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

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by Andrea Scott

Directed by André Sills

 Set and costumes by Sarah Uwadiae

Lighting by Steve Lucas

Composed and sound by Maddie Bautista

Cast: Celia Aloma

Conrad Coates

Savion Roach

Kim Roberts

Jennifer Villaverde

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Production. Loved it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Sept. 28, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

www.fosterfestival.com

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Emily Oriold

Set by Beckie Morris

Costumes by Alex Amini

Lighting by Alex Sykes

Cast: Isaiah Kolundzic

Emily Lukasik

Daniel Reale

Kelly J Seo

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Lovey play and production.

The Foster Festival Presents:

Plays until Aug. 25, 2024.

Running Time: 2 hours, (1 intermission.)

www.fosterfestival.com

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Live and in person at the Capitol Theatre, Port Hope, Ont. A world premiere. Playing until Sept. 1, 2024.

www.capitoltheate.com

Written by Briana Brown

Directed by Rob Kempson

Set and Costumes by Anna Treusch

Lighting by Jareth Li

Composer and sound by Jeff Newberry

Cast: Christy Bruce

Alison Deon

Deborah Drakeford

Darrel Gamotin

Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski

Mirabella Sundar Singh

An unfortunate muddle of ideas and themes that needs a lot of rethinking and re-writing.

From the website:

“Kringle, Ontario is in a rut. When the well-meaning town reeve devises a tourism development plan to celebrate Christmas all year round, the town thinks it’s a great idea. But two weeks and a heat wave later, they’re having second thoughts. Nora, whose convenience store (and gas station) is the centre of cultural activity, is suddenly desperate for a much-needed vacation. Throw in an anxious restauranteur, a sassy teenager, and a wide-eyed new resident, and you’ve got a recipe for a veritable blizzard of hilarity!”

That last part about a ‘blizzard of hilarity’ is wishful thinking. The play takes place in August. The reeve, Mary, (Deborah Drakeford) is dressed in a heavy red Christmas suit of pants, top etc. They find out from some officious department that Kringle has overstepped its bounds by posing as a Christmastown that celebrates Christmas all year. There are rules and protocols that must be followed to earn that title of “Christmastown” and Kringle has not followed them. Three inspectors will be coming to check them out and see that they are following the rules. The five characters involved are in a tizzy at the prospect. They are: Nora (Alison Dean) who runs the convenience store and gas station, Mary (Deborah Drakeford) the reeve and head organizer of the endeavor, Sam (Darrel Gamotin) the new guy in town who left his old life in Toronto to move to Kringle, Jeff (Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski) who runs the restaurant and is short staffed, expecting his adopted baby to arrive that he will parent with his partner, and is anxious about it all, and Adeline, (Mirabella Sundar Singh) Nora’s sassy teenaged daughter. There are various other characters wafting in and out of the action, all played by Christy Bruce.

Briana Brown’s play is billed as a farce. It isn’t. While the cast is valiant in charging around the stage with exaggerated energy and volume the humour is laboured. The result is unfunny. There are references to Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol”, Gogol’s The Government Inspector, “The Gift of the Magi”, religions of the world as also worthy of celebration, the film “It’s a Wonderful Life” many and various threads of philosophy as well as the individual stories of the five main characters. If all the dangling loose ends of the story were knotted together, they would make a nice throw-rug.

The cast works very hard to lift this work into the buoyant work it wants to be. Director Rob Kempson seems to have directed them to over react and overplay everything in a loud declarative voice.

Playwright Briana Brown needs to decide what story or two, three at the outside, she wants this play to be about and ruthlessly cut the rest of the stuff that does not serve that purpose. When there is so much dead air when there should be laughter, then the playwright and the director etc. have to rethink what is trying to be accomplished here and why it’s not working.

The Capitol Theatre presents:

Playing until Sept. 1, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.capitoltheatre.com

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Live and in person at the Thousand Islands Playhouse, Springer Theatre, Gananoque, Ont. Playing until Sept. 8.

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

Written by Stephen Massicotte

Directed by Brett Christopher

Set by Joe Pagnan

Costumes by Jayne Christopher

Lighting by Jeff Pybus

Composer and sound by Richard Feron

Cast: Maev Beaty

Wade Bogert-O’Brien

Intensely emotional. A bitter-sweet, gentle ache of a play about love and war.

The Story. It’s 1920, the day before Mary’s wedding. She dreams of a time a few years before, of a thunderstorm and the first time she met and probably fell in love with Charlie, a young man about her age. Because of the thunderstorm, Mary found shelter in a barn. There she saw Charlie and his horse. Charlie was cowering in fear of the thunder. He still found the ability to calm his also terrified horse. Mary calms Charlie as well after they introduce themselves. She has recently arrived from England with her parents. Charlie is a local farm boy in the prairies. When the storm passes Charlie returns to his usual self. He offers Mary a ride home on his horse. Her mother is not happy about Mary meeting what she describes ‘as a dirty farm boy.’ A friendship forms between the two young people and that slowly grows into love.

World War I is raging in Europe. When Canada joins the war effort Charlie feels it’s his duty to sign up. Mary is upset by this. They have a fight and Charlie goes off to war without Mary saying goodbye to him, but Charlie writes her the most personal letters. Their love grows deeper and it leads up to the day before Mary’s wedding.

Performance and comment. Stephen Massicotte’s wonderful two-hander play debuted in 2002 and has played consistently across the country since then. I’ve seen at least five productions of it within the last 10 years and one never gets tired of it. It’s about sweet, innocent first love that grows deep. It’s about war, separation and challenges to that love. And it’s about communication through letter-writing, that wonderful, old-fashioned way of communicating that required thought, effort, the need of a pencil and paper and the determination to get it sent to the one for whom it was meant. Imagine it.

It’s very tempting to compare previous productions of the play, but I don’t see the point. Most people won’t have seen the same ‘collection’ of productions so who does the comparison serve? Nobody. So I’m not doing it. I don’t roll that way.

Joe Pagnan has designed a terrific set for this wonderful production. It has the outline of the roof of a barn at the top of which are plants and foliage draped over a high beam. There are planks of wood stacked askew on the stage that suggest different locations, especially when the structure can be rotated to reveal a sunken area that can be a trench in the war scenes.  There are fence structures to the side that suggest a farm fence etc. 

Jayne Christopher’s costumes are rustic farm wear for Charlie (Wade Bogert-O’Brien) (shirt, suspenders, khaki pants and boots, to which an army jacket is added for the war scenes) and a long white dress for Mary (Maev Beaty) that can be her nightgown or any other kind of long dress.

The lighting by Jeff Pybus is exquisite. There are flickering lighting effects when Charlie describes being shelled by the enemy; or when bombs are dropped (kudos also to Richard Feren for the sound effects of the gunfire, the lapping of waves as Charlie crosses the ocean in a ship the subtle other sounds one hears during this terrific production.

The whole production is directed with such sensitivity and creativity by Brett Christopher. It’s poignant, funny, almost impish in some of its invention—the perfect timing of an umbrella springing open is one. (Okokok, I know that spring-loaded-umbrellas were not invented in 1920. A little poetic/theatrical license is in order, especially when the joke is so beautifully executed by Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie and Maev Beaty as Mary.

There are several scenes with horses and they are suggested by Charlie just holding a looped bridle almost arm’s length. So simple and so expressive. The acting of both Maev Beaty as Mary and Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie is heartfelt, tender, emotional and expressive. In one scene Mary says to Charlie that she nearly died of grief and Maev Beaty’s playing of that scene is so invested with the emotion of the memory that one can feel Mary’s heartache. So vivid is the playing that one can also conjure the heartache in one’s life as a result. Wade Bogert-O’Brien as Charlie is innocent, shy and yet beautifully wise and mature. Together they lead each other into falling in love and holding that feeling close. At one point Mary is stuck in her dreams, as she has a recurring dream before her wedding, and Charlie gently tells her how to move forward with her love. This was the most emotional, moving production of Mary’s Wedding that I have ever seen.

It’s theatre that does indeed hold a mirror up to society and shows us the best of us and the healing power of love. As always, take Kleenex.  

1000 Islands Playhouse presents:

Plays until Sept. 8, 2024.

Running time: 90 minutes, (no intermission)

www.1000islandsplayhouse.com

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Live and in person at the Studio Theatre, Stratford Festival, Stratford, Ont. Playing until Sept. 29, 2024.

www.stratfordfestival.ca

Written by Edward Albee

Directed by Dean Gabourie

Set and costumes by Shawn Kerwin

Lighting by Kaileigh Krysztofiak

Sound by Adam Campbell

Cast: Matthew Kabwe

Anthony Palermo

Lucy Peacock

Rick Roberts

A provocative play going to the extremes to examine societal boundaries, what is appropriate behaviour in love and relationships.

The Story. Martin is a celebrated, award-winning architect. He has been picked to design the ideal city and he’s only turned fifty. He has a been in a long, happy marriage to his wife Stevie. They have a son named Billy who is gay, and loved by his parents.

But Martin is distracted, forgetful and pre-occupied for some reason. He is to be interviewed on his latest milestones by his friend Ross and Ross keeps pushing Martin to confirm that he’s ok—what with all the distractions in this interview. Then Martin confides to Ross: he, Martin, is in love with Sylvia. Who is a goat. I don’t mean Greatest Of All Time. I mean a goat, as in the barnyard animal. As in goat-cheese, chevre. That kind of goat. 

Martin says that he was in the country, scouting property to buy for him and Stevie. At the crest of a hill, he saw the goat that he named Sylvia and instantly fell in love with her soft brown eyes.  He was smitten. He kept going back to see her. Martin tells Ross that he (Martin) can’t tell Stevie about it. Ross says he has to. Ross takes it upon himself to send Stevie a letter telling her.

The Production and comment. Director, Dean Gabourie has set an impish tone with the selection of the pre-show music. Various artists sing Cole Porter’s song of ‘doing it’  “Let’s Do It (Let’s Fall In Love)”:

Birds do it, bees do it

Even educated fleas do it
Let’s do it, let’s fall in love

Followed by several clever stanzas of lyrics of the many and various forms of life that ‘do it’, fall in love (although ‘doing it’ suggests more than just ‘falling in love.’) It’s a perfect song for establishing with wit, humour and innuendo that will follow, but with a surprising shock.

Shawn Kerwin has designed a beautiful, modern set. There are four white comfortable chairs facing each other; a room wide white shelving unit on which are black framed photos, objets d’art and other items, all in a contrasting dark colour to the white unit. Behind one of the chairs is a table on which is a white model of a building along with a vase of vibrant coloured flowers. The room says: “tasteful, beautifully appointed and successful. This is the showcase home of Martin (Rick Roberts and his wife Stevie (Lucy Peacock).

Shawn Kerwin also designed the costumes. Ross (Matthew Kabwe) is grungy/casual; Billy (Anthony Palermo) is in jeans and t-shirt, typical for a teenager; Martin is casual in a shirt, blazer and pants, but the quality of the clothes for him is obvious. Stevie is in flowing beiges and crème coloured top, sweater coat of sorts and wide legged pants and crème coloured shoes. Stunning. The statement here is that Stevie is perfectly dressed to impress and also for comfort.  

Stevie is fluffing pillows and arranging flowers in preparation for Martin’s interview with his friend Ross to mark his (Martin’s) latest honours. Stevie and Martin banter good-naturedly and with teasing affection. Martin seems distracted. He can’t remember anything, such as who Stevie is talking about (Ross), even though they have discussed the interview for several minutes.  

When Stevie receives Ross’s letter explaining that Martin is having an affair, naturally Stevie does not take it well.  As Stevie, Lucy Peacock is furious when she reads the letter and confronts Martin with the information. Stevie is incandescent with anger at this betrayal. She starts breaking things and tipping furniture with every sentence Martin utters because he’s trying to explain his feelings as true love for Sylvia.

With a combination of simmering fury and contained control, Lucy Peacock as Stevie is nuanced, watchful, superior, and dangerous. She calls Martin’s relationship with Sylvia, bestiality. Martin, as played by the wonderful Rick Roberts, on the other hand doesn’t see it that way. He says it’s love from his point of view. He is at a loss to explain his feelings but they are true. At first Martin joined a group of like-minded people who were in love with animals and had a physical relationship with them. Stevie is horrified and continues to break stuff.

(A quibble, when these things smash, they should do so with more dramatic smashing etc. As it is it just seems the objects are breaking into neat pieces—I think it should be more explosive than just breaking the stuff into neat pieces. The smashed glass was terrific).

Matthew Kabwe as Ross is easy-going and concerned about Martin. He’s wary because he knows his friend. Ross is a sturdy friend and wants what’s good for Martin and Stevie. As Billy, Anthony Palermo is an emotional teenager, almost petulant, which works a treat.

What is playwright Edward Albee really saying here? I think he’s using the extreme when talking about relationships with what some would call “the other”.  Stevie rages that people should be with “their own kind”.  She is meaning humans should have relationships with humans. But we know from history that within that human category, people were forbidden to have relationships with people of the same sex. Until recently in some states it was illegal for a Black person and a white person to marry. It had been frowned upon for people from different religions, ethnicities, and nationalities to marry/love/be associated with such people. So Edward Albee is taking it to extremes in The Goat Or, Who Is Sylvia? by having a human have a sexual relationship with a goat under the guise of love.  And just to be cheeky, Albee includes Stevie and Martin’s son who is gay, which would have been a category frowned upon to have a same sex relationship. I also think Albee is being smarmy when he gives Martin’s very feminine wife a man’s name, Stevie. Albee is looking at the status quo and unbalancing it.

Albee tips the balance by offering two firm points of view.  Stevie and Ross think Martin having an affair with a goat is depraved. They think it unthinkable that Martin could actually love an animal in a romantic way. Martin of course disagrees and loves Sylvia to distraction and can’t articulate why he does—he loved her gentle eyes. He says she returns his affection….I think that’s a lot of pressure from Martin on Sylvia.

Director Dean Gabourie has let the play unfold slowly but then relentlessly, without sentiment, or holding back. He has directed a bristling production of a provocative play with care and attention.   

The Stratford Festival presents:

Plays until Sept. 29, 2024.

The running time is 2 hours (without an intermission)

www.stratfordfestival.ca

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Live and in person at Waring House, 395 Sandy Hook Road, Picton, Ont. Prince Edward County. Produced by Théâtre Roulant. Playing until Aug. 16, 2024

www.theatreroulant.ca

Written by Maureen Jennings

Directed by John Burns

Sound and Lighting by Alfie Latanski and Brian Legere

Original music by Percy Adler

Cast: David Baker

Pat Larkin

Bill McMahon

Musician: Howard Lopez: Piano/keyboard 

It’s quite an adventure going into the hinterlands to see theatre of all sorts and discovering new companies. A recent discovery was Théâtre Roulant, Canada’s only horse drawn theatre caravan. Two horses pull the caravan around Prince Edward County and set down at a town or resort in the area to perform plays for the community. The plays are performed in and around the caravan which is a repurposed Mennonite built square bale hay wagon from the 1960’s. It has been outfitted with a portable stage, lighting, sound gear, theatre black curtains and safety equipment on the inside offering approximately 160 square ft of space and a similar dimension of outer stage. Eight-foot barn door openings on either side of the caravan reveal the space.

The co-artistic directors/producers of Théâtre Roulant are John Burns who directs and Conrad Beaubien who often writes the original plays for production. Dying Like This is different in this regard because it was written by Maureen Jennings—she of murder-mystery novel fame. One series of her books has been adapted into the tv series, ‘Murdock Mysteries.’ When John Burns and Conrad Beaubien met Maureen Jennings she mentioned she had a play in a drawer where it had been for years. John Burns’ interest was piqued and a year later the play, Dying Like This is being performed on the grounds of the Waring House for the local community. The audience sits at round tables around the space where they can order a drink, a meal, or snacks while watching the play. Bug spray is generously available.

The Story. Widower Harry Mckenna, is lonely and adrift. His wife died a year before and he misses her terribly. Things change when the ghost of his old friend, Sam Ribick, appears. Sam died without resolving his conflicted relationship with his son Pete and he needs Harry’s help. Then Pete himself arrives and Harry is compelled to do just that because Pete is so troubled about his son.

The Production. Actors Pat Larkin and Bill McMahon slowly, reverentially open the large side doors of the caravan to reveal the insides and some of the playing area and to begin the production. Bill McMahon plays Harry Mckenna. Harry misses his wife who passed away a year before. He’s got a loving but prickly relationship with his married daughter. Into this situation comes the ghost of Sam Ribick, played with laid back reserve by Pat Larkin. His appearance startles Harry. They banter, reminisce and confess secrets. Deep in this conversation, almost as an afterthought, is Sam’s urgent request to Harry to help Sam’s son Pete because Sam thinks Pete needs it. Just as quickly Pete (David Baker) appears. He managed to drop in to Toronto, from Vancouver, without much explanation.

Of course, Harry sees and hears the ever-present ghost of Sam and Pete does not. Sam comments on things; Harry answers him and Pete is confused about why Harry would say what he did to him (Pete). In this case it’s mildly amusing because we have seen it so often before in conversations in film or theatre, when a ghost or something imagined is involved like a six foot tall imaginary rabbit named Harvey.

Pete is in rough shape. He has a bad cough that is troubling. He is bitter at the world, women, immigrants, people of colour, and especially his father. Sam never had a good word to say about Pete. Sam still rages about Pete now in his ghostliness. The actors are well intentioned and earnest.

The play needs work. I can appreciate that it’s written by Maureen Jennings, but I get the sense it was written years ago, before Maureen Jennings was “Maureen Jennings.” A careful re-write or two is in order. There’s too much banter between Sam and Harry that goes on too long before we find out that Sam is frantic that Harry help Pete. For most of Sam’s concern about his son, almost everything he says to Harry is negative. When Pete appears it’s as if his appearance brings every annoyance to the fore for Sam. Where then is the care and concern for his son? That must be dealt with and the confusion removed. Why is Pete there at all? He lives in Vancouver and yet he made the journey to Harry in Toronto I believe. Why? Was the reason buried in chit chat and I missed it?  It should be given its ‘moment and made clearer.

I can appreciate that director John Burns is committed and well intentioned, but the show needs rigorous attention. The show is two hours with an intermission. It should be 90 minutes without an intermission. The pace must be speeded up and the pregnant pauses removed. There seems an awful lot of movement in this three hander, especially with Sam (the ghost). He is always on the move, walking slowly here and then there. Why? It’s distracting. And while it’s wonderful that Percy Adler has created original music and Howard Lopez plays the piano/keyboard live for the whole show, again, I had to ask why? Why is almost the whole show underscored with music? We don’t need it. It’s not as if it’s a silent movie and stirring organ music fills in the emotion. This is live theatre and the text and the acting should do the job. I found the music annoying if not distracting. In a perfect world I would cut it all out.

I applaud the commitment of John Burns and Conrad Beaubien to bring theatre to the community. I just wished that Dying Like This was a better endeavor.

Théâtre Roulant presents:

Runs until Aug. 16, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours (1 intermission)

www.theatreroulant.ca

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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

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Live and in person at the Blyth Festival, Blyth, Ont. Playing until Aug. 31, at the Memorial Hall.

www.blythfestival.com

Written by Birgitte Solem

Directed by Randy Hughson

Set by Pat Flood

Costumes by Amanda Wong

Lighting by Nic Vincent

Sound by Adam Campbell

Cast: Geoffrey Armour

Landon Doak

Jamie Mac

Fiona Mongillo

Hallie Seline

Playwright Birgitte Solem knows about murder mysteries. For one thing for 10 years she wrote site-specific dinner theatre mysteries for Mysteriously Yours in Toronto. That’s quite a feat. Resort to Murder is not only a delicious play on words, it’s also a rip-roaring murder mystery with more twists and turns than a New York pretzel.

Brett (Jamie Mac) owns the family mansion with his wife Viv (Fiona Mongillo) and wants to make it into a tourist destination, a kind of place for solving a murder/mystery/escape room thingy.

Brett plans to try out his scheme first on Viv and some of the staff: Silas the chef (Geoffrey Armour), Josh, the man who drives the boat for the enterprise and Gayle (Hallie Seline) the restaurant manager. The folks have to solve a mystery murder and escape the escape room which is locked tight by a keypad number only Brett knows the code and he has somehow fallen out the window of the safe room to the rocks below. Or was he pushed? They are on an island. It’s a wild stormy night. Lots of blackouts. Strange sounds and apparitions.

Twenty-five years before there was indeed a real mystery when a couple who worked for Brett’s father and the couple’s son, went out in a boat at night and disappeared. The son was in fact a boyhood friend of Brett’s and Brett wants the assembled people to try and solve the disappearance/mystery from years before.

There are lots of twists and turns in the story.  Birgitte Solem has a wonderfully tricky imagination and a way with a funny phrase. You will be laughing at the same time as you tighten your butt-cheeks in the mounting tension of the situations.

Director Randy Hughson has the same mischievous imagination as Birgitte Solem. One finds that one is looking carefully for clues. Is one of the people there a murderer? Did someone push Brett out the window and onto the rocks below? Brett moved a book from the desk to a bookshelf for no reason. Is that a clue? Other strange things happen. Our anticipation is ramped up. Nic Vincent’s lighting gets more and more spooky. Adam Campbell’s sound design adds to the tension in the room. Pat Flood’s detailed set design of the ‘escape room’ is smart, clue filled and provocative. Amanda Wong’s costumes are casual and appropriate.

The cast is first rate. Jamie Mac plays Brett as a man determined to see his idea through to fruition. He is a joker but serious. He humours his wife Viv played with style by Fiona Mongillo. Viv is serious, skeptical and impatient with Brett’s ideas. Fiona Mongillo plays her very straight, and is therefore compelling. As Silas, the finicky chef, Geoffrey Armour thinks only of his edible creations. He is quite impassioned about them. Landon Doak is Josh, the man who drives the boat. He is playful and yearning. He is sweet on Gayle, the restaurant manager (Hallie Seline). They knew each other in high school and he liked her then. Gayle as played by Hallie Seline, is impatient with Josh. She’s not interested in him. She seems more irritated because of her job than anything else. One feels for Josh and wonders as Gayle’s short temper. The play has various characters, all of whom could be up to no good. We watch all of them.

Resort to Murder it a crackling good “murder-mystery”, and trying to solve whether there in fact was a murder at all is one of its many surprises. And charms.

The Blyth Festival presents:

Runs until Aug. 31, 2024.

Running time: 2 hours 15 minutes, approx. (1 intermission)

www.blythfestival.com

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Live and in person at 4^th Line Theatre, Millbrook, Ont. Playing until August 24, 2024.

www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca

Written by Beverley Cooper

Directed by Kim Blackwell

Musical direction and original compositions, Justin Hiscox

Costumes by Korin Cormier

Set by Michelle Chesser

Choreography by Anita La Selva

Sound by Steáfán Hannigan

Cast:

Michelle Chesser

Logan Coombes

Thomas Fournier

Matt Gilbert

Justin Hiscox

Mark Hiscox

Anita La Selva

Ian McGarrett

Kelsey Powell

Katie Ryerson

Nathan Simpson

Mikayla Stoodley

Phil Stott

Hilary Wear

Lindsay Wilson

Robert Winslow

And others.

Playwright Beverley Cooper has always been interested in The Spanish Civil War. As she says in her programme note, when she writes a play she also wants to explore what it says about today, specifically, can one person really make a difference?

Some background.

The Spanish Civil war took place in Spain between 1936-39. The Popular Front was democratically elected. But a military coup tried to overthrow them. General Francisco Franco rose to prominence because he was one of the instigators. He was aided by Mussolini and Hitler. Over 1,500 Canadians travelled to Spain to fight on the side of the Popular Front against Fascism because they could see that if it could happen in Spain, it could happen anywhere.

Myrtle Eugenia Watts came from an upper class, conservative family in Toronto. She was sometimes known as Jean, and then Jim—don’t really know why. She always wanted to help the underdog, the underprivileged, the downtrodden. Jim Watts had heard Emma Goldman give an impassioned talk about women’s rights; how abortions should be legal (this was in the 1930s), and other ideas way ahead of their time. Jim Watts’ father looked down on such notions. Father and daughter were always at odds.

Mr. Watts thought that Hitler had some good ideas and didn’t think he was so bad. Jim Watts was more politically aware, so again they wrangled. She joined a theatre company that did political theatre that didn’t really succeed. Jim Watts began writing for a new political publication.  Finally, when Jim Watts read about the Spanish Civil war, she wanted to go and support them. But women were not allowed to fight so she offered her services as a reporter to the Daily Clarion. Her father was angry and her mother was just embarrassed but still a bit supportive.

Because women were not allowed near the front, Jim Watts wrote human interest stories about ordinary people, usually women, and what they endured. Jim Watts interviewed Norman Bethune, whom she found arrogant and pompous, but had great ideas when it came to helping the wounded. Bethune wanted to help both sides if they were injured.

Playwright Beverley Cooper says that she is writing a fictional account of real events, so she took literary license when writing.  There is a terrific scene in which Jim Watts meets Dorothy Parker, Lillian Hellman, Martha Gelhorn and Ernest Hemingway in a bar in Spain. Did it really happen? Who knows, but it’s a great scene. (Note: Martha Gelhorn was herself a celebrated war correspondent, and eventually the third wife of Ernest Hemingway).

Jim Watts decided to become more involved in the Spanish war effort and became an ambulance driver in Spain. Jim Watts was one of three women who were considered officially in the MacKenzie-Papineau regiment of the International Brigade fighting fascism in Spain. She eventually came home and continued her various crusades to make a difference.

The connection of the youth in the 1930s and today is palpable.  In the 1930s the youth felt isolated and disaffected by the world around them. There was upheaval, a world divided. Sounds familiar. Today we are in turmoil. There are wars and conflicts and again the youth of today are isolated and disaffected. I think that COVID had a lot to do with it, but on the whole, the conditions are the same. The youth protest as the only way they can be heard.

As for the production, it’s terrific. There is a huge cast of professional actors, some up and coming actors and community actors. The result is a seamless whole endeavor in which everyone is totally committed.

Director Kim Blackwell uses the whole space of the Winslow family farm: the barnyard, the near meadows and a vintage truck that drives into and out of scenes to stand in for a 1930s ambulance.

Katie Ryerson plays Jim Watts and she is impassioned, tenacious and compelling. Matt Gilbert is a bull-headed Norman Bethune and is full of charisma. Hilary Wear plays many parts but her Emma Goldman is sparky and forceful.  Anita La Selva plays a vary regal Mrs. Watts, a passionate Spanish leader known as La Passionaria, and a wonderful Flamenco dancer, for which she also did the choreography. This is a hugely accomplished cast.

Special mention should be made of Justin Hiscox’s original music. It’s stirring, beautifully haunting, melodic, tender and so perfectly accompanies the scenes.  

I loved how Beverley Cooper created characters who want to change the world but are overwhelmed by the enormity of it all. But they don’t stop.  They are not defeated. They are frustrated and angry, but they are tenacious.

We live in a world that is full of the accomplishments of single people who would not be deterred and did in fact change the world.  I think Jim Watts is one of them.

4^th Line Theatre presents:

Plays until Aug. 24, 2024.

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

www.4thlinetheatre.on.ca

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