Search: Dark Heart

 

At the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ont.

Written by Lisa Ryder

Directed, choreographed by Monica Dottor

Set and costumes by Monica Dottor

Lighting by Oz Weaver

Sound by Richard Feren

Music by Richard Feren and Selina Martin

Cast: Tess Degenstein

Selina Martin

Jordan Pettle

Lisa Ryder

A wild, creative play about postpartum depression in a production that is compelling.

 The Story. NOTE: While the characters have been created by Selina Martin and Lisa Ryder, Lisa Ryder is writing about her own experience with postpartum depression after she had her first child.

Ryder says in her program note that she had been birthing the play for a long time, 13 years to be exact. She is an actress who had been in a sci-fi show for five years.  Within a year and a half of leaving the show she got married, moved to the suburbs of Vancouver and had a baby.

Within three days of having the baby her then husband, also an actor, left town for an acting job, leaving her with a colicky baby, a leaky roof she has to arrange to have fixed, and a profound lack of sleep that is perhaps driving her squirrely. Lisa Ryder has put all this in her play, plus a lot of compassion and humour.

In the play Alice has just had a baby and is stressed with lack of sleep and having to be alert for her cranky baby who doesn’t seem to sleep much.  Alice’s husband Guy is not painted as totally heartless.  He is loving, attentive, always urges her to get some rest.

But he is pre-occupied with going to his acting gig.  And there is the leak in the roof and he expects her to call the roofers and get them to fix it, and take care of the baby, and get rest.

Here is where things get wild. Alice tries to get some sleep when the two roofers arrive, wearing jumpsuits, glitter footwear, wild hair dos and goggles.  They are named Fluff Pup and Cloudy Twilight. They scurry around the furniture, jump on it, act weird. And they take a keen interest in the baby. Ones antennae goes up…who are these people? Are they trying to hurt the baby?

I think it’s obvious that Alice is hallucinating, conjuring these two weird roofers, she is so tired. And there are those thoughts when a new mother is so tired and overcome with taking care of this helpless baby that her thoughts might turn dark.

The Production. Director, Monica Dottor, establishes this darkness right from the get-go. A young woman with a baby in her arms approaches a line on the floor of the set and on the other side it says, Mind the Gap, as in the subway system in London.  The woman wavers, looks distraught, blank, whatever you think.  We hear the sound of a subway train approaching and the mother doesn’t look like it will end well. Just as quickly we go into the play specifically with Alice, her husband and the baby.

Humour is there between Alice and Guy and certainly with the loopy roofers, but we have been primed to be watchful for strange behaviour. If anything Alice is obsessed with listening to the device that can tell her if the baby is crying in another room. If she hears nothing she thinks something is wrong besides the child being asleep.

Director Monica Dottor is such a rock star of a director.  Here she is also the choreographer and designed the simple set and costumes—the wild roofers are hilarious. There are puff-ball clouds above the set, a simple well used sofa and a crib.

Dottor’s production is bold, lively, graceful, and sometimes over the top with the two loopy roofers. Because Dottor is also a choreographer, there is a fluidity to the movement: characters follow each other around almost like the Marx Brothers routine.

And because the cast is so well suited there is an abundance of humour to it all with that undercurrent of seriousness not far away.

As Alice, Tess Degenstein seems so drawn and tired, but still tries to put on a brave face. You do believe she is a stressed out new mother.  She is fearlessly protective of her baby with these two strange roofers.

Jordan Pettle is sweet as Guy the attentive husband, but then scattered and thoughtless when he can’t understand how overwhelmed she is. Both Lisa Ryder as Cloudy Twilight and Selina Martin as Fluff Pup are both loopy and forbidding in their wildly humorous turns as the two roofers. Their smiles seem demonic and not at all friendly.

Comment. We have read stories of new mothers doing harm to themselves and their babies because of postpartum depression and that thought is front and centre with that first scene with the mother, baby and oncoming subway train.

I love Lisa Ryder’s bravery in writing about this really important subject that does not get much attention. And she has written about it in such a compelling, inventive way.

I do have a concern. I thought that the hallucination scene went on too long.  It leaves Alice in a confused, vulnerable position without self-knowledge on how to deal with it.

When the hallucination ends and Guy comes home Alice seems happy for his return, but the play goes on with another scene that echoes the one at the beginning with a different result (I hope I’m being properly vague). I feel the ending is too abrupt and the result not actually earned. I think that needs a rethink and perhaps a tweak here or there. But on the whole, it’s a needed observation of a taboo subject. And it’s given a terrific production.

Nightwood Theatre and Bald Ego present:

Began: March 26, 2019.

Closes: April 14, 2019.

Running Time: 70 minutes.

www.nightwood.net

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Shorter reviews:

The Wonder Pageant

 At the Coal Mine Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Created by Kayla Lorette and Ron Pederson

Lighting by Mark Andrada

Costumes by Sim Suzer

Set by Anna Treusch

Cast: Matt Baram

Jan Caruana

Kayla Lorette

Waylen Miki

Paloma Nuñez

Ron Pederson

Kris Siddiqi

Full disclosure: Improv is not one of my favourite forms of theatre. However, when it is done as well as this group of wildly gifted improv comedians then everything is right with the world.

The company of six (with their talented accompanist, Waylen Miki) is ready to load us with holiday cheer. They are dressed in appropriately cheesy Christmas sweaters with one person (Matt Baram) sporting a festive Hannukah version complete with menorah and the words: “Let’s Get Lit.”

Co-creator Ron Pederson tells us the rules: there are none. They have no idea what they will be doing or to whom they will be doing it. It’s obvious they have worked together before because there is a rapport, a short-hand and a keen knowledge of how to riff off each other to create the best comedy sketch. They are quick, smart, inventive and work as a cohesive unit with no one trying to out do the other.

The audience is encouraged to suggest words, subjects etc. for the company to use for their skits. The woman next to me was partial to the words: “sex”, “cocaine” and “booze.” (I want to know what she was smoking before she got to the theatre, but I digress).

There were skits about fidelity, relationships, love, faking singing Christmas songs and any number of things that pop up on various nights.

Brave Jan Caruana ventured into the audience to zero in on an unsuspecting person for inspiration. By talking to that person and getting information about their lives, Caruana and the rest of the troupe would fashion a skit. Caruana approached a woman opposite me on the aisle. She said, “Hi, what’s your name?” “Karen” came the answer. Caruana continued. “And what do you do?” (I subtly smiled and shook my head, thinking: “Oh Jan Caruana, you know not what you do…”) Karen said, “You don’t want to know what I do.” Caruana couldn’t turn back now. “Yes, I do.” Karen said, “I’m a theatre critic for the Toronto Star.”

Now, I wouldn’t say that the look that flashed over Jan Caruana’s face was terror, or even a hint of gas, in any case the revelation that Jan Caruana had approached Karen Fricker of the Toronto Star resulted in the room erupting in laughter—always music to a comedienne’s ears. Caruana gently learned enough about Fricker for her and her colleagues to create a funny and memorable skit. It was all done with wit, consideration, respect and humour.

The evening goes like the wind. Skits invariably end on a high note, just before they over stay their welcome. Perhaps there is a secret code the cast uses to convey the end a skit, but I couldn’t see it. Needless to say Connor Low, the troupe’s stage manager knew instinctively when to snap the lights out for full effect.

The holidays are upon us. It can be a stressful time. The Coal Mine Theatre has the perfect solution to relieve that stress and give you great cheer. It’s called The Wonder Pageant.

The Coal Mine Theatre Presents:

Plays until Dec. 23, 2018.

Running time: 75 minutes.

www.coalminetheatre.com

 

No Clowns Allowed

At the Assembly Theatre, 1479 Queen St. W, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Bri Proke

Directed by Katrina Darychuk

Designed by Bri Proke and Imogen Wilson

Lighting by Imogen Wilson

Sound by Miss Langley

Cast: Emmelia Gordon

Xavier Lopez

Bri Proke writes about death in a wildly imaginative way. No Clowns Allowed is her first play. I look forward to more.

Death is not really final in Bri Proke’s intriguing play No Clowns Allowed. For example 18-year-old Emile (Xavier Lopez) is preparing for his birthday by decorating his tombstone with streamers, ribbons and a sign that says “Happy Birthday.”  His grave-mate, Sheila (Emmelia Gordon), is not impressed. Her grave is next to Emile’s. His space is neat. Hers is strewn with her empty beer cans. Even in death she drinks. Sheila is one unhappy dead person.

There are hints that both Emile and Sheila committed suicide but it’s deliberately not clear. Sheila was unhappy in her marriage. Her husband ran a bowling alley and spent more time there than at home with her. She drank to ease her depression at the situation. She was angry, perhaps vulgar and now that she was dead she didn’t think her husband thought of her at all. He certainly didn’t come and visit the grave. But even in death she was unhappy. There is a way of solving that. A radio station for the dead offers three pills taken over time that will erase all memory of the life before the dearly departed arrived at their grave site. Sheila is on that road. Emile tries to reason her out of doing it.

Director Katrina Darychuk has directed the production with a sure hand that never lets the emotions of the characters run away with them. She keeps a fine balance with both Emmelia Gordon as Sheila and Xavier Lopez as Emile either joke with each other or spar. The stakes are high. Emile wants Sheila to stay and keep him company, but he also knows that more ‘life’ in death can be rejuvenating.

Emmelia Gordon as Sheila is hard-edged, irritated when she drinks and when she doesn’t. She views Emile as an annoyance. She will defend her space as long as she can. She has a dark sense of humour and an anger to go with it. As Emile, Xavier Lopez is eager to please, wiry, boyish and has a delicate charm that is endearing.

Bri Proke’s play has a quirky, intriguing story. Her dialogue zips along and she has a neat turn of praise. No Clowns Allowed might take place in a graveyard with two wandering ghosts at odds with each other and the world they have departed, but make no mistake, this play is about challenging, difficult, bracing life in all its prickly, shining glory.

Blood Pact Theatre Presents:

Plays until Dec. 16, 2018.

 Running Time: 1 hour

www.theassemblytheatre.com

 

If on a Christmas Night… (Se una notte a Natale)

 At the Columbus Centre 901 Lawrence Ave, W, Toronto, Ont.

Written and directed by Daniele Bartolini

Production designs and interactive environments by Anahita Dehbonehie and Franco Berti

Costumes by Anahita Dehbonehie

Cast: Franco Berti

Danya Buonastella

Rory de Brouwer

Vincent Leblanc-Beaudoin

Raylene Turner

Daniele Bartolini

Heart-bursting, joyful, collaborative, wonderfully immersive, beautifully produced.

Daniele Bartolini, writer-director-theatre creator extraordinaire, is at it again. Not content to rest on his laurels by creating segments of three fascinating days of immersive street theatre in Barrie, Ont. and London, England as part of the Curious Voyage, his latest effort is If on a Christmas Night… that is interactive and immersive, that celebrates Christmas, family, community and Italian-Canadian culture. You don’t have to celebrate Christmas or be Italian to appreciate this wonderful embracing show.

The 30 or so audience members gathered in a large room in the Columbus Centre. We were shown a home movie of an Italian family that was newly arrived in Canada and about to celebrate Christmas. They were staying with an uncle, but they missed their own decorations that were locked in a trunk with their luggage. This set up a sense of longing but also opened us up to celebrate the season.

In a quick thrice the six actors of the troupe transformed that one big room into several smaller rooms using room dividers, doors, flats, curtains, tiles and chalk boards. Each room suggested a room in a house, full of mementos, photographs and old tablecloths.  The whole environment was designed by the wondrously inventive Anahita Dehbonehie and Franco Berti. They create a whole world with such subtle detail your jaw drops.

Our large group was divided into smaller groups of about four or five people. We went from room to room with our group to watch and be involved in small scenes. In one room a young woman (Danya Buonastella) told us in great detail, sometimes tearfully, of her family history of escape from Italy and elsewhere, death, sacrifice, love and finally salvation in Canada. One wanted to do her the courtesy of remembering all the names of who was related to whom and where they all came from. It wasn’t necessary of course; listening hard and appreciating the story was all that was needed.

We found ourselves in a kitchen with chalk boards for walls with a large wood table, the top of which was covered in flour. A round of dough was in the middle. A man (Franco Berti) communicated with us silently—he didn’t speak—he drew on the chalk board that he was an artist. He flattened the dough, smoothed it out to a thin round. Then he carefully flipped it into the air and expanded it to large pizza size as he tossed it. Masterful. He drew pictures in the flour on the table. His need for art was touching. His striving for it was as well. Of course cooking beautiful food is an art too. The man let us see that truth.

Perhaps the most wildly imagined segment involved Rory de Brouwer. In a gush of words he talked intensely about “time” and its importance; how he spent it, reveled in it, used it and found peace in contemplating it. He was in a room full of books and papers to occupy his time. It was the bathroom and I’m not telling you what he was doing there.

Perhaps my favourite room was a dining room with a round table covered in an old, cherished tablecloth. There was a box on the table and in it were questions we were to ask each other to get to know each other. I knew Derrick. Carmen and Lucy were strangers. We had questions such as: “What is your first memory of Christmas?” “Who will you miss this Christmas?” After a while we didn’t pick a question from the box because we were too busy talking and asking each other questions from our curiosity. Wonderful.

The last scene was in one of the rooms and the whole group gathered and sat in chairs arranged around the room. Drinks and various cookies were brought out. We each were given a glass and had either wine, juice or water. We were each told to clink glasses with out neighbours to our left and right, looking them straight in the eye and toasting them. We did this for everybody in the circle. Then we were invited to partake of the sweets.

Daniele Bartolini created this show to connect to and celebrate his Italian roots and his new Canadian community. He’s been here for six years. It is specifically about Italians, new Canadians, Christmas and celebrating. As is true of every story that is specific in its focus the rest of us who are not Italian and don’t celebrate Christmas will find resonance in our own lives that is comparable. It’s about community, celebration, embracing the lives of others, and connecting to strangers who become friends.

This is a wonderful show.

Presented by Villa Charities and the Columbus Centre, and created by DopoLavoro Teatrale (DLT)

Began: Dec. 4, 2018.

Closes: Dec. 23, 2018.

Running Time: 90 minutes

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/if-on-a-christmas-night-se-una-notte-a-natale-tickets

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At Theatre Passe Muraille, Mainspace, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Christopher Morris

Directed by Daniel Brooks

Set and costumes by Gillian Gallow

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Composer and sound design by Alexander MacSween

Cast: Gord Rand

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Opened: Nov. 10, 2018.

Closes: Dec. 9 2018.

Running Time: 65 minutes, no intermission.

www.passemuraille.ca

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In London, England, at an undisclosed site.

Music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim

Book by Hugh Wheeler

From an adaptation by Christopher Bond

Directed by Mitchell Cushman

Musical director, Tara Litvack

Movement director, Cameron Carver

Set and props designer, Joe Pagnan

Costumes by Alice Cousins

Lighting by Lucy Adams

Cast: Jahlen Barnes

Tess Benger

AJ Bridel

Izad Etemadi

Derek Kwan

Craig Lauzon

Mike Nadajewski

Glynis Ranney

Travis Seetoo

Michael Torontow

A thrilling conclusion to a very curious voyage.

The Story. Benjamin Barker was a loving husband to his wife Lucy and a loving father to their daughter Johanna. A slimy Judge Turpin also had eyes for Lucy, so he accused Benjamin of some trumped up charge and had him transported for life to Australia. Then the judge made the moves on Lucy by inviting her to a party. She thought he might be apologizing to her but he had other dastardly plans. Lucy would be the main entertainment, unbeknownst to her. The experience drove her mad. Judge Turpin then out of guilt brought up Joanna as his ward.

Years pass and Benjamin escapes and tries to ‘sail’ to England. He is found almost dead by a passing ship where he is tended by Anthony, a sailor on the ship, who then sees that Benjamin returns to England. Benjamin changes his name to Sweeney Todd and seeks out his old shop on Fleet Street. A woman named Mrs. Lovett runs the pie shop below the barber shop. She tells Sweeney that the place is haunted because of all the goings on up there, not very nice. She tells him the story of what happened and that Lucy was dead. Sweeney’s distraught reaction makes her realize that Benjamin Barker and Sweeney Todd are the same fellah. She even kept his old razors. Sweeney was going back in the barber business in order to get his revenge on the judge by slitting his throat, after giving him a ‘close’ shave. But first he needed to practice. The bodies pile up. What to do with them? Mrs. Lovett, ever resourceful, figures all that meat should not go to waste. If you get my meaning.

 The Production. (From the end of the post of day three of the Curious Voyage): “Then back out of the venue, along the canal, trying not to get killed by the cyclists who whizzed by (no I don’t think they were part of the narrative.) We went up another deserted street with strange buildings and a ramen restaurant along the way. We stopped at a derelict building, went down the stairs into the gloom of the place; forbidding, dark, murky lighting, no windows. wonderfully claustrophobic.  I made out characters frozen in a pose, in costumes from a different time. We sat on a bench around two sides of the space. There in a corner was a woman in front of an electric keyboard, a man with a cello and a woman with a violin. The lights dimmed to dark. There was a piercing whistle sound and the first urgent chords of the musical, and I did what I always do when I hear the beginning of Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, I burst into tears.”

The characters who are posed came to life as the first chords of Stephen Sondheim’s beautiful score were played. “The Ballad of Sweeney Todd” sets the tone and atmosphere for the show. “Attend the tale of Sweeney Todd. His skin was pale and his eye was odd. He shaved the faces of gentlemen, who never thereafter were heard of again.”

That about says it for a set up that makes you sit up and flinch. The music builds, gets more intense, more urgent until the Lucy Adams’s stark lighting goes up on the last character to move—Sweeney Todd, played by a gripping, hollow-eyed Michael Torontow. At this point Sweeney is blazing with the idea of revenge. At this point he feels that London is a place that is ‘full of people who are full of shit.” Cruel, mean, sordid—that’s London to Sweeney. There is an old beggar woman (a crazed, sexually explicit Tess Benger with moments of lucidity) who keeps bedevilling him and he keeps pushing her aside. As lurid as she is she seems to think she knows him. He has no use for such bother; he has a task to be done.

The tight-smiling, always calculating Mrs. Lovett, played by Glynis Ranney with verve and a look that keeps people wary, stakes her claim on Sweeney and won’t let him go. She strokes his anger but keeps him in check. It’s a masterful performance and Ranney sings like a dream too.  There is a spark between them. She is desperate to charm him. He is desperate to get Judge Turpin. But there are times when Lovett gives Sweeney a reason for living (what to do with all that meat)

Sweeney’s nemesis is Judge Turpin who is played with oily formidable confidence by Mike Nadajewski. This is a character that is twisted with desire for his ward, Joanna, (a wonderful twittery AJ Bridel)  but also guilt ridden because of it. I don’t get the sense he is guilt ridden by his past transgressions. Nadajewski sings with power and fearlessness.

The entire cast is strong and every single one of them does this production proud.

The multi-leveled set and the props were designed by the always inventive Joe Pagnan. This being an immersive production, director Mitchell Cushman ensures the audience followed the action up stairs to the second level where Sweeney’s barber shop is—the chair is simple; where Mrs. Lovett’s kitchen is (a working faucet, simple chairs), where she makes her meat pies; where the charlatan Pirelli (a glistening-eyed Izad Etemadi) tries to dupe Sweeney; then downstairs to follow Tobias (an innocent, possessive Jahlen Barnes) as he sings and waits in the smoke house. Upstairs the Beadle (a beautifully voiced Derek Kwan), the Judge’s henchman, comes to see what the stink is from the bakehouse. Matters ramp up quickly from there. Anthony (a sweet and trusting Travis Seeto) has fallen in love with Judge Turpin’s ward (and Sweeney’s daughter) and wants to run off with her. But first he has to dupe Fogg (played with delicious evil by Craig Lauzon) who runs the madhouse where Johanna is held prisoner.

Mitchell Cushman has directed a brisk, atmospheric production. Scenes are done in silhouette. The rape of Lucy by the Judge is both hideously vicious and gracefully balletic (he is on his knees and then lowered down by the other revellers over a prone Lucy, then raised up and lowered down.)

Sweeney kills the old beggar woman who came upon him when he was preparing for the Judge. (this is not a spoiler alert—the musical has been around the decades and everybody knows the story). But then he looks at her closely and realizes what he’s done. How many times have I seen that scene? How many ways can you say “Oh no!” (shouted in heartache, whispered in despair and disbelief, mouthed silently), and every single time I burst into tears. The final horror of a musical full of people living in horrible times.

All through the Curious Voyage we had to find a person who may or may not be in the show (he was, it was Anthony) and in a way Anthony offers a through line after the musical—how does he survive after? Does he now also believe that “London is a city full of people who are full of shit?” Possible. I’m not sure that conceit works, but it was interesting for the three day Curious Voyage narrative.

Comment. It’s interesting to see how the three days of the Curious Voyage, the encounters, the challenges to our moral thinking, questions about good and evil, whether we could kill anyone or not, all culminated in this musical that asks all those questions. One wonders if any of the people on our voyage was/is a Sweeney Todd, how can we tell, should we look harder at people we pass in the street?

The whole experience was terrific. I loved looking back and tracking the clues we gathered in Barrie, Ontario and London, England and then applying them to Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

There are plans afoot to do the Curious Voyage again in the future,  but this time in Barrie, Ontario and Toronto. It will culminate in a musical, but as Arkady Spivak, the whip smart Artistic Producer of Talk is Free Theatre never repeats himself, don’t assume he will be doing Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street again. I can hardly wait for his new scheme.

Presented by Talk is Free Theatre

Closed, gone but not forgotten, ever.

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At the Streetcar Crow’s Nest, Carlaw and Dundas, Toronto, Ont.

Written by Will Eno

Directed by Meg Roe

Set and costumes by Camellia Koo

Lighting by Kevin Lamotte

Sound and music by Alessandro Juliani

Cast: Karl Ang

Kristopher Bowman

Fiona Byrne

Benedict Campbell

Claire Jullien

Corrine Koslo

Jeff Meadows

Peter Millard

Natasha Mumba

Moya O’Connell

Gray Powell

A remount of the exquisite 2017 Shaw Festival production of this play that glistens with humanity,  this time playing  at Crow’s Theatre in Toronto with almost the whole original cast.

The Story. We are in Middletown, middle-America. The town’s people are going about their daily business. Robert the cop is diligent in his efforts to ferret out any one who looks suspicious. That usually means the town drunk who gets Robert’s physical abuse which is usually excessive.

Mary and her husband have just moved to Middletown. Because he’s always away on business Mary has to move in herself. She meets John the local handyman at the library. The librarian is very helpful and cheerful to everybody. Tourists come to town and are curious about everything. An astronaut lives there. Life goes on and in one case it doesn’t. It’s sort of a day in the life of the town. (Sound familiar?)

The Production. The playing space of the Guloien Theatre at the Crow’s Nest is smaller than the Jackie Maxwell Studio where the production played originally at the Shaw Festival, so adjustments had to be made to the staging. The audience is still seated around the playing area.

The cast enters while the audience is filing in and they—the cast– are generally busy on all fours, white tubes of paint at the ready, as they fill in the town of Middletown on the floor. They work in unison filing in storefronts, boxes for houses, signs of locations and outlines of streets.

Often the cast would greet audience members they knew or welcomed those they didn’t as per the Shaw production.

When the play proper begins, a towns-person, the affable Claire Jullien, greets the audience citing every conceivable person, profession, job, race, creed etc. and anyone she left out. Robert the moody cop (a commanding Benedict Campbell) acts as the narrator of sorts, a kind of linking guide, but not obtrusively so.

The central couple are Mary (Moya O’Connell), the lady on her own while her travelling husband works and John (Gray Powell), the handyman, curious about so many things for the moment and mournful and uncertain about life and his place in the world. Moya O’Connell, as Mary, shimmers with anxious optimism, trying to convince herself that moving to a new town and having a baby (I guess her husband was home once) will work and perhaps solve her problems. Her smile is bright with effort. She’s trying hard to fit in, be optimistic and appear happy. It’s a performance that breaks your heart for all the right reasons. O’Connell also listens so keenly she makes us listen harder too. It’s a pity O’Connell won’t be at the Shaw Festival again for this year.

As John, Gray Powell is a mass of twitches, scratching, insecurity, non-sequiturs and disarming charm. He is a reliable handyman and can fix things that need it. It’s just that John is alone and lonely. He hangs on to Mary, hoping there might be a relationship there. He flits from idea to idea, new curiosity to new curiosity. It’s just that he can’t latch on to any thing or anyone to anchor him. There is such subtlety in Powell’s playing of John that it too is a heartbreaking performance.

Jeff Meadows plays the town drunk who is a bit of a mystery. Is he suffering from PTSD from being in the military? We aren’t really sure. He does have demons. He spends most of his time either trying to avoid Robert the cop and bedevilling the townspeople by lurking outside their windows, making odd sounds. Meadows has a lanky, subdued way about him, and an overwhelming sadness.

Corrine Koslo, as the librarian, is new to the production. She replaces Tara Rosling. Koslo is welcoming, cheerful to one and all at that library and helpful. She knows everybody, is non-judgmental, accommodating and very funny. Koslo is such a gifted actress. Pity she hasn’t been in the company for a few years, but am glad of her presence here.

The production is directed with breathtaking sensitivity and intelligence by Meg Roe. She has a vision of the play and how to bring it beautifully to an audience. In one scene John has to fix a clogged drain for Mary. A cabinet and sink formation is wheeled on. John gets down under the sink to attend to the pipe. This means that people on other sides of the playing area can’t see what he’s doing. So Meg Roe has Gray Powell as John turn the cabinet a quarter then go under the sink so that all sides of the theatre get a look. Brilliant.

Comment. The 20^th century had Thornton Wilder’s Our Town to speak for it. It’s a play about a ‘day’ in the life of a small town in New Hampshire. All the people knew and cared about each other, even the town drunk. They went about their daily business with conviction, industriousness and purpose. People fell in love, married, had children, died and wished they could come back to earth for just one more day to see the people they loved.

Will Eno’s Middletown is a play for the 21^st century. It has some people who care about others—the lovely librarian, a doctor who gives the town drunk some pills that will help his ‘head-ache;—but on the whole the tone is darker, more introspective, brooding. It’s applicable to the times we live in, with concerns we all experience.

The production is exquisite. Bravo to Chris Abraham, Crow’s Theatre’s Artistic Director, for working to bring this gift of a production to Toronto.

A Crow’s Theatre Production in partnership with the Shaw Festival.

Opened: Nov. 16, 2018.

Closes: Dec. 1, 2018.

Running Time: 2 hours, 30 minutes.

www.crowstheatre.com

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Emma Sangalli
Photo: Scott Gorman

 

At Hart House Theatre, Toronto, Ont.

Book, music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy

Based on the film (1989) written by Daniel Waters.

Directed by Jennifer Walls

Musical director, Giustin MacLean

Choreographer, Amanda Nuttall

Set by Brendan Kleiman

Costumes by Erin Frances Gerofsky

Lighting and projections by Melissa Joakim

Cast: Hunter Agnew

Rose-Ingrid Benjamin

Moulan Bourke

Mary Bowden

Aaron Cadesky

Paige Foskett

Becka Jay

Wade Minacs

Justan Myers

Emma Sangalli

Mark J. Umphrey

Ensemble:

Taha Arshad

Justine DeSouza

Connor Ferris

Maggie Gallagher

Fay Gamliel

Jacob Moro

Bohdan Onushko

Madison Sekulin

Allison Leia Wall

In spite of a production with a talented cast with strong voices, lively direction by Jennifer Walls and energetic choreography by Amanda Nuttall, in today’s social awareness, Heathers the Musical is hideous.

The Story. Veronica Sawyer is a 17-year-old high school student who is desperate to fit into the ‘in’ crowd known as “the Heathers”—three young women, all named Heather, who are supremely confident, beautiful and are envied for it. The Heathers are also cruel. They never met another insecure kid (either boy or girl) they couldn’t bully, degrade or manipulate for their own pleasure. Veronica is one of their targets to taunt. Martha Dunnstock is another. Martha believes one of the boys in high school has liked her since kindergarten when he kissed her all those years before. The three mean girls are going to play a trick on Martha by sending her a friendly note as if it came from that high school boy, inviting her to his party. The Heathers are going to use Veronica to write it—she’s a whiz at copying other people’s handwriting—saying that they will include her in their circle if she agrees to forge the note. They also give her a make-over to make her look more presentable to them. Veronica is so desperate for their favour she forges the note, even though she knows it’s cruel to Martha.

Veronica becomes friends with Jason “J.D” Dean, a mysterious, moody, Baudelaire- quoting teen in her class. He seems to have suffered a painful time growing up: mother has died, father is a bully and distant with his son. J.D. has his own ideas of how to rid the school of such cruel people as the Heathers, an idea that mortifies Veronica. Their friendship grows deeper with serious consequences.

Veronica’s high school seems a hot-bed of cruelty, body-shaming, manipulation, bullying and occasionally violence. The teachers are ineffectual or self-promoting and don’t care about the students. The parents are just as bad: absent, cold, critical without kindness and condescending. It all comes to a disastrous head.

 The Production. Director Jennifer Walls beautifully establishes the world of these teens from the minute the audience files into the theatre. Videos flash on a large screen at the back of the stage. Rock music blares out.

Set designer, Brandon Kleiman has created a set that consists of a wide bank of red stairs offering various levels on which to play. Of course Veronica would be impressed with the Heathers as they stand at the top of the bank of stairs and pose, looking down on their adoring minions. Jennifer Walls creates many moments like this with skill and confidence. The company charge up and down the stairs or dance on or in front of them. The always reliable choreographer, Amanda Nuttall has created choreography for her talented cast that establishes a breathless sense of momentum, pace and energy.

Writers Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s characters are one-dimensional for the most part and so the performances valiantly play that one dimension with commitment. Only the character of Veronica has dimension. Only Veronica has a voyage from yearning to join the Heathers, knowing in her heart they are hateful, to concern when she has embraced their mean ways and finally reaching enlightenment. As Veronica, Emma Sangalli clearly illuminates Veronica’s conflict when dealing with the Heathers and J.D. when she realizes how damaged and dangerous he is. Sangalli has a strong, beautiful voice as well.

Mary Bowden (Heather Chandler) Paige Foskett (Heather Duke) and Becka Jay (Heather McNamara) portray their cool, ‘care-less’ Heathers with lots of attitude and withering disdain. Justan Myers as Jason “J.D” Dean reveals J.D’s intelligence, confidence and quiet rage at the world. His character is frightening and Myers methodically, carefully builds on that.

The sound is a problem. While the rock score dictates that it should be played loud, the sound is so overly amplified (both the band and the cast are microphoned) and not properly balanced, that Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy’s lyrics are distorted and you can’t  be made out clearly. That’s not a good thing. But when the lyrics are read on line it’s one banal lyric after another.  And the music is not memorable; not a melody, or even a hint of a song, sticks in the memory.

 Comment.  Heathers The Musical is based on Heathers the 1989 cult film described as a dark comedy-satire. Interestingly the film’s director, Michael Lehmann (in a BBC Culture story by Emma Jones, Aug. 2018 on line) says: “…Heathers as a film could not work now—and it’s not necessarily because of the associations with suicide. It’s because of the violence in schools now and the way it’s often presented as a response to bullying….No one would want to make a comedy that touches on high school violence in that way.”

But that is what Heathers the Musical has done. In London, England it’s billed as an ‘hilarious comedy.” And that raucous laughter I heard roaring on opening night suggests that is the funny tone that writers Laurence O’Keefe and Kevin Murphy are going for.

Heathers The Musical concerns a checklist of teenage troubles: suicide, bullying, wanting to fit in, being ostracized, manipulation, cruelty, peer pressure, fear of being gay, attempted rape etc. unloving parents, ineffectual teachers. It all whizzes by without any deep exploration but lots of laughs. Is that the point? Hideous.

For O’Keefe and Murphy all the characters except Veronica are one dimensional. Not one teen evolves or grows in any way, except Veronica. There is not one caring adult. Parents are either condescending and negative to their children or dim. Teachers are ineffectual, ou tof their depth and have no talent for teaching teens.

It’s all written with a liberal dose of smarminess. It’s not good enough to be satire or smart enough to suggest a solution. The ending is simplistic slop. Veronica rushes forward, looking at the audience, her cast of characters behind her and sings they must stop the violence and bullying and that loving each other will stop the cycle of violence and all will be ‘beautiful.’  And it ends with everybody hugging each other. Ugh. Not earned.

Really? Love each other? Isn’t that what we say after every massacre when a crazed  person mows down innocent people on a sidewalk with his van; or shoots innocent people on the Danforth; or kids commit suicide because of bullying?

The message is sung to the converted! The message should be sung to the people who need it, standing behind Veronica,—those unrepentant bullies; those damaged kids with guns ready to blow away anyone they deem is bad; those cruel kids who dangle acceptance into their rarefied circle in front of kids who have to humiliate themselves to gain that odious acceptance.

The world has changed drastically since 1989. Society just won’t tolerate making light and jokes about the behaviour of the characters in Heathers the Musical.

Choosing to do this show in this day and age without a scintilla of attention and awareness to what is actually happening to our youth, is plain insensitive.

How about this: 1) Take the word HEATHERS. 2) Remove the “S”.  3) Now spell what’s left backwards: REHTAEH. 4) Now add the last name of PARSONS. 5) Rehtaeh Parsons was a teen from Nova Scotia who killed herself in 2013 because of bullying and on-line shaming, one year before Heathers The Musical was first produced Off-Broadway. You couldn’t avoid reading her name in the media, on social media and talking about it for months. As reported in various newspaper reports, Leah Parsons, Rehtaeh’s mother, chose her daughter’s name of Heather and spelled it backwards because it sounded pretty. I couldn’t help NOT thinking about that fact while I watched Heathers the Musical. A hardworking, committed cast and crew for sure. But the material is hideous in light of a changing world and should be put permanently in a drawer.

Produced by Hart House Theatre

Opened: Sept. 21, 2018.

Closes:  Oct. 6, 2018.

Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes.

www.harthousetheatre.ca

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More from Summerworks:

At the Theatre Centre, 1115 Queen St. W., Toronto, Ont.

 

Body of Fluorescent

Co-created by Amanda Cordner and David Di Giovanni

Directed by David Di Giovanni

Performed by Amanda Cordner

Guest performer, Leila

Amanda Cordner gives a powerful performance about the black woman’s image of herself. She plays several characters: Shaneese, an angry, bold black woman who takes no prisoners and wants to dance and have fun, and God help anyone who gets in her way; Desiree, a friend who breaks up a fight between Shaneese and another person; a quiet spoken black woman (sorry, I didn’t get her name), and Gary a gay white kid who idolizes Shaneese.

Cordner creates a compelling show about a black woman’s identity. Should she be quiet and demure like our unnamed woman or bold, loud, angry and combative like Shaneese? Gary tries to use black vernacular when talking to Shaneese and at one point uses jive talk and the ‘N’ word  in a phone message to her. She reflexively begins to text a reply until she realizes what he’s done. He’s presuming upon her identity, using a word he  does not own. Serious stuff.

But Leila, who describes herself as a ‘real-live Persian Princess’, offers wild coming relief as only she can.

Cordner, as always is a compelling performer. As Shaneese she is an extroverted, sensual dancer and really angry character; as the demure woman, she is contained, watchful and thoughtful. Gary is a loose-limbed kid who wants and needs to belong somewhere. All those goes to create an arresting show of identity, awareness and an idea of self-worth.

Performances left:

Sat. Aug. 18, 1:15 pm

Sun. Aug. 19, 7:15 pm

www.summerworks.ca

 

the aisha of is

Created and performed by Aisha Sasha John

Lighting by Vishmayaa Jeyamoorthy & Jennifer Lennon

This is listed as a dance/interdisciplinary piece. Dance vocabulary is always a mystery to me so I seek out dance pieces to try and learn what the pieces are trying to say. Even if the message is obscure or there is no message at all, most of the time it’s an interesting exercise.

Aisha Sasha John begins by negotiating across he floor in small steps, her hands tightly flowing over each other. She sits in front of a computer upstage, facing downstage. Her face and what she types appears on a large screen behind her.  What she types is cryptic in meaning. She puts on lipstick. During the show she removes clothing revealing another outfit, dress, pants. She sits on the floor and takes out what looks like make-up. She has a bowl of water in front of her and carefully washes her face and dries it. She dances in other configurations. At one point she stands on the top step of a small two step thing,  she takes out a large scroll, unfurls it and begins reading in a voice so quiet, not projected, I could not make out most of it. I was sitting in the third row. She steps down to the first step and keeps reading, then stands on the floor and reads and then slowly ends up almost prone as she continues to read. At the end of the show she said the poem was available outside by donation.

I have no idea what this show is about.

Performances left:

Thursday, Aug. 16      9:15 pm

Saturday, Aug. 18      12:00 pm

 

Box 4901

Written by Brian Francis

Directed by Rob Kempson

Set and costumes by Brandon Kleiman

Sound by Adrian Shepherd-Gawinski

Lighting by Cosette Pin

Performers: Bilal Baig

Hume Baugh

Keith Cole

Izad Etemadi

Daniel Krolik

Michael Hughes

Tsholo Khalema

Eric Morin

Kyle Shields

Chy Ryan Spain

Jonathan Tan

Chris Tsujiuchi

Geoffrey Whynot

In 1992 novelist Brian Francis, then 21 and a student at the University of Western Ontario, placed an ad in the personal column of the London Free Press, looking for companionship, a relationship, company, etc. He got many replies. He did not reply to 13 of them and now, 26 years later he does.

Brian Francis reads each letter in turn out loud to us and then his reply. The letters to him range from being sweet, snarky, suggestive, open-hearted, funny, irreverent and representative of how gay men then, connected. When Francis replies, he does so from the lens of being 26 years older, mature-minded and wise. He too is very funny but in a thoughtful way.

Rob Kempson has the 13 ‘correspondents’ walk across the back of the theatre and at various times assume a pose or get into a kind of formation that is never distracting and always serves the piece. As Brian Francis reads each letter in turn, the man it is intended to listens and then stands at the back until the last man’s letter is read. We always wonder if one of these 13 men could have been Mr. Right and so does Mr. Francis.

What an intoxicating thing it is to see 13 gay actors breathe life, sex and heart into this intriguing show. Beautifully done.

Performances left:

Tues. Aug. 14    5:00 pm

Sun. Aug. 19      4:45 pm

 

Swim Team

Written by Jaber Ramezani

Directed by Aida Keykhaii

Lighting by Chin Palipane

Cast: Banafsheh Taherian

Parya Tahsini

Sarah Saberi

Tina Bararian

A fascinating idea. Four Iranian women meet in an appartment to learn how to swim—in a place that has no water. Roya is the woman who will teach them to swim. The apartment and the imagined exercise provides a kind of safe haven. Roya was a swim coach and is qualified to teach the three young women.

A pool is marked off by scarves that are tied together—wonderful image. Aida Keykhail’s direction is full of wonderfully vivid images, ideas and a created humanity. Jaber Ramezani has written a thoughtful, unsettling play that should be expanded or at least fleshed out. Little is said about what these women endure and the politics that bind them, until the very end. That seems tacked on. It should be re-thought and developed. The women try and move a mattress into the ‘living’ room but are unsuccessful. It’s hard to make out why they needed to move it and why they abandoned it. At the top of the show they are all talking Farsi? without a translation. That leaves the audience in the dark. Either cut it or put all that dialogue into English. This is too good an idea of a play to leave your audience in the dark. Other than that, terrific.

Performances left:

Sun. Aug. 19   6:00 pm

www.summerworks.ca

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At the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre, St. Catharines, Ont.

Part of the Foster Festival.

Written by Norm Foster

Directed by Patricia Vanstone

Designed by Peter Hartwell

Lighting by Chris Malkowski

Cast: Kirsten Alter

Peter Kranz

Amanda Parsons

A typical Norm Foster show full of humour and humanity, irascible characters and forgiveness.

 The Story.  Come Down From Up River  is a world premiere from Norm Foster, a Canadian writer who keeps churning out plays.  It’s part of the Foster Festival in St. Catharines and this is the festival’s third year.  This is the third play that Norm Foster has written that is set in Saint John, New Brunswick.

Shaver Bennett is a solitary, irascible man who lives in the woods of the Miramichi in Northern New Brunswick. He’s a logger. He has to go into Saint John, New Brunswick for medical tests.  He asks his niece Bonnie if he can stay at her place until the tests are over and then he will go home. He hasn’t seen Bonnie for at least 23 years because  he and his sister– Bonnie’s mother–had a terrible fight and that caused a rift in the family. Bonnie has been harbouring hard feelings about her uncle since then.   Lots to dredge up over the past 23 years and lots to explain.

Bonnie is a lawyer married to Liv Arsenault who is a graphic artist.  Bonnie is white and Liv is a woman of colour.  As far as Bonnie can remember Shaver has always been an angry, rigid thinking man and she sees no reason why he would change. She learns soon enough about holding a grudge and being forgiving.

The Production. This is a solid production. Peter Hartwell has designed a stylish single set of Liv and Bonnie’s living room with a door well up centre. There is a bar location extreme stage right when Shaver stops at a pub for a beer before going to Bonnie’s place, but for our purposes this is a single set. It’s well directed by Patricia Vanstone. She doesn’t have a character move unnecessarily. There is always a purpose and reason. Relationships are created with economy for the most meaningful results.  It’s well acted by Kirsten Alter as Liv, a forgiving open-hearted woman, and Amanda Parsons as Bonnie who is a bit of a rigid woman at first. The real surprise is Peter Kranz as Shaver. Peter Kranz spent a lot of time at the Shaw Festival playing buttoned-up characters who usually were very proper. Here he is almost unrecognizable with long hair and a messy beard.

As played by Kranz, Shaver is stoical, very funny and almost laid back.

The play does speak to today. Liv and Bonnie are married but they try to hide that from Shaver thinking he would not approve or understand. Bonnie’s assumptions of Shaver are disproved when he says he’s not shocked that Liv and Bonnie are married or that Liv is a woman of colour.  As Shaver says to both Bonnie and Liv, he might live in the woods by himself, but that doesn’t mean he’s stupid or unaware of the world.  Norm Foster gives Shaver quirky turns of phrases and a wry, dry sense of humour that Peter Kranz handles beautifully. Shaver is a man who wants to correct a wrong with his niece Bonnie. Bonnie needs to listen to his side of the story to find the truth about a secret in her life.

I do think the play goes on a bit too long and there are revelations that just seem to be ticking a box for relevance. Liv has a speech (given to Shaver) towards the end of the play about the racism she’s endured that I think would have been better placed when Shaver and Liv address the question of race when they first meet. Placing the speech at the end of the play just seems to be ‘tacked on”.

But on the whole Come Down from Up River is an enjoyable time in the theatre.

 Comment.  I went to Come Down From Up River because it is part of the Foster Festival in St. Catharines, and even though this is it’s third year, I’d never been. Often the cast is made up of actors who used to work at the Shaw Festival. Norm Foster just keeps churning out the plays that are easy entertainment. He’s very funny and often quite wise about the ways of the world. The plays are formulaic which is not a bad thing if it’s all done with skill, and Foster has skill.  There is usually a dilemma of some sort or other that the characters have to resolve—in this case Bonnie and Shaver have a lot of memories about their past hurts and wounds. Shaver seems to have mellowed over the years but Bonnie only remembers how he used to be and harbours resentment. It reminds me of a card I received once with a quote from Lillian Hellman: “People change and forget to tell each other.” Exactly.

Characters go over the hurts they endured, discover the person who hurt them has changed, and then go about resolving their differences.  Often the play could deal with issues of the day—same sex marriages, mixed marriages; bigotry etc.

Organizers in St. Catharines thought it would be interesting to have a festival of Norm Foster’s plays.  In a few cases the productions have been written especially for the Festival. They are world premiers, Come Down From Up River  being one of them. I think that’s a coup to have a few new plays specifically written for the festival.

And the venue of the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre seems new too—I could still smell the fragrance of the wood. We are greeted by volunteers and theatre staff and are guided every step of the way to the “indoor plumbing” or our seats etc. Every effort is made to make the audience feel welcomed. The last needed detail is to put the name of the theatre and it’s address on the program cover instead of burying it on page 27. Other than that, lovely.

The Foster Festival Presents:

Began: July 18, 2018.

Closes: Aug. 3, 2018.

Running Time: 2 hours 15 minutes, approx.

www.fosterfestival.com

 

Rosalynde (or As You Like It)

This is part of Driftwood Theatre Group’s Bard’s Bus tour that plays various dates in the Greater Toronto Area and also around the province.

Written by William Shakespeare

Directed by D. Jeremy Smith

Designed by Sheree Tams

Music composed and directed by Tom Lillington

Lighting by Michael Brunet

Puppets by Eric Woolfe and D. Jeremy Smith

Cast: Geoffrey Armour

Sochi Fried

Caroline Gillis

Ximena Huizi

Derek Kwan

Megan Miles

Ngabo Nabea

Eric Woolfe

A seat of the pants production played simply on the grass of a park to an appreciative, if rambunctious, audience. It made me imagine what it must have been like in Shakespeare’s day with the actors totally focused on their work playing to a sometimes raucous audience. The result was thrilling.

The Story. Rosalynde (or As You Like It)–why did they make up another title named Rosalynde? D. Jeremy Smith, the director and adapter of the play and great mind and founding Artistic Director behind the Bard’s Bus Tour, felt that since Rosalynde is the heart and soul of the play, she should have her name up front.

He has placed the play in 1918 in Ontario. It was the height of the women’s suffrage movement, prohibition and the First World War Women got the vote, but not all women—South Asians, Japanese, immigrants and Indigenous women would have to wait a very long time for their voices to be counted.  D. Jeremy Smith wanted to focus on women’s accomplishments—so parts of the play are readings from Nellie McClung the great Canadian icon who worked hard to champion women’s causes and various political writings, Susanna Moodie and others.

Shakespeare’s play, As You Like It is followed closely but with a Canadian twist. Instead of their being two brothers vying for the dukedom of a city, in this telling there are two brothers: Senior and Frederick who are co-owners of The Dukes’ Distillery who have split. Frederick banishes his brother Senior who escapes to the Forest of Arden for a simpler life. This being Prohibition, Frederick sells his booze illegally across the lake to the United States.

Rosalynde lives with her cousin Celia and Celia’s father Frederick. Frederick in a fit of peak banishes Rosalynde, as he did her father. This results in both Rosalynde and Celia leaving in disguise for the forest as well. But before that Rosalynde meets and falls in love with Orlando who is well born but badly treated by his brother. (There seems to be a theme here.). Orlando falls in love with Rosalynde as well. This being Shakespeare things get complicated.

The Production and Comment. So a play about romance, intrigue, subterfuge etc.  As is always the case with Bard on the Bus Tour this is playing in various parks around the province and the GTA, but there is a twist. D. Jeremy Smith has said that his city (Toronto) is changing. (He also lives in the Chester/Danforth area which considering the shocking events along the Danforth,  Sunday, July 22 is sobering). Generally Smith and his company used to play parks in the downtown core as a rule, so audiences that were predominantly white.

Not anymore.  He said that if he wanted to bring Shakespeare to a larger audience then he had to bring Shakespeare to every audience.  When I saw the play, Thursday, July 26, I saw it in Parma Court in the Eglinton/Victoria Park area. The next day they would play Oakdale Park in the Jane/Finch area. These are two neighbourhoods that have had their challenges with violence.  But on Thursday July 26 the Bard’s Bus Tour was bringing Rosalynde (or As You Like It) to Parma Court Park.

It had been raining so the ground was wet and that meant that the company could not use lights (when it got dark) or microphone the cast. There were a few barrels as props and the audience sat on the ground on ground coverings provided by the company, inches from the actors and imagined the world of the play and listened.

I and another person were the only white faces in the audience. The rest was a mosaic of Toronto; lots and lots of kids of colour all lively, rambunctious, talking while the play was on and yet listening. Parents and other adults came a bit later. The audience was treated to free cans of coke and potato chips. The kids were in heaven.

The cast was focused, committed to giving the best performance—Sochi Fried is a feisty, lovely Rosalynde—and not at all rattled by the kids’ occasional lack of attention. Geoffrey Armour as a lively, extroverted Touchstone, plopped himself down in the middle of the kids and delivered his lines to them and the cast while eating grapes. He put his hat on a kid beside him, who loved that. Ngabo Nabea is a strapping, courtly Orlando. I loved that as the kids chomped on their chips, they attempted some kind of a whisper as they talked right in front of the action, a sweet sign of respect. When Caroline Gillis as Jaques thoughtfully gave her “Seven Ages of Man” speech, a woman behind me quietly said part of the speech with her. Wonderful.

There are clever puppets in the show and the kids loved them as did the adults. They all stayed to the end for the most part. And when it was over they all applauded and some shouted for them to comb back and do it again. That was wonderful.

I imagine it must have been like this in Shakespeare’s day with the audience being rowdy and the cast having to be totally engaged in telling the story in order to grab the audience’s attention.  I thought the whole experience was thrilling. Bravo to Jeremy Smith for wanting to give all audiences a taste of Shakespeare and to his stalwart cast for bringing it to them.

The Bard’s Bus Tour presents:

Began: July 13, 2018.

Closes: Aug. 12, 2018.

Running Time: two hours.

Various locations around the GTA and Ontario.

www.driftwoodtheatre.com

 

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At the Young Centre for the Performing Arts.

Written by Beverley Cooper

Directed by Jackie Maxwell

Set by Camellia Koo

Costumes by Sue LePage

Lighting by Bonnie Beecher

Sound by John Gzowski

Cast: Akosua Amo-Adem

John Cleland

Christel Desir

Deborah Drakeford

Caroline Gillis

John Jarvis

Courtney Ch’ng Lancaster

Dan Mousseau

Nancy Palk

Berkley Silverman

A thoughtful, sensitive production of a bracing play about one of the worst incidents in our history—an innocent boy, Steven Truscott, was given the death penalty because of a miscarriage of justice.

The Story. In 1959, in Clinton, Ontario (near Stratford and Blyth) Steven Truscott, aged 14, gave his school friend Lynne Truscott, also aged 12, a ride on his bicycle to take her to meet some friends. He left her off at the bridge. He cycled away but turned to see her get into a car. Two days later she was found in the woods, dead, naked and raped. Steven was charged with murder. Eye witnesses saw him with Lynne on his bike driving to the bridge. They assumed he did it. People embellished their stories. He was tried as an adult and sentenced to death. There was an appeal and his sentence was changed to life in prison. He spent a long time in prison as an adult even though he was a young teen. A reporter, Isabel LeBourdais, thought there was something wrong with the whole trial and began asking questions. Then the truth was revealed.

The Production. Beverley Cooper has written a docudrama of the case that is full of heart-breaking situations, breathtaking moments of ‘what might have been’, and a clear illumination of the obvious miscarriage of justice in the case. Her technique is part narrative directly to the audience and part play in which characters interact and reveal themselves and the facts as a ‘straight play’ would do.

Camellia Koo’s set is bare and stark with a few props filling in the bits and pieces. Bonnie Beecher’s lighting is evocative and moody setting the atmosphere.

Jackie Maxwell has directed this with such a delicate hand. No one is really a villain. Rumor gets the better of everyone and they must go from there. They believe that what they saw was what had to have happened until they are proven wrong. And because of so many eye-witnesses to Steven and Lynne riding by, they naturally thought he had to have killed her. The police never took Steven seriously when he said he saw Lynne get into a car. They misinterpreted him no matter what he said, and it was easy to see a miscarriage of justice. There is a stunning scene in which a school chum of Steven’s, who thought he was innocent, meets him years later at a party. Jackie Maxwell has the adult Steven stand in light stage right which makes him appear in total shadow, the friend is stage left looking at him. They say nothing. It is so moving and so powerful.

Dan Mousseau plays Steven with such a sweet boyishness. He rides his bike across that stage with the confidence and fearlessness of a 14 year old who is loved, safe and free. His relationship with his mother (Caroline Gillis) is affectionate and caring. And she returns it. And she is naturally upset when he is accused. This is a woman trying to hold on and be calm for him. Nancy Palk as Isabel LeBourdais is methodical, measured and firm in her conviction that this young boy was innocent. The acting throughout is very fine, but Mr. Mousseau is a find. He’s one to watch for in the future.

Comment. Beverley Cooper has written a gripping play that reveals one of our darker moments. How people gave in to innuendo, conjecture and rumor and nearly sent an innocent boy to his death.

Presented by Soulpepper Theatre Company

First performance: May 14, 2018.

Closes: June 23, 2018/

Running Time: Two hours.

www.soulpepper.ca

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