VICTORIA THEATRE REVIEWS

Critics' Choice Spotlight Awards 2010-2011

2012-01-03T09:25:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year!

Here are the Critics' Choice Spotlight Awards for theatre productions in Victoria and Lower Vancouver Island for the season beginning September 2010 and ending August 2011. Awards were selected and voted on by David Lennam and myself (CBC Radio's On The Island), John Threlfall and Chris Felling (CVV Magazine), Adrian Chamberlain (Times-Colonist) and Amanda Farrell-Low (formerly of Monday Magazine).

Congratulations to all nominees and winners!!!

CRITICS CHOICE SPOTLIGHT AWARDS WINNERS 2010-11

SET DESIGN

Judith Bowden, Cinderella (Pacific Opera Victoria)

Nancy Bryant, Rodelinda (POV)

Narda McCarroll, The Trespassers (The Belfry)

Janet Munsil & Megan Newton, Influence (Intrepid Theatre)

WINNER: Narda McCarroll, The Trespassers

COSTUME DESIGN

Judith Bowden, Cinderella (POV)

David Hardwick, The Wizard of Oz (Victoria Operatic Society)

Cat Haywood, Twelfth Night (Phoenix Theatre)

Erin Macklem, Influence (Intrepid Theatre)

WINNER: David Hardwick, The Wizard of Oz

SOUND DESIGN

John Gzowski, It's A Wonderful Life (Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre)

Miles Lowry, Influence (Intrepid)

Joelysa Pankanea, The Life Inside (Belfry)

Tobin Stokes, The Cryptogram (Belfry)

WINNER: Joelysa Pankanea, The Life Inside

LIGHTING DESIGN

Bonnie Beecher, Cinderella (POV)

Kerem Çentinel, The Trespassers (Belfry)

Itai Erdel, The Life Inside (Belfry)

David Ferguson, Influence (Intrepid)

WINNER: Itai Erdel, The Life Inside

DIRECTION

Mark DuMez, The 39 Steps (Chemainus Theatre Festival)

David Ferry, Inside (Phoenix)

Linda Hardy, Twelfth Night (Phoenix)

Brian Richmond, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Blue Bridge)

WINNER: Brian Richmond, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

PERFORMANCE IN A COMMUNITY PRODUCTION

Kesinee Haney, Twelfth Night/Yerma (Phoenix)

Clayton Jevne, Moscow Stations (Theatre Inconnu)

Kyle Kushnir, Elizabeth Rex (Victoria Theatre Guild, Langham Court)

Chelsea Tucker, The Wizard of Oz (VOS)

WINNER: Clayton Jevne, Moscow Stations

PERFORMANCE IN A PROFESSIONAL PRODUCTION

Jennifer Clement, The Trespassers (Belfry)

Brian Dooley, The Trespassers (Belfry)

Vincent Gale, The Cryptogram (Belfry)

Meg Tilly, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Blue Bridge)

WINNER: Meg Tilly, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

MUSICAL PRODUCTION

2 Pianos, 4 Hands (Belfry)

Ride the Cyclone (Atomic Vaudeville)

[title of show] (Urban Arts)

The Wizard of Oz (VOS)

WINNER: Ride the Cyclone

BEST NEW PLAY

Chalk, by SNAFU

Influence, by Janet Munsil

Inside, by Daniel MacIvor

Son of Africville, by Justin Carter

WINNER: Inside

OVERALL PRODUCTION (COMMUNITY)

Elizabeth Rex (Langham)

Inside (Phoenix)

The Laramie Project (Langham)

Twelfth Night (Phoenix)

WINNER: Twelfth Night

OVERALL PRODUCTION (PROFESSIONAL)

2 Pianos, 4 Hands (Belfry)

The 39 Steps (Chemainus)

The Trespassers (Belfry)

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (Blue Bridge)

WINNER: Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

FRINGE PRODUCTION

Giving Into Light (DancingStorySinger)

Grim & Fischer: A deathly comedy in full-face mask (Wonderheads)

SmartArse (Rob Gee)

Tara Firm and the Lunar War Chronicles (Launch Pad)

WINNER: Grim & Fischer

THANK GOD THEY WERE COMPS!

Death of a Clown (Phoenix/Itsazoo)

Beauty Queen of Leenane and Jitters Reviews - November 21st, 2011

2011-11-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

Images, Top to Bottom: (L to R) Norman Browning as Phil, Kyle Jespersen as Robert, Ted Cole as George (kneeling) and Gerry Mackay as Nick (standing) (Credit: David Cooper); (L to R) Ted Cole as George, Jason Clift as Tom, Laurie Paton as Jessica, Norman Browning as Phil, Kyle Jespersen as Robert (in rear) (Credit: David Cooper); poster for The Beauty Queen of Leenane

1. A busy week last week with two new shows opening at the Belfry and Langham Court. Both shows are comedies, I understand, but very different from each other...what can you tell us about them?

Two very different comedies actually. The Beauty Queen of Leenane is an early play from Irish writer (who actually grew up in London and still lives there, but was born of Irish parents from County Galway). This play certainly sets the tone and style for many of McDonagh’s future plays, which often feature sharply satiric portrayals of rural living in Ireland, and also often contain violence as a key element. The humor is very much there in McDonagh’s razor-sharp writing, which I happen to love, and his characters are always strong, even in the midst of what can become horrific events. Beauty Queen centres around a highly toxic mother-daughter relationship that ends very, very badly as 40 year-old spinster virgin daughter Maureen tries one last ditch attempt to land a man and break away from her poisonous and ever-needy mother Mag. We find ourselves laughing as much in shock as in humor at the way these two women rip into each other, but by the end of this two-act play the laughs stop as Maureen takes action to prevent her mother from destroying her dreams. At the Belfry, we have a far more civilized comedy of manners, really, that pokes quite gentle fun at the egos and insecurities of the theatrical profession. Mounted by the Belfry as a fitting tribute to the late playwright David French, who passed away last year, this comedy gives us, act by act in this three-act play, a disastrous final rehearsal of a new play, the backstage further disasters that befall the company on opening night, and the after-effects of all this the afternoon following the play-within-a-play’s opening as the company reviews the reviews.

2. So let's focus on Beauty Queen of Leenane first...how did director Judy Treloar and her production team deal with this black comedy?

Treloar shows her deft hand as director, as seen many times at Langham Court including last season’s Elizabeth Rex. The back and forth between mother and daughter that forms the core of the play is handled exceptionally well, and Treloar has done what any director must do and has cast these two central roles with actresses who seem born to play these parts: Naomi Simpson shines in the role of Maureen and offers a portrayal that is equal parts tough as nails and fragile as cut glass, a terrific performance; Elizabeth Whitmarsh, a less experienced actress than Simpson, really surprises here and gives an effective portrait of a deeply-embittered woman. Both women are supported by Bill Adams as Pato Dooley, a potential love match for Maureen, and Paul Wiebe as Pato’s younger brother and reluctant messenger boy. While I felt the men’s work was slightly less well-realized than the women’s, I did like Adam’s quiet presence in his role…even though he is not quite the 40 year old burly building site laborer called for in the script, he plays the role with a nice energy and focus. Paul Wiebe is a young actor with lots of energy and is appealing onstage, but still needs to find the particular rhythm required to make an Irish dialect play flow, as he sometimes stepped over his acting partner’s lines. Perhaps he will find this over the course of the run. The set is well-designed, as always, by Bill Adams, whose sets are always a treat to see. I had a few complaints about sound cues which occasionally are too loud and would prefer the radio sound to come through an onstage speaker rather than play in the house, which becomes distracting for an audience when the radio music runs right through a climactic scene.

3. Now let's shift to the Canadian comic classic at the Belfry...how does that production manage the remounting of this 30+ year old play?

The strength of this remount of French’s love letter to the theatre is in its three central characters as played by three seasoned actors: Dean Paul Gibson as cantankerous and alcoholic Irish-Canadian Patrick Flanagan; Laurie Paton as Canadian actress/star Jessica Logan who has played Broadway and is now returning to the Toronto stage before her light dims; and Norman Browning as Phil Mastorakis, an older actor who has never managed to learn his lines properly, or to cope with stage fright. Watching these highly-skilled actors do their thing—under the capable hands of Patrick McDonald’s direction and a lovely revolving set design from Charlotte Dean (stay to watch it revolve during an intermission)—is the highlight of this show, in my view. These three core characters continually bicker and complain, as does everyone else in this dysfunctional ensemble, but in the end, all’s well that ends well, as the Bard would have it. The supporting cast all do just fine in their respective roles, particularly Ted Cole as constantly beleaguered director George Ellsworth and Kyle Jespersen as more than slightly neurotic playwright Robert Ross. The final four roles in this nine-person cast are all handled well, but are not particularly rewarding to play, as they are relatively thinly-sketched characters. In fact, my one issue with Jitters is the play itself. I saw a production of the play in Toronto many years ago, but my husband had to remind me last week that we had seen it way back when. Usually, my habit is to rapidly forget most films, but to remember plays very well. The reason I think I forgot seeing Jitters twenty-odd years ago is, quite frankly, because it is not a very memorable play. While it is charming enough, and elicits some laughs along the way, in my view it fails to dramatically deliver on its implied promise of the first two acts. Unlike the similarly-themed British comedy Noises Off, which eventually does show us how badly things can go when absolutely everything goes wrong in a performance, Jitters skips over the climactic opening night and instead gives us an anticlimactic Act 3 that has the cast bickering at the same level as the day before, after a successful opening night. My response to this is to feel a bit of a letdown, as though French couldn’t quite bear to present the nightmare vision that proves to be beyond hysterical in Noises Off, one of the funniest shows I’ve ever seen. So, while audiences might chuckle along in Jitters, and certainly will have the chance to admire three very fine Canadian actors doing their thing, overall I found myself wondering what better vehicle might this company be appearing in rather than this. One of French’s (better) dramatic plays, for example, such as Leaving Home or Of the Fields Lately?

4. Are you willing to recommend one over the other for busy listeners?

That’s actually an easier task than it sometimes is for me. I can thoroughly recommend Martin McDonagh’s black comedy in this production with great performances by the lead actresses, but with the caveat that potential audience members should be prepared for some quite devastating violence late in the play. While Jitters is for me not a play for the ages, this is a strong production featuring mostly Vancouver-based performers we rarely get the chance to see here in Victoria…go see them at work as the main reason to go to the Belfry, and I’m sure you’ll enjoy smiling along to the somewhat clichéd but affectionate portrayal of life in the theatre.

Review of Mary's Wedding - Monday, November 14th, 2011

2011-11-14T13:32:00.000-08:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: POV Chorus and Betty Wayne Allison as Mary in Mary's Wedding (Credit: Bruce Stotesbury, timescolonist.com); Thomas Macleay as Charlie (in shirt at top), Alain Coulombe as Sergeant Flowerdew (in hat at right), and Betty Waynne Allison as Mary in Mary's Wedding (Credit: David Cooper, http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/music/lest-we-forget-opera-breathes-new-life-into-marys-wedding/article2231054/)

1) There's been a lot of anticipation around this world premiere of a brand new commissioned opera at the POV. What was your take on this project?

I was quite surprised when the POV project was announced and Stephen Massicotte’s two-hander play was chosen. The play is a dialogue between young Saskatchewan farm boy Charlie and his his girl Mary back home, told in flashback two years after the end of the war, in 1920. Mary is dreaming the night before her wedding, and we see her dreams played out for us, her memories of her first love Charlie and his time in the trenches and cavalry of World War I. She doubles up as Charlie’s platoon Sergeant Flowerdew, so we get the sense of her being with him “over there” through this third character. The play is quiet, filled with the mostly unfulfilled idealized longings of first love, and the inevitable loss and letting go. Wow, I thought, how do you turn a small and intimate play about love, war and loss into anything that might work on a larger stage and in the larger performance form of opera?

2) How did the production deal with these issues of adaptation?

The solution of course, was the addition of an actively involved dramatic chorus, which composer Andrew MacDonald adds and director Michael Shamata uses well in this adaptation. The play is filled with Charlie’s letters home to about his experiences in France. These scenes become much more vivid when we see a platoon of soldiers and hear them singing their way into battle. Sergeant Flowers, as Charlie calls Flowerdew (a real historical figure), becomes a separate third character in the opera, but Mary is seen close at hand through all of these war scenes, right in the trenches with these men, as only dreams can allow. This dreamlike effect transfers very well into an opera format, which generally deals with larger-than-life themes, plots and characters. Certainly, the themes of love, war, loss and grief are large enough for an opera, even if the canvas that Massicotte (who created the libretto from his play) paints is intentionally small scale, concerned as it is with the intimacies of this young couple. So audiences need to be prepared to see a less typically grandiose narrative than seen in Wagner and Rossini—and one that is very Canadian in its historic representation of Canadian troops in the First World War—but is nonetheless a story that still packs an emotional punch. Andrew MacDonald’s music is fairly non-melodic and tonal, as he is a contemporary composer, and this may frustrate opera traditionalists. While his music did not make a huge impression in me overall, it was extremely well-played and sung, and I thought some of the orchestration of the chorus was excellent at key moments in the production.

3) How did you feel director Michael Shamata and the design team did in their respective tasks?

Shamata showed his skills to best effect in staging the show in a fluid way that kept both the eye and attention held. He is well-supported with an elegant design from Ian Rye, and lovely lighting by Alan Brodie. Shamata choreographs the chorus to portray many people and events, although I wondered if it might have been possible to more realistically evoke the sense of the Lord Strathcona Regiment’s ill-fated cavalry charge late in the opera. The central characters and chorus mime horse-riding and show the charge using good use of slow motion, but the lack of any horselike imagery took away some of the power of this climactic moment for me. Perhaps I have been spoiled by having seen the British National Theatre’s amazing production War Horse last year in London? That play, also set in the Great War, has horses sent to the front played by life-sized puppets, and that powerful presence of doomed animals on the battlefield is lost in Mary’s Wedding. But despite this one missing element, overall the chorus is incorporated seamlessly into the dialogue between Mary and Charlie, and they bring to life Mary’s memories of an afternoon tea in her small town, as well as the departure of the town’s men for war, and Charlie’s terrible descriptions of battle, injury and death.

4) Were there any standout performances?

This is Ladysmith-born and UVic-educated soprano Betty Waynne Allison’s role of a lifetime, as she is onstage throughout the two and a half hour long show, and her voice nor presence never faltered. A lovely performance, genuine, nuanced and beautifully sung. Tenor Thomas Macleay makes his POV debut as Charlie Edwards and plays him with bravado and sensitivity, even if his voice cannot quite match the power of Ms. Allison’s. Bass Alain Coulombe brings gravitas to his portrayal of Sergeant Flowers, and a resonant voice to the role. Timothy Vernon conducts the Victor Symphony with his usual passion and panache, and the orchestra is in fine form, as ever.

5) What's the take-away from this opera?

I think it is something to celebrate, the premiere of a homegrown Canadian opera, based on an already celebrated Canadian play. While the contemporary score will interest some more than others, it is a very polished and eventually quite moving musical interpretation of the ancient themes that can be found in all opera: What it means to both love and to lose, and (perhaps) to survive and move on.

NOTE: Mary's Wedding continues tonight, Wednesday and Friday night this week, plus a Sunday matinee, all at the McPherson Playhouse. Tickets are available at 386-6121 or online at www.pov.bc.ca

Review of Gormenghast at William Head on Stage - October 31st

2011-11-02T19:36:00.000-07:00

Top to Bottom: Kate Rubin as Gertrude, Countess of Groan in WHoS production of Gormenghast http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/arts/theatre/a-spellbinding-performance-behind-bars/article2217411/print/; Ingrid Hansen as Fuchsia Groan and JR as Steerpike in same (http://themarble.tumblr.com/post/11564185379/gormenghast-kcs-review.

1. The 50th production of William Head on Stage's [WHoS] thirty year history is an adaptation of British novelist Mervyn Peake's trilogy Gormenghast. What can you tell us about this novel and its move from book to stage?

Writer Mervyn Peake was also a well-known artist, book illustrator and poet. He suffered a nervous breakdown while serving in WWII, and no doubt the horrors of war, and the Holocaust, are partly behind his rendering of a stagnant and suffocating society portrayed in the Gormenghast trilogy. The watchwords of the inhabitants of this vast and isolated castle, located in a place that is never fully defined, is “No Change”. When young Titus Groan is born as the 77th Earl of Gormenghast, things do begin to change as he grows up to be a young man who rejects the mindless rituals of the castle and longs for freedom beyond the castle walls. His doppelganger in the novels is Steerpike, a kitchen boy with dreams of revolt who rises up through the castle ranks and threatens to take everything away from the Groan family, unless Titus and his family can stop him in time. The trilogy is often called fantasy, but there is not really any magic in the story, and a more correct genre might be gothic, with is grotesque, satirical and even surreal elements. Considered a major literary achievement in post-war British literature, the books have been adapted many times into radio and TV formats, and more recently as a stage adaptation by John Constable, which is the adaptation being used in WHoS’ production.

2. Sounds like a challenging choice for the inmates at William Head to take on...how does director Ian Case do with all of this?

I think this is a very fitting choice for a prison theatre production, especially given its overall theme of Freedom vs. Tradition. The longing of young Titus to break free of the castle that dominates his life is a powerful metaphor when spoken and performed by an inmate. And the changed mantra “No Change” also cannot help but resonate more deeply when performed in the context of a federal correctional institution. That said, it is not an easy story to tell, as it is quite convoluted. John Constable’s adaptation does away with many minor characters and subplots, but nonetheless it is a challenge for both performers and audiences to make sense of this strange tale. Luckily, local director Ian case (who has directed out at William Head in the past, most recently with the successful production of Macbeth) does an excellent job of crafting a production that is effectively cast and performed. Three actresses from Victoria play the female roles (although one brave inmate does play a role in drag!), and the production is strengthened by the confident presence of Kate Rubin as Gertrude, the Countess of Groan and Titus Groan’s mother, Ingrid Hansen as Titus’ older sister Fuchsia and Michelle Chowns as one half of Titus’ twin aunts Clarice and Cora. While none of the inmates are trained actors, which makes hearing every word sometimes an issue, each one of them is clearly deeply invested in their characters and in the story they are telling. This is in itself a major achievement that I am always so impressed to see at William Head on Stage…the clearly very high level of commitment to each production.

3. What was working well in the show for you?

I enjoyed the overall design of the show very much. The set is made up of three grey castle towers, each with a screen on its front side. A ramp goes down from the stage to the ground level, so actors can use the floor level for some of the action of the play. On the screens, overhead gel projections often appear with simple animations that tell us where we are in the castle, or what a character is doing, like unlocking a door, or climbing a wall, or walking down into the castle’s cellars. When an actor is behind these screens, the use of shadows also becomes a very effective element that Case employs creatively throughout. Also, sound effects are made live backstage and these add suitable background elements that work well to evoke the castle’s atmosphere. Finally, the costumes are very well done, and look suitably both aristocratic-shabby and strange...the women’s costumes are especially effective, as are the use of puppets to show how much the Countess Groan loves her menagerie of cats and birds more than her family, at least in the first part of the play. I did find things a bit confusing at the top of Act One, but the plot soon started to make sense as the characters were introduced. The only other problem I encountered was some slow pacing, as often there were a couple of beats or more between one scene and the next that could have been tightened up, or perhaps covered by some transitional music. However, these are minor complaints, and overall I had a very enjoyable night out behind the razor barb-wired fences at William Head.

4. How does the future look for William Head on Stage, given the Harper government's crackdown on crime...will rehabilitative arts programs like this one be at risk?

I am always inspired, as a theatre educator myself, by how meaningful and powerful an experience it is for the inmates who participate in WHoS shows. Their notes in the program clearly state how putting on a play is an opportunity for each of them to step out of their comfort zones, to escape the drudgery of prison life, and to learn valuable lessons about the necessity of cooperation and communication when rehearsing and performing a play. This program is the longest-lived prison theatre program in Canada. I don’t know what the future holds for WHoS, and mostly due to the institution moving from medium to minimum security a few year back, the organizers are only now ably to put on one show a year. But it is clear to me every time I go out to see a WHoS that this is the best kind of rehabilitative experience, and offers a strong alternative to the punitive and retributive policies that we know generally don’t work very well. I hope the administration of William Head and the government continues to support programs like WHoS, for everybody’s sake, not just for the sake of those involved…it says something good about all of us, I think.

NOTE: Gormenghast runs until November 12th at William Head Federal Institution. Tickets are available at ticketrocket.org or 250-590-6291. No person under 19 years old will be admitted.

AND SLOWLY BEAUTY AND SHINING CITY REVIEWS - September 26th, 2011

2011-09-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: Martha Plimpton as Neasa and Brian F. O'Byrne as Ian in the Broadway production of Shining City (2006); Oliver Platt as John and Brian F. O'Byrne as Ian in same (http://theater.nytimes.com/2006/05/10/theater/reviews/10shin.html); Celine Stubel, Caroline Gillis, Dennis Fitzgerald and Mary-Colin Chisolm in And Slowly Beauty...(http://www.timescolonist.com/entertainment/Superior+cast+deftly+handles+tricky+play/5453403/story.html?cid=megadrop_story)

1. The theatre season got off to a start last week with shows opening at the Belfry Theatre and Theatre Inconnu. What were your impressions?

I was very happy with both of my trips to the theatre this week. As an experienced theatregoer I was rewarded by both of these new productions. One of them tells its story through a combination of text and movement, French-Canadian playwright Michel Nadeau’s And Slowly Beauty, the second one through the ancient art of storytelling, in Irishman Conor McPherson’s Shining City. So audiences are challenged by getting into the slower rhythm of theatre that is more interested in the journey than the destination.

2. You mentioned that Conor McPherson is one of your favorite current playwrights...what makes his plays work so well?

Well, I admit to a weakness for Irish plays and playwrights, there is such a delicious use of language in my favorite Irish plays…think of George Bernard Shaw, JM Synge, Brian Friel, Martin McDonagh…and Conor McPerson all have terrifically engaging stories to tell and they tell them so well. McPherson’s early hit play, The Weir, was set in a village bar where some locals entertain themselves by telling ghost stories to a woman, new to town. But it turns out that she has the best ghost story of all to tell. His subsequent play The Seafarer is a highly amusing black comedy that presents a particularly Irish working class twist on the Faust legend, when the Devil decides to join a group of mates playing poker on Christmas Eve. This playful interest in the occult and supernatural is also seen in Shining City, his 2004 play. This spellbinding play follows a newly minted therapist and defrocked priest named Ian as he tries to make a new life in Dublin. His interaction with one patient, John, turns on this widower patient’s story of being haunted by the ghost of his dead wife. Interwoven with lengthy scenes, mostly in monologue form from John, are scenes that tell us more about who Ian is, why he left his girlfriend and young baby, and the choices he must make. This excellent production at Theatre Inconnu works very well in the intimate Little Fernwood Hall space and features strong performances from its cast. Michael Shewchuk always impresses and does so here; Dustin Finerty finds his stride with the locacious John and makes us care about this sad and guilt-ridden man; and Christina Patterson as Ian’s girlfriend Neasa and James McDougall as young male prostitute Laurence handle well their respective scenes. Regular Inconnu director Graham McDonald pays attention to what matters in this story, and doesn’t fail to deliver this haunting play’s chilling surprise by its end.

3. Now let's turn to the English language premiers of this Quebec play And Slowly Beauty...your reaction to this production?

This play had me in its synopsis in describing the tale of an unhappy middle aged man who finds reason to carry on after going to see a production of Anton Chekov’s Three Sisters. Belfry artistic director Michael Shamata choreographs this production as much as he directs it, with a company of six actors, five of whom morph into many roles to support the journey of Mr. Mann. This Everyman figure—dissatisfied with his mundane government job and alienated from his wife and children—is beautifully rendered by newcomer to the Belfry, Dennis Fitzgerald. Fitzgerald has a slightly sad, slightly clownlike face that allows him to take in the beauty of Chekov, of theatre, of art, and (eventually) of the meaning and meaninglessness of life, and respond in ways we can relate to. The play is an homage to the power of art in general, here represented in the theatre epiphany that pushes the naive audience member Mr. Mann to rethink his life in profound ways. It is also theatrical in its storytelling, with five actors walking in endless circles around Mr. Mann, sliding off chairs, and sliding into another costume, as they give us clear and crisp portraits in a fully realized world. This is all exquisitely presented in Shamata’s tightly constructed and effectively visual interpretation, well supported by his more than able cast. This cast includes local favorite Celine Stubel, who charms as always, and equally strong work from Mary-Colin Chisolm, Caroline Gillis, Christina Murray and Thomas Olajide. The show also features a sharp and evocative design by John Ferguson and engaging background music by Ride the Cyclone’s composer Brooke Maxwell. This is not your everyday theatre piece, it is intentionally fragmented in form, although scenes become longer and richer in the second act, and the use of silence is unusual in most contemporary theatre. But it offers real rewards in its sincere contemplative consideration of the truism that great art can change our lives.

4. Sounds like the beginning of a promising upcoming season...lots to look forward to...any recommendations?

Quite a few, in fact. The next show at the Belfry is the classic Canadian comedy Jitters, which should be great fun, as will Martin McDonagh’s Beauty Queen of Leenane at Langham Court. And of course I can’t wait to see Langham’s production of Broadway hit The Drowsy Chaperone. The Phoenix is doing a beautiful play by American Sarah Ruhl called Eurydice in the new year, and there’s a new show at William Head, an adaptation of Mervyn Peake’s satirical and fantastic Gormenghast, directed by Ian Case and opening next month. Inconnu continues its history of interesting programming with revival of 1960’s drama Peter Nichols’ Day in the Death of Joe Egg in November. Plenty to look forward to, so go out and support local theatre!

NOTE: And Slowly Beauty continues until October 23rd at the Belfry. Tickets are at 250-385-6815. Shining City plays until October 8th. Tickets are at 250-360-0234 or ticketrocket.org

Ride the Cyclone and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf Reviews - July 11th, 2011

2011-07-11T09:09:00.002-07:00

Images, Top to Bottom: Movie poster for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, with Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor; Meg Tilly as Martha in the Blue Bridge Theatre production (Credit: David Bukach); Sarah Jane Pelzer in Ride the Cyclone (Credit:www.atomicvaudeville.com) ; Cast of Ride the Cyclone (Credit:www.belfry.bc.ca)

1) You saw two shows that opened last week; Atomic Vaudeville's Ride the Cyclone at the Belfry Theatre and Blue Bridge Theatre's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf at the MacPherson. Let's begin with the musical at the Belfry...I understand this locally created hit show is heading back out on tour?

Yes, this dark but very funny musical about a group of dead teens entertaining us from the afterlife has played to enthusiastic audiences in Victoria and Toronto over the past couple of years. It was a hit at Toronto’s Summerworks Festival last year and will be going back for a run at Theatre Passe Muraille this fall. The show will also play in Vancouver and Whitehorse. Like Jacob Richmond’s previous play Legoland with Atomic Vaudeville, also directed by Britt Small, Ride the Cyclone deals with disaffected and alienated young people whose lack of ability to fit in earns them both laughs and sympathy. Ride the Cyclone is a musical, with songs by local musician Brooke Maxwell, that presents a mechanical carnival sideshow fortune teller who proceeds to narrate the sad tale of six teens killed in a tragic roller coaster accident in Uranium City, Saskatchewan. These dead young people then come bursting onstage to share with us their deepest dreams and desires, thwarted by untimely death, in a series of monologues and songs.

2) What did you think of it in its newest version?

Unfortunately, I was never able to catch earlier incarnations of Cyclone, but I understand that the show has been trimmed down from two acts to one and a couple of characters have been sacrificed along the way. While I would have liked to have seen this longer version, which a number of people on opening night last week were lamenting on losing out loud, this version is tight and bright and carries its audience along on a roller-coaster like ride that never lets up in its high level entertainment factor. The premise is definitely a little weird, but winkingly so, and we’re all in on the joke. The show boasts an excellent cast of mostly grads from the UVic theatre program (Rielle Braid, Matthew Coulson, Sarah Jane Pelzer and Kholby Wardell) with the exceptions of Kelly Hudson and Elliot Loran (CCPA). They all inhabit their various oddball characters with great glee and each one has their moment to shine in the spotlight. The show has the same kind of sardonic self-aware quality that Richmond is known for as a playwright and he and Small stage it very effectively. The music is a mix of various styles from pop to rap to soul, and although none of it is particularly hummable or memorable, it works within the context of the show, with simple but effective choreography by Treena Stubel. I predict this show could go all the way to New York and beyond as it will definitely appeal to hip theatre-going folk who enjoy shows that mix ironic intelligence with straight-ahead good fun, which is what Ride the Cyclone delivers.

3) Now let's switch gears to talk about Virginia Woolf. Most of us can't help thinking about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton in the film version of this play. Was that a problem for you?

Of course it’s hard not to think about iconic performances whenever we see a familiar play, as is this one by Edward Albee. It was the same last summer with Blue Bridge’s production of Streetcar Named Desire…who can’t see Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh in those leading roles? But all credit goes to Blue Bridge’s artistic director Brian Richmond for yet again giving Victoria audiences fresh-feeling interpretations of classic modern American plays. The biggest risk Richmond took on was convincing retired film actor turned writer Meg Tilly (known for her roles in The Big Chill and Agnes of God in the 1980’s), who now lives in Victoria, to take on the enormously challenging role of Martha. Well, I’m happy to report that Tilly does very well inhabiting what one critic called the “braying sensuality” of this miserably unhappy faculty wife, trapped in an marriage made up of vicious battles, interminable drinking, serial infidelities and desperate delusions. Tilly finds the necessary fearlessness to playing Martha, and has a very effective physicality, although I found she tended too much to lean her head back on her armchair so that we lost seeing her face as it was tilted upwards. Her emotional shattering in the play’s final act is well done, as we see this supposed harpy for the vulnerable and broken woman she really is inside. Tilly is well-matched with seasoned Vancouver actor Andrew Wheeler as George, a tough role as he plays the foil to the more showy Martha until near the end of the play. But Wheeler is convincing throughout as the milquetoast husband who tolerates his wife’s bitter rages while hinting at rages of his own. When he finally turns the tables and gains the retribution he seeks, Wheeler takes over the stage and offers us the unexpected backbone in this beaten down failed academic. Tilly and Wheeler are well supported by Celine Stubel and Alex Plouffe as the young couple invited over for an unwitting game of “Get the Guests” after a faculty party at the Northeastern college that is the setting of the play. Stubel charms as always in the role of Honey, but also finds the fragility and fear that Honey tries to drown in brandy. Plouffe is a recent graduate of the theatre program at UVic and this is a major challenge for such a young actor, which for the most part he rises to very well (although his supposedly naturally blonde hair looks unconvincing and clearly a dye job!). The set is nicely designed by Carol Klemm and well lit by Rebekah Johnson. And Brian Linds gives us inspired snippets of the Swingle Singers before and after each act that effectively take us into the timeframe of the mid-60’s of the play. This is a tough play, and a very long one, that demands much of both actors and audiences. But it is also a necessary play, like Streetcar and Death of a Salesman, which no one who cares about theatre should miss seeing. We are fortunate that Blue Bridge is making these modern classics available in commendable versions for us here in Victoria.

4) Any final thoughts on these two shows, or a recommendation of one over the other?

Well, Ride the Cyclone is a fun and quirky show that clocks in under 90 minutes and has lots of entertainment value. However, if you are up for a more meaningful encounter—and are prepared for a late night out that will clearly demonstrate Edward Albee’s fitting place alongside Tennessee Williams and Arthur Miller as giants of 20th century American playwrights—then you really shouldn’t miss Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

INFO: Ride the Cyclone continues at the Belfry Theatre until July 17th. Tickets are at 250-385-6815. Virginia Woolf continues at the MacPherson until the 17th as well with tickets at 250-386-6121.

REVIEWS OF BROADWAY: DECADES IN REVUE AND PORNOGRAPHY - MAY 9TH, 2011

2011-05-09T10:37:00.000-07:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: Cast of Theatre Inconnu's Pornography (Credit: http://www.theatreinconnu.com/); Jessica McCool in VOS' production Broadway: Decades in Revue (Credit: David Lowes).

1) I understand you saw two very contrasting shows last week...what can you tell us about them?

The Victoria Operatic Society's spring production is a revue of well-known and a few not-so-well-known songs from Broadway musicals, mostly from the 1960s to the present day. The show features a six person onstage orchestra led by musical director Heather Burns and a cast of dozens, both adult and young people, singing and dancing their way through this two hour show. In stark contrast to this light entertainment, Theatre Inconnu new show is a tough-hitting British play called Pornography by Simon Stephens. This play, a collection of mostly monologues and a couple of scenes, performed by a company of eight actors, was written after the London bus and subway bombings in 2005. It is a dramatic investigation of the kinds of disconnection and alienation that can lead to the violence carried out by British citizens against their own countrymen.

2) Let's begin with the Victoria Opera Society's Broadway: Decades in Revue. How does it deliver on its promise to survey Tony award nominated or winning musicals?

This show, created and directed by Sylvia Hosie in collaboration with choreographer Tara Britt and musical director Heather Burns, offers a loosely organized grouping of songs from the 60s and 70s in Act One and from the 80s through to the present in Act Two. I can appreciate how a revue approach offers an ensemble lots of opportunities to showcase its talent, and this is in evidence here as a number of company members have a chance to shine. Hosie stages the show very effectively, making good use of the central staircase that is the one set piece of the show, and she is more than capable of dealing with the large numbers of people, who are well-choreographed by Hosie assisted by Tara Britt. This is a very enjoyable show, with some excellent musical performances. But I imagine any musical lover will note what is missing in this show; for me, that was more from Stephen Sondheim, who I consider to be the giant of American musical theatre in the past forty years. While I appreciate the popularity of such shows as Disney's Lion King and Beauty and the Beast, Andrew Lloyd Weber's shows, and Mamma Mia, I can't help wondering how many of these more recent Broadway hits will stand the test of time. Personally, I'd walk a mile on my knees for a Sondheim revue, or a revue of Gershwin or Porter tunes from an earlier musical era.

3) Any standout performances to mention?

There is good work to be seen from a number of performers in the show, although overall I felt the women slightly outdid the men. VOS regular Chelsea Tucker shines in her solo numbers, as do Francesca Bitonti, Pam Miller and Susan Wilkey. From the men I enjoyed John Pugh, Quinn Stevens and Brian Christensen. And I should make mention of excellent solos by young company members Sunny Sheffman, Elizabeth Duncan, Mariah McDonald and Hunter Watson, all of whom assure the future of the VOS is safe as they grow into leading roles. Many costume changes keep the production looking good, and it is well-lit as well. The orchestration could have been a bit tighter and brighter to my ear, but the Sunday matinee crowd I was with seemed to enjoy every minute of this upbeat show.

4) Now onto the new show at Theatre Inconnu. It sounds like it's not a play for the fainthearted, is that right?

Absolutely. The title alone is enough to put people off and to be sure this is mature and challenging theatre. Theatre Inconnu regular director Graham McDonald has a taste for darker fare, and this play is another selection, like Harold Pinter's The Caretaker, Martin McDonagh's Pillowman and last season's hit Scorched by Wajdi Mouawad, that invites theatregoers to address difficult topics onstage. Playwright Stephens has created a fairly postmodern script in that he does not indicate how the play is to be presented, or in what order, leaving it up to each company to decide how they wish to interpret these impressionistic narratives and scenes of a number of characters living through the first week of July in 2005. This week included the announcement that London was selected to host the 2012 Olympics and the Live Aid concert and culminated in the bombings on July 7th that killed 56 people including four suicide bombers. These events recur woven throughout stories that take us into the lives of a working mother who betrays her boss, a schoolboy who stalks one of his teachers, an old woman who watches pornography on her computer, and a pair of brothers who are drawn into a sexual relationship, among others. One monologue we realize with growing horror is from one of the suicide bombers who is making his way into London the morning of the bombings. He relates what he is thinking to us in a remarkably matter-of-fact way that does not include any mention of motive, only simple daily observations of the people around him and how the plan is unfolding. McDonald directs the eight person ensemble to remain onstage throughout this nearly 2 and a half hour long show, so they become an almost silent chorus that supports each person's story through movement. This is mostly successful, although I did feel that a more judicious use of the actors may have created a bit more variety in the tone and style overall. The company does excellent work with this very tough material, and not one of them backs away emotionally from the challenge. My concerns around their somewhat generic British accents nothwithstanding (and in London accents signal worlds apart, even if people are living literally side by side, so I would have preferred no accents to this choice), and that the pace could drive forward with more anger and urgency, I remained engaged with each actor and his or her storytelling that reminds us how easy it is to fall into isolation and hopelessness in our ironically evermore "networked" world.

5) What do you recommend for a listener who wants to head out to the theatre this week?

Well, the choices this week seem pretty clear. Musical lovers should head to the McPherson or to the Belfry for a walk on the lighter side with two solid shows on offer at both theatres. Those who prefer their theatre a bit more weighty should venture into the Little Fernwood Hall to catch the final weekend of Pornography.

PLUG: The Victoria Operatic Society's Broadway: Decades in Revue continues until May 15th at the McPherson Theatre. Tickets are available at 250-381-1021 or the McPherson Box Office at 250-386-6121. Pornography at Theatre Inconnu continues until May 14th with tickets at www.ticketrocket.org or 250-590-6291.

2 PIANOS 4 HANDS REVIEW - APRIL 18, 2011

2011-04-18T10:39:00.000-07:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: Richard Greenblatt as Richard and Ted Dykstra as Ted; Ted Dykstra as Ted and Richard Greenblatt as Richard in the original production of 2P4H; Patrick Burwell as Richard and Tom Frey as Ted; Tom Frey as Ted and Patrick Burwell as Richard in the Belfry Theatre production of 2P4H (Credit: David Bukach)

1) 2 Pianos 4 Hands (2P4H) has been a smash hit for its co-writers and performers over the past fifteen years. What can you tell us about how this show came together?

Toronto actor-directors Richard Greenblatt and Ted Dykstra had very similar childhoods spent training and practicing to become classical pianists through the Royal Conservatory of Music program. Both were very talented young musicians, yet neither ended up with a career in music; rather, both ended up with very successful careers in the theatre (what this says about theatre as a second-best arts profession I’m not sure I want to get into!) Back in 1994 they got together and created a 20 minute piece for the Tarragon Theatre’s Spring Arts Fair that told the story of this shared history, using two pianos as their framing device. The show was very well-received and was developed into a full length production in 1996 which became the surprise smash of the season at the Tarragon Theatre, winning a number of awards. Mirvish Productions picked up the show which went on to play six months off-Broadway, in London and Tokyo, all to rave reviews. Greenblatt and Dykstra eventually left performing the show themselves, but have stayed connected to the many touring versions that have gone on to play at more than 150 theatres across five continents and to over 2 million people. This makes the show one of, if not the, most successful Canadian theatre production of all time.

2) How does the show work with actor-musicians other than Greenblatt and Dykstra in the roles?

As the play is quite autobiographical in nature, with the two characters named Richard and Ted, I wondered how it would work with others in the role. Certainly, in this production the answer is very well. Patrick Burwell as Richard and Tom Frey as Ted have been touring for some time now and the Belfry brought Richard Greenblatt in for a week of refresher rehearsal before opening night last week. These two actors, who must also necessarily be very competent classical pianists, make the roles their own. Patrick Burwell is more of the straight man here, although each actor plays multiple roles so he does get a chance to play more overtly comic roles throughout. However, I found his scene as Ted’s father, where he threatens to take away his son’s lessons and piano, was one of the best dramatic moments in this generally quite light show. Tom Frey is a gifted comic actor who inhabits all of his many roles with great physicality, and is especially good playing the younger versions of Ted, sitting in boredom and frustration over endless hours of practice, practice, practice. The show clips along at a good pace, and keeps the laughs coming, as we watch these two young pianists suffer through a sequence of eccentric piano teachers, high pressure competitions and battles with their parents. Things get a bit more serious in Act 2, when we see both of them try to get into advanced training programs, one in classical music and the other in jazz, and beginning to come to terms with the limits of their talents. As the show ends, we grasp how these two characters have moved on in their lives to accept that while they may never be the best pianists in the world, the country or the city, they can live with being the best in their neighborhood. And for audiences around the world, that seems to be good enough for us as well.

3) What does an audience take away from this show...what is the secret of its success?

As Richard Greenblatt writes in the Belfry program, the Law of Specificity in art dictates that artists need to be as specific as possible in order to potentially achieve universality. There is a huge power in telling our own stories as artists…autobiographical theatre has a long history, from Eugene O’Neill and Tennessee Williams to Spalding Gray’s one-man shows and Pamela Gien’s Syringa Tree. Intrepid Theatre’s UNO and Fringe Festivals are often dominated by these kinds of shows, for better or worse. But a real-life story must contain a way in that allows audiences to connect, to feel like there is something in this true story that they can relate to their own lives. While I am sure that 2P4H has had many audience members who have had vivid memories of their own experiences as piano students brought back to them (as my son did watching the show with me last Thursday night), there are many other points of connection in this show. I found myself remembering, for the first time in years, competing in an elocution competition in Regina, Saskatchewan when I was in grade six and seven. I experienced the same kind of terror, pressure, pleasure in performing and winning and frustration in coming in second as Richard and Ted did in their childhood. Anyone who has ever tried to master an instrument, an art form, a sport or a discipline will find both a way to laugh at and remember fondly when seeing 2P4H. Obviously, given the enormous success of this show, Greenblatt and Dykstra have tapped into a specific life history that has remarkable universal resonance. I’m very tempted to hop a plane to Toronto this fall to see them remount the show one last time in celebration of its fifteenth anniversary!

4) The Belfry has just announced its new season...what can we look forward to next year?

Well, first of all we can look forward to not one but two shows over the summer at the Belfry. Jacob Richmond’s hit show Ride the Cyclone is back in July, followed by a greatest hits version of the Mom’s the Word gang (another example of successful autobiographical theatre!) Then we will be seeing a new French Canadian play And Slowly Beauty, a co-production with the National Arts Centre, followed by a welcome remount of a Canadian classic backstage comedy Jitters by the sadly departed David French. These two shows are followed by a new play from Vancouver playwright Michele Riml called On the Edge and a production of French playwright Yasmina Reza’s comedy God of Carnage. It’s wonderful to see two French plays in translation and two plays by women programmed for next season, which looks like another winner for the Belfry.

2 Pianos 4 Hands continues at the Belfry Theatre until May 15th. Tickets are available at 385-6815 or online at www.belfry.bc.ca

The Lady in the Van and Influence Reviews - March 7, 2011

2011-03-07T09:15:00.000-08:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: Alan Bennett and Maggie Smith in the BBC Radio version of The Lady in the Van; Tony Cain as Alan Bennett 2, Sylvia Rhodes as Miss Shepherd and Roger Carr as Alan Bennett 1 in the Langham Court Theatre production of The Lady in the Van (Credit: David Lowes, Monday Magazine); David Radford as Apollo and Karen Lee Pickett as Athena in Intrepid Theatres' Influence; Elliot Loran as Keats and Paul Terry as Haydon in Influence (Credit (both): Darren Stone, Times-Colonist).

1) The two plays you saw this past week at Langham Court Theatre and Intrepid Theatre had a few things in common…what were they?

Both Alan Bennett’s The Lady in the Van and Janet Munsil’s Influence at Intrepid Theatre draw on real life characters in their storytelling. Bennett’s play is based on the true story of his relationship with a mentally unstable elderly woman who lived in a decrepit van on his street and he allowed to move her van into his back garden, where she remained for the last 15 years of her life. Munsil’s play is built around the Romantic poet John Keats’ first encounter with the famous Elgin marbles, taken from the Parthenon and the Temple of Athena in Greece, when they were put on display in the British Museum in 1816. What ties these plays together, in my mind, is a playwright’s passionate struggle for seeking truth and creating art out of this perceived ‘truth’. Bennett himself is in his play, twice over, once as the play’s narrator and again as the remembered Bennett who interacted with the crazy old woman he tolerated and supported, despite receiving little by way of thanks in return. And yet, this difficult and cantankerous woman obviously had a significant effect on Bennett, and perhaps even teaches him some important life lessons. Munsil’s passion is for the big questions of Art with a capital “A”: Where does inspiration or genius come from? Why is art important? How does an artist prevent art from consuming his or her life? So these are two plays that are not afraid to tackle some big questions about art and the meaning of a life.

2) Let's focus on Lady in the Van first. How does this play measure up against his more well-known plays such as The History Boys and The Madness of King George?

I would say this is a less successful play overall than Bennett’s bigger hits, but it still has a lot of merit. It was originally produced as a radio play, which explains its general lack of dramatic action, with the central role played by the great Maggie Smith and Bennett playing himself. Bennett later rewrote the piece into a stage play. The central role of Miss Shepherd is a fantastic role for a talented senior actress and longtime Langham Court actor, director and producer Sylvia Rhodes fits the bill here extremely well. Her portrayal of the religiously-deluded, filthy, incontinent and yet somehow dignified tramp Miss Shepherd is truthful, funny and ultimately quite sad. She is the main reason to see this show, which is well-supported by Roger Carr as the narrator Bennett and Tony Cain as the Bennett reliving the time spent with Miss Shepherd, and other cast members in smaller roles. Directors Keith Digby and Cynthia Pronick keep things moving along, although I did find there were some pacing issues and some clumsy exits and entrances and a few line issues that will most likely improve over the course of the run. I was somewhat disappointed with Bill Adams’ sparse set design, as his fully rendered sets at Langham are usually a treat to behold. But there is a surprise visual pay-off in store for audiences around the halfway mark, which brought a round of applause on opening night.

3) Now let's switch gears to Influence? How does the production do in presenting such heady material?

Munsil is one of my favorite contemporary playwrights, as I am always fascinated with the aesthetic and arcane topics that seem to fascinate her. She is interested in the historical workings of art and artists and does a very effective job in this new-ish play (which premiered three years ago in Vancouver) in showing us how the artist’s passion can often be his downfall as well as his glory, with liberal splashes of comedy to lighten the tone throughout. Keats’ mentor, the failed historical painter Benjamin Haydon, shows Keats the remarkable Elgin Marbles for the first time hoping they will spur his apprentice on to greater poetic heights. Elliot Loran as the young Keats and Paul Terry as the maniacally-driven Haydon create a believable relationship and play their roles with clarity and gusto, although Haydon’s endless artistic fervour is a bit wearing on both Keats and the audience alike (much as he was in real life, I am sure!). Yet, we also see the cracks of desperation and grief of an older artist in Haydon who, despite his best efforts, will be largely forgotten by history, and the spark of genius in the young poet that will burn brightly but be snuffed out by tuberculosis all too soon (Keats died at the age of 25). Off-setting this dynamic is a godly visitation by Apollo, Athena and Hephaestus from Mount Olympus. Athena is furious that relics from her temple have been stolen and is seeking revenge. Apollo has descended to protect his new ‘hero’ Keats. Hephaestus, the blacksmith god of industry, comes as Athena’s besmitten bodyguard, but also brings with him a dark foreshadowing of the Industrial Revolution that is soon to arise. Karen Lee Pickett, Ian Case and David Radford do some wonderful work in these juicy and fun roles, but I do feel an audience member who is not familiar with who these Greek gods and goddess are will lose something in trying to sort out their background and actions…perhaps a note in the program here would help, along with some biographical notes on Keats and Haydon. Munsil does reveal who everyone is over the course of her two hour play (which she also directs very well); I am a former English teacher, so I was familiar with both Keats and the Greek pantheon. But I did hear puzzled comments from other audience members during intermission and after the show who were still trying to figure out what was going on. The production is a lovely looking one, with the Metro Theatre transformed into alley style seating on both sides of the stage, so we have an intimate view of the museum gallery where we see three recreated Elgin marbles (no small feat) that form the focus of the set, designed by Munsil, which is also well lit and has an effective sound design.

4) Which of these two shows would you recommend to a listener who can only get to one of them? Or perhaps to something else coming up in town?

Both of these plays take a comic approach to stories that have some quite touching and truthful moments about human nature, relationships and the trials of artmaking. Those who enjoy witty and well-wrought plays will enjoy either of these productions. And there are many more shows coming up this month, an exceptionally busy one in Victoria, with four shows in the Belfry’s Spark Festival premiering over the next two weeks, and the final show of the Phoenix’s season, a much-anticipated new play by Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor. So get out into the spring sunshine (whenever it manages to arrive!) and see some great theatre.

NOTE: Influence continues at the Metro Theatre until March 13th with tickets online at Intrepid Theatre or at 250-590-6291. Next Wednesday's show is Pay What You Can. The Lady in the Van continues at Langham Court until March 19th with tickets at 250-384-2142.

Pacific Opera Victoria's La Boheme

2011-02-21T14:23:00.000-08:00

Photo: Left to Right; Doug MacNaughton (sitting) as landlord Benoit, Alexandre Sylvestre as Schaunard, Alexander Dobson (kneeling) as Marcello, Giles Tomkins as Colline, and Luc Robert as Rodolfo. Creit: Megan Kamocki, The Martlet (http://www.martlet.ca/martlet/article/opera-set-culture-victoria-through-1930s-paris/)

1) Puccini's opera La Bohème is one of the most popular in the repertoire and is performed regularly and repeatedly around the world. What do you think is the secret of its success?

Many listeners will know that the rock musical Rent was based on La Bohème, which testifies to its long-lasting appeal.
La Bohème premiered in 1896 and at first was considered by critics to be a less successful opera from Puccini than his first big hit Manon Lescaut. But it gained in popularity with audiences and has since become an all-time favorite of opera lovers. I think the secret lies in in two things: the romantic beauty of its music and the romantic tragedy of its story. Puccini's music in La Bohème sweeps you up into its warm embrace from the moment the doomed seamstress Mimi knocks on her equally impoverished neighbor's door to ask for a light for her candle. This love-at-first-sight encounter involves two gorgeous arias followed by a duet that would melt even the coldest of hearts. The story of this fateful young love moves along at a fast clip in this 2 hour opera, so we soon find ourselves watching this couple split apart and reconcile with yet another beautiful duet where they pledge to remain together until spring arrives. But Mimi's consumption worsens to the point that she returns to Rodolfo's apartment to die and he is left grieving over her body. The simplicity of both the storyline and the characters, two poverty-stricken young Parisian bohemians and their friends, allows an audience to quickly relate to them as they are pulled from real life rather than the more traditional operatic roles of kings and queens, gods and goddesses, or aristocrats.

2) This POV production features the Belfry's Artistic Director Michael Shamata directing his first opera. How did he do?

Shamata quite wisely keeps things as simple and straightforward as possible. He and designer John Ferguson move the timeline forward from 1830s to 1930s Paris, which works well. He keeps stage movement to a minimum and gives the singers plenty of space to do what they do best...sing. The relationship between Mimi and Rodolfo, and the secondary one between Rodolfo's friend Marcello and his girlfriend Musetta, are clearly defined and believable. The only aspect that I felt got away from Shamata somewhat was the difficult cafe scene of Act 2. The chorus looked cramped on Ferguson's set and are kept clumped uncomfortably upstage of the cafe so that we didn't get the sense of the characters people-watching from the cafe windows at various passersby. The other set pieces, on a large and impressive revolve, work very well, especially in the garret room occupied by Rodolfo and Marcello, with historic photos of Paris serving as an effective backdrop.

3) I understand that due to tenor Luc Robert falling ill, a replacement for the lead role of Rodolfo was flown in at the last moment for opening night. What was that like?

This was one of those events that makes me realize what an extraordinary art form opera is. When a singer's voice is compromised by illness, as unfortunately happened to tenor Luc Robert, a call is made to locate someone who can immediately step into the role. Luckily, American tenor Gerard Powers was available and flown in from New York to play Rodolfo on opening night. He has played this role a number of times before and amazed the audience with his confidence and wonderful singing, richly deserving the standing ovation he received. When you witness an opera singer achieving this seemingly impossible task with such flare, it is a rare and wonderful experience.

4) What were your impressions of the other performances?

Sopranos Rhoslyn Jones as Mimi and Marianne Fiset as Musetta both gave strong performances in their respective roles. While it may be hard for us to suspend our disbelief that the clearly healthy Ms. Jones is suffering from consumption, she made up for it in filling the Royal Theatre with her powerfully resonant voice. And Ms. Fiset reveled in the feistiness of the mercurial Musetta, working very well with her romantic counterpart baritone Alexander Dobson as Marcello. The small cast is rounded out well with accomplished work from Alexandre Sylvestre as Schaunard, Giles Tomkins as Colline and Doug MacNaughton in two roles as landlord Benoit and Musetta's elderly admirer Alcindoro. The members of the Victoria Symphony sounded fine as always under conductor Timothy Vernon's baton. All in all, a simple but effective rendering of one of the great romantic Italian operas, not to be missed.

REVIEW OF THE LARAMIE PROJECT - January 17, 2011

2011-01-18T12:45:00.000-08:00

Images, Top to Bottom: Cover of script version of The Laramie Project; cast of the Langham Court Theatre production (from Times Colonist website)

1. The Laramie Project is a documentary theatre piece...can you explain briefly what exactly that kind of theatre is?

Documentary theatre is a theatre piece, often created collectively by a company of actors, as in this play, and based on documented materials of some kind…interviews are the key material used in this play, but also makes use of news broadcasts, trial transcripts and journal entries written by the members of New York’s Tectonic Theatre Project who traveled to Laramie, Wyoming after the beating death of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard in 1998. Documentary theatre is really nonfiction theatre in which we are aware of the truth of what we are seeing, that it is put together and presented in creative and theatrical ways, but that the story being told is factual.

2. This play premiered in 2000...does it hold up after over a decade in time from the murder of Matthew Shepard?

I am sure that director Moises Kaufman and his company could never have imagined how The Laramie Project would take on a long life after their original performances in Denver, Laramie and New York. Since then the play has been performed in dozens of high schools and colleges across North America and around the world. It has become one of the best known plays to tackle the sadly ever-present problem of homophobia and violence against gay people, especially in performances by and for young people, who are in many ways the ideal audience for this story. I saw a production by drama teacher and local actor Alan Penty at Vic High a few years back and found it packed quite an emotional punch when done by teenagers for their own peers. While the timeliness of the events of the play may have faded since 1998, the problem is still with us, and in recent days the bigger problem of violence in America, with the shootings in Tucson, made me see the play through those lenses as well. So I think that there will always be an audience for a play dealing with these real-life issues…particularly, as I said, an audience of young people who can create very intolerant homophobic environments in some schools.

3. How did the Langham Court production do with this challenging topic?

Director Roger Carr is a retired drama educator and directed the play in his former high school in 2005. I admire him for taking on the challenge of programming Laramie Project into the Langham Court season as it is definitely not the typical play seen there. Carr has chosen to populate the play with a very large cast of 33 actors in total, some of whom double-up on roles to present the over 60 interviews and excerpts from other documents included in this nearly 3 hour production. The show is presented on a bare ramped stage, designed by Julius Maslovat, with multiple side entrances that facilitate getting cast members on and off efficiently. And the upstage end of the ramp features the barb-wire fence that Shepard was bound to in his attack by two young men who were angered by his overt homosexuality. There is judicious use of lighting by Karrie Wolfe, and slides and video designed by Nancy Roach, on the scrim at the back of the stage, which mostly work well.

While I felt the production was quite strong overall, with some very good work from a number of company members, my main quibble with the production was the choice to expand the cast number from the original 8 to the 33 we see at Langham. Why is this a problem? For me, the theatricality of watching a small company of actors morph themselves into so many different characters is what keeps the play from being basically a staged version of dozens of talking head style interviews. While Carr has staged the show with his usual high level of capability, there is a sameness to the way the four or five Tectonic Theatre actors introduce someone they interviewed and then stand there with a microphone or pen and notebook while another actor comes out to give that interview. This becomes a bit wearing in such a long show, even though I did find myself moved to tears at times simply due to the empathy almost anyone would feel when hearing the details of this murder.

4. Were there any standout performances in such a large cast?

I was impressed with the work of a number of younger actors in this show, although it also features solid work from more seasoned Langham Court regulars, such as Kevin Stinson, Penelope Harwood, and Eric Holmgren. I really enjoyed seeing all the new faces and work from Sean Baker, Giordana Venturi, Melissa Taylor, Jared Gowan, Joanne James, Gary Garneau and James McDougall. Henry Skey does very well in his role as the bartender who served Matthew Shepard the night of his attack, and Nicole Evans and Gloria Snider do well in one of the very few actual scenes in the play, between the female police officer who was first on the scene when Shepard was found tied to a barb-wired fence outside of Laramie (over 18 tortured hours after being beaten) and the officer’s mother. The whole company is to be commended for the depth of commitment they bring to the play, which is clear and consistent throughout its long running time.

5. Any final thoughts on the play or production?

The Laramie Project offers a serious theatregoer much food for thought. My concern is, quite frankly, that Langham Court regulars will stay away because it is such a challenging play, which would be a shame. If the show had been judiciously trimmed down to a shorter running time that might have helped quite a bit, as the first act is 90 minutes right now. And I also hope that this production attracts an audience who needs to hear this story, to have their own values questioned and shaken, rather than the kind of liberal and progressive crowd who will come only to have their values affirmed.

REVIEW OF THE LIFE INSIDE – NOVEMBER 29, 2010

2010-11-29T13:19:00.000-08:00

Photos, Top to Bottom: Jan Wood as The Mother in The Life Inside; Elizabeth Duncan as The Eldest Sister, Similkameen O'Rourke as The Youngest Sister and Michaela Holmes as The Middle Sister in The Life Inside (Photos by David Cooper)

1. The Life Inside is one of the biggest shows in the Belfry's history, with a cast of 19, and has taken over three years in its creation. How does the production live up to this kind of anticipation?

I felt very mixed in my response to this show. On the one hand, I admired the quality of the production, the terrific company of actors, featuring a number of local Victoria actors, the musical aspects of the show which were woven into the piece quite seamlessly and supported the storytelling throughout, and the design elements with a lovely painted set and almost note-perfect late 19th century costuming. But, on the other hand, I did feel like there was an awful lot going on up on the small stage of the Belfry and a lot of bodies…perhaps more than might reasonably have been needed in order to tell what is in essence a very small story. So I left the theatre after this quite short 75 minute show with a sense of frustration that a number of actors whose work I admire were constrained in their artistry by the relatively minor roles relegated to them, although I could clearly see a fine ensemble working to the utmost of their professional abilities to tell this sad little story.

2. Director James Fagan Tait has made a name for himself in Vancouver for other literary adaptations, in collaboration with musician Joelsya Pankanea, such as Crime and Punishment and Old Goriot. This time he tackles a short play by Maurice Maeterlinck. Adaptations are only as good as their sources...what do you think of this one?

It is this source material that for me leads to most of the problems I felt with The Life Inside, adapted from Belgian writer (and winner of the 1911 Nobel prize for literature) Maurice Maeterlinck’s short play, most likely intended to be a puppet play, called Interior. Maeterlinck was a somber fellow who took his art very seriously and he was not very interested in many of the elements of theatre that we take for granted. His desire was for theatre to address the existential question, to portray a solitary human struggling for meaning in his life against all the forces of fate. So in The Life Inside we see two men standing outside the window of a village home at twilight, watching the family inside sitting beside the fire, while they delay the inevitable job they are there to carry out; to deliver the terrible news that one of the family’s children has died that day. And that alone comprises almost all of the action in this play, with the exception of a few flashbacks, all of which is told in dramatic dialogue (mostly between the Old Man and the Young Stranger who has found the body of the child), mime, a bit of puppetry and a talking/singing chorus. Now, just take a moment to compare the amount of dramatic potential in this story, which consists of an hour and ten minutes of waiting for the Old Man to knock on the front door and deliver his news, with the dramatic arc of Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment or Balzac’s Old Goriot. The pace of the show is intentionally very, very measured and controlled, with use of slow motion and repetition to reinforce the sense that we are swirling around and around a small moment in time. To misquote an author even superior to those just mentioned, I am left feeling that The Life Inside has a lot of sound and not much fury signifying…not that much.

3. We know about the 'slow food' movement...could this be the beginning of a 'slow theatre' movement, that we should adjust our expectations for fast and slick entertainment and give over to experiences that are more meditative?

I’m sure there will be some who consider The Life Inside to be totally their cup of tea. I can see that if you are of a certain temperament and really give yourself over to this slow and measured production by surrendering to its rhythm, you might find it to be quite beautiful, even (at moments) profound. But for those who expect the theatre to do more than take 75 minutes and nearly 20 actor-musicians to explore a moment-before-something-actually-happens, those of us who happen to like drama that is not static in nature (which Maeterlinck felt was needed in theatre) or that reduces excellent actors to little more than puppets (another Maeterlinck-ian desire) are well-advised to know what to expect here. I happen to like theatre that gives actors something to do and I couldn’t help feeling annoyed that there were enough people onstage to give a rousing production of a Shakespeare, or a Greek tragedy, rather than the minimalist story told here. I began to wonder what it would look like as a puppet play, in fact, and also how it would work with a much smaller cast of actors, musicians and puppeteers. The family we peer at through their living room window for much of the show are silent, their actions remarked on for their quotidian quality that we know will be shattered into pieces when they hear the bad news. Why not make them puppets, thus heightening the sense of alienated voyeurism as we watch them, as if they are in another world and we hold their fate in our hands...literally? If Tait had lifted the show to a higher level of theatricality, if he had experimented more adventurously with multiple ways to tell this story, such as more use of puppetry, symbolic movement and meta-theatricality, this might have been a show that succeeded more than the less than successful effort I saw.

4. Were there any standout performances for you in this very large cast?

The largest role in the show is Richard Newman’s The Old Man and he does a lovely job portraying what little dramatic tension the play holds. His naturally deep voice lends gravitas to the proceedings. I admired UVic’s Jan Wood’s and Theatre Inconnu’s Clayton Jevne’s work as the silent parents for their commitment and deep focus. Rebecca Haas has a beautiful voice which we didn’t hear enough of, as do many others in the ensemble. Elizabeth Duncan plays the drowned child with great sensitivity in her movement and shows a remarkable level of control for one so young. There is lots to admire in this show in terms of its polish, what’s missing for me is the dramatic engine that should move this pretty picture, with its large population, into new territory rather than sit and spin prettily, and a tad preciously, in one place.

MEMORY OF WATER AND WIZARD OF OZ REVIEWS

2010-11-22T18:16:00.000-08:00

Images, Top to Bottom: Langham Court Theatre's poster for Memory of Water; movie poster for Wizard of Oz; VOS poster for Wizard of Oz

The Memory of Water continues until December 4th with tickets at 384-2142. Wizard of Oz continues until November 28th at the McPherson Playhouse with tickets at 386-6121.

1) This week's theatre-going was a bit lighter for you than last week's, I understand...how so?

A lot lighter, yes, after the trials of Rodelinda and Yerma last week it was great to get out to a fairly light comedy at Langham Court and the family favorite musical Wizard of Oz at the Victoria Operatic Society. Shelagh Stephenson’s The Memory of Water deals with a heavy topic, the loss of a parent, in an accessible way by focusing on how grief pushes people into behaviour they would never engage in otherwise. The endless bickering and chips-on-their-shoulders between three sisters who have just lost their mother is the plotline of this bedroom comedy. We watch these three fall apart in various ways as they prepare for their mother’s funeral. The Wizard of Oz requires no synopsis, of course, but the challenge to be faced here is how a staged version of the film can work when almost every audience member knows the 1939 original film and its iconic performances so well.

2) Let's begin with Langham Court's production of The Memory of Water. This play won the Olivier Award for Best Comedy in 1997. Did you feel it lived up to this as a successful comedy?

This is not a great play, but it is a good play, and played well it crackles right along. I would call the play more of a dramedy, a horrible word but accurate here. There are a number of pretty serious revelations that occur as the three sisters try to pull themselves together long enough to get through their mother’s funeral. One major problem sister Mary has to face is that her mother Vi keeps turning up in ghost form, which is unsettling to say the least. But it does allow them eventually to put a couple of their own ghosts to bed, particularly in regard to a teen pregnancy that was hidden and kept secret for many long years. Although the play has some heavier dramatic elements it does keep the laughs coming. I think an audience can laugh at the recognition that we all tend to lose a grip on ourselves when placed in high stress situations like a death in the family. Drinking excessively may seem like a good idea at those times, but can also lead to amusing loss of repression and some vicious truth-telling between these three sisters, all of whom have their various axes to grind.

3) Any outstanding performances to watch out for?

The play features strong performances from the three sisters, particularly from Melissa Blank as Teresa, the most repressed of the three…her second act drunken breakdown is worth the price of admission as Blank is a gifted young actor who works very well both emotionally and physically in her role. Lorene Camiade as the successful doctor Mary and Odile Nelson as the flighty Catherine do some good work in their roles as the other two sisters, as does Rob Cruse as Teresa’s henpecked husband Frank. Less successful on opening night were the supporting roles of Mur Meadows as Mary’s married lover Mike and Elizabeth Brimacombe as ghost-mother Vi, both of whom look right in their roles but who would benefit from going more deeply into the emotions they are challenged to portray. Director Angela Henry keeps things moving along quite well but I could do with less of actors facing the audience straight on when making or dealing with some revelation or other, something people don’t tend to do in real life. Theatre for me is about the essential human struggle to communicate, and I like to see actors consistently engaged with each other in that attempt, rather than make it less believable by turning it into a ‘moment’ on stage.

4) Now turning to the latest musical offering from the Victoria Operatic Society...Wizard of Oz. How does a staged version work compared to the movie we all know so well?

I would have thought it somewhat a fool’s errand to tackle a stage version of this universal favorite, but this VOS show does an outstanding job translating the movie onto the McPherson Theatre stage. The professional experience of director Matthew Howe really shows well here as he has created a show that works on almost every level. He has cast talented and appealing young actors to play Dorothy (Chelsea Tucker) and her three friends the Scarecrow (Sean Baker), the Tin-Man (Chris Newstead) and the Cowardly Lion (Jeffrey Stephen). All four of these lead roles find close to the right balance between staying within the familiar parameters of the film and making the roles their own, as does the remainder of the cast. I did find the younger performers fared slightly better overall than their more senior counterparts, but all of them look quite right in their roles and were more than satisfactory actors, singers and dancers. A large chorus has terrific ensemble numbers as Munchkins, Emerald City citizens and the Wicked Witch’s flying monkeys and henchmen. Musically and visually the show works as well, with effective sets by Guy Chester, colorful costumes by David Hardwick and solid musical direction by Heather Burns. A great show for the whole family.

RODELINDA and YERMA REVIEWS - NOVEMBER 15, 2010

2010-11-15T18:41:00.000-08:00

Photos (Top to Bottom): Nathalie Paulin as Rodelinda and Benjamin Butterfield as Grimoaldo in Rodelinda (photos credit: Darren Stone, Times Colonist); Two soldiers with Nathalie Paulin as Rodelinda; A scene from Yerma; Kesinee Haney as Yerma (credit: David Lowe, Phoenix Theatres)

Rodelinda continues this week at the Royal Theatre with tickets at 385-0222. Yerma runs until November 27th with tickets at 721-8000.

1. Two new shows opened in town last Thursday night and our theatre reviewer Monica Prendergast got to both of them. Both Rodelinda at Pacific Opera Victoria and Yerma at UVic's Phoenix Theatre feature female leading roles...anything else these two productions have in common?

The two women who have the title roles in Handel’s 1725 opera and Garcia Lorca’s 1935 play both live in pre-feminist times, of course, both are married and both are striving to free themselves from a situation over which they have little or no control. Rodelinda is a queen and loyal wife who has lost her crown and believes she has also lost her husband through the victory of her husband’s brother in a civil war. Her grief is fully explored throughout the opera and she is considered to be the quintessential portrait of a loving and faithful wife. Yerma is also a loving wife when the play begins, albeit in very different circumstances. She is a simple Spanish peasant woman married to a shepherd and her grief is that they cannot conceive a child. This grief swallows her up so much that by the play’s end she commits a desperate act that makes her almost the polar opposite of the ‘perfect’ wife we see in Rodelinda. But both women are products of their historical times.

2. Rodelinda by George Frederic Handel premiered in 1725 but in fact the story in it takes place a long time before then. What can you tell us about that?

The story Handel draws loosely upon is of the 7th century Germanic tribe called the Lombards (Longbeards) who fought endlessly amongst themselves for control of Northern Italy. Handel’s opera is quite small in scale, featuring only six singing roles and no chorus, but the emotional canvas he paints on is typically operatically large. Each of the six characters is fully developed, even the servant character of Unulfo, and we hear in detail how each of them responds to the demands made to Rodelinda to accept her husband’s death and marry her brother-in-law. What we see is a society that is tipping toward chaos and anarchy at any moment, and the decisions made by these leaders will affect which way things go. Rodelinda’s decision to accept her captor’s proposal under one terrible condition is a high point of the opera, as is her joyful reconciliation with her husband Bertarido who has been in hiding. What makes the opera most interesting, at least for me, is that Handel has two of the male roles sung by countertenors, a male voice in opera that is close to a female mezzosoprano…in other words, quite high pitched to our 21st century ears. Once I became accustomed to these voices, however, I was quite enthralled with them and both Bertarido and his loyal servant Unulfo have some of the most beautiful arias in the opera.

3. And how did the POV's production live up to the challenges of a Handel opera?

Director Oriel Tomas and designer Nancy Bryant create a strong sense of a world controlled by barely contained savagery, as seen in the monumental, yet off-kilter, stone castle of a set and the heavy furs, leather and brocade fabrics worn by the characters. Characters are often being spied upon throughout the opera and are constantly maneuvering to get what they want. The cast of this production all do very well in their roles, in both acting and singing. I enjoyed seeing Victoria’s Benjamin Butterfield clearly relishing his portrayal of the usurping brother Grimoaldo and found his conversion late in the opera to be quite moving and convincing. The countertenors Gerald Thompson as Bertarido and Matthew White as Unulfo are both excellent in their roles, and Thompson’s final aria was a showstopper. Bruce Kelly as the villainous manipulator Garibaldo and Megan Latham as Rodelinda’s sister-in-law Eduige both do well with the vocal and emotional challenges of their respective roles. And Nathalie Paulin, a POV favorite, does lovely and affecting work as Rodelinda, especially in the scenes at Bertarido’s grave and when she makes her brother-in-law an offer with conditions she is betting, with very high stakes, that he cannot possibly accept. Timothy Vernon leads the orchestra with his usual flair and the Baroque music sounds as glorious as it should. All in all, another most successful production for the POV, their third Handel opera, and a strong sign that the company is becoming recognized for their commitment to this great composer’s operatic works.

4. Now turning to the UVic theatre department's production of Yerma by Frederico Garcia Lorca. I understand Lorca's poetic language can be challenging for anyone to perform, nevermind theatre students...how do they fare in this show?

This is tough material indeed, as with Lorca’s other plays Blood Wedding and The House of Bernarda Alba and a few more. Lorca was a young radical artist who paid the ultimate price for his socialist politics by being executed in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War. His tragic death cut off the possibility of more great poems and plays from this passionate man who died at the age of only 38. Lorca’s plays are very poetic in form and take on a nearly mythic or ritualistic quality that often reminds me of Greek tragedy, but that also makes them pretty tough going for undergraduate theatre students. Luckily, theatre department Chair Warwick Dobson has given us a very clear-headed production of this challenging material that makes effective use of music, song, chorus and movement to help a contemporary audience make sense of a play with which many might find it quite difficult to relate. Seeing the character of Yerma as a metaphor for Spain at that point in history—struggling to bring new life (a new republic) into being but thwarted by fate (in reality the military dictatorship of General Franco)—helps us to place the story into the proper context. The production is aided by a simple yet strong set design by theatre professor Allan Stichbury and costumes (that include references to another great Spanish artist, Pablo Picasso) by the always creative design professor Mary Kerr and student Patricia Reilly. I love the use of live music in the show, the flamenco guitar played by Gareth Owen, as it helps to drive the story forward and to give the play the necessary Spanish flavour it needs. The large cast does well overall, with Kesinee Haney as Yerma reaching the necessary emotional peaks and valleys of the role very well, supported by Graham Nathan as husband Juan, Alex Plouffe as a potential rival Victor, Sarah Koury as neighbour Maria, and Hayley Feigs in the demanding role of the Pagan Woman. It may be difficult for us in 2010 to relate to the agonies of a young wife, loved by her husband, but who ends up turning on him simply because he cannot give her a child. For me, understanding what the fearless Lorca was trying to do with his art, to create serious Spanish theatre that took direct aim at the sexual and religious hypocrisy and oppression of his times, helped me to appreciate the deep power, even the profundity, at work in Yerma.

Cinderella and Odd Couple Reviews - October 5, 2010

2010-10-05T11:31:00.000-07:00

Images, Top to Bottom: Cinderella's ball gown and model of the Magnifico's house, both designed by Judith Bowden (http://www.pov.bc.ca/); Poster design for Langham Court Theatre's production of The Odd Couple: Female Version

1. We've been hearing quite a lot about the Pacific Opera Victoria's opening show of this season, Rossini's Cinderella. How does the production live up to its advance publicity?

When I began reviewing for CBC Victoria's On the Island I agreed to cover the POV’s season even though my area is theatre and not opera. Over the past four years I have come to learn more about opera and to appreciate it much more than before. I have enjoyed a great number of POV’s past productions, but I don’t think I’ve ever had such a good time than at the opening night of Cinderella last Thursday night. The reasons for this lie first in the universal familiarity we all have with the fairy tale Cinderella and second in the comic approach that composer Giachino Rossini and librettist Jacopo Ferretti took in creating this 1817 opera. All the elements of the story are here: the poor abused but lovely and innocent stepdaughter Cinderella (here called Angelina) who loves to read romantic stories in the cinders; her vain and selfish stepsisters and greedy and ambitious stepfather; a noble prince who in this version disguises himself as a servant in his search for his one true love; and a fairy godfather in this variation is a philosopher who calls on higher spiritual powers to help Cinderella triumph over adversity. Regular POV director Tom Diamond draws on elements of traditional British pantomime—including a number of exits and entrances through the audience and characters acknowledging both the audience and the fact that they are ‘performing’ this story with a nod and a wink. This works extremely well from the opening scene, where fairy godfather Alidoro opens a huge picture-book onstage and we see each main character walk straight out of its pages, right through to the final fairytale wedding’s happy ending. This playfulness continues throughout the show and gives the production a suitably light-heartedness without sacrificing any of the musical quality, with Victoria Symphony members sounding wonderful as always under the direction of conductor Guiseppe Pietraroia. The set and costume designs by Judith Bowden in her POV debut were outstanding …inventive and surprising and lovely to look at…I hope the POV will bring her back many times again.

2. What were some other highlights of the show for you?

Opera singers these days are trained much more as actors and this leads to strong acting as well as singing performances from all the leads in this show, which features a number of POV debuts. Newcomers Brian Stucki as the Prince, Tyler Duncan as his valet Dandini (who has the time of his life pretending to be the prince for a day!), and Marianne Lambert and Marion Newman as the wicked stepsisters were all most effective in both their singing and interpretation of their roles. POV regulars Terry Hodges as the Stepfather Don Magnifico and Chad Louwerse as the fairy godfather Alidoro both played their respective roles with relish and in great voice. But the showstopping performance of this production is seen in the title role of Angelina by Julie Boulianne. What a debut performance this was! Boulianne is heading to the Met next year as well as the Opera Comique in Paris and we in Victoria are lucky enough to be seeing a star on the rise in this coloratura mezzo soprano who sings this role so gloriously and with such accomplishment with this challenging material that the opening night audience waited to rise to their feet as one until when she entered for her curtain call. As a theatre person who is still learning about opera, I feel I caught a glimpse of the kind of particular joy an opera audience sometimes experiences when they see and hear a performance as fine as Boulianne’s and can say, “I saw her first” as they watch her rise in the ranks of great singers. Not to be missed.

3. Moving to Langham Court Theatre's production of the female version of Neil Simon's popular comedy The Odd Couple. Why would Simon write a female version of this play?

The Odd Couple was a huge hit when it opened on Broadway in 1965, was turned into an equally popular film with Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon and then a TV sitcom series from 1970 to ’75 with Jack Klugman and Tony Randall. As the saying goes, nothing succeeds like success, so Simon revisited the play 20 years later by rewriting it into a female version. Rather than Oscar Madison the sloppy and slovenly sportswriter who takes in his recently divorced and ultra-tidy and neurotic friend Felix Madison, this version has news journalist Olive Madison trying to live with separated housewife and high school friend Florence Unger. The buddies’ poker night in the original play becomes a girls’ night out Trivial Pursuit game in this version. And the date night with the British Pigeon sisters who live upstairs becomes a date night with the Spanish Costazuela brothers. In both versions, the humor lies in the always snappy and quick-witted dialogue Simon so capably writes and the growing impossibility of these two friends ever being able to live together.

4. And how did you feel about the production at Langham?

Neil Simon is a quintessentially New York playwright and it can be a real challenge for non-New York, or even non-American actors, to play these roles. The Langham Court production succeeds somewhat in making us believe these characters are New Yorkers, although the accents are wisely not over-emphasized by director Sylivia Rhodes. Shelly Superstein is a small and wiry and very suntanned Olive with an appropriate gravelly voice and Christine Karpiak plays the uptight Florence as constantly fussing, cleaning, cooking and worrying. The scenes between them work quite well, although I think there is more physical comedy for them to find in their characters throughout the course of the run. However, it is essential in this version that the Spanish brothers Jesus and Manolo be convincing and in here we are relieved to have these roles well-played by Brian Adams and Langham regular Wayne Yercha in what I found to be the funniest scene in the show, when they come for dinner and the misunderstandings run fast and loose amongst everyone on stage. The pace of the show is pretty good and may pick up as the company gets more comfortable over the next two weeks. This is not a stellar but is certainly a competent production that will keep you chuckling along if not laughing out loud to the misfortunes of two friends who are simply too opposite to make it work as roommates.

The Trespassers Review - September 20, 2010

2010-09-20T09:40:00.000-07:00

Photo: Amitai Marmorstein as Lowell and Jennifer Clement as Roxie in The Trespassers (Photo by David Cooper)

1. The Belfry Theatre says that the plays of Canadian playwright Morris Panych have been seen on its stage more than any others. What is it about Panych's plays do you think that makes them so popular?

Panych is an actor and director himself and I can’t help but feel that these additional theatre abilities help him in his playwriting. Panych writes plays that must appeal greatly to actors, as he writes very quick and witty comic dialogue and also creates characters who in their ways are very often not quite ‘normal’ and yet who have to deal with bizarre sets of problems. The word ‘quirky’ is often applied to Panych’s work, much to his irritation I’m sure, but it is an accurate word to describe his dramatic world. It’s a world that is recognizable and yet somehow also a little bit askew, things are not quite ‘right’ somehow, either in the protagonists he creates or in the world they inhabit. For example, in Panych’s one-man play Earshot (produced by the Belfry some years ago), the main character suffers from highly over-sensitive hearing that torments him as he is forced to listen in on the lives around him. I think this is very much the kind of thing that makes Panych so popular with audiences…we are always delighted to be brought into this world that is not quite like ours and within which most often overly sensitive characters are struggling to cope or to conform to supposedly acceptable norms of behavior. Many of these characters, including in The Trespassers and a number of one-person plays written for young audiences in the 90’s, are teenagers dealing with challenging situations in their family lives or coming to terms with things like their sexuality or aging and death. The last Panych play seen at the Belfry was the Governor General award-winning The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl in which a young girl named Iris tells us in flashback about the series of events leading up to her mother leaving the family…not a happy plot and yet the play itself is filled with laughs.

2. And how does this new play compare to The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl?

Unfortunately, I found this new play somewhat derivative of The Girl in the Goldfish Bowl. Like Goldfish Bowl, The Trespassers has a teenage main character who tells us the story of what has happened to him. This character’s name is Lowell and whereas Iris in Goldfish Bowl has an overactive imagination and may be a bit ADHD, Lowell suffers from depression and bipolar disorder…a tougher set of circumstances altogether. However, also as in Goldfish Bowl, these kids are in dysfunctional families as the result of impending or actual abandonment by one parent. In this new play, Lowell’s father has left a year ago and Lowell is trying to keep it together with his Christian mother Cash and his atheist grandfather Hardy. But the small interior mill town they live in is in decline after the closing of the mill (partly due to the grandfather’s role as union rep) and the mother is spending more time at church. Lowell spends most of his time with his beloved grandfather and his grandfather’s ‘paramour’ Roxie (a highly entertaining riff on the whore-with-a-heart-of-gold motif) as they try to educate him about the ways of the world. In their working class view, this education involves learning about sex, gambling and how the rich rip off the poor. This is all very engaging and funny but leaves us feeling a bit ‘So what?’ until we hear that Hardy is dying of cancer and wants either his daughter or grandson to help him shuffle off this mortal coil. [Spoiler Alert] This explains why the play is framed as an interrogation by an RCMP officer who seems to be accusing Lowell of murder. As the play proceeds, we see in fragments how this all happened, although we are never certain when Lowell is telling the truth or bluffing as his poker-loving grandfather has taught him to do. The play in its second act becomes a lot more serious as we witness, in very nonlinear and sometimes frustrating partiality, what happens to Hardy after Lowell and Roxie rescue him from the hospital and take him to the peach orchard on the neighbours’ property. The abandoned orchard is ‘Private Property’ and the source of the play’s title as Hardy and Lowell steal peaches as their socialist right. The play ends in a way that felt to me a bit ambiguous (okay, so what actually did happen and if Lowell did kill Hardy, how has this affected him?) and also with a bit too much sentimentalizing of death including vague illusions (or delusions) of angels and reincarnation. So, for me, although I thoroughly enjoyed the show I couldn’t help but feel a bit frustrated and even slightly cheated out of a story that, as fragmented as it may have been constructed (which is fine), felt like some pieces had been left out by the end.

3. So the play may not be one of Panych's standouts...but how were the performances?

This is the strength of this production, which is very well cast and directed by Ron Jenkins. Lowell is effectively played by UVic theatre graduate Amitai Marmorstein, who has been seen locally in Jacob Richmond’s play Legoland and other shows. Marmorstein looks much younger than his actual age of 24 and looks and sounds very believable as a 15 year old boy. He plays Lowell with sensitivity and often great humor as we see him soaking up his unusual grandfather’s life lessons. However, I was less convinced by his occasional bursts of yelling that seemed to supposedly represent his mental instability. Surely a young person on lithium with this serious condition, who we hear has had suicidal episodes, would appear to be a little bit more ‘unusual’? Perhaps this is underwritten in the play itself. The wonderful role of Hardy is played to perfection by veteran Canadian actor Brian Dooley who gives us a fully rounded and accomplished portrayal of a man at the end of his life who is realizing how small his life has been, and filled with failure, at the same time as he is committed to leaving the best of himself behind in his much-loved grandson. Vancouver’s Jennifer Clement gives us a rollicking and fun-loving Roxie and seems to be enjoying every minute of this over-the-top character. The other two roles in the play are in my view the most unrewarding ones; Natascha Girgis does excellent work as the bereft and increasingly desperate mother Cash but I couldn’t help feeling how stuck her character is, and how little room she has to grow as her job is to be more reactive than active. And the final role of Officer Milton is such an unrewarding part, although played capably enough by Raphael Kepinski, that I began to wonder if it couldn’t be done as an offstage voice interrogating Lowell, as the poor actor is left sitting and watching the action for so long we forget he is there.

4. And how did you feel about the other elements of the show...the set the lights the sound...did they add to the overall effect of the play?

I very much liked the set design by Narda McCarroll that effectively evokes a peach orchard with dozens of real (or maybe plastic?) peaches and peach-colored globes hanging from the flies and a wooden floor and backdrop that resemble a fruit crate. Kerem Çentinel offers a lighting design that successfully snaps us back and forth from the police interrogation into the various scenes where Lowell’s memory takes us. Brian Linds creates a subtle sound design that effectively underscores the action. So, in the final count, I can heartily recommend this as a well-produced, directed and performed production of a Morris Panych play that may not reach the heights of his best plays but offers plenty of entertainment and things worth reflecting on—the right to die with dignity being the most significant—to make it worth a trip to Fernwood.

GOOD TIMBER and IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST REVIEWS - July 19, 2010

2010-07-19T12:33:00.000-07:00

Images: Top - David Radford and Paul Terry in The Importance of Being Earnest; Bottom - The company of Good Timber [Photo credit: David Lowe].

1. It's been an exceptionally busy month for summer theatre in Victoria. You saw two very different shows last week. What made them so different from each other?

Well, other than one of them being a musical revue and the other one a comedy of manners, what really struck me was the class difference between the two. Good Timber offers a musical portrait of the lives of working class people, specifically the loggers of British Columbia in the first half of the 20th century. The Importance of Being Earnest, on the other hand, gives us a satirical picture of the lives of the British upper classes at the turn of the 20th century, the idle rich who ate lots of crustless cucumber sandwiches. So, quite a jump from one show to the other.

2. Let's begin with the musical revue Good Timber at the Royal BC Museum. How does this collaborative project work on stage?

I didn’t know what to expect from this collaborative venture between the local theatre production company The Other Guys, headed by Ross Desprez, and the Royal BC Museum. I was delighted with the show, which is an 80 minute musical presentation of the poems of BC’s version of Robert Service, Robert Swenson. I have lived in BC for 12 years, but I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Swenson, who spent time with loggers in the BC forests and wrote poems about their lives. As with Service’s poems about the goldminers of the Klondike, Swenson created an invaluable record of a life that is now mostly lost, the tough work carried out by loggers with little technology to help them fell giant trees in the BC interior. No matter how we feel about logging in general (and in a nice touch, the show begins with an offstage song to the trees and the spirits that inhabit them), we can’t help but be impressed with the amazingly difficult and oftentimes dangerous work these men undertook. The show features a number of Swenson’s popular poems set to music that are performed with great energy and skill by a company of very talented local actor/musicians, all of whom play a number of different instruments. Kelt and Colleen Eccleston, of the folk group The Ecclestons, are in the company, along with musician John Gogo, director/producer Ross Desprez, and actors Mark Hellman and Sarah Donald (Donald was seen in Blue Bridge’s season last summer). Tobin Stokes is the musical director and the show sounds terrific with songs created by various company members, in various musical styles and often with plenty of humor. Behind the small stage in the museum is another feature of the show, a slide and video show created from the BC Archives by John Carswell. These evocative images add a valuable educational element to the show.

3. Now for the contrasting production at Craigdarroch Castle. Oscar Wilde's ever-popular comedy of manners seems a good fit...what was it like seeing this play on the grounds of the castle?

The play and the castle came into being at the same time, in the 1890’s, and therefore are a great pairing. However, director Ian Case—who has mounted a number of shows in the castle that move from room to room—is doing something new with this summer production. An open-ended tent has been sent up on the castle grounds with the castle itself serving as a backdrop. The production features a number of well-known local actors; Paul Terry as John Worthing, Karen Lee Pickett as his love interest Gwendolyn, Geli Bartlet as Lady Bracknell and Kate Rubin as Miss Prism. The remainder of the company keeps up very well with these more seasoned performers; David Radford as Algernon Montcrieff, Christina Patterson as Cecily Cardew, and Simon Cowie as Dr. Chasuble. Case has directed a faithful version of the play that offers about one laugh for every two lines and clips along at a good pace. The women’s costumes are very attractive and the men’s serviceable and the minimal sets and lights create the needed atmosphere. The night I saw the show there were a few distractions with castle visitors coming out the back door of the castle, clearly unaware a play was being presented, and unwelcome mosquitoes descending at dusk. However, these were minor problems compared to the pleasure of seeing Wilde’s great comedy performed with accomplishment by this company. I was sorry to see a small house at the performance I attended; I hope Victoria theatre-goers will turn out in large numbers this week for the final shows.

4. Victoria theatregoers have an embarrassment of riches these days, with more to come. Does this surprise you in the wake of the significant funding cuts to the arts here in BC this year?

Yes, this has been an unusually active theatre month in town and another show is opening this week (Billy Bishop Goes to War at the Belfry). The deep funding cuts to arts groups in BC this past year have been severe and very damaging; however, artists and companies will try to survive and create new works, as we are seeing here in Victoria. The major shift is in how much more important a good box office becomes when a company lacks the financial cushion of provincial funding support. That means it is that much more important for theatre lovers to get out and support the productions being mounted…the producing companies’ survival may literally depend on your ticket purchase. Luckily, there are a number of wonderful shows to see, as I have found this past week with these two productions at the museum and the castle.

A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE REVIEW July 13, 2010

2010-07-14T10:56:00.000-07:00

Image: Top: Tim Campbell, Celine Stubel and Thea Gill in the Blue Bridge Repertory production (Credit: Tim Matheson); Bottom: Poster for 1951 movie version of A Streetcar Named Desire.

1. Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire is yet another American classic play presented by Blue Bridge Repertory Theatre, following last year's Death of a Salesman. How does this production measure up against the 1951 film version, with Vivien Leigh and Marlon Brando, that is burned into our memories? A tough act to follow...

It is indeed a tough act to follow the Elia Kazan filmed version of this great play, however, it is a play written for the stage first and foremost, so it is a rare treat to see a production of it here in Victoria. Director Brian Richmond offers a clear and clean interpretation of the play that sticks to the essentials, which is all to the good. The set and costume designs by Patrick duWors work very well and I like this set design far more than the somewhat over the top one he did for Death of a Salesman last year. His design gives us a squalid wooden warehouse-like one room apartment in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the 1940s. Stella and Stanley Kowalski are happily married and living together here until Stella’s sister Blanche arrives on their doorstep. Over the course of a number of months, marked by Stella’s pregnancy and childbirth, we see the tensions in this household alternately simmer and boil over. The DuBois sisters come from a dead culture, that of the plantation aristocracy in the south. Stella left the failing family home at 18 and is content with her working-class lot and her sometimes brutish but loving Polish-American husband Stanley. Blanche, on the other hand, clings in desperation to a past that no longer exists and is spiraling ever-downwards into drunkenness and delusion.

2. The character of Blanche Dubois is onstage for most of the nearly three hour running time. What did you think about Thea Gill's interpretation of the role?

Blanche’s deterioration is provoked by the hostility she develops toward her brother-in-law and how appalled she is that her sister would choose to live with such a man. Her defense system lies in the romantic memories she has of a lost time when she was a southern belle. In this way, Blanche reminds me of Amanda Wingfield in Williams’ The Glass Menagerie who also pines for a lost world in which both women grew up as spoiled and wealthy young women. Thea Gill gives a strong portrayal of Blanche that I appreciated for a particularly tough-minded interpretation of the role. This Blanche Dubois is no pushover and we see throughout the play the terrible choices and mistakes she has made over many years that have led her to penury and her sister’s door. Her monologues are especially effective for their lack of sentimentality, which is a great risk in this role that Gill manages to neatly avoid. Rather, Gill plays Blanche with her eyes wide open to the tragic death of her very young and very gay husband many years ago that was the first step on her road to devastation. Gill is a statuesque woman and not afraid to play Blanche in heels so that she has a kind of ruined majesty about her which quite compelling. Gill is well-supported by the rest of the company, especially Toronto actor Tim Campbell in the challenging “He’s good but he’s not Brando” portrayal of Stanley and by Victoria’s own Celine Stubel as a clear-eyed Stella who calmly informs her shocked sister that she’s staying in her occasionally abusive marriage because of the sex…a scene that audiences in the 1940s must have found difficult to take (although the 1947 opening night audience in New York gave it a 30 minute ovation). Smaller roles include Jacob Richmond as Mitch, a pretty socially-challenged beau for Blanche in this portrayal, but not lacking in honest emotion, and Marci T. House and Christopher Mackie as the upstairs neighbours, the Hubbells, here presented as an interracial couple which I thought worked very well.

2. Anything in the production not working as well as it could, in your view?

I was sitting in the third row on the left-hand side of the house and found some sightline problems with the stairs on the set that are somewhat blocked for audiences in this section. Also, I’m not sure that the entrance to the apartment is placed well as actors have to negotiate a pretty tight turn to make it in and out as the door opens onto the staircase. However, these slight problems are more than offset by effective lighting design from Kerem Cetinel and a more subdued than usual sound design from John Mills-Cockell. My only other minor complaint is around projection and enunciation..I have a friend who saw the show from about halfway back in the house and complained of missing quite a bit of the text. Most Canadian actors whose work I know, with very few exceptions, would do well to work on their voices, making them more resonant instruments and articulating each syllable of the text with clarity. Williams’ dialogue deserves no less.

3. What are your thoughts on the selection of plays that artistic director Brian Richmond is bringing to summer theatre in Victoria?

I am delighted that UVic theatre professor Richmond has brought Blue Bridge into being. Most summers in Victoria are limited to the amateur productions of the Victoria Shakespeare Festival or a light musical presented by the Belfry. It is wonderful to see classic American, British and Canadian plays onstage at the McPherson Playhouse, which has sat empty for too long. As a strong supporter of Canadian theatre, I might wish that Richmond consider a Michel Tremblay or a George F. Walker play for next year, as these two Canadian playwrights measure up well as writers of ‘classic’ modern plays, even against powerhouses like Arthur Miller, Joe Orton and Tennessee Williams. These are tough times for the arts in BC, so the fact that Blue Bridge has managed to produce a second season is something to celebrate…and to go out and support.

SCORCHED and ROMEO AND JULIET Reviews - November 9th, 2009

2009-11-09T10:43:00.000-08:00

Images: Top, Michael Shewchuk as Wahab and Casey Austin as Nawal in Scorched; Naomi Simpson as Sawda and Casey Austin as Nawal in Scorched; Samantha Richards as Juliet and Matthew Coulson as Romeo in the Phoenix Theatre production at the University of Victoria; Janick Hebert, Sarah Orenstein and Nicola Lipman in the Tarragon Theatre [Toronto]production of Scorched.

1) You saw 2 new shows last week that were written four hundred years and worlds apart. But you saw some interesting connections between the two plays...what can you tell us about them?

Scorched is a Canadian play set in both Montreal and the unnamed Middle East homeland of immigrants, mother Nawal and her twin children Simon and Janine. While the country is never named, it is a country that has been wracked by civil war in a manner sadly familiar to the playwright whose family survived the 16 year long Lebanese civil war from 1975-1990. The play begins after Nawal’s death and the reading of her will by an unassuming notary who tells the twins that their mother has left them with a mission: To find their long-lost father and a brother they never knew they had. The play then takes us on an epic journey through Nawal’s life and is interwoven with the searching by Simon and Janine for the long-buried truth.

Now, no one would immediately leap to an obvious connection between this recent play and one of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, Romeo and Juliet. While both plays present plenty of sadness, violence and loss brought about by historical enmities, this underlying theme is brought all the more to the fore by Romeo and Juliet director Brian Richmond’s decision to relocate the play from Verona, Italy to the West Bank of Israel. In this way, the feuding families of the Montagues and Capulets become a Jewish family living in inexorable tension with a Muslim family, kept apart by the ineffective UN Peacekeeping forces. In a bid to make the play timely and relevant, Richmond has a Jewish Romeo fall in love with an Arab Juliet. In this way, the ever-present news item of tension and outbreaks of violence and war in the Middle East is seen in both of these very different shows.

2) So let's begin with the Phoenix Theatre at UVic's production of Romeo and Juliet. What is working well in the production?

Richmond likes to take on large-scale productions and always manages to present a polished and smooth-running piece of theatre. The design elements of set of sand and effective lighting and costumes all look good, although in the sound department there is far too much mood music from frequent Richmond collaborator John Mills-Cockell (who needs to be reminded that film and theatre are not the same dramatic art forms). The two dozen or so students and former students in this production are working well together and make optimal use of the thrust stage in the Chief Dan George Theatre, employing no fewer than eight different entrance and exit locations. The company speaks Shakespeare’s text with clarity, if somewhat lacking in lyricism. And there is lots of physicality in the show, with knife fights, gunplay, exotic dancing and an aerial version of the famous balcony scene. I like the work of a number of student actors in the show, especially the work from senior acting students Matthew Coulson as Romeo, whose work improves in emotional depth over the course of the show, Jay Mitchell as Lord Capulet, Ashley Caron as Lady Capulet and Emily Smith as the Nurse. Richmond likes cross-gender casting and this pays off in the strong work from Natasha Salway as Benvolio. Samantha Richards, one of two alternating Juliets, plays the young girl’s innocence and free-fall into first love very well, although she struggles to find the maturity needed in the latter part of the play. Cam Culham offers a nice turn as Friar Laurence as do Jeff Leard as Mercutio and James Roney as Tybalt. So there is plenty to admire in the show.

3) And given your opening comments, what was your response to director Brian Richmond's decision to locate the play in the occupied territories of Israel? Does a Jewish Romeo and Arab Juliet add anything new to our understanding of the play?

This is where the production lost me, I’m afraid. I was quite open to this interpretation, but also sensitive to how it would be presented. I am not of Arab extraction, nor am I a Muslim, but I still found the portrayal of drunken Arab Capulets in the party scene difficult to accept. And when the Jewish Romeo and supposedly Muslim (although blond, blue-eyed and curly-haired) Juliet ask the Christian Friar Laurence to marry them, I just became deeply confused. Are the Capulets Arab Christians? If so, why does Tybalt have the Islamic star and crescent moon symbol tattooed on his arm and why do his comrades look like stereotypical Arab terrorists/freedom fighters? My other main concern has less to do with the riskiness of this ‘clash of civilizations’ version and more to do with the lack of logic in this decision. In Shakespeare’s original play, the feuding families are equally upper class; moved to the West Bank or the Gaza Strip, that fundamental equality between the Montagues and Capulets is completely lost. Showing us an apparently wealthy Arab Capulet family in that setting is absurd and patently untrue. There are many very wealthy Arabs in the Middle East, but they do not live in the Palestinian territories. And in those territories, there is absolutely no equality between the Israeli armed forces and settlers and the relatively impoverished Palestinian people who are fighting for their homeland. To show us a version of this deeply troubled part of the world in such a highly simplified, even simplistic way, is to not just confuse an audience, but to also make a political statement that is completely false.

4) Let's move to Lebanese-Canadian playwright Wajdi Mouawad's play Scorched, which I hear has been seen in over 100 productions worldwide. What is its great appeal?

Mouawad is a fine writer and storyteller and displays these skills many times over throughout the course of this three-hour epic play. There is a lot of text in the play, and even more action, so it is not too much of a stretch to call the play Shakespearean in its scope and ambition. But it is even closer to a Greek tragedy in its structure as a mystery (similar to Oedipus Rex by Sophocles) with an incredibly powerful, even devastating climax. When Nawal’s orphaned twins finally discover the truth of their mother’s past and the reason why it drove her into silence for the last five years of her life, it is unbelievably hard to take, but also dramatically feels deeply right and true. This is one of the finest new plays I have seen in some time and I am grateful to director Clayton Jevne for taking it on and bringing it to Victoria. The show is not perfect, it could use a few more actors to reduce the endless doubling, and it is a bare bones production that could use some of the arts funding that the BC government is snatching back from our artists to create a more visually arresting show. But there is some fine work from Casey Austin in the central role of Nawal, a role that has been played by three actresses in other productions that she tackles all by herself….a remarkable achievement. Other Inconnu regulars Naomi Simpson, Michael Shewchuk, Paddy Crawford and Jason Stevens all do nice work here as well. This is not a show for the faint of heart, but anyone who cares about good theatre should not miss it.

5) Any final thoughts on these two productions?

I love theatre that provokes its audience, that wakes us up rather than puts us to sleep. Both of these shows this week offer provocation but of two very different kinds. Whereas Scorched provokes us to think more about the endless cycles of violent retribution that can cause societies to implode, the Middle Eastern version of Romeo and Juliet at UVic presents a mostly mixed-messages vision of this troubled region that causes more confusion and consternation than enlightenment.

BOSTON THEATRE REVIEWS

2008-09-03T19:28:00.001-07:00

Image: http://www.bostonathenaeum.org/theatreintro.html

Please visit my new blog at

www.bostontheatrereviews.blogspot.com

ANYTHING THAT MOVES Review August 6th 2008

2008-08-06T10:08:00.000-07:00

Photos, from top: Scott Walker, Michelle E. White, Christian Goutsis, Marie Baron, Tracy Michailidis and Neil Maffin / Photo by David Cooper Photography 2008; Christian Goutsis and Tracy Michailidis / Photo by David Cooper Photography 2008; Poster [http://www.belfry.bc.ca/0809/summer.htm]. Tickets at 250-385-6815.

1. This summer musical at the Belfry arrives with high expectations; co-written by novelist, playwright and actor Ann-Marie MacDonald (with her real-life partner director Alisa Palmer) and winner of Toronto's 2002 Dora award for Best Musical. What was your take on the show?

Well, although I think the show will do well at the Belfry (as almost everything they produce does well, they have a large and loyal audience in Victoria) I have to admit my feelings were mixed about this show. There is a lot of appealing cleverness in it, witty dialogue, engaging characters and even a couple of good songs. But for me, the whole doesn't quite add up to the sum of its parts. This chamber musical for six actors tells the story of Joel and Jinny, two young people close to turning thirty and looking for 'real love'. Joel's best friend Tyrone is gay and unrepentantly into almost-anonymous and plentiful sex. Another friend, Alberta, is also gay but married to her partner and wishing for motherhood. They support Joel in his hopes for a relationship with Jinny, who wanders into his flower shop one day and immediately becomes his 'One True Love'. The catch? She thinks he's Tyrone's lover and only bonds with him as a safe gay friend. The rest of the show is about Joel plucking up the courage to tell her the truth as everything around him falls apart and he risks losing Jinny to her own bad patterns, issues with her recovering alcoholic mother and inability to see a good thing when it shows up...at last. Of course, this being a musical, we can be confident that everything will come right in the end, and it does, but along the way--especially in Act Two---we get sidetracked by secondary characters like the gay friends and the mother (and even Joel's long lost and distant father) who threaten to overwhelm the simple and affecting love story at the heart of this musical.

2. Does this happen, in your opinion, because the two leading roles aren't quite up to the challenges of their characters?

Not at all. Director Michael Shamata says quite rightly in his program notes that casting is 90% of a director's job and he has cast the show well with Christian Goutsis and Tracy Michailidis as Joel and Jinny. They are both strong young performers with good voices and we want them to get together. Now if only we could get the other four characters offstage and out of their way! This is the reason why a show that could move along at a good clip and come in under two hours, including intermission, clocks in at over 2 and a half hours. Most of this problem lies in Act Two, which gives us a dinner scene that takes off in all directions at once, including a showstopping number about the power of the menopausal woman, that literally moves the protagonists to the sidelines as we watch their parents and friends sort through their own issues over expensive bottles of wine. Shamata also mentions in his notes that this is the first production of this musical since its first full production at Toronto’s Tarragon Theatre...in 2001. For me, that sets off more warning bells than celebratory cheers.

3. And how do the supporting players, who seem to be taking over the show, manage in their roles?

All of them have their moments. I really like Neil Maffin's work with Tyrone...he makes a gay cliché seem quite real and has some very funny moments. Marie Baron gives us a more complex mother than her own daughter knows and grows into the role in Act Two. Michelle White plays Alberta with lots of bravado, but I wasn't quite convinced of her pain at being dumped by her wife in Act Two. And Scott Walker as Joel's absent father has the toughest job of all. He appears at the very end of Act One, but we don't really hear much from him until quite late in the show, so he's an uneasy presence for us. Why is he even there if his son is so much out of his life? What is his purpose? This remains unclear. Shamata seems a very capable hand at keeping everything moving along, and there are scenes with real heart and flare--especially in Act One which works quite well--but he cannot save a sinking bottom-heavy script, which is what I feel prevents Anything that Moves from being the show it might be.

4. What about the music and design of the show?

The musical direction by Steve Thomas is very accomplished, although the music itself, by Allen Cole, does not make much of a memorable mark. The company sings well and the couple of numbers with a bit of choreography are effective. The design, by very well-known Canadian stage designer John Ferguson, was a disappointment. We are given one playing level, a stark metallic frame with glass windows and doors that doesn't add to the action or theme. Everything with color or visual interest in the show is rolled on and off by the actors, or is worn as a costume. I don't understand the set, although I think it could have worked if the huge empty glass spaces inside it had been occupied at key moments with either action or symbolic objects; the one time it is used as Jinny's closet it works well, but this only happens the once.

5. So all in all, a mixed response to this show?

Yes, and it's too bad. Like many, I love MacDonald's writing and have even produced and performed in her earlier play The Attic, the Pearls and Three Fine Girls with my theatre company WAVE Theatre. She writes terrific dialogue, creates interesting characters and strong narratives, but this show gets ahead of itself and becomes confused about what it is trying to be. When an audience becomes distracted from the heart of the musical story 'Boy Meets Girl' to the extent that we are in this show, it becomes harder to care when 'Boy Wins Girl' in the final moments. That was unfortunately my experience with this problematic piece by one of Canada’s most talented writers.

THE LONG WEEKEND REVIEW July 14, 2008

2008-07-15T09:22:00.000-07:00

Photos: Left, An early production of The Long Weekend [http://www.normfoster.com/posters4.html]; Right, the Langham court production poster [http://langhamcourttheatre.bc.ca/]

This summer production at Langham Court Theatre is by Norm Foster, one of Canada’s most prolific and popular playwrights. What can you tell us about him?

Prolific and popular indeed! In fact, Foster has written over 40 plays, all of which have been produced…an outstanding achievement. He began playwriting in the 1980s and his plays have been performed coast to coast as well as in the States. As a comic playwright, Foster’s work is very popular with summer theatre and dinner theatre companies, although it has also been produced by a number of regional professional theatres. The Belfry, for example, has produced two Foster plays in recent years (Ethan Claymore, The Love List) and his plays are also popular at Langham Court (Maggie’s Getting Married, Here on the Flight Path). One might well ask what the level of quality could be in someone who writes so much, and, happily, for the most part with Foster, the quality is quite high. He writes situation comedies for the stage that are character-driven and tend to have a low-key charm about them…they feature real people struggling (comically) with real-life issues such as relationships, parenting, divorce and death. Foster himself says of his plays: "I think for the most part, they're about ordinary people just trying to get by in life. I never set out with a monumental purpose in mind. I'm not trying to teach an audience a lesson or pass along some profound message, because I don't think I'm qualified. What I am trying to do is make them feel a little better about this world, and that's not easy these days."[http://www.normfoster.com/bio.html]

So how does The Long Weekend fit into this description of his work?

The Long Weekend was first produced in 1994 and is a very typical example of Foster’s writing. It tells the story of two very mismatched married couples, Max and Wynn (Max is a successful personal injury lawyer, Wynn a successful psychologist specializing in relationships) and Abby and Roger (Abby runs a clothing store and Roger has quit his high school teaching job to become a screenwriter). Max and Wynn have built themselves a weekend getaway home and have invited their friends Abby and Roger for the weekend to see it for the first time. We quickly find out that there is a lot of history and tension amongst these 4 people. The women are old friends from their teen years, and yet can barely contain their mutual rivalry and jealousy of each other. The husbands can barely stand each other, and are almost total opposites; the high-flying ‘Type A’ lawyer Max and the under-achieving and neurotic ‘Type B’ Roger. A further spanner is thrown into the works when we realize that two of the four are already in an affair and the other two look to be heading that way as well. Act Two takes us 2 years into the future where we see that not very much has changed, that re-arranging the marriages has not made them any less mismatched, and the conclusion sees all four choosing another alternative to the one they’ve been sentenced to for far too long. The quips and barbs exchanged throughout the play hit a lot of audience members along the way, as Foster skewers the materialism of the middle classes, the drive for success over happiness, the pretensions of psychoanalysis and the inability of much of our ‘white’ Anglo-Saxon culture to be honest and direct with each other.

How does the production live up to the challenges of the play?

Very well. This is a good choice as a Langham Court show, and is an entertaining summer show at that. Regular Langham director Toshik Bukowiecki does a fine job keeping everything moving along on Bill Adams’ typically effective set and has cast the play with effective choices. Another Langham regular Wayne Yercha plays Max and captures his uptight character while making him likeable enough for us to stick with him and hope for his eventual happiness; a nice balance. Fran Patterson plays his first wife Wynn with her usual panache and confidence. I like Patterson’s physical ability to play comedy through her body, although in a comedy of manners such as this one, there are a couple of moments that come across as over-played. These people are repressed, so it becomes an interesting challenge for an actor as unrepressed as Patterson to make Wynn work. David MacPherson, well-known on many Victoria stages, does his usual solid work with Roger, making him believably whiny and ineffectual, but also appealing enough to attract a new partner. Lorene Cammiade, who played the lead in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie at Langham last year, does a good job with the self-involved Abby, although she needs to work on maintaining eye contact with consistency. Lack of eye contact signals an actor’s insecurity onstage, so Cammiade needs to overcome that challenge to develop her skills.

Any reservations or quibbles to relate?

Not a lot. At times, for me, Foster can sometimes come across as cynical. Cynical about the possibility of real love and longterm relationships. Cynical about the ability of people to genuinely connect. In this he is very distinct from Neil Simon, with whom he is often compared. Simon’s worldview is often family-centred and warmly nostalgic, even hopeful (leaning toward the sentimental). While I value Foster’s steering away from easy sentimentality, I do wonder about his worldview. These are two childless couples in this play, a topic that is never raised, not once. Surely, this choice makes them somewhat unusual, if it is a choice? The fact that it is never mentioned makes it appear like a convenience for the playwright. Also, the play’s conclusion leaves an audience feeling that maybe we’re better off on our own in this world, that marriage serves to quash people’s dreams, a fairly negative outcome, really. Many of his other plays have much warmer endings, especially his plays written for the Christmas season, such as Ethan Claymore (a play I found quite moving). But plays such as this one, and The Love List (which I disliked for its implicit misogyny) can leave a trace of bitterness that leaves me to wonder if Foster is achieving what he sets out to do, to, as he says, “make [people] feel a little better about this world”. I guess everyone who sees this show will have the opportunity to make up their own minds.

The Long Weekend continues at Langham Court until July 26th. Tickets can be booked at 250-384-2142.

MOM'S THE WORD 2 AND 'NIGHT MOTHER REVIEWS - June 9, 2008

2008-06-09T09:51:00.000-07:00

Photos: Left, cast of Mom's the Word 2: Unhinged [www.youthink.ca]; Edie Falco and Brenda Blethyn in 2004 remount of 'Night Mother on Broadway [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/15/theater/reviews/15nigh.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&oref=slogin]

MOM’S THE WORD 2 AND ‘NIGHT MOTHER REVIEWS – JUNE 9, 2008

This is an interesting pair of shows you’re sharing with us today; both deal with motherhood, but in very different ways.

Yes, that’s right. Mom’s the Word 2: Unhinged is a return production to the Belfry and is a collective creation written and performed by the five women who also wrote and performed the first Mom’s the Word show about 15 years ago. These five women were professional actors who found themselves becoming at-home mothers and going through the inevitable major changes that parenthood brings. They thought they could create a show that both celebrated and poked fun at the trials and triumphs of motherhood, and asked former Belfry artistic director Roy Surette to help them. The resulting two shows, the first focused on raising babies and small children and the second on dealing with the turbulent teenage years and aging issues, have been wildly popular. In complete contrast to this comic and feel-good portrayal of motherhood is the Theatre Inconnu production of American playwright Marsha Norman’s 1983 play ‘Night Mother. This 90 minute emotional roller coaster of a play features a poor and uneducated Southern middle-aged daughter, divorced, depressed and living with her widowed mother, who calmly announces at the beginning of the play that she will kill herself in an hour and a half. The rest of the play involves her mother’s desperate efforts to convince her to stay alive and with her. Very high stakes drama indeed and two wonderfully challenging roles for women.

As you say, Mom’s the Word has enjoyed a lot of success and has toured widely. There have been productions in Scotland and Australia. What is the source of its appeal?

In many ways this is a piece of grassroots populist theatre, even though it is being performed in mainstream theatres. Grassroots theatre tells stories of community experience back to communities and this is what we see in Mom’s the Word. All of us have been somebody’s son or daughter and many of us are parents, so this show speaks to issues we can all relate to. Both times I have seen this show, there is that wonderful sense of connection to the material, with audience members nodding and laughing at themselves as well as the women who are telling us their own stories of motherhood and marriage. The show is simplicity itself; it is littler more than a series of monologues where each of the five actresses speaks directly to the audience and is supported through physical action or still pictures by the other four. Interweaving through these extended monologues are stories of normal kids, troubled kids, worries around drugs and sex, stale marriages, aging bodies and, in one case, breast cancer. The major achievement of the show is how very funny these five women are in their storytelling delivery; they turn self-deprecation into an art form. While all five women rise to the material they have created, my favorite performers are Deborah Williams and Alison Kelly, both of whom are gifted comedians. There is also a lovely synergy among the five, even with newcomer Beverley Elliott stepping into the role developed by Robin Nichol. Surette does a terrific job keeping everything visually interesting, as does Pam Johnson in her inventive set design of a wall of shelves filled with the detritus of modern family lives. A highly-recommended show to see with your own parents or children, or with a group of parents like yourself.

‘Night Mother won the Pulitzer Prize for best play in 1984 and the original production featured Kathy Bates, with Sissy Spacek playing the daughter and Anne Bancroft the mother in the 1986 film version. Tough acts to follow for local actors, is that right?

Very tough. This is incredibly high-stakes drama and for the most part this Theatre Inconnu production, directed by artistic director Clayton Jevne, rises to meet its challenges. Jevne makes inventive use of his small theatre space in the Fernwood Community Association hall by incorporating the real kitchen in the space, which is usually hidden behind black masking curtains. The two actors are thus able to make use of the sink, fridge and stovetop range in ways that make the domestic setting of the play very true to life. This is very much an actors’ play so the focus is on how well these two women deal with the psychological and emotional demands of the material. Karen Lee Pickett, a local playwright and actor, plays the daughter Jessie with a mix of matter-of-fact decisiveness and compassion for how her decision to commit suicide is affecting her mother. Jessie is a very hard role to make work dramatically; she is a long-term depressive and shutaway who we hear has very low social skills, and yet she must have the energy to move the play’s action forward throughout. Pickett negotiates the role with success, although I felt that the strangeness of Jessie (she is described as having an off-putting smile that is not in evidence here) was somewhat lacking; her Jessie felt a bit too normal. That said, Pickett does play the role with consistency and connectedness that make her awful choice feel inevitable. Geli Bartlett as Thelma, Jessie’s mother, has I think the harder of the two roles as her journey is one of ignorance through denial through confusion through a kind of terrible helpless acceptance of her only daughter’s choice. Thelma is not a very sympathetic character; she is quite selfish, demanding and embittered by her life. While Bartlett does a convincing job with her caring and concern for Jessie, she did not persuade me of the darker qualities of her character; the whining and wheedling and guilt-inducing ability of a self-absorbed mother. A Toronto review of a recent remount of ‘Night Mother (at Soulpepper Theatre) compares the despair of Jessie with the desperation of Thelma, and I think that the distinction is both right and true. Jessie’s despair is fixed and unchangeable whereas Thelma’s desperation to keep her daughter alive should be the emotional journey that we travel with as an audience. No wonder great actresses like Anne Bancroft and Canadian Dawn Greenhalgh (currently in Toronto) have been drawn to the role; it’s that demanding. Bartlett does not reach the emotional heights called for by Norman’s play; however, this remains a generally solid production which I heard a fellow audience member describe to Jevne after Saturday night’s show as “strong medicine”. Indeed it is.

What did you take away from seeing these two shows back-to-back on Saturday, especially given that you are a mother yourself?

I enjoy a great relationship with my own mother and also with my two sons, so seeing Mom’s the Word feels like a kind of positive reinforcement of these relationships. I took my teenage son to the show the first time I saw it and we had a very good time laughing together. The show also has some very honest and touching moments and I really felt for the actresses who reveal that their son has gone off the rails or who are unhappy in their marriage and considering an affair. On the other hand, the simple stories of buying a daughter her first bra, or of finding a son in bed with a girl on Sunday morning, offer me glimpses of experiences I will never have (not having a daughter) or may have at some point (gulp!) ‘Night Mother does not speak as personally to its audience (although anyone who has dealt with suicide should be forewarned) but does offer a penetrating examination of depression, dysfunction and despair. For me, perhaps a warning of what to avoid in seeing Thelma’s failure to mother her child, to love her enough in the unbounded and unhinged way that motherhood demands, to make her daughter want to live.

ANIMAL FARM REVIEW MAY 26, 2008

2008-05-26T13:42:00.000-07:00

Images: Poster for carton version of Animal Farm; Cover illustration from http://www.mrgenglish.com/; revolutionary flag from Wikipedia entry on the novel (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animal_Farm)

Kaleidoscope Theatre’s spring show this year is a new adaptation of George Orwell’s Animal Farm. What makes this rather dark story a suitable choice for a young people’s theatre company?

Animal Farm is found on school curriculums and that alone makes it a good choice for a TYA company. The question is how to make a sixty-three year old satirical allegory about the Stalinist Soviet Union and the dangers of totalitarianism palatable to students in 2008. Orwell was addressing the corruption of socialist ideals in his barely disguised fable. Of course, political corruption remains just as relevant an issue today and there will always be plenty of valuable learning to be had from Orwell that is timeless. Human nature tends toward a will to power and we see the pigs of animal farm—after their leadership of a great and successful rebellion against the farmer Mr. Jones—become ever-more corrupt and human-like, altering all the established rules along the way. The story does lead us into a dark conclusion, there is no denying the patterns of history, which we should receive as a warning against those who would diminish our collective powers to choose and to act. This is the responsibility of social democracy, to be vigilant about equality, social justice and human rights. Animal Farm reminds us of these important matters in the manner of a fairy tale.

How does this production deal with the challenges of presenting such a troubling political morality tale?

The characters in Animal Farm are mostly animals. The farm setting is simple and pastoral as we meet all the various creatures who live and work on Mr. Jones’ farm, all designed by Sabrina Miller. Three actors introduce a large number of different characters, some of whom will not survive the revolution and life afterwards. The actors, appropriately, also play the pigs by way of simple helmet masks that sit on top of their heads. The puppets are life size and made of thick foam covered with cotton and painted. The larger animals have just a head and neck on a stick, like a hobbyhorse. Many of the puppets have handles sewn onto them, for the actors to maneuver them around the stage. A simple barn frames the stage, with a rolling sheet providing backdrops and information. The actors step in and out of their roles throughout, sometimes wondering aloud about where the story is going. One actor complains late in the show that her characters have all run away or been killed! While this theatrical device can be sometimes pretentious and precious (Brecht notwithstanding), here it seems to work in helping to remind us we are watching a story being told…it is a distancing technique that feels right for this piece. There is music and clever sound and cool lighting effects, all of which draw the audience in quite effectively. So the show takes a somewhat lighter approach to the material, refusing to signal too much ahead until right into the second act. And I wonder how young people will process and make sense of the unhappy ending; I hope Kaleidoscope incorporates postshow talkbacks into their schedule, especially for their school audiences.

What is the overall effect of puppets and humans together on stage?

The company of three actors works well together and all create a number of different characters. John Emmet Tracy moves seamlessly from animal to animal and provides a distinct vocal quality for each one; I especially liked his dogs as they move from benign and harmless to vicious police dogs of the state. Leslie Bland does a good job with the evil pig leader Napolean, playing him as a wiseguy gangster, and does nicely with the devoted (if dimwitted) loyalist Boxer the horse. Kirsten Van Ritzen plays Snowball the pig, the Cat, Muriel the Goat and Mollie the horse; all sympathetic characters who find themselves victims of the revolution on the farm and Van Ritzen gives us an interesting female perspective on events in her effective portrayals. The puppets are less successful for me. They impress at first due to their large scale. But they are very bulky and blocky, they are not really animated and so the actors are left with little range of physical movement with them (the exception is Tracy’s Moses the Crow who can fly…and we feel the difference)…a bit like working with sofa cushions. Because the actors play the pigs throughout, they are often manipulating a puppet and speaking in its voice, but still with their pig masks on. This can become a bit confusing at times, and I wonder how a younger audience will do with it. I would prefer smaller and more animated puppets, or even just props and simple costumes worn by the actors to shift characters…it would give them more to do creatively in physical ways as opposed to the running from puppet to puppet that we mostly see here. But those points aside, there’s a lot to like in this show and director/playwright Ian Ferguson has done a very good job in bringing Orwell’s warning about the corruption of power to a new audience.

VIOLET HOUR and REGINA Reviews - April 21, 2008

2008-04-22T17:01:00.000-07:00

Photo: Left; Bob Frazer as John Pace Seavering in The Violet Hour [Credit: Jo-Ann Richards, Works Photography] Right; Tracy Luck as Addie and Kathleen Brett as Birdie in POV's Regina [Credit: Bruce Stotesbury, Times-Colonist]

This was a busy week at two of Victoria’s largest performing arts companies, the Belfry and the Pacific Opera. What can you tell us about these two shows, both written and composed by Americans, isn’t that right?

Yes, The Violet Hour is by US playwright Richard Greenberg, most known for his Tony award-winning Take Me Out that dealt with gay players coming out in a professional baseball team setting. Greenberg is fascinated with the theme of time, the meeting points between past and present, present and future. Most of his writing addresses this topic, directly or indirectly. This 2003 play includes the presence of a kind of futuristic time machine that allows characters in 1919 a glimpse of the rest of the 20th century, much to their dismay. Regina is composed by American Marc Blitzstein and is based upon Lillian Hellman’s famous 1939 play The Little Foxes, with the title role of Southern cotton plantation owner Regina Hubbard Giddens premiered by Tallulah Bankhead on Broadway, later seen on film with the lead played by Bette Davis.

Let’s begin with Violet Hour…this seems to be a very mixed genre play…comic, dramatic and science fiction all at the same time. How does it work on stage?

This play is a bit of a mishmash, not quite sure of what it really is or is all about, but still with lots of charm and lots of challenges. Greenberg has been compared to Tony Kushner and I see the love of talk as their main shared quality. Greenberg’s characters are a young trust-funder, John Pace Seavering, who is setting up a publishing business in New York City following his stint in the Great War, his fey and funny assistant Gidger and his friends and lovers; Dennis McCleary, his best friend from Princeton and his older lover, famous Black singer Jessie Brewster both of whom have written books they want him to publish. All love to talk and to talk in the style of post WWI flappers-to-be; urgent, passionate and idealistic. There are frank discussions of art, literature, race, ambition, truth and lots of thinking about the future. These young people seem to have their lives spreading out in wonder before them. As Seavering says at one point, the worst is over, how can life not be anything but better after the war? In response, the future sends Seavering a mysterious I (and never-explained) printing machine that spits out books published throughout the rest of the 20th century, many featuring the fates of Seavering, Denny, Denny’s meat heiress girlfriend Rosamund and Jessie. There’s a lot going on in this play, a bit too much for me at times, when I felt like I was being spoken to rather than presented to. Greenberg is a playwright of intelligence and wit, and many ideas, some of which can make his characters feel like mouthpieces rather than flesh and blood (and complex) real people. This makes the show an uphill climb for actors, and although this is a fine production directed by the Belfry’s outgoing Artistic Director Roy Surette, the actors need to be top-notch to make the play work. My feeling was that the men in the show did better with the material overall, with Vancouver actors Bob Frazer, Alessandro Juliani and Allan Zinyk finding nuance and depth in their portrayals, especially the fine physicalization of the text given by Juliani. Vanessa Richards did a nice job with the tough role of singer Jessie (I liked her ability to be very still and to use gesture sparingly) as did Emma Slip as Rosamund, although I feel her work needs to hint more at the darkness in her soul as she becomes a suicidal depressive in her later years (as we learn from one of the machine’s books). The play looks terrific and demands some thinking from its audience; although Greenberg could benefit from a few sessions with a dramaturg who might knock this overwritten play down to a more acceptable size (and allow the actors to show more than they tell), it clearly gives us a look at a contemporary American playwright interested in presenting ideas on stage…how refreshing is that?

Now let’s move on to the opera at the Royal Theatre, premiered in New York in 1949. What were your impressions of this play to opera adaptation?

This is a very handsome production, designed by Pam Johnson and directed by Glynis Leyshon. The set gives us the interior and rear garden of an Alabama mansion owned by Horace Giddens, his wife Regina Hubbard Giddens and their young daughter Alexandra. Two massive winding staircases, overhung with mossy tree branches, frame the stage and the sense of Southern opulence comes though with lovely costumes designed by local Erin Macklem, especially the lush burgundies in silk, brocade and velvet worn throughout by Regina, played by Kimberly Barber. The theme of greed and oppressive capitalism, as seen in the Hubbard clan of Regina and her two brothers Oscar and Ben, is followed as we see Regina plot to gain even greater wealth by manipulating everyone around her to get what she wants. Regina is a terrific character to play, an anti-heroine whose ruthlessness brings to mind the ambition of Lady Macbeth mixed with the charm of Scarlett O’Hara. The plotting of this privileged white family is counter-pointed in the appearance of African-American plantation worker Jazz who brings the new music of New Orleans onto the fields and into the house. Blitzstein and Hellman were both dedicated socialists, both called to testify in the McCarthy hearings in the 1950s and both blacklisted because of it. The negative portrayal of unbridled and unprincipled capitalism is clear in both the play and the opera; the Hubbard brothers think nothing of theft and fraud to achieve their ends and Regina thinks nothing of threatening her own brothers with imprisonment and speeding her sick husband’s demise…all in the name of wealth. The moral centre of the story is Regina’s daughter Zan who realizes she must get away from the corrupting atmosphere she has grown up in. We are left seeing in her essential goodness the hope of a better future.

Who were the standout performers in the production?

I felt the women outdid the men in the production, with Barber’s portrayal of Regina a standout. There is acting as well as singing in this opera and Barber plays the role with great relish, strong physicality and steeliness of will. She also sings her role very well, as does Robyn Dreidger-Klassen as Zan, Tracy Luck as housekeeper Addie and Kathleen Brett as Birdie; the latter is Regina’s frail, abused and alcoholic sister-in-law who was a clear audience favourite on Saturday night. Birdie’s aria of despair in Act 3 is a highlight of the opera, which features many different styles of American music from ballads like Birdie’s to folk song, Broadway show tune and blues and Dixieland jazz. Playing the role of Jazz in the opera is local legend Louise Rose and it is a pleasure seeing and hearing her onstage at the Royal in this role. Of the men, Dean Elzinga did a nice job with Horace, Regina’s unloved husband as did Lawrence Wiliford as Leo, her spineless and amoral nephew. Leyshon keeps the action moving along, especially in the climactic party scene where a large chorus enters singing their collective loathing of the powerful Hubbards. Musical director Timothy Vernon does a terrific job with a large orchestra including unusual operatic instruments such as banjos and trombones. Like the play at the Belfry, this is a somewhat challenging opera for those used to more classical fare, but Regina has some lovely music—I really enjoyed the slower pieces What will it be? and Consider the rain –and tells a fascinating, dramatic and still-relevant moral tale.

MY CHERNOBYL REVIEW MARCH 31, 2008

2008-03-31T09:05:00.000-07:00

Photo (above): Allan Morgan, Colleen Wheeler and Celine Stubel in My Chernobyl [https://www.gatewaytheatre.com/whatsons1.html]

My Chernobyl continues at the Belfry Studio Theatre until April 5th. Tickets are available at 385-6815.

This show is the final one in the Belfry's Festival season and features both Victoria and Vancouver theatre artists. What can you tell us about it?

Vancouver-based playwright Aaron Bushkowsky has been writing plays for over twenty years that have been produced by many Vancouver theatre companies as well as at the Belfry. This recent play was just produced at Richmond's Gateway Theatre before transferring here and features three very well known Vancouver actors working alongside Victoria's Jacob Richmond, Celine Stubel and director Britt Small. The play is a dark comedy about a somewhat down-and-out Canadian theatre artist (perhaps the playwright himself?), played convincingly by Andrew McNee, who is returning for a visit to his ancestral homeland of Belarus after his father's death. What he encounters there is a village close to the site of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear reactor disaster where people's lives have been devastated economically, environmentally, emotionally and physically. The naïve Canadian is set upon by family members and strangers alike, who see him only as a privileged Westerner they can take advantage of by fleecing him of every last penny. This makes for a very original but rather odd setting for a comedy, as we are supposed to laugh at the backwardness and poverty of these people (never mind the endless plague of radiation-caused cancers and other diseases they have suffered) as they walk all over the rather spineless and far too nice David. However, we do laugh, even to our surprise, as Bushkowsky has the gift of creating likable and believable characters even in the most unlikely of circumstances.

2. So what is it about these characters that makes them so likable?

These are very poor people who live a hardscrabble existence and are tough as nails...not one of them is anybody's fool. The first two Belorussians we meet are Yuri, a jovial hard-drinking roadside potato seller and Katrina, a sourpuss hard-smoking mechanic. As played by Allan Morgan and Colleen Wheeler (two of my favorite Vancouver actors), they almost become versions of the clowns in Beckett's Waiting for Godot, sitting in the blasted countryside waiting for the end of the world. But their self-awareness and grudging mutual admiration makes them hard to resist, and Morgan and Wheeler pull out all the comedic stops to portray them with great physicality and assuredness. Jacob Richmond plays a government bureaucrat who confirms all our stereotypes of the insanity of Russian-style bureaucracy and then surprises us by turning out to be a decent fellow who is in love with David's second (or is it third?) cousin Natasha, played by Celine Stubel. It is this final character who totally steals the show; as played by Stubel in a stellar breakout performance, Natasha is by turns manipulative, honest, contemptible and heartbreaking...she is also very, very funny. As she tries to convince her distant cousin to marry her so as to allow her to get into Canada, we see her dishonesty but understand her motives; she is a cancer survivor who has also lost a young child to the disease, so why wouldn't she do anything in her power to escape?

3. And what happens to David in the middle of all of these people...does he continue to let them walk all over him?

Thankfully, no. David is a bit too Canadian even for a Canadian audience and finally, late in the play, he locates his spine and lets everyone around him have it in a welcome blast of anger. The play feels a bit unresolved at the end right now, with an false-seeming death thrown in and a kind of anti-climactic reconciliation. Bushkowsky would do well to think through where the play goes in the second act...tragicomedy is a challenging dramatic genre and I think the play could let us into these characters' histories and struggles with a bit more focus and commitment than the fairly light approach we see now.

4. What about the direction and design of the show?

Britt Small directs the play with great assurance and pulls an outstanding performance out of Stubel and strong work from the rest of the cast. She creates a nice transition motif using Russian music and dance that seems suited to the play. Local designer Janis Ward gives us a simple outdoor set with a real dirt floor, a rusted sewer pipe and truck tires and assorted broken down folding chairs, all placed against an impressionistic backdrop of a changing sky. Her costumes are very effective, especially Natasha's ensembles that try to be stylish but look kind of dated and sad (despite her obvious sexual appeal). The production garnered rave reviews in its recent run in Richmond, and I am happy to report that this is a show with lots of appeal, despite my belief that it could use another round of rewrites.

ENCHANTED APRIL and LEO Reviews

2008-03-10T15:53:00.000-07:00

Clockwise, from bottom: Poster for the 1992 film version of Enchanted April [www.impawards.com] ; Salvatore Antonio as Leo; Salvatore Antonio, Sergio di Zio and Cara Pifko in Leo [www.thesocialedge.com, www.belfry.bc.ca]

Enchanted April continues at Langham Court Theatre until March 22nd. Tickets are available at 384-2142. The Belfry Theatre box office is at 385-6815.

Enchanted April is a stage adaptation of a 1920s British novel that has also been turned into a popular 1992 film version. Does the story deserve all this attention?

I can understand the popularity of this piece, absolutely. It fits nicely into the Shirley Valentine school of romantic comedy in what NY Times theatre reviewer Ben Brantley calls a “harmless exercise in wish fulfillment not unlike those television commercials in which harried housewives escape their lives by slipping into bubble baths”. While that may seem a somewhat masculine and harsh assessment, it is accurate in describing this story of two bored and unhappy post-World War I London housewives who contrive an escape to a sun-soaked castle in Italy for one enchanted April. Like Shirley Valentine, these characters, Lottie and Rose, find themselves literally transformed by the experience, although in this play the husbands are also included and forgiven in the process. In this two-act play we spend the first act in rainy London in February and the incessant sound of rain alone is enough to make the audience long for the Italian countryside along with Lottie and Rose (Note to sound operator...turn down the volume on this cue!) Lottie is our narrator and is a very engaging character, one of those kind of people who simply sweep you along on the waves of their boundless optimism and enthusiasm. Nobody can say no to Lottie (although her stuffed-shirt husband does his level-best to squelch her), and so the dream of a month in Italy quickly becomes a reality as she organizes her reluctant and depressed friend Rose and a couple of other women to come along for the ride. While Act One is the set-up, and requires some patience to get through (as we are also waiting for these women to get to Italy and out of the rain!), Act Two delivers the goods as we spend time in Italy with these four women, their crotchety but lovable Italian housekeeper Costanza, the charming and eligible bachelor owner of the castle and the aforementioned husbands who are invited into this paradise on Earth as a way to improve these two miserable marriages. In then end, everyone is happily paired-off and even the dour Mrs. Graves, a Victorian widow of doom and gloom and judgment who joins Rose and Lottie for the trip, becomes more human.

And how does this production fare?

I found the Langham Court production a bit of a mixed success. On the design level, Bill Adams gives us such a minimalist Act One setting (as most of the set is hidden behind two folding panels) that we are not given much to look at except a video image of the driving rain that begins to grate before long. The pay-off for this wait comes after the intermission when we are treated to a glorious set that very effectively transports us to a small castle surrounded by gardens. It is a stunning set, an example of the kind of high production values that Langham can do so well. The women's costumes are also mostly effective, with lots of changes throughout. As for the performances, the play rests on Rose and Lottie and I found Melissa Blank as Rose and newcomer Alison Preece as Lottie both very engaging and believable in their roles. Blank creates a nice journey of transformation from a miserable and bereft housewife with a philandering husband to a woman reborn into her marriage and her sexuality. Preece avoids the easy trap in this role of Lottie to become cloying and overly-sweet and keeps Lottie on track quite well, although I hope she may find some moments of doubt and anxiety to balance out the character a bit more. The supporting roles in the production are a bit less successful, partly because they are somewhat underwritten and therefore a bit one-dimensional. Generally I found the women to be stronger than the men, with quite nice turns from more senior (as in experienced) actors Elizabeth Whitmarsh as Mrs. Graves and Lesley Gibbs as Costanza.

And what about the direction of the show by Langham long-timer Judy Treloar?

There are some pacing problems in Act One that may improve over the run. I am never a fan of extended blackouts covering scene changes and there are too many of these in Act One for my liking. Can we not simply have the actors do this work in role and with lights up, or at half? All the blackouts slow the pace and work against the text which should be full-steam ahead with Lottie as engineer pulling everyone along for the ride. And some of the weaker performances in the show demonstrate a lack of understanding of how to play subtext in this company. In Act Two a highly-unlikely coincidence occurs that, played with greater subtlety, could be quite moving but in this production feels both awkward and obvious. And key character transitions in Act Two are also a bit muddied, as for instance when Lottie and Rose are reunited with their husbands...I'm not sure these reunions should be as effortless as they are portrayed. These quibbles aside, Treloar shows her ability to work with actors of all ages and experiences and to create a team effort that was clearly enjoyed by the full house on Saturday night. I'm sure this production will be yet another big hit for Langham.

Let's turn now to a production that played last week as part of the Belfry's spring Festival, Léo by Canadian playwright Rosa Laborde. We don't usually review short-run shows, but you wanted to mention this particular show this morning. Why?

One of the frustrations of reviewing in Victoria is that many of the best shows of the season are touring productions that only play for 4 or 5 days. To review a play after it's closed is not a happy thing for listeners who have missed their chance to see a terrific show, and I get that. At the same time, to never mention the sometimes outstanding productions brought in by the Belfry each spring, or by Intrepid Theatre in January/February, is to do listeners a disservice. Many of these touring productions have been nominated for or won Dora or Jessie awards and feature some of the best writing, directing, acting and design work to be seen anywhere in Canada. This is the case with Toronto's Tarragon Theatre production of Léo, nominated for the Governor General's award for playwriting last year as well as a number of Toronto theatre Dora awards. For me, this show was the highlight of the theatre season so far in Victoria, a very well-written, well-acted, well-directed and well-designed professional production that about three friends growing up in Chile before, during and after the brief socialist government of Salvador Allende in the early 1970s. Highly-esteemed Canadian director Richard Rose creates a minimalist production on a bare stage with a grey carpet triangle that accents the interrelationships between talented but troubled narrator Léo and his childhood friends – the politically passionate Rodrigo and the betraying and betrayed survivor Isolda (the only one of the three who manages to escape the clutches of the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet that overthrows Allende and his democratically-elected government). The play has substance and meaning; we care about these characters and also learn something about what it was like to live as a middle-class young person in Chile at this point in history, and the kinds of life-or-death choices they are pushed into as a consequence of the political atmosphere. The production is as tightly-directed and performed a show as I've seen in a long while...not one moment is insignificant to the overall texture of the play and the three actors are intensely connected to each other in fully-committed and realized portrayals. The lighting and sound in the show do not dominate but effectively support the story and we are left feeling the kind of conflictual and unresolved emotions that I believe all meaningful dramas should challenge audiences to take on.

So it's too late for listeners to see Léo but not too late to see a couple more Belfry Festival shows, is that right?

Yes, this week sees the opening of the Belfry's incubator project, a Phoenix student-driven production called The Shoes by Lee Cookson that is described as a magical fantasy and later this month we can catch Vancouver playwright Aaron Bushkowsky's new comedy My Chernobyl that features a great cast and is directed by Victoria's Britt Small. Details are on the web at http://www.belfry.bc.ca/

MADAMA BUTTERFLY and LIONEL REVIEWS

2008-02-18T09:55:00.000-08:00

Top: Poster image for LIONEL

Bottom: Poster for POV's Madama Butterfly

Madama Butterfly continues this weekend at theRoyal Theatre. Tickets are available at 385-0222. Lionel continues until February 23rd at the Phoenix. Tickets are available at 721-8000.

I believe this is the Pacific Opera's fourth production of Madama Butterfly. What makes it such a popular choice?

The composer Puccini himself considered Butterfly his favorite character and operatic creation. It debuted in 1904 and was not an immediate critical success, but has since grown to become one of the best-loved operas of all time. It's not too difficult to understand why as the story is an incredibly touching one of hopeless cross-cultural love between the young and innocent Nagasaki geisha Cio-Cio- San and the heartless American naval officer B.F. Pinkerton who weds her, beds her and abandons her, leading her to eventual suicide. Puccini was inspired, as were many of his European artistic contemporaries, by all things Japanese in the wake of Japan's opening up to the rest of the world in the mid-1800s after 200 years of relative isolation. Variations of the Butterfly story had appeared as stories and plays, and Puccini saw a play in England called Madame Butterfly that inspired him to compose the opera. But of course, it is not just the lovely and tragic story that makes this opera so well-known, but the gorgeous music that Puccini has composed, interweaving Japanese folk melodies and even the Star Spangled Banner into the more familiar Italian operatic style.

2. And how does this production do on the musical front?

Maestro Pietraroia guides the orchestra beautifully and with lots of feeling throughout. And the singing is also uniformly strong, with outstanding performances by the leads of Sally Dibblee (debuting in this role) as Butterfly, Kurt Lehmann as Pinkerton, Michele Losier as Butterfly's maid Suzuki and Bruce Kelly as the US consul Sharpless. All of these singers carry off their roles with great confidence and depth of feeling, and I particularly enjoyed Dibblee's careful physicalization, centred on Butterfly's delicate and floating hands.. I was very moved by the love duet between Butterfly and Pinkerton that closes Act One and by the famous aria of longing ('Un bel de vedremo') sung by Butterfly at the beginning of Act Two. These leads are well-backed by other supporting characters and a chorus that does not feature as much in Butterfly as in other operas, but has some haunting offstage singing in Act Two that is very effective.

3. And how about the look of this production, and its direction?

The show is designed by quite a young designer, Elli Bunton, a graduate of the National Theatre School, and I think she's done a terrific job in creating what she calls an impressionistic (as opposed to naturalistic) Japanese house. The set is all curved graceful lines and rice paper panels. Sometimes the main panels centre stage have back projections that take us out into the world beyond or offer metaphoric images that connect with the emotional journey of the characters. Her costumes are also well-done, although I wondered about the puffy skirt she puts on Dibblee that makes her seem a bit rounder than she is, when the more traditional straight-cut kimono might make the petite singer seem even more tiny and fragile as Butterfly. Director Francois Racine gives us a very clean and clear interpretation that suitably focuses on the protagonist and enhances the dramatic tensions in the storyline. All in all, an excellent production of a marvellous and moving opera.

Now we move to the latest show at the university theatre department, a world premiere of a Canadian play called Lionel the Miracle Man. What is it all about?

The play by Montreal playwright and writer Pan Bouyoucas was actually written over fourteen years ago, but this is its first production. It tells the 1920s tale of a poor young Quebecois boy Lionel who is only 4 feet 4 inches tall, but is blessed with a great singing voice. When he decides to leave his mother and small village behind, he sets out on adventures that include becoming a sideshow freak, a street busker and eventually a 'miracle man' who begins to grow (and grow and grow) in a somewhat messianic fashion, for the greater good of mankind. He becomes a film star, but his ambition leads him to evil deeds and in despair his life comes to a sad end. We cover a lot of territory in this strange play, and I have to confess I had a hard time in engaging with this central character and his journey and in making sense of what it's all supposed to mean. Quite frankly, there's usually a pretty good reason that a play hasn't been produced in more than a decade since its inception, and unfortunately those reasons seem in evidence here. Many of the characters' actions feel highly unmotivated and it remains unclear why anyone cares for this very self-involved and pompous protagonist who claims to love all mankind but can't even return the love of his loyal girlfriend and best friend. The fact is, Lionel is a rather unsympathetic character, yet not quite a villain, so we as audience members are left confused about how to receive this story: Is it a satire? An allegory? If so, what is its intent?

Does the production manage to overcome the problems with the script?

All the male actors in this show (save one) have appeared in a number of other Phoenix shows where I feel they have shone more than here. But, again, I believe this is mostly due to the material they are working with. Lead Carey Wass as Lionel is onstage almost throughout this 100 minute play and does his level best to bring energy, focus and meaning to the role. He manages very well with the physical demands of playing a dwarf and a giant (the latter on stilts!) but is generally reduced to the ranting and raving of a deluded man who compares himself to Jesus. Nicole Fraissinet acquits herself very well in the role of Lionel's girlfriend Maggie, but again, there is little change in the character which gives her not much to work with. And MFA directing student Ewan Mclaren has a lot of comings and goings that might have worked better with keeping the company onstage and moving in and out of the action to keep the pace up. He also has a white actor playing a black character in a way that may make some uncomfortable, as well as adding strange facial makeup and hair to some characters that seems neither justified or explained. The one element of the show that did work quite well was the simple but effective set design by student Jennifer Quinn which has some nice use of back projections and silhouettes. However, overall I have to report that the show leaves an audience at quite a distance and leaving the theatre shaking their heads about what they have seen. I wonder if a more highly-stylized physical approach that moves more towards cartoon and even puppetry might make the hidden meanings of the play more clear? But in this production, we just don't know what to make of it at all.

MOON OVER BUFFALO REVIEW - January 14, 2008

2008-01-14T16:20:00.001-08:00

Photo: Philip Bosco and Carol Burnett in Broadway cast of Moon Over Buffalo (www.kenludwig.com)

Moon Over Buffalo continues at Langham Court Theatre until January 26th. Tickets are at 384-2142.

What can you tell us about this comedy of backstage theatre life?

Well, as another critic pointed out astutely, this is Waiting for Guffman meets Noises Off and playwright Ken Ludwig is clearly tapping in to a more traditional farce form involving mistaken identities, ambition in the face of failure, deception and drunkenness and backstage and onstage disaster in this play about a couple of over-the-hill repertory actors, George and Charlotte Hay, touring the backwaters in 1953 with tired versions of Cyrano de Bergerac and Private Lives. This 1995 play brought Carol Burnett back to Broadway after 30 years, for which she received a Tony nomination. Interestingly, a documentary film was made about this comeback and the play's trial run and Broadway premiere, called Moon Over Broadway, that shows a lot of the tensions during rehearsals among the playwright, director and the actors who were trying to make the play work. In many ways I can't help wishing it was this film I was able to review rather than the play itself, which, for me could only rise above its mediocrity with actors at the level of Carol Burnett playing it. In a community theatre production, as seen onstage at Langham Court, the weaknesses of the script become all too clear, even in what is a very serviceable production.

And what did you feel the weaknesses were in the play?

There is not one character in this 8 person play for which the audience can care about in even the smallest way. Total lack of empathy signals a kind of theatre that is veering hard toward cartoon-land where you don't really care what happens to these people and therefore laughing at their misfortunes becomes easy. But at the same time, there is a lot of real misfortune packed into this two-hour show; a husband cheats on his wife and impregnates his ingenue; his wife seeks revenge by planning to run off with their lawyer; the couple dreams of making it to Hollywood and into a Frank Capra movie, but it becomes all too clear that they are both well past their sell-by dates. Meanwhile, their daughter is trying to separate herself from the 'life of the theatre' by marrying a boring weatherman (who in this production has a problem with somersaulting over furniture a lot) rather than the supporting actor in the company who is her true love. The climax of the play involves a drunken George playing Cyrano while everyone else onstage is performing Private Lives. All of this screams 'formula' to me and seems to be a mish-mash of themes and characters taken from Ludwig's own past shows (Crazy for You, Lend me a Tenor) and from, quite frankly, better plays such as Michael Frayn's Noises Off.

How does the Langham production do in the face of what you consider to be a pretty shallow farce?

There is a lot of experience up there on the stage at Langham, and in the hands of equally experienced director Dick Stille the show moves along at the necessary fast clip and with the quick timing needed in a show with five doors on the set that are constantly opening and closing with characters running in and out of them in constant manic energy. However, the mania of this production begins to grate as right off the top there is a lot of yelling (not helped by the fact that one character is deaf and requires being yelled at all the time) that only increases into Act Two. But leads Alan Penty and Fran Patterson play their roles with lots of physicality (as seen in the band-aid and bruises on Penty) and the appropriate ham acting called upon by the play itself. They are well-supported by the rest of the company and by the set and costume design. I would just like to see a moment or two of genuine feeling from this couple that has been together, through thick and thin, for 35 years. Surely it must hurt very deeply to have your husband cheat on you or to have your wife want to leave you for another man. At no point in this production did I feel for George or Charlotte, so their eventual (and in the world of comedy, inevitable) reconciliation held no satisfaction. The risk of farce is that of making the audience indifferent, even cruel, in their attitude toward characters and that is unfortunately what I see happening in this production, mostly due to the shallowness of the play itself.

It's kind of surprising that you in particular, as a theatre person yourself, could not warm up to a play about actors and a life in the theatre...any final thoughts about that?

There are many terrific plays about the theatre: Noises Off (as mentioned before); Life in the Theatre by David Mamet; The Dresser by Ronald Harwood. Of course, Noel Coward wrote plays about the theatre, including Waiting in the Wings that Langham mounted last season. What holds all these plays above Moon Over Buffalo in my estimation is that they are all love letters to the theatre, as much as they may also satirize the form. This play lacks this loving aspect and instead makes a life in the theatre look both dated and foolish, especially when set in the context of the early 50s and the rise of television. If George and Charlotte Hay were still in love with the theatre, despite their mediocrity, we could love them as well. What we are given by playwright Ken Ludwig is quite a bitter and cynical view of theatre as a dying art form, where the most these down-on-their-luck stage actors can dream of is success in the movies. A bit sad for those of us who cherish this live performing art form so much.

Diary of a Madman and Dream of a Ridiculous Man Review

2007-12-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

Photo: Clayton Jevne of Theatre Inconnu (www.theatreinconnu.com)

Diary of a Madman and Dream of a Ridiculous Man continue at 1923 Fernwood Road until December 29th. Call 360-0234 for tickets.

Clayton Jevne of Theatre Inconnu usually performs his one-man version of Charles Dicken's Christmas Carol at this time of year...why the switch this year to versions of Gogol and Dostoyevski stories?

As you may have seen, Clayton Jevne is the cover story of this week's Monday Magazine, as part of the 20th anniversary celebration of his small theatre company Theatre Inconnu, or “Unknown Theatre” that has been performing regularly in Victoria since 1987. Jevne founded and ran the Victoria Shakespeare Festival for many years and has managed a number of different theatre spaces around town, from a tiny shoebox space in Market Square, to a tent in the Inner Harbour, to St. Anne's Academy and now his relatively new space in the Little Fernwood Centre across the road from the Belfry on Fernwood Road. Throughout these twenty years, Jevne has presented a widely-ranging program of classic and contemporary plays that have offered Victoria theatre-goers the rare opportunity to see a number of plays that would never otherwise be seen. His programming choices have been described as 'eclectic' and that seems a fair description...you never know what to expect from season to season, and definitely some shows work better than others, but I am always happy to have the chance to see plays by lesser-known European playwrights, or classics by playwrights such as Pinter, George Ryga and many others. To celebrate this anniversary, Jevne has decided to remount Dostoyevski's short story that he originally performed way back in 1984. He has paired this one-act play with a new production of Gogol's short story Diary of a Madman.

I understand that the epitaph on Gogol's gravestone reads “I shall laugh my bitter laugh”. Does that quote describe Diary of a Madman?

Absolutely. Gogol is famous for his sharp satires of overblown Russian government bureaucracy in the early 1800's. Many of his characters possess the peculiar and particular Russian quality of poshlost which translates best as 'self-satisfied inferiority' or 'false importance and cleverness'. The narrator of Madman fits this quality to a 'T' as he describes his contempt for both his betters (with a couple of exceptions) and those beneath him in the strict social class structure of czarist Russia. While the narrator longs for the beautiful and unattainable daughter of the 'Director', he also begins to hear dogs in conversation and so starts to slowly decline into delusions of grandeur and full-blown insanity. So the story has that uniquely Russian quality of both humor and sadness mixed together as we watch this pompous yet insignificant 'titular counsellor' descend into madness in the grips of believing he is actually the king of Spain.

What about The Dream of a Ridiculous Man by Dostoyesvski...is it in a similar satirical theme as the Gogol?

Not at all. Dostyesvski, one of the greatest writers of all time, was influenced early in his life by utopian socialism and was imprisoned in Siberia in the 1840s for this perceived threat to the czar and his regime. While Dostoevski moved away from these utopian dreams later in his career-- as he began to explore a psychologism and existentialism in his writing that remains a huge influence on any number of authors--the short story presented here hearkens back to the utopian dream of a better world. The narrator tells us about a dream he had one night as he fell asleep in contemplation of suicide, due to his feelings of total indifference to a totally indifferent world. This dream sees him shoot himself yet remain conscious of his funeral and burial. He is then taken by a mysterious stranger through outer space to a planet like Earth but perfect in every way, a society built on love of both nature and humanity. While his presence eventually poisons this perfection, rendering it into a dystopia we recognize all too well, the narrator awakens from this dream to a renewed sense of purpose and a will to live.

As both these stories are pieces of literature rather than plays, how well did you feel they worked as theatre?

Both stories feature first-person narrators who speak directly to the audience, which helps a lot in turning these pieces of literature into theatre. Any story written in third-person needs to be re-written in a more immediate and direct voice in order to work well dramatically. That said, this is still essentially a form of Reader's Theatre, albeit at a high level of achievement. As we are listening to and watching an actor interpret two short stories, the demands on an audience are quite high and this show is over two hours long. So audiences should come prepared to meet that challenge...this is not light entertainment! While this production is intentionally minimal...the first piece has a bare stage and a couple of props, the second a table and chair...the words of these great authors definitely paint pictures in your mind, as any fine literature will do.
And what about the work of Clayton Jevne in these roles, and of the director Graham McDonald?

Jevne's performances in both roles is very strong. His madman in the Gogol is somewhat stylized, exaggerated and overblown for comic effect. His transitions in one lengthy scene between the character of a small dog and himself is very well done. Simply propping himself up against a pole of one side of the stage allows us to imagine him either working at his desk or lying in bed. As the character descends in to madness, his movement becomes more manic and Jevne uses his gestural vocabulary to great effect as he circles the tiny stage. In the Dostoyevski, Jevne's performance is much more naturalistic as he very simply tells us the story of what happened to this narrator one fateful November 3rd. This piece is the more challenging of the two to make theatrical, as it is mostly the relating of a fantastic dream, so we are drawn in by Jevne's detailed physical and facial expressions. Director McDonald has Jevne make effective use of levels by standing and lying on the table, even turning it on its side at one point, but this piece is more static and could perhaps have used some judicious editing to help sustain interest. There is a lack of dramatic tension in descriptions of utopias, afterall they are supposed to be perfect and therefore conflict-free, so it only when the utopia starts to slip into sinfulness and human evil that the dream gains some power. Overall, this production offers an alternative to the usual light Christmas fare and will be stimulating for anyone interested in Russian literature and the satirical and moral issues they explore.

SCOTLAND ROAD REVIEW - November 19, 2007

2007-11-19T20:08:00.000-08:00

Scotland Road continues at Langham Court theatre until December 1st. Call 384-2142 for tickets.

Apparently, this is one of two plays by American playwright Jeffrey Hatcher to be produced in Victoria this year...why the interest in his work?

Hatcher is quite a popular playwright who writes adaptations as well as original plays. His adaptation of Henry James' TURN OF THE SCREW will appear at the Belfry Theatre in January and his adaptation of the novel TUESDAYS WITH MORRIE was presented by Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre last season. So Hatcher seems to have the ability to tap into a current popular interest, or a traditional popular tale, and to turn it into a stage play. This is certainly the case with his original play SCOTLAND ROAD that premiered in 1993 in response perhaps to the renewed interest in the Titanic after the ship was found on the ocean floor in 1985. Of course, not long after Hatcher's play was written, James Cameron's blockbuster film version became the biggest movie of all time, demonstrating how much we are still fascinated with this historic disaster.

So this Langham Court production would have been a good choice performed at the same time as the Titanic exhibit at the Royal BC Museum?

That would have been a great tie-in for this production, and I can only assume that they were unable to fit it into their schedule so that it ran at the same time as the exhibit, which closed about a month ago. But, nevertheless, interest in the Titanic never seems to wane and this play definitely engages its audience with details about the ship and its fatal maiden voyage in April of 1912. We are treated to a number of historic images of the ship and people aboard it as slides projected onto the walls of the set, plus headlines from newspapers of the day and other things such as the onboard dinner menu for April 12th, the night the ship sank. These images really add an educational element to the show and successfully take us back in time.

Is the play set on the Titanic...does it attempt a staged version of James Cameron's movie?

Not at all...in fact, the play is set in 1992. The play proposes that a silent young woman has been plucked off a North Atlantic iceberg, dressed in 1912 clothing, who appears to be a survivor of the Titanic. We see her interrogation by the great-grandson of a famous Titanic victim, John Jacob Astor, who is as obsessed by the Titanic as much as he is determined to reveal her as a fraud. But the play is full of twists and turns, as any good psychological drama should be, and not one character is really who they pretend to be. The premise works very well to draw us in and keep us guessing right up until the final moments. Is this mysterious young woman really a survivor? Has she been frozen alive in an iceberg all these decades? Is she a ghost? An angel? Or, is she a con artist seeking celebrity? And how has this descendant of Astor managed to maneuver it such that he has gained almost limitless access to her? (This problem is answered simply with the age-old “lots of money” response, which fails to convince as we move into the second act of the play.) What doctor, such as the Icelandic doctor responsible for the young woman's care, would ever agree to such an ethically questionable scenario as transporting her patient to the USA and having her subjected to a gruelling interrogation in a mysterious white-walled room? And, when we meet an authentic Titanic survivor (apparently, the 'last one') who is invited to determine whether or not the young girl's story is true, would this person not be at least 100 years old in 1992? So, the play raises some questions of veracity, but at the same time, the central conflict between Astor and Winifred (the young girl) keeps us on our toes and waiting for the truth of things to be revealed.

And what did you feel were the strengths of this production?

Veteran Langham court director Roger Carr has cast the play well with David MacPherson in the lead role as Astor and newcomer Catherine Rose as Winifred. These are two fine actors; while I am very familiar with MacPherson's work, I have never seen Rose before and she was a revelation. Her Winifred moves seamlessly from silent and terrified victim, to convincing survivor with a fascinating story to tell, to interrogator herself (late in the play) who takes on the power to reveal Astor's own secrets. Lovely work. MacPherson is fine too, although I would like to see more intensity from him than is there right now. Astor's energy drives the play forward and MacPherson is playing the role a little too laid-back at the moment, as though there is too little at stake for his character. I hope he finds this intensity over the course of the run. Supporting work is well-done by Wendy Magahay as Dr. Halbrech and Danda Humphreys as real Titanic survivor Frances Kittle (although the latter does not need the heavy stage makeup in order to effectively play her role, in my view). The set design by Bill Adams is quite wonderful, with a terrific dramatic surprise I won't reveal here, as is the sound design by Alan MacKenzie and the lighting by Karrie Wolfe.

Any elements that you felt weren't working quite as well?

My main quibble with the show is its pace. This play has most often been performed as an 80 or 90 minute one-act play (based on online reviews I read). This production comes in at 115 minutes (including an unnecessary 15 minute intermission) and could be tightened up considerably. It should clip along with much greater urgency than is currently the case, and much of this responsibility falls to MacPherson, as previously stated, but also to scene changes that take far too much time. If this cast could knock 10 minutes off the running time, they'd have a much crisper and more psychologically tense piece of theatre. Also, the play itself leaves one too many questions hanging by the end. While I generally don't mind a level of ambiguity, in this case there is a bit too much head-scratching left for the audience to cope with after curtain call. I suppose there is a certain level of open interpretation where each spectator can decide for him or herself who Winifred and Astor really are (perhaps the whole play happens in Astor's imagination?), but there is also a sense that the playwright opted out of actually bringing all the secrets within the play fully into the light. Still, it's an interesting play and a quite solid production that is well worthwhile for fans of both the Titanic story and of psychological drama.

HOCKEY MOM, HOCKEY DAD REVIEW OCT. 29, 2007

2007-10-31T11:49:00.000-07:00

Poster for Other Guys production of HOCKEY MOM, HOCKEY DAD at Belfry Studio [Call 385-6815 for tickets].

1. This play by Maritimer Michael Melski has played across Canada, in Toronto, Vancouver, Edmonton, Saskatoon as well as in Nova Scotia. What's the secret to its success?

Just think about the title! You've got a ready-made demographic audience there...anyone who has ever spent time in an ice rink before dawn is already going to be on board with a show about hockey parents watching their kids practice and play. And even if you have never experienced this directly, no Canadian worth his salt can resist the mythology of hockey that so serves to identify us...our national sport. So a combination of the alluring and populist setting and a quick, cleverly written two-hander about two single parents trying to connect and it looks like a win-win game for all involved. In the play, here performed as a one-act in about 70 minutes, we see Donna and Teddy engaged in the courtship game while cheering their 8 year old children on as they get whupped yet again. It's a charming formula that mostly works, although Melski does tend to hammer home his points, rather than take a slightly more subtle approach in his dialogue. While some scenes have a real ring of truth to them -- and I especially liked the scenes where the mom and dad are caught between their own conversation and the action of their sons' game -- at times the dialogue slips into movie-of-the-week and we lose some of the freshness that is present elsewhere. That said, there are a couple of unexpected twists along the way that will keep you wondering about what happens next, and if these two lonely people will ever make it together.

2. And what about this Victoria-based Other Guys Theatre production, featuring local actors and real-life married parents Brian Linds and Jan Wood?

This is the real treat of seeing this show....a rare chance to see Belfry favorite Brian Linds and his wife Jan Woods onstage together. And they are both terrific in their roles, offering us characters who are fighting for their lives in very different ways. Brian Linds is an immensely likable actor who radiates warmth and his challenge here is to make Teddy charming, but also to some extent risky, as Donna becomes less certain about his typical hockey-loving (that is, bench-clearing and brawling) ways. I think Linds can find more danger in Teddy than is there as of the preview I saw: he needs to scare Donna enough at one point to scare her away and Linds seems so much in love with her, so remorseful about his behavior that I found it difficult to believe Donna's rejection...he's just so darn nice! Jan Wood's Donna, on the other hand, suppresses her warmth with good reason...she has left a terrible and damaging marriage, she has no money and little work, and she only wants to protect her son. Not a great prospect for a relationship, but Teddy makes up his mind to woo her right off the bat, and I loved watching Wood thaw very slowly and in a very careful and thoughtful way, until she begins to let Teddy into her life a little. Wood is a terrific actor and her physical and emotional work here is a testament to her popularity as an acting professor in the theatre department at UVic, and to her long professional career. The way she reacts when Teddy touches her, the hands flying up to protect herself from anyone or anything getting to her, are wonderful to watch.

3. What about the Canadian hockey culture that is the background of the play...is it celebrated or slammed?

I'd have to say it's a bit of both. We laugh along with these characters as they watch their young children play badly, and we can even relate to Teddy's dreams of the NHL for his son Todd. And we cheer along with them when the Langford Leafs score an occasional goal. But the violence that has become such a prevalent aspect of hockey is shown when a fight breaks out on the ice and Donna is shocked by Teddy's behaviour. Personally speaking, I don't watch hockey, partly because of the violence, so I understand Donna's negative reaction, especially given her context and situation. But, on the other hand, if you're hanging out at a hockey rink and your kid is playing the game, I figure you've got to be aware at some level about the nature of the game...in 2007. Unfortunately, I found Donna's concerns about fighting understandable but still a bit naïve. I'd suggest she put her child into a different sports activity if she really wants to prevent him from being exposed to violent behaviour. Again, speaking personally, I like baseball. Rarely a two-team pile-up in ball...the only real danger is getting smoked by the ball or crashing into the fence.

4. And did you believe you were really in a kids hockey rink?

The set designed by Bill Adams, who has done many fine sets in town over the years, often at Langham Court, is simple but effective...the bleachers and grey brick back wall of a rundown Langford hockey rink. Director Ross Desprez, assisted by Brian Linds' fun and sometimes rabble-rousing sound design and Keith Houghton's effective lighting, has the two actors move effectively between and within scenes so as to make maximum use of the small space. The couple of times they actually climb over the boards and onto the ice, it is a strong effect. And the use of the buzzer marking periods in games also takes us into the rink, as does a Zamboni that seems to cross the ice right behind us.

5. Any reservations about this production, or with the play itself?

This is not a great Canadian play, but I understand and think it deserves its popularity. I agree with a Vancouver reviewer's opinion that it is a bit tired seeing the man pursue the woman and basically metaphorically beat her into submission with his sheer relentlessness. What does Teddy really see in Donna (as she asks him herself at one point, to her credit)? He seems more interested in having a partner, being a family man, than in being with this particular woman, as much as says he finds her beautiful (and I'm sure he does). And the play is (at least in part) yet another female victim story, of which I am so very, very tired. Also, it is a love story that seems to entirely lack sex, and as Romeo and Juliet taught us, that is the spice of life in love stories. Why do these two never get it on for as long as we know them? I don't know about you, but this is frustrating not just for the characters! But this production gives us a strong version of this hit show that gives us the chance to see two fine local actors working together outside of their home. Although I might daydream about seeing them together as Beatrice and Benedick in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing, or in Eugene O'Neill's Moon for the Misbegotten, it's a treat to see them in Melski's bleacher romance, nonetheless.

Critics' Choice Awards 2007

2007-10-24T21:16:00.000-07:00

CRITIC’S CHOICE AWARDS 2007

Critics: Adrian Chamberlain (Times-Colonist); David Lennam (CBC); Monica Prendergast (CBC); John Threlfall (Monday Magazine)

set design

Leslie Frankish (Manon Lescault - POV)

John Ferguson (Don Giovanni - POV)

Ian Rye (Urinetown - Belfry)

Misha Koslovsky (Beauty and the Beast - VOS)

Christian Barry (Revisited)

Laurin Kelsey, (Crackpot – UVic)

WINNER: Ian Rye (Urinetown)

costume design

Mary Kerr (Richard III - UVic)

John Ferguson (Don Giovanni - POV)

David Hardwick (Beauty and the Beast - VOS)

Susan Ferguson (Waiting in the Wings – Langham)

WINNER: David Hardwick (Beauty and the Beast - VOS)

sound design

Richard Feren (Revisited – Halifax 2b Theatre)

Ian Case (Macbeth – WHOs)

Tobin Stokes (I Am My Own Wife – Belfry)

John Mills-Cockell (Honour – Belfry)

Meg Roe/Alessandro Juliani (Skydive) WON A JESSIE

WINNER: Richard Feren (Revisited)

lighting design

Christian Barry (Revisited)

Tim Herron (Richard III - UVic)

Gerald King (Urinetown - Belfry)

Adrian Muir (Skydive – Belfry)

WINNER: Tim Herron (Richard III)

direction

Roy Surette (Urinetown)

Giles Hogya (Richard III)

Graham McDonald (The Caretaker – Theatre Inconnu)

Christian Barry (Revisited)

Linda Hardy (Tartuffe – UVic)

Barbara Poggemiller (Romeo and Juliet – Victoria Shakespeare Society)

WINNER: Giles Hogya (Richard III)

performance in a community production

Trevor Hinton (Richard III)

Fran Patterson (Romeo and Juliet)

Michael Shewchuck + Jason Stevens (The Caretaker)

Ming Hudson + Laura Harris (as the maid, Dorine) (Tartuffe)

David McPherson (The Butcher’s Apron)

WINNER: Trevor Hinton (Richard III)

performance in a professional production

Meg Roe & John Payne (Urinetown)

Alan Morgan (I Am My Own Wife)

Rick Miller (Bigger Than Jesus)

Elizabeth Shepherd (Honour)

Cast of two: Michelle Monteith and Steven McCarthy (Revisited)

WINNER: Alan Morgan (I Am My Own Wife)

musical production

Urinetown (Belfry)

Anything Goes (Chemainus)

Beauty and the Beast (VOS)

Canadian College of Performing Arts Showcase

WINNER: Urinetown (Belfry)

best new play

Grimm Tales (Itsazoo)

Prior Engagement (Out of the Box Productions)

Skydive (Real Wheels/Belfry)

WINNER: Grimm Tales (Itsazoo)

overall production (community)

Richard III (Phoenix UVic)

The Caretaker (Theatre Inconnu)

Macbeth (WHOs)

Beauty and the Beast (VOS)

Romeo and Juliet (Vic Shakespeare Soc.)

Grimm Tales (Itsazoo)

Waiting in the Wings (Langham)

WINNER: SPLIT

Richard III (Phoenix UVic)

The Caretaker (Theatre Inconnu)

overall production (professional)

Urinetown (Belfry)

Revisited

Bigger Than Jesus (Rick Miller)

Manon Lescaut (POV)

An Oak Tree (UK, News from Nowhere)

WINNER: Revisited (Christian Barry, Halifax 2b Theatre)

best fringe production

Giant Invisible Robot (Jayson MacDonald)

Jake’s Gift (Julia Mackey)

Versus vs Versus (Pajama Men)

Dishpig (TJ Dawe and Greg Landucci)

Singing at the Edge of the World (Randy Rutherford)

Pitch Blonde (Laura Harris)

WINNER: Pitch Blonde (Laura Harris)

lifetime achievement

Ned Vukovic (UVic)

thank god they were comps

A Bedroom Farce (Langham Court)

Cross This Bridge at a Walk (Belfry, Incubator))

Charlotte’s Web (Kaleidoscope)

Street of Crocodiles (UVic)

Honour (Belfry)

THE UGLY DUCHESS and IDOMENEO – OCTOBER 15, 2007

2007-10-16T08:58:00.000-07:00

Photos: Top, Portrait of a Grotesque Old Woman by Quentin Matsys (c. 1525-1530), National Gallery, London. Middle, poster for IDOMENEO [www.pov.bc.ca]. Bottom, Paul Terry as Margaret Maultasch [www.janetmunsil.com]. Photo by Bruce Stotesbury.

Today's reviews are of Janet Munsil's THE UGLY DUCHESS at UVic's Phoenix Theatre and Pacific Opera's production of Mozart's IDOMENEO (EE-dom-en-AY-o).

Before we begin talking about these two shows, I believe you have some Victoria theatre news to share?

The Belfry has announced the appointment of new Artistic Director Michael Shamata. Shamata is a very well-known Canadian director who has worked from coast to coast and was Artistic Director of Theatre New Brunswick and London's Grand Theatre. In recent years he has been a freelance director and has staged award-winning productions in Toronto and Vancouver, among many others. He will be directing the musical OLIVER at Vancouver's Playhouse Theatre in November and his strengths as a musical theatre director may mean we'll see more musicals onstage at the Belfry. Whatever happens, the Belfry has selected a very experienced Artistic Director in Shamata, who will no doubt continue the theatre's enviable record of success.

Now let's move on to THE UGLY DUCHESS up at UVic. This one-man show has been performed locally, nationally and internationally, is that right?

This is the Phoenix's annual alumni production, featuring graduates of the theatre program. UGLY DUCHESS is written by local playwright Janet Munsil, performed by her husband Paul Terry and directed by Britt Small, alumni all. It was first performed in 1993 and has been seen in Victoria, San Francisco, Winnipeg, Toronto, Edmonton, Czechoslovakia and Ireland. Quite a resumé! The one-act play tells the partly-true and partly-imaginary story of princess Margaret of Bohemia, who briefly ruled the European nation of Tyrol in the 1300s. She lived through the Black Plague and was reputed to be a very homely woman, nicknamed 'Maultasch' or 'Pocket-mouth'. Paul Terry plays Margaret with incredible sensitivity such that you never doubt his authenticity as a woman...the fact that he is in drag never once becomes an issue, so truthful is his portrayal. She tells us her life story while slowly getting dressed at her dressing table, occasionally bringing to life other characters, but mostly directly addressing the audience. The play was inspired by a portrait Munsil saw in London's National Gallery called Portrait of a Grotesque Old Woman and is a remarkable dramatization of this historical figure, simply but effectively directed by Britt Small.

What did you think about this version, playing in a proscenium theatre as compared to all the Fringe venues it has appeared in previously?

The Bishop Theatre in the Phoenix building at UVic is a lovely 200-seat theatre, but lacks the intimacy of the much-smaller Fringe theatre spaces where this play has most often been seen. I first saw UGLY DUCHESS shortly after moving to Victoria in 1999 at Open Space, where the audience was only a few feet away from Margaret at her dressing table. This time, seated near the back of the theatre, I missed this close contact with the character and therefore felt a little more removed from her and her story. While the show looks fine, with nice costuming by Roberta Doylend and lighting by Phoenix student Nathan Brown, I still wanted to be more up-close and personal with this unique dramatic creation from the fertile mind of Janet Munsil.

Mozart's early opera, based on the Greek myth of the King of Crete and his adventures following the end of the Trojan war, premiered in 1781. What can you tell us about this Pacific Opera production?

Mozart was only 24 years old when this opera premiered in Munich and in it we can see and hear the roots of the great operas he would compose later in his career, including THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO, COSI FAN TUTTE and DON GIOVANNI, produced by Pacific Opera just last season. While hampered by a less-than-stellar librettist in Giambattista Varesco, the opera contains beautiful music and strong characters and plot in the story of the King of Crete, Idomoneo, who accidentally condemns his son Idamante to death by sacrifice, and the two women who love the prince, Trojan princess Illia and Greek princess Elettra. All these roles are well-performed and acted, and I especially enjoyed the female love rivals Emmanuelle Coutu as Illia and Joslin Romphf as Elletra. Interestingly, prince Idamante was written for a castrato, and is often played by a mezzo-soprano, as in this production by Mia Lennox-Williams, who plays the role with boyish sincerity. So we have two cross-dressing shows in the same week! This version of IDOMENEO features a lovely set design by POV regular and UBC theatre professor Alison Green that features a barren Cretan shoreline that becomes other locations throughout with the use of backdrops that are flown in and out, to great effect. Costume designer Christine Reimer makes her POV debut and her costumes for the main characters are generally effective, although I thought her somewhat garish flamenco-dancer-looking dress and long Morticia Adams hair for the insanely jealous Elletra was a bit over the top. Lighting by another POV regular Robert Thomson is uniformly strong.

How did you feel about Ann Hodges' stage direction and Mario Bernardi's musical direction of the opera?

Ann Hodges is another first-timer at POV and a welcome one, with a lot of theatre and opera directing experience. She is particularly strong at creating a chorus that has something to do, rather than just troop on and off as is so often the case in opera. In this way, she succeeds in making the chorus an integral part of the opera, and her use of tableaux, slow motion, repetition and other dramatic actions all work very well. Renowned conductor Mario Bernardi is also debuting at the POV and it certainly is an honour to have him here in Victoria. The former conductor of the National Arts Centre Orchestra has a stellar international career and conducts IDOMONEO with great sensitivity and understanding. His curtain call on Saturday night upstaged everyone else onstage, demonstrating what a treat is is to have a conductor of his calibre working with Pacific Opera.

PLUG: THE UGLY DUCHESS continues at the Phoenix Theatre until October 20th. Tickets are available at 721-8000. IDOMONEO continues until the 20th as well. Tickets are available at 386-6121.

COMPANY by Stephen Sondheim at the Arts Club

2007-10-07T19:41:00.000-07:00

Photos: Left, poster for Arts Club production of COMPANY [http://www.artsclub.com/20072008/onstage/company.htm]; Right, Dean Jones [Bobby] and Elaine Stritch [Joanne] in the original Broadway COMPANY of 1970 [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/broadway/stars/stritch_e.html]

Let's get this straight - Stephen Sondheim is a genius of the musical theatre. I grew up in the 80s to his musicals, a total re-education from the Andrew Lloyd Webbers and That's Entertainment clips of classic American musical movies I was weaned on. Sondheim is thinking person's musical theatre, at times almost raised to philosophical worth. After all, not many composers of musicals earn Pulitzer prizes, as Sondheim and his later collaborator James Lapine did for Sunday in the Park with George in 1987. Sweeney Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street is his 1979 masterwork, and is to open this Christmas in a film version by Tim Burton, starring Johnny Depp, Helena Bonham Carter and Alan Rickman. I have never seen Sweeney onstage, but treasure the original soundtrack LP I own, with Len Cariou and Angela Lansbury...fantastic from first to last note. So when Vancouver's Arts Club Theatre produces this early Sondheim, his first musical hit (he had been a lyricist for huge musicals like Gypsy and West Side Story, but this was his first composer/lyricist show), I am nothing if not there.

The Bill Millerd-directed production, for the most part, does not disappoint. Matt Palmer plays a strong Bobby, the 35 year old bachelor protagonist surrounded by his loving and meddling married friends, with solid acting and singing throughout. This is a role where he is hardly ever offstage, so is a big challenge. Palmer delivers, giving rousing renditions of songs like Marry Me a Little, I'm Ready and the show-closing Being Alive. Palmer is well-supported with a large cast populated by top Vancouver musical theatre talent. Standouts for me were many of the women, to whom Sondheim gives the choicest songs aside from Bobby's: Another Hundred People, I'm Not Getting Married Today and the vicious Ladies Who Lunch were all sung with gusto and panache by their respective performers. Orchestrations were tight; the set recalled the Hal Prince original production evoking a stark urban space, with set pieces defining locations moving smoothly on and off as needed. Costumes were a bit monochromatically black for me, but livened up in Act Two. Choreography was the weak spot in the production and was serviceable at best; at worst, a solo dance sequence that is best forgotten.

That said, Company remains a powerful forerunner to the masterpieces that were to come, and I delighted in hearing echoes of melody lines that will develop into Sondheim's signature sound. There are Sondheim songs I can barely listen to, so much do they kick me in the emotional gut, and now I have Being Alive to add to that list (including Nothing's Gonna Harm You and Pretty Women from Sweeney, Move On from Sunday, Not Alone and Children Will Listen from Into the Woods, Loving You from Passion). Sondheim's stories and characters can go to dark emotional places, and there is a powerful kind of satisfaction/comfort you can get from art that pushes you and pleases you in the beautiful musical/lyrical tension that marks his work. Check out the soundtrack for the Broadway remount show, directed by John Doyle, in 2006, with a terrific performance by Raul Esparza as Bobby.

PRIME OF MISS JEAN BRODIE REVIEW - OCT. 1, 2007

2007-10-01T19:20:00.000-07:00

Photo: Poster of New Vic Theatre production, 2006 [http://www.newvictheatre.org.uk/press/gallery/jean_brodie.html]

1. I believe this play is an adaptation of a novel...what can you tell us about its history?

This 1968 play is based on the 1961 novel by Muriel Spark, that was first published in the New Yorker. It was made into a movie starring Dame Maggie Smith in 1969. Spark based her portrayal of the eccentric, unforgettable, charismatic yet misguided Scottish private girls' schoolteacher on a teacher she had herself while growing up in 1930s Edinburgh. She described the impact of this teacher in this way: “What filled our minds with wonder and made [her] so memorable was the personal drama and poetry within which everything in her classroom happened” and certainly this is the Jean Brodie she creates in the novel, and in Jay Presson Allen's adaptation for the stage: Jean Brodie is devoted to her small group of selected young girls and her mission to make them “La crème de la creme”, to shape their very destinies. What eventually happens involves scandal, betrayal and disaster as Brodie becomes attracted to fascism and meddles in her students' lives in a way that we would now consider to be emotionally abusive and is clearly destructive, even with the best of intentions.

2. Most of us have seen Maggie Smith's Oscar-winning performance as Jean Brodie in the 1969 film...how does this production's Jean Brodie compare to that well-known portrayal?

Director Wendy Merk has cast Lorene Cammiade (who has appeared in a number of previous Langham Court productions) in this hugely challenging role. I felt that Cammiade's performance was somewhat mixed, faring better in some scenes than others. She manages to capture Brodie's severity and single-mindedness quite well, and her ability to control and manipulate everything and everyone around her. But in Act Two, when everything starts to collapse, Cammiade keeps her stiff upper lip in place to the bitter end, and I wish she was able to show more of Brodie's vulnerability and the toll of the multiple betrayals that befall her. Also, Brodie is meant to be a scandalous free-thinker around premarital sex who has affairs with her teacher colleagues; unfortunately, this Jean Brodie felt very prim and proper to me, and I found it hard to believe that her sexuality drove some of her less-than-wise decisions. This is a Jean Brodie who is more Mary Poppins, I'm afraid, than the Cleopatra whom the character so admires.

3. What about the supporting characters...how do they do?

Another big challenge in this play are the many roles taken on by young girls, especially the key role of Sandy, Jean Brodie's ultimate betrayer and the narrator of the story. Here we have some nice performances from a group of young actors who play their roles with great conviction. However, I have to hope their performances soften a bit over the run, as I felt all of them tending toward overacting and pushing their emotions a bit too much. The whole cast is a bit guilty of face-front acting, where conversations are played facing out to the audience a bit too much, and I hope they can find their way into a more natural and connected place in the next two weeks. The male roles fare somewhat better in the show, with a nice performance especially from Christopher Harris as art teacher and Brodie's married lover, Teddy Lloyd. I also enjoyed Pippa Catling's portrayal of the head teacher and Brodie's antagonist Miss McKay, although I think there could be more fire between the two than is currently the case.

4. Langham Court often offers lovely set designs...what about this time?

Unfortunately, the set design by Tony Hubner was a bit of a disappointment. We are shown bare grey walls and an almost empty stage, save for the school desks on one side. This means there is a lot of trooping furniture on and off stage during blackouts between scenes, and this drags the pace of the show down quite a bit. For instance, the headmistress' desk was brought on and off a total of four times by my count; surely, Jean Brodie's desk on the other side of the stage could serve double-duty as Miss McKay's...audiences are quite capable of making this switch. Overall, the production would pick up pace with a lot more of beginning one scene immediately following another, even if we have to see actors and furniture moving on or off stage. In my view, this approach always beats looking at a dark stage and waiting for the lights to come up over and over again.

5. Any final thoughts about this play?

This play deserves its popularity in its portrayal of a dedicated yet deluded protagonist. As an educator myself, it is a cautionary tale about the powerful influences, both positive and negative, that teachers can have on their students. Also, given the dangers of fundamentalist thinking that continue to plague us today, Jean Brodie's attraction to fascism and its tragic consequences in the death of a student who tries to go to Spain and fight for Franco in the Spanish Civil War, are an uncomfortable reminder of the dangers in the viral spread of oppressive ideals. The play shows us the prime of Miss Jean Brodie and her fall from that self-defined prime that leaves her jobless and alone. A cautionary tale about self-delusions indeed.

HOMECHILD by Joan MacLeod

2007-09-24T15:54:00.000-07:00

Photo: John Krich as Alistair [www.belfry.bc.ca]

1. What can you tell us about the playwright Joan MacLeod and her previous plays?

Joan MacLeod is one of Canada's most well-known playwrights whose plays have won numerous awards, including the 1988 Prix Italia for the CBC production of her one-woman play Jewel, the Governor General’s Award for Amigo’s Blue Guitar in 1991, and the Chalmer's Award for The Hope Slide. Her plays have been produced across Canada, and in England, the United States and Europe, and translated into eight languages. Although born, raised and schooled on the west coast, MacLeod spent a number of years in Toronto where she premiered her first plays at the Tarragon Theatre. She moved back to BC in 1992 and is now a professor of creative writing at the University of Victoria.

2. Why do you think she might have chosen the subject of Canada's home children for this new play?

MacLeod's plays are always socio-political at some level, although never overtly so. Instead, her interest is in examining how larger social or political issues and events play out in the lives of ordinary people. So in her play Shape of a Girl, we see a young girl who is affected by news stories of the Reena Virk killing here in Victoria, and this provokes her to do something about a bullying problem in her own life. In Amigo's Blue Guitar (staged by UVic's Phoenix Theatre a few years back), a Salt Spring Island family takes in a Salvadorean refugee and learn more than they want to about the realities of this young man's life. In this new play, MacLeod pushes us to deal with the relatively unknown story of up to 100,000 children who were forcibly emigrated to Canada from orphanages and poor families in Scotland and England from the 1870s to the 1930s. These children were often separated from their siblings and put to work as indentured farm labourers across the country. In Homechild, we see how the legacy of Dr. Thomas Barnardo and his Barnardo Homes has affected the life of one home child, Alistair McEachern, now in his late 70s or early 80s, and the members of his family.

3. What did you feel were the strengths of this production?

This production features a lovely set design by Pam Johnson that offers us something akin to a museum diorama exhibit of a typical Eastern Ontario rural farm, where the fields outside blend impressionistically into the porch and dining room of the home itself. I loved how the sky backdrop features a number of doors that the characters enter through. With a large cast of 8 the set can feel a bit cramped for space at times, though. Director Roy Surette (who is sadly leaving the Belfry for Montreal's Centaur Theatre this season) gives us another one of his fine shows, and has cast local actor John Krich as Alistair, whose performance is at the centre of the production. Krich offers a moving yet unsentimental portrait of a man who has bottled up the truth of his past for many decades. Alistair is not a very likable man, yet somehow Krich allows us to feel for him, and when he finally reveals the secrets he has hidden for so long, in the last few minutes of the play, we share both his deep grief and his tentative joy...a very fine performance. The supporting work in the show is also very even, with solid work from Terry Tweed as Alistair's live-in sister-in-law and fussbudget Aunt Flora, Jillian Fargey as Alistair's estranged daughter Lorna, Craig March as her low-achieving brother Ewan and Andrew Wheeeler as old friend and neighbour Wesley. Belfry regulars will also enjoy seeing a couple of other favorite actors returning to its stage; Margaret Martin as neighbour and home child Dorrie and Donna White as Alistair's sister in the present, in a very quiet and focused performance. I was especially impressed by the work of Jennifer Paterson as the young Katie, the embodiment of Alistair's memory of his long-lost sister. It is very difficult for an adult actor to play a young child convincingly and I felt that Paterson was note-perfect, both physically and verbally, throughout.

4. How did you feel about the weaving of past and present in the play?

It's interesting that this was an aspect that some Toronto critics didn't much like in the first production, yet here I felt it was one of the most effective elements in the play. Whenever the young Katie entered, I held on to my Kleenex, because her story of abandonment and her endless waiting to be reunited with her much-loved older brother Alistair (who she calls Jackie) is so terribly moving; all the more so because we realize that this young girl's experience was shared in real life by so many tens of thousands of children...a national tragedy, really. And the scenes when Alistair encounters Katie in his memories and recreates scenes from their childhood, are almost too much to bear.

5. What about any aspects that you felt weren't working?

My only major criticism of this highly-recommended production is a dramaturgical one that deals with the play itself. I have a feeling that there is a bit too much going on in the play than there needs to be, and that MacLeod gives us supporting characters who offer some comic relief but who don't really drive the story forward. In my mind, this story is about Alistair, his daughter and his sister (in both remembered and present versions). In other words, I can't help wondering what this play would look like as a four-hander, pared down to its essentials. Right now the play feels a bit like taking a warm bath...we know upfront that all will end up okay. I'm wondering what it be like to experience it as more of a drama...a long cold shower. It wouldn't be as funny a play, and perhaps we would miss the laughter that helps us cope with the powerful emotions generated by the story. But maybe (for all that) it would be an angrier, more raw and perhaps even more truthful play about the damage done to so many innocent children, and how that damage causes permanent scars that are passed on, from one generation to the next.

TWO MORE LOCAL SHOWS - DISHPIG & [sic]

2007-09-18T18:55:00.000-07:00

Photos: Top, poster for [sic] from Theatre SKAM [www.skam.ca]

Bottom, Greg Landucci in TJ Dawe's Dishpig [www.tjdawe.com]

This past week I saw the one-man show DISHPIG written by TJ Dawe in collaboration with performer Greg Landucci at the Vancouver Fringe. This show has played in a number of Fringe Festivals and been warmly received and Vancouver is no exception: It was voted a “Pick of the Fringe” and will be extended into early October at a number of different venues (see http://www.vancouverfringe.com/). While it is unavoidable in my role as local critic/theatre artist that I must review the performances of friends (Landucci and I were students together at the Phoenix Theatre at UVic), my focus here is less on his very accomplished performance and more on the play that he has written with popular Fringe icon TJ Dawe. What I found so refreshing about the play is that it stands on its feet as a play, which cannot be said for many Fringe shows that offer performance experiences, good, bad and sometimes ugly, but that cannot always be called 'plays'. DISHPIG begins with the autobiographical in mining the memories of both playwrights from their days of dirty and difficult work in restaurant kitchens, but ends with quite a class-conscious and moving picture of a young man who learns that he has more inside him than he knew, and who is therefore able to move on to better things than cleaning up after other people for minimum wage. Landucci invites us into the world of Matt, freshly home from 3 months backpacking in Europe and in need of both lodging and work. When the best he can come up with is being a dishwasher in a second-rate restaurant, he steps into the subculture of kitchen life where hierarchies written in stone determine that he is now the lowest of the low (of course, the servers are the gods and goddesses in this world). The play gives us portraits of a number of characters and Landucci, directed ably by Dawe, renders each of them with distinct facial expressions and verbal precision. He also takes us through the mind-numbing robotic repetition of actions required in dishwashing (“Sorting, stacking, soaking, spraying...”) in a piece that has been described, quite accurately, as performance poetry, and is very funny to boot.

I do have a couple of quibbles, though. Landucci does a lot of 'head acting' in the show and relies perhaps a bit too much on facial expressions and tight, controlled gestures. This constraint, while mostly effective, makes me long for a moment or two in the play when both Matt (and the actor) can engage his whole body, can really 'let go'. I'm not asking the play to 'show' rather than 'tell', but rather to find moments where the physical can help us hear the story as well. My second quibble is from a woman's point of view. While restaurant kitchens are a largely male domain, I know, I felt that the portrayal of the goddess-like server Gemma for whom Matt longs was more one-dimensional than her male counterparts, and therefore less sympathetic. I don't expect these characters to do other than they do, but it would have been nice for us to see her being genuine, even for a moment. After all, even the Gollum-like evil Murray, who torments Matt throughout, is given a sincere moment...why not Gemma?

These slight critical notes aside, I remain impressed with another TJ Dawe hit that is a great vehicle for an old friend who I always knew would find himself back on stage, and appears to be very much at home there.

The second show I saw this past week, [sic] by Melissa James Gibson and produced by Victoria's Theatre SKAM, was a bit of a disappointment, I'm afraid; a good production of what I thought was a not very good play. The fact that the play won a prestigious Obie award in its original New York off-Broadway production notwithstanding, I found the play clever and somewhat engaging, but ultimately a bit empty of real content with characters for whom I felt very little empathy when all was said and done. SKAM has a decade long history of producing some of the best theatre in the city, and their shows have also done very well on tours to Vancouver and Toronto. This show at the Metro Studio boasts a wonderful set design by Craig Hall that works very well in presenting an apartment building with three separate bachelor-sized apartments. The occupants are three friends, Frank (Michael Rinaldi), Babette (Samantha Madely) and Theo (Lucas Myers) all of whom are underachievers in their various chosen occupations (a wannabe auctioneer, a writer and a musician) and who scramble to cover the basic necessities like food and rent. Gibson writes in a stylized way, though, with some of the dialogue written to be spoken chorally and I understand the script itself is devoid of punctuation or stage directions. Director Amiel Gladstone has given us an interpretation of this challenge that renders these three as veering toward clown-like, where their various 'quirkinesses' start off big and become more subtle (but still present) as the play continues. The dramatic tension lies in the age-old love triangle, where no one is going to end up with what he or she thinks s/he wants. The three actors all do well in their roles, but I found it more and more difficult over the course of the 90 minute show to actually care about any of them; they just seemed too self-involved and too, well, superficial. Maybe I just missed the boat on the Seinfeld/Friends generation (although I love the former show), and just can't quite get with these young people who can't seem to move their lives forward in any meaningful way, nevermind connect meaningfully with each other. The most effective moments in the play for me are solo moments; at night while lying in their beds the three create shadow puppets on sheets strung on a clothesline (a lovely effect) and confess their inner thoughts and dreams to no one but themselves. And Babette has a terrific monologue halfway through, to someone on the phone, about an encounter on the subway that is quite moving. Maybe it's not important that I didn't believe for one second that these characters are New Yorkers, but I didn't, and perhaps the original production was tinged with the New York mix of inbred irony, white-hot anger and fierce intelligence that seemed to be lacking here.

NEW YORK SHOWS - AUGUST 2007

2007-09-14T20:51:00.000-07:00

From top: SPAMALOT poster, EURYDICE poster, Eurydice arrives in the Underworld, Eurydice and her father with Chorus in rear

Okay, time to get back in the critical saddle, but before that...a thumbnail review of SPAMALOT. My kids' first Broadway show, what can I say, and a complete and unapologetic rehash of the movie MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, in most scenes word for word. But it doesn't take itself seriously and has some very funny bits, effective newly-injected and imported songs (the latter is "Always Look on the Bright Side of Life" from MONTY PYTHON'S LIFE OF BRIAN), huge sets, beautiful costumes and good acting. This is the second or third cast since it opened and it would have been fun to have seen Hank Azaria, David Hyde Pierce and Tim Curry in the first-run company. No standouts in this cast for me, aside from Broadway star Marin Mazzie as The Lady of the Lake. Mazzie has appeared in many hit shows, including those by Stephen Sondheim, and is sexy, funny and has an incredible raise-the-roof voice. She is given some very funny self-aware po-mo songs, as in the second act when she comes on in her dressing gown and furiously belts out "Whatever happened to my part?" A good time was had by all!

The other show we saw in NY was a Yale Rep production of Sarah Ruhl's EURYDICE at off-Broadway's Second Stage Theatre (where I saw Mary Zimmerman's THE NOTEBOOKS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI in 2003). A lovely revisioning of the tragic tale of the beautiful Eurydice and the musician Orpheus and their journey into the underworld across the River Styx. But in Ruhl's version, written following the death of her father, the play focuses less on the young lovers and more on Eurydice and her father, who become reunited in the underworld when Pluto takes Eurydice there. The father has chosen to remember his life on earth, a very unwise move (according to the trio chorus of Gothic Victorian grotesques) when he could so easily wash himself in river water and forget everything, i.e., be 'really' dead. The father helps his daughter--who has been "flooded with forgetfulness" upon her arrival--remember her life. In one of the most beautiful and simple moments in the show, he uses a ball of string to create a room for her to live in within the vast emptiness and nothingness of the underworld. They sit in there together and talk, like Lear and Cordelia as two little birds in a cage. Then Orpheus arrives with music so beautiful he makes the hard-hearted (and in this version, completely childish and selfish rather than malevolent) Pluto cry and thereby agree to release Eurydice. But Orpheus must never look back at her as they weave their way out of the underworld. The audience shares one of those priceless collective gasps when, after what seems like hours but is probably a couple of minutes into their trek circumnavigating the stage, Eurydice calls to Orpheus and he responds by turning around. The end of the play--when Eurydice returns quite happily to her father and finds he has made a decision she can only follow--is both theatrically powerful and emotionally devastating. The acting was very strong, in every part, with the actress playing Eurydice reminding me of a young Julia Roberts, very charming. The gorgeous and totally integrated (both practically and metaphorically speaking) set design, with live running water, was also a treat. A great choice and one that moved all of us to tears.

JULIUS CAESAR at Bard on the Beach

2007-07-22T14:44:00.000-07:00

I feel rusty after not having seen a play in well over a month! So getting to a Bard on the Beach show gives me an excuse to get back up on the horse, so to speak...

I had the chance to teach JULIUS CAESAR to grade 11 English students in my former life as a high school teacher in Toronto. It was a tough sell. Unlike R&J or Macbeth or Dream or 12th Night, JC is a political play that ends in war and involves the decision made by a group of "honourable men" to pre-emptively assassinate a man they fear will become a tyrant.

I like the Bard's studio stage, seating only 240, and was pleased to see the new alley configuration that places the audience on both sides of a rectangular playing space. While this limits design elements such as backdrops, it definitely increases the intimacy factor. Touchstone Theatre's Katrina Dunn directs a workmanlike production that moves along quite well, but overall I found the production uninspired.

The cast features some well-known Vancouver actors such as Allan Morgan (as Caesar), Scott Bellis (Brutus), and Gerry Mackay (Cassius), all of whose work I enjoyed, plus some good supporting work from Bard regulars such as Alan Zinyk, David Mackay and Jennifer Lines. But is it just me, or is the vocal quality of these Shakespearean actors somewhat lacking? Does Bard have a vocal coach working with its company, as seen in Stratford? In a play that is centred in oratory I wanted to hear deep resonant tones that demonstrate the power of a skilled orator to become a leader of wo/men, whether for better or worse. The debates between characters, the famous speeches of Brutus and Marc Anthony following Caesar's death, the fight between Cassius and Brutus in Act 2 all should hit the audience's ears like thunder. Bellis and Mackay deliver some needed passion in their scenes together, as do Bellis and Lines in the lovely scene between Portia and Brutus. But at intermission I found myself complaining aloud that Craig Erickson's somewhat reedy voice failed to build into the mob-raising climax the "Friends, Romans, countrymen" monologue requires.

Dunn injects more women into the play than is usually seen and I liked having an older female actor play one of the conspirators. But on the battlefield in Act 2 this gender equality fades as the women are presented as servants only, not soldiers. Perhaps the most frustrating moment of the play for me was Dunn's decision to cast Allan Morgan as the soldier who agrees to help Brutus fall upon his sword (which happens a LOT at the end of this play!) It seemed clear to me that this double-casting offered an incredible opportunity to reveal Caesar's ghost (who has haunted the guilty Brutus) one last time as Brutus slays himself. All Morgan has to do is remove his helmet then put it back on to create a powerful theatrical moment. But this doesn't happen and the play ends with me feeling a bit short-changed by a serviceable but relatively unmemorable production of this challenging play.

GRIMM TALES REVIEW JUNE 8, 2007

2007-06-08T19:57:00.000-07:00

GRIMM TALES REVIEW JUNE 8, 2007
ITSAZOO's production of Grimm Tales continues until
June 16th at Mt. Douglas Park. Showtimes are 7pm
with 2pm matinees on June 9th and 16th. Tickets are
available at 858-2733.

1. So what is it like seeing a show at Mt. Doug park?

As Robert Frost once said, "The woods are lovely, dark and deep". It's a real thrill seeing a theatre production in such a beautiful natural setting, specially seeing modern versions of traditional fairy tales that were gathered by the Grimm brothers in the woods and villages of Europe in the 1800's, thereby keeping these oral stories alive for future generations. When we enter the woods off the main parking lot at Mt. Doug park we can see a few hundred meters in every direction where actors are already in role as characters who we might not meet for quite a while. Yet we know they are there and look forward to encountering them where they have created a stage space in front of a tree or between two fallen logs, or even, at one point, literally on the edge of a cliff. You do need to be prepared for the chill coming down as the show goes on (dress warmly) and for some bugs, but the walking is minimal and level and really doesn't move much beyond the main parking lot and its immediate environs.

2. Tell us a little bit about this new theatre company ITSAZOO that has been founded by University of Victoria theatre students. What are they trying to do?

This group of very talented and committed young people are interested in working in unconventional theatre spaces and drawing new audiences to see new works, or new versions of older works, as in this case. Two prior ITSAZOO productions were mounted in UVic's Finnerty Gardens and were very successful - Midsummer Night's Dream and Alice in Wonderland. They also produced resident playwright Sebastian Archibald's Death of a Clown last summer at the Victoria Fringe Festival, to great acclaim. This adaptation of a number of Grimm Brothers' fairy tales is written by Archibald and very cleverly directed by Chelsea Haberlin in an effective blend of the original stories with contemporary references. We see the spoiled princess of the Frog Prince, for example, as a Paris Hilton clone with a daddy who over-indulges her. We also see a Prince Charming who has found a career on reality TV and who is not all that willing to settle down to "happily ever after"! Yet all these modern interventions into the traditional tales does not diminish their original plot or underlying messages.

3. What are the highlights of this production?

Two of the main pleasures of this show are our tour guides throughout, Hansel and Gretel, played complete with cheesy German accents by Anne-Marie Giroday and Colby Wilson. These two are hilarious and are able to both deliver their scripted lines and to improvise with the audience whenever they need to as they move the group of about 30 people from setting to setting. I thought production designer Ingrid Hansen did an outstanding job on what must have been a minimal budget to create very effective costumes, my favorite by far of which is a king's robe fashioned out of stuffed teddy bears. One other aspect of the show which worked very well was that we are accompanied throughout the 90 minute show by four musicians (the Bremen Town Musicians, of course) who create a soundscape for every story and location. Very effective.

4. Any future stars to watch out for?

There are quite a number of new faces in this show and the cast is large with 15 actors in all. Of course, Victoria favorite Gina McIntosh is always a treat and when we see her as the quintessential evil stepmother we are ready to boo her straight into the oven. But I was delighted to see Phoenix newcomers like Marina Lagace and Katie Takefman who shone in their respective roles. And Chris Wilson and Kaitlin Williams play their roles as Prince Charming and Princess Becky and Briar Rose with lots of self-mocking delight. But is really an ensemble piece where a lot of people are working literally behind the next tree getting themselves and others in and out of costumes. And kudos to Peter Carlone who plays the all-important doors that lead us from one story into another simply by holding onto a doorknob with a sign around his neck.

5. This seems like a children's theatre production and yet you say the audience was mostly adults. What's in it for grown-ups?

There were a few children in the audience last night, and they seemed to be very engaged in the show (sometimes a bit TOO engaged...children need clear guidelines when it comes to participating in a theatre production). But, similar to the Shrek phenomenon, Grimm Tales is full of clever asides that are really intended for an adult audience. We are constantly told by our tour guides Hansel and Gretel that the Enchanted Forest is plagued by famine and war, and we see glimpses of these problems throughout. We are presented with princesses who only care about shopping and princes who only care about how they look on TV. Yet, even in these contemporary updates of these stories, we are reminded of their great power as cautionary tales (Don't be too greedy...Be careful what you wish for...Look before you leap...) that function just as effectively today as they did two hundred years ago or more. A fine production from this up and coming company and lots of fun.

Roy Surette Leaves Belfry for Montreal's Centaur Theatre

2007-06-07T12:12:00.000-07:00

Photo: Debra Brash, Times-Colonist

Well, I suppose it had to happen, but that doesn't make me happy about it. Victoria is sadly losing the Artistic Director of the Belfry Theatre to the Centaur Theatre in Montreal, that city's premier English-language theatre. After 10 years at the helm of the Belfry, Surette is looking for new challenges and he will find them in Montreal, of that I am sure!

I could wax lyrical about Roy for a long time, but instead I will post some articles published this week on Roy's departure, plus my response to one of them. Tributes will be made over the next few months and I hope to participate in a number of them. My audience education program at the Belfry, Belfry 101 (now taught by my friend and close colleague Kate Rubin), is a testament in itself to Roy's interest in and commitment to the larger community. I can only hope that his successor will continue to appear like clockwork at local shows, supporting the theatre community that supports the Belfry. Sigh...Roy, you will be much missed...

Adrian Chamberlain
Times Colonist
Wednesday, June 06, 2007

Roy Surette, 50, is ready for a change of roles. "I want new challenges and to scare myself."
The Belfry Theatre's artistic director will take over Quebec's premier English-language theatre company.
Roy Surette starts his new position as artistic director of Montreal's Centaur Theatre Company in November, ending a decade-long tenure at the Belfry.
"I'm excited," said Surette, 50. "I'm a little anxious, of course, and aware of what I'm giving up, which is huge."
He replaces Centaur artistic director Gordon McCall, who has already chosen a six-play season for the Montreal company's 2007-2008 season. McCall -- leaving to teach at Indiana's Purdue University -- praised Surette's support of Victoria artists and his expertise as an artistic leader.
"He brings a lot of the qualities that are necessary in Montreal, and for that theatre," he said Tuesday.
McCall added that Surette was the unanimous choice of the Centaur's search committee, besting 50 other applicants.
Surette said he accepted the new position because he has led the Belfry for a long time, is intrigued with the notion of living in Montreal and believes the new job will be artistically stimulating.
"I want new challenges and to scare myself," he said .
One challenge will be brushing up on his French. McCall said Surette has promised to study the language in preparation for his new job.
The outgoing artistic director leaves the Belfry in a solid financial position, said Michael Ziegler, the company's board vice-president. The Belfry's subscription base for the upcoming season is about 5,300 -- a record for this time of year.
In July, the Belfry will strike a search committee for a new artistic director. The job is considered a plum position in national theatre circles and will likely draw about 50 applicants, said Belfry publicist Mark Dusseault.
The Centaur has two theatre spaces -- one 425 seats, and the other 244 -- as well as a separate rehearsal/set-construction building. McCall said the Montreal company, with an annual budget of $2.9 million, is doing well. It carries a $390,000 debt. But he noted the company owns its mortgage-free buildings, worth $6 million.
In Victoria, Surette proved skilful at balancing artistic integrity and accessible theatre that draws crowds, Ziegler said. "They [audiences] expect to be challenged, but not overly challenged ... It's a fine line he has to walk."
Surette, with more than 85 director's credits, is especially admired for his clever use of light and other visuals. He has won two Critics' Spotlight Awards, eight Jessie Richardson Awards and three Monday Magazine awards. One of his best known accomplishments is directing and co-creating The Number 14, a physical theatre comedy returning to the Belfry this summer. The piece has been performed more than 1,000 times internationally, and was nominated for New York's Drama Desk Award.
Raised in the suburbs of Vancouver, Surette worked for Carousel Theatre and Western Canada Theatre Company before being hired as artistic director of Touchstone Theatre in 1985. He left the Vancouver company in 1997 to take over the Belfry Theatre.
achamberlain@tc.canwest.com
© Times Colonist (Victoria) 2007

Roy Wonder

By —John Threlfall
Jun 06 2007
Stage shocker! After 10 years, Roy Surette announces he’s leaving the Belfry Theatre
T hink it’s tough to keep a secret in Victoria’s theatre community? Just ask the tight-lipped crew over at the Belfry, where nary a hint had leaked out that, after a decade of outstanding theatrical achievement, artistic director Roy Surette will soon be leaving to become artistic and executive director of Montreal’s Centaur Theatre. But what is undoubtedly Victoria’s loss will be Montreal’s gain, as the always charming and incredibly talented Surette has proven his stage savvy time and again. With the search for his replacement now underway, Surette won’t be taking up residence in la belle provence until November, still giving him enough time to direct Joan MacLeod’s Homechild, the Belfry’s season opener, in September. (And he’ll be back to helm The Violet Hour in spring 2008.) We caught up with the somewhat shell-shocked Surette about 15 minutes after his big news broke.
Monday: You’re leaving? What the hell?!
Roy Surette: Well, I think it’s a great time for some transition. It’s been a really fantastic ride; I’m so happy how things have gone here. It’s such a difficult decision—it’s a hard place to leave—but I’ve been thinking about the next stage in both the Belfry’s and my life for a little while now, and these opportunities rarely come up. And Montreal’s a city I always thought would be fantastic to live in, so I’m going to go.
Monday: Is Centaur at all similar to the Belfry?
RS: They have a fairly similar mandate—they do a lot of contemporary work—also have two stages (450 and 250 seats), the programming is similar, and it’s a bit bigger of a company—a $3 million budget instead of our $2 million—so it’s not that different in terms of scope and scale. And it’s in a heritage building, the Old Stock Exchange in Old Montreal, and has a nice sense of intimacy. And in a way, it’ll have similar isolation issues, in that it’s the major English theatre in a mostly French city. And the outgoing director, Gordon McCall, has also been there for 10 years.
Monday: How’s your French?
RS: Lousy! I studied physical theatre some time ago in Paris and functioned okay, but it’s in my bones—I’m a Surette, and my father spoke French all through my childhood. It’s just one more learning curve I’ll encounter; it’s going to be a harder road in Montreal, but it’s one of those things where you go, “I’m up for the next challenge in my life.”
Monday: How will being an artistic and executive director differ from the strictly artistic director role you have now?
RS: It’s kind of a combination of what [general manager] Mary [Desprez] and I both do, in terms of working with the management of the theatre, and I’ll be the only one who goes to the board of directors. There is a general manager who’s been in the position for over 20 years, so I think he’ll be a good partner. And I’ll be on the phone to Mary a lot, asking “How do you do this? How do you do that?”
Monday: How do you feel about your tenure at the Belfry?
RS: It’s been great; I’m already feeling all nostalgic about it. The Belfry is very strong in so many ways right now, in terms of our financial health and support in the community. It was stable and strong and had a good pattern in place when I took over from Glynis [Leyshon], and I’ve just maintained and built on that. It’ll be great that there’s going to be a fresh vision of what’s on the stage here, too. It’s a gift of a company to somebody, and I’m sure people will be beating down the doors in the applications to replace me. And I have to say, doing the big monster production of Urinetown last fall almost felt like a closure. And doing The Number 14 again this summer, that was originally done in my first year of programming at the Belfry. It’s like the bus is coming back around again.

Centaur Theatre names new boss
Relative unknown Roy Surette takes over post vacated by Gordon McCall
Matt Radz, Gazette Theatre CriticPublished: Tuesday, June 05, 2007
Roy Surette is the new boss at Centaur, effective in November.Roy who?That's the question everyone was asking after yesterday's abrupt announcement, including the theatre's mainstay playwrights David Fennario and Vittorio Rossi."I'm not familiar with his work," Fennario said after two terse no-comments, "but it should be interesting.""I have no idea who this man is," said Rossi, whose autobiographical drama, The Carpenter will open Centaur's 2007-2008 season on Oct. 2.Rossi, one of several Montreal theatre artists who applied for the job, did not make the search committee's short list and was not called for an interview. "My biggest challenge at Centaur will be to enter a new culture," Surette, who celebrated his 50th birthday yesterday said when reached in Victoria, where he has been running The Belfry, the British Columbia capital's only mainstream theatre. After working in the West, the past 22 years in his native B.C., the unilingual Surette said he was "very excited about coming to your wonderful and vibrant city."Centaur's top post was left vacant early this year when Gordon McCall, 58, who came here from Sudbury, Ont., announced he'll be stepping down after 10 years to take an academic position at Purdue University, but not before directing Rossi's season opening play.Since taking over The Belfry in 1997 after 12 years as artistic director at Vancouver's Touchstone Theatre, Surette has boosted the number of the theatre's subscribers by between 200 and 300 patrons a season. It now stands at about 5,900, thanks to a program Adrian Chamberlain, the veteran Times-Colonist's theatre critic described as "conservative and commercially successful.""Victoria is a conservative city," Chamberlain said, predicting that Surette would likely do "more edgy" work in Montreal. He described the new AD as a "nice guy" with a solid knowledge of theatre repertoire, an artist particularly adept at physical theatre and with an excellent grasp of production mechanics, especially lighting design.Asked to rate the extent of The Belfry's artistic ambition during Surette's tenure, Chamberlain said he would peg it at no more than 7 out of 10.Infinitheatre's artistic director Guy Sprung was reluctant to comment on Surette's appointment, pointing out the obvious conflict coloring his opinion. "Good luck to Centaur in its choice," Sprung said. "What the Centaur does is important to all of us. It's a primary cultural institution. The important thing is what he knows about Quebec."Not a lot, apparently. Surette has visited Montreal, but he has never worked or lived here. "He doesn't speak French," Chamberlain said. "Will that be a problem?" The Belfry and Centaur are mainstream theatre enterprises of roughly equal size. The former runs on an an annual budget of $2 million, the latter on about $2.8 million, about $1 million of that from the taxpayers through government grants.When he arrives full time in November, Surette will pick up the reins for the theatre's 39th season, already in progress and mapped out by McCall. The second play of the season, Pamela Gien's The Syringa Tree opens Nov. 6. A Graduate of Vancouver's Studio 58 theatre school, Surette will be the third person to occupy Centaur's top post, held until 1997 by Maurice Podbrey, the theatre's South African-born founder.
mradz@thegazette.canwest.com

Letter to the Editor - The Gazette - Sent Thursday, June 7/2007

I consider theatre reviewer Matt Radz's June 5th story on Roy Surette taking over the Centaur Theatre to be unfortunately typical of the Eastern ignorance of anything West of Toronto that plagues culture in this country. As a CBC Radio theatre reviewer in Victoria, and a local theatre artist who has worked with Mr.Surette in a number of capacities over the past years, I can say without hesitation that Montreal is gaining one of the best directors in Canada, or anywhere else. His sense of vibrant theatricality, his playfulness, his love of actors (uncommon) and his passion for Canadian theatre have led him to win eight Jessie Awards in Vancouver and three Monday Awards in Victoria. Roy has worked internationally in Australia, Japan, France, and the UK (and more). And this is a "relative unknown"? Shame on you!

Robert Lepage's ANDERSEN PROJECT

2007-05-06T16:56:00.000-07:00

Robert Lepage in The Andersen Project at the Barbican, London
Photo: Tristram Kenton
http://www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/review.php/11413/

I consider it a grievous fault in my theatregoing history that it was only yesterday whenI first witnessed a production by and starring Quebec's Robert Lepage. This world-renowned auteur director/actor has a reputation that can only be appreciated by reading in the program for this show that it is a co-production between over 20 different international companies and has been performed in Tokyo, London, Sydney and Copenhagen, among others, to date. Such is the rarefied life of a theatrical superstar... and a substantially high level of expectation to build in any audience. I came away from this 2 hour intermission-free show a firm convert to Lepage's vision of theatre, despite my generalized misgivings about one-man plays and highly-technologized theatre productions. Lepage overcomes these critical biases in the simplest of ways...he tells a good story that is very well-written and beautifully performed.

Lepage was commissioned by the Government of Denmark to create a piece to mark the bicentennial of Hans Christian Andersen's birth. What emerged in Lepage's research and development (with a large number of co-artists) is an elegant interweaving of the life and stories of Andersen and the Canadian librettist hired by the Paris Opera to write an operatic adaptation of one of Andersen's leeser-known stories, The Dryad. We see the hapless Frederic trying to settle into both Paris (in a tenement apartment over a peep show) and into his difficult job pleasing all the collaborators in an international co-production (a nice dig at his own experience of these kinds of complex undertakings). There is humour found in Fred's interactions with the opera manager (all roles played by Lepage) who is too busy and distracted to ever attend to the needs of the low-status Canadian in this high-profile production. The opera manager's opening monologue to Fred over coffee in an outdoor Paris bistro is a verbal barrage that effectively skewers the politics and economics that drive these multinational projects, sacrificing artistry and integrity along the way. Plus, Frederic is also dog-sitting his drug addict friend's drug-addicted pooch, Fanny, a creature which gets many laughs throughout the play, despite being invisible. The third main character played by Lepage in the present is a silent Moroccan immigrant named Rashid who is janitor in the seedy peep show and street grafitti artist. His presence reminds us of the problems faced by France and many other Western nations in integrating these understandably angry young immigrants into a society that offers them little or nothing in the way of jobs, understanding or respect.

As the show unfolds (an apt metaphor for Lepage's storytelling here, that has been described as a Russian matrioshka doll, where many smaller dolls are hidden inside the largest one), we get to know these characters, especially Frederic and the opera manager, by watching them talk to others on the phone, in cafes, at the peep show, in an animal psychologist's office, in the park, at the opera, on a train...many settings all created with the stunning imagery that is obviously Lepage's great gift to theatre. The computer images are always effective, projected as they are onto a concave white box set that moves up and down stage throughout. Objects are placed into the white box also; a 19th century luggage set (Andersen's), a statue, a tree...along with Lepage himself. Andersen is silent in the show, like Rashid, but we catch glimpses of him as he is described as an essentially lonely man who suffered great bouts of unrequited love (symbolized in the slow undressing of a 19th century mannequin that flees from him in the final moment) and a predilection for onanism. As we hear the story of The Dryad told to us in episodic fashion, we see it staged in exquisite puppetry that climaxes with Lepage pulling off one of the most amazing quick-changes (among many in the show that are inexplicable in their speed and seamlessness) from Frederic to the Dryad who floats over the city of Paris in 1867, the year Andersen visited for the Word's Fair.

One other Andersen tale is told to us, by the opera manager; we see him tell it to his young daughter as a bedtime story. Using only the concave white box and a bright bedside lamp, he tells us the story called The Shadow about a man whose shadow takes over his life and destroys him. This becomes a metaphor for the journey of the manager, whose marriage falls apart and who shares Andersen's addiction to solitary sex. A scene set in one of the peep show booths where he is trying to masturbate but is interrupted by cell phone calls, is quite devastating.

Frederic is suffering too, as his work is ignored and he is unceremoniously fired from the opera. He is trying to reconcile with his girlfriend back in Montreal and his phone calls home are filled with hopeless longing. The play ends with him waking up to smoke and flames in the rundown apartment and we are left to wonder about his fate.

There is much else going on this production; objects slide on and off stage on tracks, music blasts and soothes, phone and peep show booths move in from the wings or from upstage to down. In one scene we are in an internet cafe where Fred's email is written in realtime and projected into the white box over his head. Moments that make one take short intakes of breath that signal amazed surprise. But all of this dazzling display of virtuosity is never at the expense of the storytelling; I left feeling that I had really come to know and care for the people that Lepage has both created and embodied in his understated, yet potent, way.

Don Giovanni & Our Town Reviews - April 23, 2007

2007-04-23T17:20:00.000-07:00

Photos: Our Town poster (www.langhamcourttheatre.bc.ca) and Don Giovanni poster (www.pov.bc.ca)

Don Giovanni continues at the Royal Theatre tomorrow night, Thursday night and Saturday night at the Royal Theatre. Our Town plays until May 5th at Langham Court Theatre.

So this was an interesting double-header for you, both famous pieces directed by women...a rare event I suppose?

Yes, women directors make up less than a third of the total amount of directing in Canada, according to a recent study, so it's heartening to see a POV production of Mozart's Don Giovanni directed by Glynis Leyshon and the Langham Court production of Thornton Wilder's Our Town directed by Judy Treloar. That said, I wish both of these productions had been a bit more inspired than I found them to be. While both are certainly competently performed and have their moments, I unfortunately found them to be somewhat uninspired.

Well let's begin with the opera, one of Mozart's most popular and beloved, premiered in 1787. How has Leyshon re-envisioned this story of the infamous Don Juan?

It seems to be somewhat de rigeur this season for opera directors to move into different timeframes to tell their stories. We saw this in POV's season opener Manon Lescaut, a move I criticized at the time, and here again we see it with Don Giovanni, which Leyshon has moved a century prior to its original setting, into Spain of the 16th century, during the infamous period of the Inquisition. She has framed the whole opera as a form of trial where we see Don Giovanni on trial for his soul from the opening moments. The setting by John Ferguson is church-like, what Leyshon describes as an ecclesiastical courtroom and all of the characters, chorus included, remain onstage throughout the three-hours of the opera, sitting around the edges of the dark, sombre and formal set. While I appreciate Leyshon's vision here, and attempt to make the opera a more contemporary meditation on the clash between religious fundamentalism and the freedom of expression so embodied by the unrepentant seducer of thousands of women, it feels heavy-handed and more importantly, it robs us of the sheer vicarious pleasure we should be getting in seeing Don Giovanni up to his mischief. This is a comic opera, rooted in the commedia del arte tradition with funny sidekick servants, disguise and intrigue aplenty. In Leyshon's interpretation, I felt that we lost a lot of the comic aspect of the opera in favour of a kind of dark foreboding and foreshadowing of the inevitable bad end that befalls Don Giovanni.

So, in spite of what you feel was a directorial imposition on the opera, how were the performances?

As in all of the POV shows I've enjoyed this season, the quality of the musical aspects under conductor Timothy Vernon are very high. I thought the women in this production especially shone, with soprano Monica Huisman sounding especially lovely. I also enjoyed the work of Frederique Vezina as Donna Elvira and of Michele Bogdanowicz as Zerlina. As an accomplished theatre director, Leyshon gets strong acting performances from the whole ensemble, and Gregory Dahl as Don Giovanni and Terry Hodges as his faithful clown-like servant Leporello were both very strong in their acting and singing.

Let's move on now to the production of Our Town at Langham Court. I understand that Wilder's 1937 play is still one of the most-performed plays in high schools and university theatre programs, is that right?

Yes, it remains a very popular choice for schools and community theatre groups, and was even revived on Broadway a few years back with Paul Newman in the narrator role of the Stage Manager. The reasons for this are obvious to anyone who has ever seen, or even just read this beautiful testament to life, love and death in mythical Grover's Corner, New Hampshire by one of America's finest writers. A recent production brought in by Intrepid Theatre, Revisited by Halifax's 2B Theatre, was an homage to Our Town, a remix version, if you will. Wilder deconstructs theatre form down to its storytelling essence as we are constantly aware that these are actors representing the characters and families of turn of the century America. We see the fates and fortunes of the Webb and Gibbs families, along with various friends and neighbours, relayed in an almost matter-of-fact existentialism, a recognition of the tiny mark our brief lives make in the world, as important as they may feel to each of us, in the grand scheme of things.

And how does this production measure up to the grand history this play has enjoyed over the past nearly 70 years?

This is not the first time Treloar has directed this play, as she presented it when she was teaching at Glenlyon Norfolk school a few years back. Here she gives us a faithful version of the play, if a bit on the safe side. The cast is mixed in both experience and success, with some strong performances from Rob Cruse as the Stage Manager (who has some of the most moving monologues I know in dramatic literature), Wayne Yercha and Lisa Hitch as Mrs. And Mrs. Webb and the ever-popular Paul Terry as Dr. Gibbs. The young actors who play the key roles of Emily Webb and George Gibbs, Lindsay Alley and Eric Smith, are less successful in their roles, although I hope that they may deepen their intensity and commitment over the course of the run. When the text calls for tears, then an attempt must be made to cry, and neither actor seemed to be up to those emotional challenges on Saturday night. The production values are intentionally minimal, which generally works well, although I found the set to be a bit too stark, even for Our Town, and did not understand the significance of the sliding backdrop panels or what they were trying to achieve. When, late in the play, we finally get a couple of projections on the back scrim, they are a welcome relief to the eye. All in all, this, along with Don Giovanni, is a serviceable, capable but somewhat uninspired version of this marvellous iconic American play.

Plays Various - April 2007

2007-04-18T21:06:00.000-07:00

Photos: [Bottom to Top] National Theatre poster of BENT/Film poster of BETRAYAL/Remy Bumppo's MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION

Nearly a month has fled by without me posting a review. This is a busy time what with my class in the UVIC theatre department wrapping up and a conference trip to Chicago, from whence I just returned. So, this update entry will consist of snapshot or postcard (pick your metaphor!) reviews of a few shows I have seen over the past month. Enjoy...

BENT by Martin Sherman - Student production, Department of Theatre, UVIC

Graduating directing and applied theatre major Chelsea Haberlin directed a very fine production of Martin Sherman's harrowing gay love story set in a Nazi concentration camp. I missed BENT on its arrival in Toronto in the early 80s in a well-known production with Brent Carver, so I was looking forward to finally encountering this highly-reputed play. I found it to be quite beautifully constructed and written, with fully-realized characters and potent dialogue throughout. And I was generally very impressed with the quality of this student production, featuring local favorite Trevor Hinton in his final role at UVIC, James Kott, fellow acting graduate, and Victor Dolhai, most recently seen at UVIC as Tartuffe last fall. Haberlin chose to present the play in the round and this choice increased the intimacy of an already very intimate play. The small audience was drawn right inside the lives of gay men persecuted, imprisoned, tortured and murdered by homophobic Nazis before and during World War II. I did have two small quibbles with Haberlin's choices: one, these characters are all German, so it made no sense to me that the "bad" guys speak with a stereotypical accent while the "good" gays speak without one; two, if we can't hear the words, no matter how strong the acting, we are no longer able to engage...some scenes dropped down to filmic volume and many in the theatre simply could not hear the dialogue. Many scenes are difficult to bear, as we see characters pushed to the very limits of psychic and physical endurance, and beyond. But what redeems us from the unrelenting agony is the love story between two gay prisoners who are never allowed to touch, and yet make love (verbally) in one of the most sexually provocative scenes I've ever witnessed, without any action beyond two men standing next to each other, whispering. The ending of the play feels inevitable but is nonetheless shattering and many in the audience I was with were reduced to helpless tears of grief and despair. I'm not sure, along with Brecht, that this is where theatre should take us and leave us (where's the action needed to change the world?), but it was a memorable encounter with a remarkable play.

BETRAYAL by Harold Pinter at Steppenwolf Theatre, Chicago

I am not worthy, I am not worthy. The words of Mike Myer's Wayne's World characters came to mind as I spent an evening at Chicago's famous Steppenwolf Theatre, an actor-founded company of over 30 years standing that has developed the acting, producing and directing careers of such luminaries as John Malkovich, Joan Allen and Gary Sinise. I first saw a Steppenwolf production in New York about 20 years ago (ORPHANS [1985] by Lyle Kessler, directed by Sinise and starring John Mahoney). Three long-term company members star in this very popular Pinter play about triangulated infidelity between both spouses and friends. The Pinterian twist is the backward chronology employed that takes us from the present - two years following the end of a long-term affair between a married woman, Emma, and her husband Robert's best friend Gerry - back nearly a decade to the first moment of sexual attraction and disclosure at a house party, in the couple's bedroom. The show was exquisite and precise, and well-performed throughout. Pinter requires a highly-skilled actor who can nail the dialect and play the stillness, the notorious "Pinter pause" with emotional and thoughful intensity. This company does so with aplomb and provides the rare pleasure of feeling safe in the hands of mature actor artistry that Steppenwolf does so well. The physicalisation of the moment when Robert discovers and confronts his wife's infidelity - played out as subtle sexual domination and forced intimacy in the touching and intertwining of their bare feet as they lie in bed - is intense. Each performance at Steppenwolf is followed by a post-show discussion about the play with a company associate director. I was one of about 2 dozen, or around 10% of the house, who enjoyed a roughly half hour conversation about the play. I met with associate director David New following this and he very kindly showed me both the downstairs theatre space (previewing ANNE FRANK directed by Tina Landau) and took me through the building as we talked about one of my favorite topics (subject of my graduate research), audience education. Chicago has a place in contemporary American theatre history for many reasons, but Steppenwolf is one of them.

MRS. WARREN'S PROFESSION by George Bernard Shaw at Remy Bumppo Theatre, Chicago

This actor-driven company (similar to Steppenwolf but only 10 years old) was recommended to me by the knowledgable girl in the HotTix office that sells discount and day-of tickets to shows across the city. This is a small theatre company operating in one of the spaces that make up Victory Gardens Theatre, home to three stages, all quite small. Remy Bumppo (don't ask me about the name...check their website at http://remybumppo.org/pages/home/1.php ). Their space is a 150-seat thrust studio space where you are sitting on the same level and within 10 feet of the actors. I love this kind of theatre (well-done of course, up close and bad is excruciating) and this Shaw production didn't disappoint. These are classically trained American actors who can manage, as in the Pinter, the right dialect and Shavian pace and acerbity, even acidity. It's a relatively free but unforgiving world he populates, in this case with the story of a successful move from lower to upper class via prostitution of Mrs.Warren and her struggles with her long-lost and rather puritanical daughter. It all ends badly, with even a hint of incest to boot, and every character has his moral positioning made clear. I enjoyed the show, especially in the performance of company member Annabel Armour as Mrs. Warren who looked and sounded wonderful; a rich, resonant voice and strong, clear and decisive physicality. The simple set was effective and the costumes read authentically in the closeness of the room. In theatre this small you need to get the costumes right as you're in the naturalistic mode...we will see velcro closures, snaps etc. in this proximity...this production offered great-looking costumes that helped me enter into the late 19th century world of this early play by Shaw. All in all, a strong production that convinces me of the richness of talent and good theatre to be found in the Windy City.

Two One-man Shows - Cromoli Brothers & Bigger than Jesus

2007-03-23T15:12:00.000-07:00

Rick Miller in Bigger Than Jesus [www.biggerthanj.com]
Photo: Beth Kates

In the past week I have seen two very different one-man shows, Theatre Skam's The Amazing and Impermeable Cromoli Brothers: The Best of the Cromoli Brothers and the Belfry Theatre's Bigger Than Jesus (a Wyrd Productions/Necessary Angel Theatre co-production). Seeing two solo shows so closely together leads me to consider the phenomenon of solo theatre, exemplified in Victoria's Uno Festival (from Intrepid Theatre).

Even though I have performed a one-woman play myself - Joan MacLeod's beautiful play Jewel - and therefore have deep empathy for those who undertake solo performances, I am not at heart a huge fan of solo theatre. For me, theatre is an essentially social art form, along with the other performing arts of dance and music, and what I am most interested in finding at the theatre are meaningful, well-written and well-performed dialogic encounters between characters. While there are some one-person shows that offer dialogue between characters - The Syringa Tree or I Am My Own Wife being good examples of this (although I feel the former to be a better play than the latter, perhaps because it features more inter-character dialogue) - most often a solo play offers one or more characters speaking directly or indirectly to themselves and/or to the audience. Dialogue is deferred in favour of monologue, or perhaps soliloquy. This is fine, and can be fine (as in Jewel, where a widow speaks in soliloquy to her dead husband throughout), but is arguably a far less social experience than that of theatre featuring two or more actors.

This is a philosophical position I am taking that values the inherent power of theatre to allow access to the privileged close observation of human interaction in all its facets; good, bad and ugly. This said, it takes a particularly strong monodrama to compare favorably in my view with a "regular" play.

Lucas Myers, one of the founders of Theatre SKAM, is a favorite actor of mine. Myers has a warm presence, great physicality and broad range that allows him to play drama and comedy with equal success. The Amazing and Impermeable Cromoli Brothers is one brother short as the show begins and St. John Cromoli has been stood-up by his brother Hasbro. But the show must go on, so we are treated to an interactive series of 15 songs and vignettes, the titles of which are posted on chart paper on stage. Audience members are invited by the flustered St. John, an old-school vaudevillian entertainer, to select the order in which they wish to see these pieces. Thus we are engaged in a wide range of "bits" presented with little more than what can be found in a battered red suitcase and accompanied on a ukelele. Myers' songs are sweet and often quite personal (he sings one about his brand new daughter), although they can sometimes contain a bit of a political bite. Some vignettes work better than others, some being little more than throwaway quick gags. My favorite was the cover of Bowie's "Major Tom" with a volunteer audience member playing a breath-powered keyboard (what is that thing called?) and a tiny stuffed Major Tom in a real tin can passed through the house as Myers sings, lit by a single light bulb. Fun and funny, but also quite lovely. The show is very slight, built around Myers' engaging personality; however, if you are a fan this is no bad thing.

Rick Miller and Daniel Brooks' Bigger Than Jesus is a different kettle of solo flying fish. A much more ambitious show, a multimedia piece incorporating ingenious use of live video, BTJ is a major award-winner [three 2004 Doras for play, performer and lighting design] with the positive reviews to match. Working loosely within the framework of the Catholic mass, Miller takes the audience through a part-lecture, part-monologue, part-diatribe, part-homage to the life and legacy of the Big JC Himself. Miller plays "himself" the actor, a Jewish academic, a James-Brownish preacher, a prayer-answering flight attendant, and, finally, Jesus. Woven thoughout are live video feeds from multiple directions in the theatre, sometimes manipulated by Miller himself, that give us backdrop images that are occasionally quite awesome in their power. The play is intelligent, highly theatrical (especially in the scene of the Last Supper as played by Miller in miniature with action figures including Star Wars characters, all projected via video onto the giant backdrop screen) and well-performed by Miller, who is clearly a multi-talented actor.

So why did it make such a small impression on me? I should have been the ideal audience member for this piece, lapsed Catholic that I am (Miller asked us to identify ourselves off the top of the show), but somehow the individual parts that seem very successful in the moment failed to add up to a sum that had an overall effect. Miller and Brooks' point, that Jesus the man and his ideals are very different from the legacy of Christianity and the ignorance and violence wrought in His name, seem a bit like preaching to the choir. Theatregoers tend to be an educated and sophisticated lot...don't we already know these things? What else can be said about the life of Jesus at this point in history and through the medium of theatre that moves us beyond the platitudes of Jesus Christ Superstar or Godspell? Yes, it is arresting to see Miller transform himself into Jesus, back turned at an altar with his face projected onto his vestment, but when he comes downstage to speak to the audience what we get are one-liners mixed in with the familiar Biblical wisdoms; "Love one another ... any questions?"

Beautiful images and skilful performance do not necessarily add up to great theatre. I received more soulful sustenance and real learning from Theatre Inconnu's recent low-budget production of Pinter's The Caretaker around how we human beings so often fail dismally to love one another, than in this highly-individualistic one-man show that failed to convince me of the essential human connection that Jesus tried so hard to reveal.

SKYDIVE & WAITING IN THE WINGS Reviews - March 5, 2007

2007-03-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Photo credit: Tim Matheson

SKYDIVE & WAITING IN THE WINGS REVIEWS MARCH 5, 2007

I hear it was a busy week of theatre-going for you and that you're going to tell us about two shows you saw, one of which has now closed – the Belfry's Festival production of SKYDIVE – and the second Langham Court's production of Noel Coward's WAITING IN THE WINGS which runs until March 17th. So, what can you tell us about SKYDIVE first?

SKYDIVE a is a co-production between the Belfry and a new Vancouver theatre company called Real Wheels [http://www.realwheels.ca] that is focussed on providing opportunities for disabled performers. In this two-hander one-act play, one of the two actors – James Sanders – is a quadriplegic. In discussions with the Governor-General award winning playwright Kevin Kerr, who was commissioned to write the play, the idea of skydiving came up. From this beginning emerged the idea to make use of the wonderful aerial choreography machinery developed by Victoria's Sven Johansson that has been most often used by disabled dancers. The end result is that both Sanders and his acting partner and real-life close friend Bob Frazer become capable of flight in a story of two brothers who let us into their dreams, nightmares, phobias and failures as flashbacks during a freefall skydive. The visual effects created in the show, under the direction of the Belfry's Roy Surette, are nothing less than stunning. This incredible machinery, developed by Johansson about 20 years ago, makes use of weighted levers and human operators such that the actors become puppet-like, constrained in some ways, but freed in others. While they are fixed and held in place at the end of the levers for most of the play, they are manipulated so that they can fly, leap, roll, and fall in dazzling combinations. It is an extraordinary effect that makes it one of the most unique visual theatre experiences I have ever had.

And what about the play itself? Did it live up to this innovative form of presentation?

Unfortunately not. Kerr is clearing drawing heavily on Sanders' and Frazers' real-life friendship and the dialogue reflects this quality of a longterm and close male relationship, even though in the play they are cast as brothers. Kerr writes very funny dialogue and there are a lot of laughs to be had as we see one brother (Sanders) try to help his younger brother (Frazer) overcome a host of phobias through different and questionable therapeutic techniques. One of these therapies is lucid dreaming, and this allows us to enter into the dreamworld of these characters in very effective ways. But there are a couple of significant problems with the script. First, these characters have little or no history, no context that is given to us, and this makes it difficult for us to care about them...they feel like types rather than real people, despite the actors' fine performances. Why is one brother full of phobias and the other a bit of a loser? The answer offered within a lucid dream is superficial and unconvincing. We want to know more about these men than the play and its technological centre can allow. And second, this play begins as a comedy and remains a comedy until its last five minutes when it becomes a tragedy, out of nowhere. This feels like a bit of a cop-out, and is manipulative of the audience who has been happily looking forward to the skydive planned by the brothers throughout. The conclusion is a downer which feels tacked on somehow, and I for one felt a bit cheated.

Moving on to Langham Court's production of Noel Coward's late play WAITING IN THE WINGS. Coward has been a favorite playwright at Langham Court over the years, isn't that right?

Yes. Langham has produced over 20 Coward plays in productions dating back to the 1940s when Coward was still in his prime. This play was written in 1960, later in Coward's long career (he lived until 1973) as a kind of love letter to all the women he had worked with on stage over the years. Set in a charity retirement home for retired actresses called The Wings, the play features a huge cast of 18. While still containing some of Coward's classic British comic wit, and even a few of his musical ditties, it is a more bittersweet affair, focussing on the reality that these women's glory days are long behind them. The original production in 1960 was not a hit as critics found it gallant and affectionate but also sentimental, contrived and tepid – described as a “weak over-sugared cup of tea” - and it was only performed in New York as recently as 1999, in a production featuring Lauren Bacall and Rosemary Harris. So it is a lesser-known and little-performed Coward which will certainly be of interest to Coward fans.

And is the production here a love letter from Langham Court to its long-time actresses?

It is, and is a warm and wonderful tribute. Toshik Bukowiecki has designed a marvelously detailed set of the living room of the home, with views out the French doors to the British countryside. Set design is consistently strong at Langham. And the ladies of the Wings have numerous costume changes throughout the play, including quite elegant evening dresses they put on for Christmas dinner. This is one of the largest and most complex Langham shows I have seen, directed very capably by regular Roger Carr, and it looks terrific. Happily, there are also some very fine performances here as well. Each of the dozen women who make up the home's residents is clearly defined as a character (albeit written somewhat stereotypically by Coward) and all have their moments to shine. I can't single out all of the company for recognition here, but I especially enjoyed the work of Jean Topham as the manager of the home, Miss Archibald, Angela Harvey as the diplomatic Bonita, Lynda Raino as the nervous and fragile Estelle and Lesley Gibbs as the musical Maud. Both Philippa Catling and Danda Humphreys play the central roles of two feuding actresses who haven't spoken for 30 years very well, and their scenes together are quite touching. Supporting roles played by Drew Waveryn, Heather Jarvie and others are also well done. The play is long – I understand some scenes from the original have been cut – but it's still two and half hours with intermission and sometimes the pace lags a bit, but overall it is a very pleasant visit with a charming and eccentric group of senior women.

THE CARETAKER – REVIEW – FEB. 26/07

2007-02-26T10:09:00.000-08:00

Photo: Programme cover for New York production of THE CARETAKER, 1961. Cast: Alan Bates, Robert Shaw & Donald Pleasence.

Theatre Inconnu is Victoria's longest surviving small theatre company, now celebrating its 20th anniversary. What can you tell us about its history and its Artistic Director Clayton Jevne?

Clayton Jevne is the rarest of theatre artists in Victoria, that is, he is someone who has stayed here. Most often what happens is young theatre talent moves through the Phoenix program at UVIC and then moves on to Vancouver or Toronto. Even those who do stay around for a while, like the artists of Theatre SKAM, eventually get pulled toward bigger cities. But Clayton has spent all of his career in Victoria devoted to producing, directing and performing the plays he is interested in doing. For many years he ran the summer Shakespeare Festival, but in recent years he has returned to his earlier days when he had a hole-in-the-wall theatre space in Market Square...now his space is a hole-in-the-wall in the Fernwood Community Centre, a small community meeting room that he magically transforms into a theatre space seating about 40 people. Clayton's taste is eclectic and his shows can be hit-and-miss, but are always worth seeing simply for the value of seeing something you know would never otherwise be produced in Victoria. As someone who has always worked within shoestring budgets, Clayton has a gift for making a lot out of a little, and for focussing on important, neglected or challenging plays.

Harold Pinter's THE CARETAKER is considered to be one of his greatest plays...would you agree?

Absolutely. THE CARETAKER is often listed as one of Nobel-prize winning playwright Harold Pinter's great achievements and it was a real treat for me to see it for the first time. As Pinter is reaching the end of his long career, a number of his earlier plays are being remounted. I saw a West End production of THE BIRTHDAY PARTY in London 2 years ago. But Pinter is rarely performed in Victoria, although Langham Court did do his play BETRAYAL a few years back. THE CARETAKER is a three-hander for 3 men that tells the story of 2 brothers and a hobo that one of the brothers brings home with him one day to the derelict building he lives in and is supposed to be fixing up for his landlord brother. The play explores the psychological power dynamics between these 3 characters, revealing all 3 of them to be deeply trapped in lives that are going nowhere. Communication, or the failure to communicate with others, is a key theme of Pinter...this is where we see the famous “Pinter pauses” where characters are often struggling to find the words to express themselves. Pinter has been clearly inspired by writers like Samuel Beckett, Albert Camus and Franz Kafka in seeing modern existence as hard, savage, even ultimately meaningless. And yet, done properly, his early plays contain lots of dark humour that can find audiences laughing quite unexpectedly quite a lot.

And what about this production? It can't be easy taking on the work of a Nobel-prize winning playwright...

It is a very challenging play to mount and I thought that this production did an admirable job of it. The small space has been transformed into the dingy and jam-packed room where Aston, the older of the 2 brothers, now lives. Piled high with furniture, piles of newspapers, a gas stove, even a kitchen sink, the place is a mess. Yet Aston, who is revealed later in the play to be the victim of electric shock therapy, invites the street tramp Davies into this tiny room in an act of unexplained kindness. This does not please Aston's brother Mick, a dangerous character who attacks Davies both verbally and physically throughout the play. Most of the play is written as 2 person scenes, very rarely are all three actors on stage together. At all times Davies is trying to find his ground with these 2 men, who both offer and then withdraw the job as caretaker of this squalid building. There are moments of comedy throughout, such as Davies' constant search for a proper pair of shoes, and even tenderness, as when Aston kindly gives Davies some old clothes and shoes and even Mick offers him a cheese sandwich at one point. But under it all is the omnipresent sense of desperation in these lower class characters who have nothing much to live for or to look forward to in their lives.

How does the cast manage the British dialect and London setting?

Both the acting and directing of this production are very strong. Jevne plays Davies as a fidgety bundle of nerves who is always prepared to be attacked, and yet can be full of himself and his empty dreams at the same time. His Cockney accent sometimes wobbles a bit, but overall it is a fine performance. The 2 brothers are played by Michael Shewchuk and Jason Stevens who both offer outstanding performances. I saw Jason Stevens in ARTICHOKE at Langham Court in the fall, and it is a treat to see an actor shift so well into such a different kind of role. Stevens is the rarest of birds in Victoria, a strong male actor in his 30s or 40s. Sadly, I hear he will be leaving town soon, which is a loss to the theatre community, as he plays Mick with focussed intensity and the necessary swagger and sense of danger brewing. Michael Shewchuk plays his role of the damaged Aston with great subtlety and sensitivity with a monologue in Act Two that is quietly shattering. Kudos to director Graham McDonald for creating a very simple show that lets the actors and the text of this great play shine. Overall, the production takes us very successfully into the world of London's underclass, the have-nots who for various reasons will never move beyond their stifling circumstances.

What makes this nearly 50 year old play still relevant today?

This play has often been compared to Beckett's WAITING FOR GODOT that was premiered only a few years before Pinter wrote THE CARETAKER. Both plays are written out of the residual post-World War II/Holocaust/Hiroshima sense of despair for the very future of humanity. But where Beckett sets his play in an indeterminate No-place with undefinable characters who are almost clown-like, Pinter roots his play in the real world of London of the late 50s/early 60s. We cannot distance ourselves from Pinter's characters because they are real people who live among us; the homeless, the psychologically disturbed, the restless losers who can become dangerous to those of us cozied up in our middle class comforts. We need theatre like this to remind us of what's really going on in the world, to remind us that the despair of the dispossessed is very real and something we ignore at our own peril, to remind us that we are all struggling to connect with others, that this effort is sometimes a failed joke and can kick us when we're down, but that it is necessary to keep trying, to try to maintain our sense of humanity in the face of oblivion, nonetheless.

DAPHNE REVIEW – FEBRUARY 19, 2007

2007-02-19T16:11:00.000-08:00

Q: We heard about this Canadian debut performance of Richard Strauss' DAPHNE last week from POV musical director Timothy Vernon. What was your first impression?

A: Set designer Leslie Frankish has created a lovely and evocative setting for the opera, under the branches of a weeping willow next to a pond. The branches form a multi-layered curtain of gauzy leaves that rise and fall at various points throughout the opera creating a beautiful effect. Water nymphs arise from the pond and Daphne's father Peneios – a river god – pours water from his hands into the pond at one point. The overall effect is one that transports the audience into the world of Greek mythology where humans and gods can interact.

POV's last production of Puccini's MANON LESCAUT was moved from its pre-French revolution setting and re-set in World War II Germany. DAPHNE was actually created by Strauss and performed at that time, in 1938 under the Nazi regime. Does anything in this production refer to this difficult fact?

Not that I could see. Director Wim Trompert has chosen to present a version of DAPHNE that seems very faithful to Strauss' original intent to interpret a popular Greek myth about the nymph Daphne who cannot or will not submit to earthly love, and who pays the price for her refusal to conform. This is a powerful and popular myth of transformation (Daphne in the end is changed into the laurel tree by the god Apollo who is one of the two characters who try to seduce her) that has been turned into a number of different opera and ballet versions. Yet, any contemporary audience member who is aware of the origins of this particular DAPHNE, presented by Strauss in Berlin in 1938, is going to feel the tension of its uncomfortable beginnings. I felt that this production plays it a bit on the safe side by not helping us find the connection between then and now...art is always a product of its historical context and in this case, I feel the reality of DAPHNE's origins has been unfortunately ignored. In contrast, while I didn't feel that the updating of MANON LESCAUT was wholly successful, I did like the bravery of such a choice.

How did you feel about the musical aspects of the production?

I am a theatre reviewer and admit my failings in critiquing the musical aspects of POV productions. To my untrained ear, however, the Victoria Symphony under the musical direction of Maestro Timothy Vernon sounded as wonderful as ever. Lead performers in the production sounded beautiful in singing what I understand to be very challenging material. I enjoyed Rebecca Hass' musical and physical interpretation of Daphne's mother Gaea and Anthony Pulgram's Apollo especially, although none of the singers, nor the supporting chorus could be faulted in any way. Leading lady Sookhyung Park is onstage for most of this 100 minute one- act opera and sings gorgeously throughout. Her final moments are particularly affecting as she metamorphises into a tree and sings a wordless melody that is haunting and very memorable. This production is being broadcast by CBC Radio's Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and will be a real feather in POV's cap in this regard...a world class musical interpretation.

What about the visual elements?

This is the aspect of the production that did provide some disappointments for me. While I found Frankish's set very beautiful I did have problems with her monochromatic color scheme of black white and gray. I kept wondering why a natural setting wasn't being portrayed in natural colors of green and brown and nothing in the production helped me understand this choice, as the costumes were more naturalistic, the standout one being Daphne's mother Gaea's stunning earthy brown dress woven with tree roots. And Gerald King's lighting was also quite cold, I found, except for a few chosen moments when it becomes golden and quite gorgeous, but then moves back into being rather harsh and chilly again. And the most critical thing I have to say about this production is about Daphne's costume, which I found made her look like a cross between Puck from A Midsummer Night's Dream and Peter Pan. She is supposed to be an unbelievably beautiful young girl who makes both mortal and immortal men fall instantly in love with her...why does she look like so ragged and tomboyish, without even a skirt on to cover her legs? Even if the production begins with her dressed this way, it makes no sense to me that she should not change into a beautiful dress for the Dionysian festival in the second half of the opera. I found it quite hard to overcome the visual portrayal of Daphne in this way, especially when the poster for the production itself shows the character in a lovely gown. This is an example of a costume design working against rather than with a performer.

Any final thoughts on this opera?

This production evoked memories in me of last season's stellar production at UVIC's Phoenix Theatre of Ovid's Metamorphoses. These ancient myths are powerful and full of important morals that still remain significant to our lives today. Strauss himself felt Daphne to be one of his crowning achievements, a love letter to the soprano voice, and it is certainly that. Yet, given its debut in Hitler's Germany and the fact that it has only appeared onstage in North America nearly 70 years later, I was left longing to see the companion piece first presented with Daphne, Friedenstag [The Day of Peace]. It feels to me that it is the message of earthly peace and the transcendent power of nature that Strauss wove into both of these short operas that, together, have something of great value for us today.