visniec’s dark comedy Migraaaants, we journey with asylum seekers from war and unrest to an over-crowded boat, to an uncertain welcome in an unknown land. 

The mosaic of stories in Migraaaants leads us through the many facets of a global crisis: not only the terrifying journeys of those in flight but the machinations of deadly chaos shaped by political forces. 

TICKETS ON SALE NOW

https://ca.patronbase.com/_TheatrePasseMuraille/Productions/MIG/Performances

Jan 15- 21, 2024

Quartet

At VideoCabaret, 10 Busy Street, Toronto, Ont.

By Heiner Muller

Directed by Harri Thomas

A play by: Heiner Muller Translated by: Marc Von Henning

BUY TICKETS

A play by: Heiner Muller
Translated by: Marc Von Henning

An Other Hearts production
in association with VideoCabaret

Who will you be, and who will you be with, after the end?

​Quartet is a play written by Heiner Muller, inspired by Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’ Liasons Dangereuse. In a space that is equal parts “a drawing room before the French Revolution/ an air raid shelter after WWIII”, two people remain: the Marquise de Merteuil (M) and the Vicomte de Valmont (V).  

Jan. 18-28, 2024

The Shadow Whose Prey The Hunger Becomes.

Berkeley Street Theatre/Canadian Stage

A Back to Back Theatre production from Australia presented by Canadian Stage

When AI takes over from human intelligence, how will people be treated?

Weaving a narrative through human rights, sexual politics, and the rise of artificial intelligence, The Shadow Whose Prey the Hunter Becomes is a sly theatrical revelation reminding us that none of us are self-sufficient and all of us are responsible for the future.

Written and performed by neuro-divergent actors, this is a funny and beautiful play unlike anything else that will be seen on stage.

All performances will be presented with surtitles. 

Jan. 18-21, 2024

Greenhouse Festival

Tarragon Theatre

This is a Tarragon Theatre Festival of works-in-development, instillations, and collectives. This is the Festival’s second year. Last year the entire Tarragon Theatre building was chockablock with theatre activity. This year is packed with plays, installations, works from collectives all of which will prick your imagination. Check the website for tickets, deals, timetables and schedules.

www.tarragontheatre.com

{ 0 comments }

This production played at Theatre Passe Muraille in 2018. I bears reprinting because of the controversy regarding its recent cancellation at the Belfry Theatre, Victoria, BC as of Jan. 2/24. The play is important because of its HUMANITY, something we seem to have forgotten in these fraught times.

Review: THE RUNNER

by LYNN on DECEMBER 3, 2018[EDIT]

in THE PASSIONATE PLAYGOER

At Theatre Passe Muraille, Mainspace, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Christopher Morris

Directed by Daniel Brooks

Set and costumes by Gillian Gallow

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Composer and sound design by Alexander MacSween

Cast: Gord Rand

A beautiful, gripping production of a compelling story about a man who just wanted to do good.

The Story. Jacob is an orthodox Jew who is single, lives with his mother and is a volunteer paramedic with Z.A.K.A, a group that goes around Israel and internationally collecting the body parts, skin and blood of Jews involved in terrorist attacks. He has no other life/job but this one and he takes it very seriously. (Note traditionally Jews must be buried intact, hence the need to collect the body parts from a terrorist attack etc. for a proper burial.)

One day he comes upon an Israeli soldier lying dead in the road and near him is a young Arab woman who has been shot in the back. She is still alive and Jacob goes to her to try and save her life. He is reprimanded by the others in his group and by his superior for helping the Arab who they assume killed the soldier. Jacob can’t assume anything because he wasn’t there. All he saw was a woman in need of help and since he took an oath to “do no harm” he helped her. He has been taking criticism and enduring the bad treatment of his co-workers, his mother and his righteous brother. All of this leaves him conflicted about what he should have done and knowing he did right.

 The Production. Daniel Brooks directs this production with his usual flair creating vivid images, stark lighting (thank you Bonnie Beecher) and directs a performance of Gord Rand as Jacob that is full of generosity, heart, air-gulping life, confusion, determination and compassion. There is such a firm but gentle hand in the direction; the orchestration of when to run, walk, speed up and shade the dialogue.

Because Jacob must be ready at a moment’s notice to rush to an incident, accident, terrorist attack, Jacob is always rushing. To create this sense of constant movement Gord Rand as Jacob does the whole play on a narrow, long strip of the stage that juts out into the space in front of the audience. It is in fact a treadmill. Beams of light from Bonnie Beecher’s stark design pour down on him. Sometimes he runs but it’s not enough to stop him being sucked into the black of upstage. Very effective image, a voice coming from the dark void upstage.

Often he is running as the treadmill speeds up. He talks urgently of what he has discovered. He talks with speed, purpose and determination of giving the Arab woman CPR and mouth to mouth resuscitation to keep her alive.

There are also moments when the treadmill slows and Jacob walks and ponders the things he has encountered and remembers. Moments in his life. He notes that his mother always has dinner ready for him but never knows if he will be home to eat it. She wants him to get married. She hasn’t twigged to the fact that that won’t happen.

There are moments when there is a loud bang sound; Jacob is on the ground and thinks he’s wet. He gets up confused about what has happened. He continues walking. His righteous brother has a job and is prosperous and has contempt for Jacob because Jacob does not have a job; he doesn’t pay taxes; he lives with their mother. In a blistering speech Jacob’s brother feels Jacob he is useless and should go back to London to live and get a job. His brother has disgust for his brother for saving the Arab girl and has contempt for all Arabs. Jacob asks his brother how he can live there under such circumstances and Jacob said his brother yelled: “BECAUSE IT’S MINE!” It’s a particularly chilling moment in a production full of them.

Gord Rand gives a towering performance as Jacob. Jacob is thoughtful, fastidious in a way, desperate to pass on good will to his fellow Jews and towards others, There is such detail, from trying to keep his yarmulke on his head, to his adjusting his glasses up on his nose with his finger,  Of course there is stamina, energy and a sense of exhaustion as Rand runs and walks for the whole hour of this important show. It’s not exhausting for the audience, interestingly enough. It’s the message that writer Christopher Morris wants us to hear and what we realize happens at the end that leaves us emotionally drained.

Jacob sees the negative attitudes around him. He knows in his heart he did right for saving the Arab girl. He is a mensch. And while we know he is kind he laments that that is a rare emotion with his fellow Jews? Volunteers? He does find kindness in the most unexpected place and while the situation there in Israel seems so hopeless that moment of kindness leads one to be optimistic.

Comment. I read somewhere that the basis of Judaism is that it is ‘life-affirming, man-revering.” That is embodied in every single thing that Jacob does in his life. He wants to save lives, no matter whose life it is: Arab, Jew, Palestinian. A life is a life. “Do no harm.”

Christopher Morris has written a compact, taut play that depicts in Jacob’s clear, pristine dialogue the history of the Jews coming to this rocky land with no oil or resources because it was promised to them. Through Jacob we glean the animosity of Jew against Jew and the thorny relationship with the Arabs.

Morris has created in Jacob a generous, open-hearted, gentle man who is searching to do good, to be scrupulous in that search. He is mindful of the explosive nature of his surroundings and tries to hold on to his humanity and find it in others. It’s a measured look at a situation that can be so lopsided. It’s an emotional exhausting,  eye-opening, gripping piece of theatre and I did what I usually do when I see something as moving as this about a troubling subject: I sobbed all the way to the car.

A Human Cargo Theatre Production with the support of Theatre Passe Muraille.

Opened: Nov. 10, 2018.

Closes: Dec. 9 2018.

Running Time: 65 minutes, no intermission.

www.passemuraille.ca

{ 0 comments }

{ 3 comments }