Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Streetcar Crow’s Nest, Dundas and Carlaw, Toronto, Ont. A Here for Now Theatre Company Production in Association with Crow’s Theatre. Playing until Feb. 9, 2025.

www.crowstheatre.com

Written by Nick Green

Directed by Kelli Fox

Set designed by Darren Burkett

Costumes designed 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 saw this version of Dinner with the DUCHESS in last summer in a tent at Here for Now in Stratford, Ont. Set designer, Darren Burkett has fluffed up the set of a condo with posters, plants and little details that still reflect the taste and the good financial state of Margaret, the condo owner. After playing for the summer, this production has toured to Crow’s Theatre for a Toronto run. The result is a production that was already dandy, but has grown. It’s still gripping, layered in subtext, and delves into the world of music and celebrity with precision and keen observation but is moreso.

The Story. At the end of a storied career, Margaret is a violin virtuoso at the end of her illustrious career. She is giving her final interview to Helen, a young, savvy reporter, and Margaret wants to make sure the interview goes her way. That her legacy is assured without too much of her private life revealed.  She is aided by her ever-charming husband, David. But there are cracks in the polished veneer. Margaret must confront secrets and ghosts of the past to face the impossible question: how will she be remembered, no matter how much she manipulates the situation?

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.

Darren Burkett has designed a very chic 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’ along with a framed photo of the CN Tower.  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. Plants are in corners. Stylish.

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. Helen is in a stylish top and slacks.

Margaret’s speeches are peppered with little darts 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. She has a notepad and tape-recorder. 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.

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. And with this Toronto production Jan Alexandra Smith is more emotional in her last scene, begging to be remembered more for her music than for her less than accommodating personality.

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.

Dinner With The Duchess is a powerhouse work about art, music, beauty and the harshness of the truth. It is both eloquent and elegantly written. Terrific.

A Here for Now Theatre Company Production in Association with Crow’s Theatre

Runs until Feb. 9, 2025.

Running time: 1 hour 20 minutes (no intermission)

www.crowstheatre.com

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To Feb. 9, 2025.

Red Sandcastle Theatre.

The Strange and Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom

Created and performed by Eric Woolfe.

About Billy’s trials and tribulations with monsters under the bed and bullies at school. But he has a best friend and that counts for plenty. This is the 25^th anniversary of this show. Wonderful.

www.eldritchtheatre.ca/tickets

Playing until Feb. 16, 2025.

At VideoCabaret, 10 Busy Street

Cliff Cardinal’s CBC Special

Cliff Cardinal sings his songs; tells personal stories; shares secrets and generally charms everybody. Is he a trickster? A story-teller? A charmer with an impish side? All of the above? Well worth a look to find out.

www.videocab.com

Feb. 6-May 2, 2025.

At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

KIM’S CONVENIENCE

By Ins Choi

About Mr. Kim and his family, who run a convenience story. It’s a soul-filling story of the immigrant experience, family, resilience and love.

www.soulpepper.ca

Feb. 11-16, 2025.

Love Letters – zippysaid productions

Red Sandcastle Theatre – 922 Queen St E

A.R. Gurney’s LOVE LETTERS takes the audience on a revealing journey through the intimacies of two people’s 50-year, handwritten correspondence. 

http://zippysaidproductions.com

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I’m interviewing Cliff Cardinal on CRITICS CIRCLE, CIUT.fm 89.5 on Sat. Feb. 8, 2025 at 9 am. We’ll be talking about his show CLIFF CARDINAL’S CBC SPECIAL, HUFF and of course AS YOU LIKE IT or THE LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT. Cliff Cardinal has a lot to say about the world, theatre and his stories. Tune in.

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Live and in person at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Presented by Mirvish Productions. Playing until March 15, 2025.

www.mirvish.com

Book by John O’Farrell

Directed by Luke Sheppard

Choreography by Ebony Molina

Set by Soutra Gilmour

Costumes by Faith Fullerton

Lighting by Howard Hudson

Sound by Gareth Owen

Video and projection design by Andrzej Goulding

Musical director, Patrick Hurley

Music supervisor, arrangements and orchestrations by Matthew Brind

Cast: Kelly Agbowu

Julie Atherton

Jason Battersby

Jordan Cambridge-Taylor

Eloise Davies

Craig Els

James Hameed

Fayth Ifil

Melissa Jacques

Hope Kenna

AJ Lewis

Freddie Love

Tim Mahendran

Rhianne-Louise McCaulsky

Emily Ooi

Ashley Samuels

Sadie-Jean Shirley

Jake Small

Jack Michael Stacey

Tamara Tare

George Ure

A raucous and energetic show about the improbable success of the Band Aid Single and the Live Aid Concert to fight famine in Ethiopia.

The Story. Just for One Day, The Live Aid Musical is the story of what happens when the man with the idea, Bob Geldof, won’t take no for an answer. Rocker, Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats, was galvanized to political action when he saw the horrific photos of starvation in Ethiopia in 1984. Part of that political awakening was a documentary created by the CBC.

Geldof thought that if he got the best rock bands in the world to record a song, the proceeds could go to Ethiopia to feed the starving. Band Aid was the result. Simple. When he was told that no food was getting through because of corruption of the country and the cartels that controlled the ports etc. Geldof needed more money to buy boats, trucks and all that was needed to circumvent the corruption. The Live Aid Concert was the result—a concert on two continents with the worlds best bands and musicians, televised globally. And it had to be done in less than a month. Simple.

The Production. The Band Aid recording (1984) of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and the Live Aid Concert (1985) in both London, Eng. and Philadelphia, PA are at the center of Just for One Day, The Live Aid Musical, but they are framed by flashbacks and nostalgia.

In John O’Farrell’s book of the show, Suzanne (Melissa Jacques) is helping her daughter Jemma (Fayth Ifil) prepare to go to university. Suzanne finds her copy of “Do They Know It’s Christmas” and her program from the Live Aid Concert. The events changed the then young Suzanne’s life and awakened her political activism regarding famine relief. As Suzanne, Melissa Jacques is impassioned, compassionate and understanding towards her daughter Jemma. Jemma looks on her mother’s nostalgia for the 1980s and that concert, as quaint. In fact, she tells her mother she will be studying the 1980s in her history class. This gives Suzanne a bit of a twinge.

The story alternates between the present and the 1980s when young Suzanne’s political and social awareness was raised because of Band Aid and Live Aid. And at the center of the 1980s portion of the story and production is Bob Geldof (Craig Els), late of the Boomtown Rats and the mover and shaker behind the record recording and the Live Aid concert.

Geldof was/is a stubborn man who would not take ‘no’ for an answer when he thought up an impossible idea for the record recording or the huge concert to be arranged in less than a month. “Impossible” is a word that gets him all riled up and motivated. As Geldof, Craig Els, is lanky, bristling with laid-back attitude, charming, combative and a force.  Geldof was not above lying to get what he wanted or to fool people into thinking he had the greatest artists on board for all this. History shows it worked. Geldof was also able to handle the formidable Margaret Thatcher (a wonderfully starchy Julie Atherton) when Geldof wanted Thatcher to return the tax on charities.  The power of one person wanting to change the world is incalculable. Craig Els certainly realized the formidable power of Geldof when the urgency was desperate during the concert, to get the people to ‘donate your f__cking money!”

Director Luke Sheppard has created a vibrant, explosively lively production that realizes the energy, commitment and importance of the endeavor. Often Andrzej Goulding’s video and projection design notes what group is singing. Often a projection of the actual singers at the concert is placed on the back wall as the cast reenacted that singer in performance. I thought the production could have used more of those projections to established who was singing in the production and actually at the time of the concert.

Luke Sheppard is no stranger to Toronto audiences—he directed &Juliet which will be returning to Toronto for its own sit-down production later in 2025 as part of the Mirvish season.

Soutra Gilmour’s set of bleachers is simple and efficient. The cast sits on the bleachers with the powerful and loud band positioned above them. Ebony Molina’s choreography is explosively energetic with the cast of singers/dancers jumping off the bleachers to gyrate and sing the notable songs from those bands that participated in the recording or concert: “I’m Still Standing,” “We Are the Champions,” “Let it Be.” When the whole audience joined in to “Let It Be”, especially Louise Pitre behind me, it was quite thrilling.

Howard Hudson’s lighting is worthy of any rock concert: beams of light blinding out to the audience, flashing and circling the stage, streaming to the far corners of the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.

Gareth Owen’s sound design for the production is worthy of any huge open-air concert venue like Wembley Stadium, that accommodated 80,000 people for the Live Aid Concert. Of course, Just for One Day, The Live Aid Musical, isn’t playing in a huge open-air venue. It’s playing in a closed theatre with a capacity of approximately 2000, so the blaring sound is ear-splitting. One can’t make out the lyrics for the (internal-organ-shifting) throbbing of the bass. the bashing of the drums and the over-amplification of everybody. Of course, if one was around in the 80s they knew the lyrics by heart. The blaring sound for musicals is always a problem. One wonders, ‘do you want us to actually hear this important story and its music, or don’t you? Would anything be lost if the sound was palatable and NOT sphincter-tightening?

Comment.  Rather than show the split between the generations, John O’Farrell gradually brought Suzanne and her daughter Jemma closer together.  Jemma realized the importance of her mother’s commitment to doing good through the time of the concert and Band Aid. Jemma was galvanized to carry on that social commitment in her own way, one generation passing on doing good to the next generation.

Just for One Day, The Live Aid Musical, illuminates the power of the individual driven to make change, no matter how unlikely. Because Bob Geldof would not accept “no” or “that’s impossible” he did change the world and fed the starving in Ethiopia. The result is The Band Aid Charitable Trust. All the moneys the trust garners from ticket sales of Just for One Day, The Live Aid Musical, go directly to its charitable activities. Bravo and fitting.

Mirvish Productions presents:

Plays until March 15, 2025.

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

www.mirvish.com

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Live and in person at the Red Sandcastle Theatre, 922 Queen St. East, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Eldritch Theatre. Playing until Feb. 9, 2025

www.eldritchtheatre.ca

Created and performed by Eric Woolfe

Creepy musician played by Kathleen Welch

Directed by Mairi Babb

Music by Marc Dowing

Puppets created by Eric Woolfe and Dawn Weaver.

This is the 25^th anniversary production of The Strange and Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom. May it have another 25 years of playing.

Billy Wuthergloom began imagining monsters under his bed when he was eight years old. He could not tell anyone for fear they will think he was a sissy or childish or other horrible names. Billy is an awkward kid who just wanted to fit in and be liked by the popular kids and not get beat up. He did confide in Hershkel Fishmacher because Hershkel Fishmacher was even odder and more awkward than Billy. More than anybody, the bullies picked on Hershkel and Billy defended him against them. Because of this, the two boys shared a special bond of friendship.

The Strange and Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom has all the hallmarks of an Eric Woolfe theatre extravaganza. There are weird but appropriate looking puppets representing the various characters. Hershkel is suggested by an angular, solid head and slim body. Others are created in the similar way—large head and dangly body. Billy is wide-eyed and either terrified at his world or fascinated. They are all manipulated, described and vocalized by Eric Woolfe who wears a large baseball cap sideways, a t-shirt and baggy jeans with a patch of a skull over one knee. Eric Woolfe is flexible and nimbly moves around the stage. His delivery is always serious. That’s how to tell the jokes—seriously.

Eric Woolfe writes with acrobatic dexterity. His language is vaulting and vivid. And the story here is truly horrifying. Never mind the imagined monsters under Billy’s bed. Billy Wuthergloom’s body is possessed with something terrible and undefeatable: puberty. This will be followed by sexual urges; dreams that keep his sheets and jammies gooey; emotional confusion; questions of how to deal with girls. Billy is growing up and he doesn’t know how to handle it. A true horror story of the ordinary passages of a life.  

Eric Woolfe is ably supported in both tone and music by Kathleen Welch, described in the programme as “Creepy Musician.” She is dressed in black. She wears a black top hat of sorts with long curly locks of red hair that flow out of the hat and frames her stark white-makeup covered 00000000

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..face. She stares compellingly at everything and she plays creepy music. She is a perfect support to Eric Woolfe.

As always, the imagination of the story, the artistry of the puppets and the efficient presentation is impressive in an Eric Woolfe creation. But what is most touching about The Strange and Eerie Memoirs of Billy Wuthergloom is Billy’s integrity, his conscience and his loyalty to Hershkel. Billy is a character who knows right from wrong and chooses the harder path when he defends and sticks with Hershkel. Billy does want to be accepted by the popular boys who bedevil Hershkel and him, but he knows their behaviour is wrong. I loved the dilemma for Billy and how he solved it. In this day and age of people with a dearth of character, ethics, and integrity, Billy Wuthergloom is a breath of fresh air.  

Eldritch Theatre Presents:

Playing until Feb. 9, 2025.

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

www.eldritchtheatre.ca

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Live and in person at Uplift Black, 12 Dunlop Street East, Barrie, Ont. Produced by Talk is Free Theatre. Playing until February 8, 2025.

www.tift.ca

Written by Marcia Johnson

Directed by Vanessa Sears

Costumes designed by Claudia Matas

Sound by Maddie Bautista

Cast: Helen Belay

Sydney Cochrane

Arlene Duncan

Griffin Hewitt

Savion Roach

A play of stylish wit and imagination by Macia Johnson given a lively production by Vanessa Sears.

Olivia (Helen Belay) is on her way to a blind date when she is mugged by an assailant who wants her purse. She’s knocked to the ground when a good Samaritan comes to her rescue. He takes her to the hospital and waits to see that she’s ok. His name is Benjamin (Griffin Hewitt) and he was actually her blind date, Benjamin. He saw the mugging and came to her rescue. The knock to the ground resulted in Olivia suffering a concussion.

Olivia is charmed by him and he by her. Olivia is visited by her mother Beatrice (Arlene Duncan) and also by her (Olivia’s) ex-boyfriend, Robert (Savion Roach). The optics are obvious, and addressed by a feather of a line: Olivia is Black, Benjamin is white and Robert is Black.  Beatrice says that the skin colour of Benjamin is not an issue, but she feels that Robert is a better fit for her daughter.

Coupled with this is that Olivia is hallucinating. She imagines another time when a man who looks like Benjamin is a dashing British aristocrat and is wowing a woman. Is this hallucination caused by her concussion or are her worlds colliding? Olivia is a celebrated writer of romance novels, but writes under a pseudonym. Only her mother knows. She has kept this secret for everybody else. How will it all end?

Playwright Marcia Johnson first wrote Perfect on Paper in 2001. It’s her first play and one can hear and see the strong voice, imagination and facility with language that are so clear in such other Marcia Johnson plays as Serving Elizabeth and Binti’s Journey.

Perfect on Paper is funny and witty. The characters are well defined and developed, but it’s Marcia Johnson’s vivid imagination conjuring the story, that shines. A successful writer of romance novels finds herself in a situation where the lines of reality, imagination and mental fog all collide. And it’s wildly funny. It’s a story of relationships and what makes them work or not; it’s about second chances; being true to oneself; being brave; and finding love.

Vanessa Sears is a gifted actor. In Perfect on Paper she proves to be a gifted emerging director as well. She realizes the humour of the piece with her own imaginative staging—a piece of business with a long telephone cord wrapping around various characters, melds Olivia’s real world with her imaginative world, just as one example. The world of the romance novel is deliberately broad, with Griffin Hewitt playing a dashing Edward and Giacomo, a romantic gardener with an uncooperative mustache. Sydney Cochrane plays a demure Felicity in the romance novel scenes and various earnest characters in Olivia’s real-life scenes. In the scenes of Olivia’s ‘real’ world, Helen Belay plays Olivia with confidence, allure, whimsy and terrific humour. Griffin Hewitt plays Benjamin with understated care and compassion. Arlene Duncan plays Beatrice, Olivia’s no-nonsense mother. Savion Roach plays Robert Olivia’s ex-boyfriend who is trying to win her back. Robert is an accomplished investor, but Olivia is a woman who knows what she wants and at the moment it’s not Robert. Savion Roach plays Robert with compassion, understanding and a willingness to change.

The whole production takes place in a compact Yoga studio with the audience sitting around the space. The lights are up for the whole production. The design of the production is spare, efficient and smart. Olivia’s hospital room and her bedroom at home are suggested by two different coloured curtains on the same curtain rod. Depending on the colour of the curtain that was pulled across that is either clearly her hospital room or her bedroom. I loved that cleverness of design. Every person in the audience was smiling throughout the show and at the end. Deservedly so.

Talk is Free Theatre Presents:

Playing until Feb. 9, 2025.

Running time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.tift.ca

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Live and in person at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Canadian Stage Company. Playing until Feb. 16.

www.canadianstage.com

Written by Edward Albee

Directed by Brendan Healy

Set and costumes by Julie Fox

Lighting by Kimberly Purtell

Sound by Thomas Ryder Payne

Choreographer, Alyssa Martin

Cast: Martha Burns

Hailey Gillis

Paul Gross

Rylan Wilkie

Almost every creative associated with this production of Edward Albee’s 1962 classic has done wonderful work—elsewhere. This production is plagued with weird amplification, a set too large for the play, direction that dissipates the tension and uneven acting. A disappointment.

The Story. Some folks might erroneously describe the play as a three-and a half hour verbal slug-fest between warring married couple, George and Martha. In fact, the wrangling is deliberate. This is how George and Martha show each other love and affection—they argue and insult each other with equal vigor. But to raise the sport of it, they do this arguing, wrangling, insulting and games playing in front of a younger couple, Nick and Honey, who have been invited over to George and Martha’s house. I know it’s odd, but this is Edward Albee writing here and he knows his way around the ins and outs of combative, wounded people, how they lash out to be noticed and taken into account.

The Production. The curtain slowly rises on Julie Fox’s startling set of George and Martha’s living room. A high staircase goes up along the stage right wall and a large illuminated hallway is stage left. The stage left wall of the room is mirrored and the reflection is distorted. There is a glass case along the stage left wall with figurines? Liquor bottles? Can’t make it out clearly from my seat across the theatre. There is a small drinks trolly loaded with bottles of liquor. The back of a long darkish mustard coloured couch faces the audience. The front door is rather small for such a huge room, and by extension, the house.

Questions arise immediately. The stage of the Bluma Appel Theatre is huge across and deep. Julie Fox has envisioned a set as mammoth as the stage. Why? Where is the claustrophobia in the play? The mirrored side wall of the room distorts the reflection of those people in the room? Is this symbolic? Why? Isn’t the play enough for us to figure this out?

It’s 1 am in the morning. George (Paul Gross) and Martha (Martha Burns), a middle-aged couple, have just returned from a boozy faculty party at the house of the president of the university, to introduce new faculty to everybody. George is an associate professor of history at the university. Martha, his wife, is the daughter of the president of the university. So, there is a lot of subtext.

When they enter the house, Martha says with contempt “What a dump.” She is both expressing her disgust with the surroundings and quoting a line from a Bette Davis film. She is also setting up her control of the situation, establishing the baiting of George, and her coarse demeanor at home.

Then any focus we have on these two is dissipated as the set turns on a revolve and the back of the couch is turned to face the audience from upstage. The revolve will be used again during an emotional scene later in the production with the same results: confusion of who is talking, what is being said and focus being distracted.  Brendan Healy is a wonderful director. What was he thinking here with all this distraction?

Julie Fox’s costumes are terrific in establishing the attitudes and dress sense of the characters. Upon entering Martha initially wears an auburn coloured wig and an appropriate dark coloured dress, synched at the waist. George, shaggy haired, wears baggy pants a rumpled shirt and a sweater that can button up. George hates these faculty ordeals and let’s that be known at the casual, even shabby way he dresses. Martha wants to make a good impression so she dresses in an ungaudy way. She leaves the gaudiness for home and company when she changes into gold slim pants and a green top.

Unbeknownst to George, Martha has invited a younger couple, Nick (Rylan Wilkie) and his wife Honey (Hailey Gillis) over that night/morning for drinks. Nick is in the biology department—although Martha keeps thinking it’s the math department. Honey is Nick’s mouse of a wife—as Martha describes her. Again, Julie Fox’s costumes reflect the characters. Nick is in a light-coloured suit and tie. Honey is in a dress.

George is exhausted and aghast—it’s 1 am in the morning and he finds it inappropriate to invite anybody over for drinks at this hour. Martha says: “Daddy said to be nice to them.” When she keeps repeating that phrase, we get the sense that Martha has no boundaries and is desperate to please her father and do what he says, no matter how inappropriate.

As the production unfolds, we realize that both are true—Martha is reckless with boundaries and is determined to do anything for her father to get his stingy favour.

The actors are microphoned and the resultant sound makes everyone sound either muffled or underwater. This very odd, since Thomas Ryder Payne, who is listed as the sound designer, has done fine work, elsewhere.  

George and Martha wrangle with equal vigor—Paul Gross as George, laid-back, watchful and calculating when to thrust and parry, Martha Burns as Martha, braying, loud, vulgar and committed fully.

We also see how fragile the marriage of Nick (Rylan Wilkie) and Honey (Hailey Gillis) is. Nick is ambitious. He wants to get ahead and will use any means to do it. Honey comes from money and seems to have tricked Nick into marriage. She’s both physically and emotionally fragile. Nick is protective of her and a bit exasperated. Nick and Honey are not just passive observers in this evening, they participate in their own way. Rylan Wilkie is a last minute replacement as Nick. I didn’t believe him as the buff, ambitious man ready to use any means to rise up in the faculty. As Honey, Hailey Gillis plays the obvious; simpering, easily drunk, always getting sick—there is more to Honey than surface.

It would appear that Martha is the leader.  She is loud, abrasive, caustic and targets George for her invective in front of the guests. She craves attention and this is how she gets it. She wants to make George jealous, so she comes on to Nick—it seems to be a pattern with Martha—to come on to the younger men on faculty. Even here the staging seems almost polite rather than erotic.  This games playing is how George and Martha wrangle with each other. But then Martha does something that George finds unforgivable—Martha tells Honey of their son. This was something George forbad her to do. So now George goes from being deceptively passive, to subtly taking over to teach Martha a lesson.

That said, this is a love story between George and Martha. This is the murky world of Edward Albee. Both George and Martha get their jollies from the games playing and the slinging of darts and barbs. They are equally matched until George gains the advantage.  Confiding to Nick we learn of Martha’s desperation to be noticed and loved by her father. We learn how George was the only person who made her happy; who made her laugh; who played the games with her but made up the rules; for all her invective to him, she loves him and he cares for her. All one has to do is listen to the play.

Comment. As I said, almost every single creative person here has done wonderful work—elsewhere. I found this production to be a profound disappointment. The set was too large for what should be a claustrophobic. Where is it written that the set has to fill a vast stage? The result is that Brendan Healy staged it in such a way that characters would bellow across this expanse to other characters and the sense of danger was dissipated because of the distance. So, I found the production of Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? a disappointment of a play I really like.

Canadian Stage Presents:

Plays until February 16, 2025.

Running time: 3 hours, 30 minute (2 intermissions)

www.canadianstage.com

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Live and in person at the CAA Theatre, David and Hannah Mirvish present the Crow’s Theatre and Segal Centre for the Performing Arts Production, Toronto, Ont. Playing until February 16, 2025.

www.mirivish.com

Adapted and directed by Marie Farsi

Based on the novel by André Alexis

Set, props and costumes by Julie Fox

Lighting by Imogen Wilson

Composer and sound by David Mesiha

Cast: Dan Chameroy

Laura Condlln

Stephen Jackman-Torkoff

Tom Rooney

Tyrone Savage

Mirabella Sundar Singh

Adaptor-director Marie Farsi and her gifted cast, have re-created their classy, nuanced, compelling production of this award-winning novel that first played at Crow’s Theatre in 2023.

NOTE: The production first played at Crow’s Theatre in the round in 2023. This production has one cast change and a different configuration of the playing space. The production is rich in nuance and philosophy on happiness.

The Story and Production. Two Greek gods, Apollo (Tyrone Savage) and Hermes (Mirabella Sundar Singh) go into a bar (The Wheat Sheaf Tavern in Toronto)….and while they are drinking their beer, they make a wager. One wagers the other…what would happen if dogs were given human traits, would they die happy? The winner of the wager gives the other two years of servitude.

Hermes and Apollo go to a vet’s office in downtown Toronto and open the cages and let about 15 dogs free. The dogs are given a conscience, language and the ability to reason. Three dogs don’t want to leave so they remain in their cages. That decision also has consequences.  The rest of the pack of dogs go to High Park.

From that point on the dogs reason, wrangle and maneuver so that eventually one dog leads and the rest follow. In this case the dog named Atticus (a confident, almost imperious Tyrone Savage) becomes the leader.

He’s described in the programme this way: “Atticus: an imposing Neapolitan Mastiff with cascading jowls.” In fact, it’s interesting to note how the dogs are described: Benjy (Dan Chameroy), a resourceful and conniving Beagle. Lydia (Dan Chameroy): a Whippet and Weimaraner cross, tormented and nervous. Prince (Stephen Jackman-Torkoff): A mutt who composes poetry. Max (Laura Condlln): a mutt who detests poetry. And Majnoun (Tom Rooney): a black Poodle, briefly referred to as Lord Jim. While he’s not described this way in the programme, Majnoun also does not trust other dogs.

The dogs are described with their likes, dislikes and other esoteric attitudes, just like humans. The dogs have their own language of which they are very protective. Jealousies are formed and signs of aggression appear. There are also questions of individuality and personal freedom.

In director Marie Farsi’s elegant, exuberant production, the cast wear conventional clothes to convey the kind of dog they are but no fur.

For Atticus and his imposing jowls Tyrone Savage, who plays him, wears pants, a loose t-shirt and a big, grey cowl around his neck, voilà, the jowls. Bravo to designer Julie Fox for this impish, clever solution in conveying what Atticus should look like. Indeed Julie Fox is masterful in her costuming so we see what all the dogs should ‘look’ like. Tyrone Savage’s Atticus sparingly gives a flick of his head, as a dog might do, just to make us always aware that we are watching dogs, but with human traits.

Majnoun played by Tom Rooney, is thoughtful, proud, intellectual and smart. Tom Rooney wears black pants, a black t-shirt, a black leather jacket and his arms hang down in front of him with his hands forming gentle fists to suggest paws. Tom Rooney’s poise conveys Majnoun’s stature, confidence and a watchfulness. Majnoun also learns English and how to speak it.

Tom Rooney is giving a wonderful, performance. It’s nuanced, has these little moments of quiet listening, but like a dog, not a human. He transforms; standing a bit forward, arms hanging down with slightly clenched fists suggesting paws.  Wonderful.

Two of his owners are a literary couple, Nira (a caring, sensitive Laura Condlln) and Miguel (an accommodating Stephen Jackman-Torkoff) who find him and take him in.  He so likes Nira that he indicates his secret to her—he can speak English. Laura Condlln as Nira is at first incredulous, but then accommodating at this wonder, and enters into that world of belief and trust. Nira and Majnoun have esoteric conversations about philosophy, life, relationships etc. He is protective of her. He doesn’t like Miguel.

One day the couple go away for a short weekend. But something seems to have happened and they don’t come back. Majnoun waits there patiently, determinedly, like a dog would do. He has this unconditional love for the humans—I think that is a dog thing.  Or perhaps it’s reciprocal.

The dogs have jealousies, which is human and there is aggression and death, which could be a human trait or a canine trait. I won’t split fur trying to decide. There are several deaths in the play—there would have to be for the wager to proceed. Some are moving.

André Alexis has written a dense, complex book about a provocative situation—how will dogs deal with having human traits—will that make them happy or unhappy, if they have the learning and dealing with the human traits to allow them to go one way or another. In his book there are existential ideas to consider. Marie Farsi has adapted the book into this play with efficiency and thought.

Her production is as inventive and clever as it was when it played at Crow’s theatre. But this is not a comparison of the two productions. That serves no purpose. This production at the CAA Theatre is done on a proscenium stage and if anything seems more energetic in this configuration. Marie Farsi  she uses the space well—there are rocks, a fire hydrant and electric poles—again, kudos to Julie Fox for her design.

The cast is terrific and committed.  There are hints of the movement and activity of dogs in the actors’ performances. There are flips of the head, or a woof here or a bark and a kind of prancing walk like a dog, but not overtly, just the hint of that to keep us aware. Stephen Jackman-Torkoff is exuberantly flamboyant as Zeus (the god), Prince (the dog who loves poetry) and any dog he plays, with Miguel (a person) being a bit subdued. The joy of Stephen Jackman-Torkoff as Prince and his love of language and poetry, is a thing of beauty. Dan Chameroy as Benjy might be playing a conniving Beagle, but he has disarming charm. And there is a visual joke when the strapping Dan Chameroy as Benjy (I assume a small Beagle) stands behind the diminutive Mirabella Sundar Singh who plays various large dogs—a Labradoodle, Labrador Retriever and a Schnauzer.    

Marie Farsi is a smart director. She stages the action with graceful fluidity and frisky energy.  Marie Farsi is also a sensitive adapter of  André Alexis’ novel of “Fifteen Dogs.” She has a keen eye for the detail in the characters, their philosophies of life and the story.  Just like humans, the dogs at various times, and certainly Majnoun, muse and philosophies on the vagaries of life, ideas, language and living. However, the production seemed a bit long at 2 hours and 20 minutes.

Still, Fifteen Dogs as a theatrical production is a worthy time in the theatre. And one will ponder the ideas of life and living, expressed by these many and various individual dogs, long after the play is over.

David and Hannah Mirvish present the Crow’s Theatre and Segal Centre for the Performing Arts Production:

Plays until Feb. 16, 2025.

Running time: 2 hours, 20 minutes (1 intermission)

www.mirvish.com

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Live and in person at 388 Carlaw Ave. second floor, Toronto, Ont. Produced by Talk Is Free Theatre, playing until Jan. 31, 2025. Returning April 5-20.

www.tift.ca

Written by Mike Bartlett

Directed by Dylan Trowbridge

Production designer, Kathleen Black

Sound Designer, Nolan Moberly

Cast: Jakob Ehman

Michael Torontow

Tess Benger

Kevin Bundy

NOTE: this is mainly a repeat of the review I wrote when this play first played in Barrie, Ont. last year, but with updates and observations of the deeper dive into performances and interpretations of the play.

A gripping, powerful play and production about love—the obsession of it; the desperation of wanting it; the many variations of it. Beautifully acted and directed.

The Story. NOTE: about the title—According to Dylan Trowbridge’s Directors Note, playwright Mike Bartlett began writing COCK while participating in a writer’s residency in Mexico City. The inspiration for the play came when he saw a cockfight—close quarters for the two fighting cocks—and a group of ‘rabid?’ people surrounding the small fighting space cheering on the cocks who were tearing each other to pieces. Ah humanity.

Cock is not about vicious animals tearing each other to bits in anger. Cock is a love story between four people, each with a different perspective on love who are as demanding and brutal as any fighting cock.

John is at the center of the story. He is in love and been living with M for several years. (“M” can stand for “male” or “man).  But recently John has met “W” (that can stand for “woman”) and become besotted with her. They have had sex and now John is confused as to whom he wants to be with. Perhaps it’s easier than that—he wants both “M” and “W” and of course they want him to choose. There is also “F” who is “M’s” Father (so “F” can stand for Father) and wants the best for his son—another kind of love here.   

The Production. Director Dylan Trowbridge decided that because of the intimate, spare nature of the production it should be presented in a non-traditional space—small, tight, almost claustrophobic—so that the sense of the characters being stripped bare to their emotions is clear.

The production takes place on the second floor of an arts complex on Carlaw Ave. in Toronto. The audience follows a red line on the floor, along wide, rather deserted corridors, to a small waiting area, outside a closed corrugated ‘door’ like a garage door. When the production begins, the door folds up noisily and we are ‘welcomed’ into the space by Jakob Ehman as John. Kathleen Black has designed the production and it’s spare, efficient, and enveloping. Dylan Trowbridge has tweaked this production and staging to reflect the new space. The taut results are still the same only deeper.

There are opaque sheets as curtains along the walls. The audience sits on opposite sides of the space.  There are no fancy set, lights or costumes. A character steps on a switch on the floor and a light comes on or off. The action happens in the middle of the space and often on benches right beside audience members. To say this is intimate is an understatement. The audience is both watching, perhaps as voyeurs, and in a way participating—deciding whom to side with, whom to consider, how to decide how this should end. Characters change positions in the space, perhaps standing in the middle talking or sitting on a side bench facing another character when addressing each other—it’s less a cockfight and more maneuvering.

The production begins with M (a commanding, confident Michael Torontow) and John (a more subdued, introspective Jakob Ehman) reviewing how John could have had his head turned by a woman. John tries to suggest the woman was stalking him. We learn later W (Tess Benger, giving a compelling performance) and John often took the same bus to work. There was an attraction there and they took it from there. John was intrigued by W and W was attracted to John, certainly when he tells her that his recent relationship has ended. John is coy about the pronoun about his former partner. When he lets it slip that his former partner was a man, Tess Benger as W reacted with a crease of her face in concern, but she soon recovered and continued as if pursuing John. She knows he’s interested. She’s smart enough to know how to play the situation and make him further interested in her. In a wonderfully erotic scene played as John and W face each other with the space of the room between them, each tells the other what they need for pleasure. It’s directed with exquisite care and detail by Dylan Trowbridge and played with growing gasping eroticism by Tess Benger as W and Jakob Ehman as John.

W is invited to M’s house for dinner so that the three characters can meet and talk about the situation. This is when M’s father, F (Kevin Bundy) is invited as well to support M. Kevin Bundy plays F with an almost tight, raised jaw. He is fighting for his son’s honour. F’s sexism comes out in his condescending dialogue. And it sounds dangerous.  

The stranger in the room is W and Tess Benger plays her with controlled intelligence and grace. She is quietly fierce in her arguments and in defending herself. As M, Michael Torontow is angry, exasperated, demanding and desperate to keep John as his lover. Naturally both lovers want John to choose with whom he will remain. Will it be the forceful, take-charge M? Or will it be the quietly resourceful W? It’s obvious who John wants and it’s wonderful how Jakob Ehman as John plays the scene and both lovers. It’s not that John is passive aggressive when asked to make a decision. Jakob Ehman is much subtler than that in the playing—and in Dylan Trowbridge’s direction. One can imagine one’s heart is beating faster in anticipation of an answer that is taking its time. And the answer is obvious in the playing, although not to the lovers.

Comment. Cock is a terrific play of nimble thinking characters in a fraught situation of love and all its tangles. The performances have grown deeper and richer since I first saw it in Barrie, Ont. last year.     

Talk is Free Theatre presents:

Playing until Jan. 31, 2025. Returning April 5-20.

Running Time: 90 minutes (no intermission)

www.tift.ca

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