From left to right; Cherubino (Cécile Muhire), Count Almaviva (Tyler Duncan), Figaro (Donovan Singletary) (Photo credit: David Cooper)
I saw the Sunday matinee of Mozart’s great opera The Marriage of Figaro, which did not disappoint, offering a lively and engaging production featuring some wonderful singing with Timothy Vernon leading members of the Victoria Symphony with great style. Directed by Morris Panych and designed by Ken MacDonald, inspired by the artwork of Joan Miró, this was an elegant afternoon at the Royal Theatre. We begin with Count Almaviva, well played by Tyler Duncan, trying to claim his feudal rights to bed his servants. He has his eye on Susanna (Suzanne Rigden), Figaro’s betrothed, and the plot spins around her attempts to dissuade the Count via trickery and disguise, typical of Commedia dell’arte operas. The Countess Almaviva, beautifully sung by Sydney Baedke, is well aware of her husband’s wandering eye, so she participates in the plans to set him straight. We have subplots involving revelations of Figaro’s true parentage, and page Cherubino, who longs for his mistress, but in the end will settle for Barbarina, the gardener’s daughter.
Panych, a Governor General’s award winner for playwriting, mines all of the comic potential from the opera, to the sellout audience’s delight. For me, the women had the slight edge on the male voices, with a duet late in the opera between Susanna and her mistress squeezing some tears out of me. The set design was another standout, with MacDonald’s bold choice paying off in spades. Comic relief is seen in the characters of Marcellina (Megan Latham), who has struck a deal with Figaro that, if he doesn’t pay his debt to her, she will force him to marry her, and lawyer Dr. Bartolo (Peter McGillivray), that is until the identity of Figaro’s parents is revealed to him. The costumes, designed by Nancy Bryant, worked well, especially the Countess’s dress in the second act, a fiery red satin concoction that looked wonderful on her. The lighting by Eric Champoux was effective, although I found the final act in the garden at night to be a bit underlit. Overall, this was a wonderful production with plenty to enjoy, highly recommended! You can read more about the show here, with a final performance tomorrow night (Tuesday, April 9th): https://pacificopera.ca/event/the-marriage-of-figaro/
1. Here is my ranked list of the 12 shows I saw last month in London. First, by a long shot, was the Almeida Theatre production of King Lear with Danny Sapani offering a towering Lear, directed by Yaël Farber and well-supported by a majority Black cast (white actors played some roles, including Edmund and Edgar, as well as Kent). Clarke Peters, from The Wire, played the Fool and was also excellent, diverting from tradition to appear in the final scene of the play. I have been disappointed with a couple of recent Lears, including Paul Gross at Stratford last year, who I felt lacked the gravitas required of the role, and Anthony Sher’s Lear which I saw at BAM a few years ago. This one wiped the slate clean. I hear that Kenneth Branagh is playing Lear in New York this December, and you know I’ll be seeing that one! Read more about the show here: https://almeida.co.uk/whats-on/king-lear/
Cast of Guys and Dolls
2. This was a glorious production of this great musical, directed by Nicholas Hytner at the Bridge Theatre. There was so much to love about this show, the acting, the dancing, the singing, it had it all! Still on, if you’re going to London, don’t miss seeing it! Read more here: https://bridgetheatre.co.uk/whats-on/guys-and-dolls/
Ken Nwosu as Othello and Ira Mandela Siobhan as Subconscious Othello
3. Third on my list was an excellent production of Othello in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse at the Globe Theatre. I love this space, lit by candles only, plus a skylight over the stage. An accurate recreation of a 17th Century indoor playhouse, with beautiful hand-painted ceilings, it’s a lovely space to see a show. This was quite an untraditional production of Othello, especially the unorthodox decision by director Ola Ince to have two Othellos, one of whom portrays Othello’s subconscious mind tormenting him throughout the play. This was an inspired choice which I thought worked extremely well. I didn’t even mind the fact that in this version, both Othello and Iago survive to face justice. Read more about the show here: https://www.shakespearesglobe.com/whats-on/othello-2023/
Cast of The Motive and the Cue
4. Next was this wonderful National Theatre production (I saw five in all!) written by Jack Thorne and directed by Sam Mendes. Based on a true story when Sir John Gielgud directed Richard Burton in a play in London in 1964, the play featured terrific performances from Mark Gatiss as Gielgud and Johnny Flynn as Burton, with Tuppence Middleton as a suitably gorgeous Elizabeth Taylor. Smart, funny and an all around really good time! Read more here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/the-motive-and-the-cue/
Cast of Standing at the Sky’s Edge
5. Another National Theatre show! This was the musical Standing at the Sky’s Edge, which is now playing in the West End. It tells the story of three working class families in Sheffield across decades from the 1980s to the present. Featuring some outstanding performances, great music and overall very moving, this was another winner! Read more about the show here: https://lwtheatres.co.uk/whats-on/standing-at-the-skys-edge-2/
Left to Right; Lindsay Duncan as Dora, Billy Howle as Nicholas, Bessie Carter as Fenny and Malcolm Sinclair as Charles
6. Yes, it’s a National Theatre show! Dear Octopus is an intergenerational family drama set just before World War II about the Randolph family, headed by mother Dora and father Charles. Originally written in 1938 by Dodie Smith, this remount features an excellent performance by Lindsay Duncan as matriarch Dora, and centres around a golden wedding anniversary that gets complicated with dynamics within the family. We hear snippets of the looming war to come on the radio, which heightens what this family will soon be facing. I found this one very moving. Read more about it here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/dear-octopus/
The Webb sisters in their younger performing days
7. The Hills of California is a new play by Jez Butterworth, also directed by Sam Mendes. I was pulled into this play right away, as it features a family of four daughters, like my own. The mother is upstairs dying, which brings her daughters home for a final visit. We see in flashbacks that she was a stage mother who pushed her girls to perform as an all-girl act decades earlier. The daughters carry heavy emotions related to this over time, and everything spills out over the course of a weekend reunion in Blackpool in 1976 during an unprecedented heatwave. Jez Butterworth is an excellent playwright (I wish I’d seen his lauded production Jerusalem which premiered at the Royal Court in 2009 with Mark Rylance in the leading role) and Sam Mendes directs this large cast with his usual confidence. Read more about the show here: http://hillsofcaliforniaplay.com
Cast of Nye with Michael Sheen, centre, playing Aneurin ‘Nye’ Bevan
8. The National Theatre again, this new play by Tim Price, directed by Rufus Norris, was quite wonderful. As I said in my Facebook post after seeing the show, I never thought I’d be moved to tears by a play about the founding of the National Health Service. Nye Bevan was an MP under Winston Churchill, and other Prime Ministers, and his legacy was his struggle to establish the NHS. “Confronted with death, Nye’s deepest memories lead him on a mind-bending journey back through his life; from childhood to mining underground, Parliament and fights with Churchill in an epic Welsh fantasia.” There were some surreal elements to this production, all of which worked well, and left me wanting to know more about this remarkable man. Read more about it here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/nye/
Cast of Till the Stars Come Down
9. Another National Theatre show! This one is a new play by Beth Steel and directed by Bijan Sheibani. It’s a 24 hour play about a family wedding where everything goes horribly wrong. Long-held grievances are aired, fights break out, the family patriarch declares his love for his sister-in-law, like that. I enjoyed this play, although I did feel that it veered a bit too much into written for TV land. However, the climax of the play did not disappoint, and left me feeling sorry for the poor bride and her Polish husband, as they will have to deal with the emotional fallout of the day for years to come. Read more about it here: https://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/productions/till-the-stars-come-down/
10. This was an odd one, and a bit of a hit and miss for me. “In a totalitarian state where the Ministry of Culture must approve all new works of art, a rebel group is staging an illegal play under the guise of a wedding. In this darkly funny political thriller, everything is not as it seems…A Mirror is an explosively entertaining story of the search for love and truth in a society that values neither.” This is an accurate description of the play, but the play also has some audience participation, and has some unexpected twists and turns. I liked it, but it sits where it does on my list. Read about it here: https://trafalgartheatre.com/shows/a-mirror/
Cast of The Time Traveler’s Wife
11. I enjoyed this musical more than I expected to, as I enjoyed the show on Crave based on the novel by Audrey Niffenegger. Sadly the show did not do well in the West End, and closed on February 24th. I managed to catch one of the final performances. I thought it quite magical, with some terrific stage magic (How did they DO THAT?) and charming moments, featuring two strong leads who can really sing. The book by playwright Lauren Gunderson reflects the novel well, but the music by Joss Stone and Dave Stewart (of the Eurthymics) did not leave any memorable tunes in my mind. A pleasurable show, but perhaps not one for the ages. Read about it here: https://theapollotheatre.co.uk/tickets/the-time-travellers-wife/
12. Unfortunately, this production of Ibsen’s great play was my biggest disappointment of the trip. Directed by Thomas Ostermeier, and with Matt Smith as Dr. Stockmann, I found this production to be a bit of a mess. Ostermeier is a revered German director, but this one didn’t work for me at all, descending into literal paint being thrown onto actors. It could have worked, but for me, this was a miss. Read about it here: https://www.thedukeofyorks.com/an-enemy-of-the-people
That’s it from me! I hope you enjoyed this list. Let’s do it again next year!
From left to Right: Jane Rees, Sophia Radford, Jeremy Sinclair, Zoe Salvin, Jennifer Bayne, Ryan Kniel
I saw Theatre Inconnu’s very good production of Wendy Lill’s 1991 play Sisters, which looks at the difficult topic of residential schools and the nuns who taught in them. We learn about the life of Sister Mary, who has become a nun after experiencing a calling, and leaves behind a boy who would have married her. She begins working at a residential school where we see and hear about the lives of the Indigenous children who attended these schools. Some try to run away, but are chased down by dogs. Some make a successful escape, never to return. We hear that the students are subjected to caning, common at the time, as the play is set in the late 60s/early 70s.
Sister Mary is played by two actors, Sophia Redford plays Young Mary and Jennifer Bayne the mature Mary. Both do lovely work in their respective roles, although Bayne has the heavier lifting, and effectively portrays Mary’s search for both God and meaning in the work she has undertaken for over 25 years. We see her meeting with a Jewish lawyer who has moved to Canada to avoid the draft into the Vietnam War. Why is she talking to a lawyer? Well, I won’t spoil the plot for those who may plan to see the show, but she has taken a drastic action that will have serious consequences.
As we travel through the play, we find out more about Mary’s backstory, her struggles with her faith and her guilty conscience about her work at the residential school. We also learn about the other nuns who work at the school. There is Sister Gabriel, who is a bundle of nerves, and Mother Agnes, who dominates the nuns under her control. Gabriel is well-played by Zoe Salvin and Mother Agnes by Jane Rees, who finds multiple levels in her characterization. Ryan Kniel plays the Jewish lawyer Stein with good authority, letting us see glimpses of his struggles with his parents and his girlfriend, and Jeremy Sinclair plays Louis, a farmer who loves Young Mary with simple clarity.
The play is directed well by Kevin McKendrick, who pulls strong performances out of his cast and keeps things moving at a good pace throughout this nearly 2 hour play. Artistic Director Clayton Jevne provided the lighting design, while actor Kniel does sound, offering familiar songs from the 60s to underscore the period. Madeleine Mills designed the costumes, which work well. Overall, this is a very good production of a play worth seeing. Lill went on to become an NDP MP and has written a number of other plays, including The Glace Bay Miners’ Museum, which I was fortunate enough to perform in at the Phoenix Theatre in 1999. She has always had a strong sense of social justice, so I can see how well this play sits in her work, focussed as it is on the injustice and cruelty of residential schools, even by the most well-meaning of those who worked in them. Recommended. Runs until March 9th with tickets available at https://www.theatreinconnu.com/sisters/
Left to Right; Gabrielle Rose as Jo, Christine Quintana as Everyone Else; Hrothgar Mathews as Rick (Photo credit: Peter Pokorny)
Last night I attended the delayed opening night of As Above, a new play by Christine Quintana. Quintana has ended up performing in her own play, as the actor cast as Everyone Else was called away with a family emergency. I enjoyed both the play and the performances very much. The play looks at the lives of two recovering alcoholics, Jo and Rick, who form a romance after meeting online. We learn that Jo is close with her sister Hazel (Quintana), but distant from her only daughter Ada (Quintana again). She is a widow whose husband died from cancer some years ago.
As her relationship with Rick develops over time, he invites her to come to his cabin at Lake Cowichan. Jo is staggered when she arrives, as it turns out that Rick has bought the family’s former cabin (although why she wouldn’t know this is a weak moment in the script). She has many happy memories of this place and the land, in particular a large cedar tree that she has an almost mystical connection with. While at the cabin, they receive a phone call from Bolivia, where Jo and her husband and daughter spent a year when Jo was an academic at UBC. We hear that she lost her job due to her alcoholism, and she is now working at the local botanical gardens in Victoria. It appears that daughter Ada has returned to Bolivia, and there is confusion around where she is at the moment, or if she is coming home.
Jo is experiencing some painful symptoms, and there are scenes where she visits a doctor who does not provide much in the way of support or caring. Later, we see these symptoms persist, leading to her having to have surgery. Her sister Hazel comes to see her, she has a falling out with Rick that really upsets her, and finally she is reunited with Ada, but is it too late?
Themes that this 90 minutes one-act play address include ecology, respect for nature and how we can live better, and more softly, on these lands. There is good dialogue amongst the various characters, particularly between Jo and Rick, who are at a stage in their lives when they need to be frank and honest with each other. Sister Hazel is a wonderful support for Jo, and she meets Rick and approves of him right away. When Ada returns there is a lovely moment of reconnection, that is thrown into relief by Jo’s illness. Does she survive? It’s up to each audience member to decide that for themselves, but by the end of the play we feel connected to the trees and how they communicate through fungal networks, to the land we are fortunate enough to live on, and to the mysteries of nature.
The effective set design is by Camellia Koo and features a greenhouse style structure centrestage, a revolve and simple costumes (Stephanie Kong) and props, with effective sound design by Alessandro Juliani, lovely lighting by John Webber, and projections by Emily Cooper. The director of the play is Meg Roe, and she does a wonderful job pulling strong performances from the three actors. Kudos to Quintana, who had to step in at the last minute, and learn her own lines! Overall, a pleasant evening at the theatre. Recommended. Runs until March 3rd with tickets at: https://www.belfry.bc.ca/as-above/#sp_copy
Left to Right; Dawson Rutledge as Edmund, Shea O’Connor as the White Witch (from Kaleidoscope’s website)
Friday night I attended the opening night of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, on now until December 26th at the Roxy Theatre. These much-loved books by C.S. Lewis were childhood favourites of mine. Who can forget the magical entrance into Narnia through the back of a wardrobe, and the adventures that awaited the Pevensie children, Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund. They have been sent away from London during the Blitz, and are staying with a kindly professor named Digory Kirke in the country. One day, as Lucy is exploring the old house, she finds herself walking through a wardrobe full of old fur coats that leads her into the magical kingdom of Narnia. She meets a faun, Mr. Tumnus, who invites her home for tea. There she learns that the kingdom is cursed by the White Witch, who keeps Narnia in perpetual winter. Lucy returns home, with only a minute having passed by.
She tells her siblings what has happened, and brother Edmund goes into Narnia himself. There, he encounters the White Witch, who lures him into treachery with Turkish Delight. He returns home, but brings his siblings back, to find that Mr. Tumnus has been taken by the White Witch. The children befriend Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them that Narnia’s former leader, the great lion Aslan, is returning to defeat the witch. They go to meet Aslan, who sacrifices himself to the White Witch in order to save Edmund’s life. But he is resurrected due to the “Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time”, and he and his army, with the Pevensie children, defeat the White Witch. The Pevensie children sit on the four thrones of Narnia and rule for many happy years. One day, they see the lamppost in the forest and go back through the wardrobe, finding that no time has passed and they are children once again.
This 45 minute adapted version of the novel, was written for two actors by Le Clanché du Rand and premiered off-Broadway in 2011. Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope, Pat Rundell, directs a fine production here. The set is quite wonderful, featuring many doors that serve in multiple ways throughout the show. Both actors play multiple roles (of course), and were very effective in portraying these roles and shifting between them. Shea O’Connor makes Lucy very appealing, but it’s also fun to see her morph into the villainous witch. Dawson Rutledge plays Peter, Edmund, Mr. Tumnus and Aslan, and also operates the beaver puppet, so is kept very busy! He is an appealing performer, and I enjoyed his work. The show is lit well by Rebekah Johnson, with Emily Friesen doing a great job designing the set, props and costumes, Aidan Dunsmuir creating the sound design, and Alexander Brendan Ferguson giving us original compositions. Recommended. Tickets are available here: https://kaleidoscope.bc.ca/shows/lww/.
Cast of Stupid F*cking Bird: Left to Right; Eric Grace, Wendy Magahay, MJ Connelly, Melissa Blank, Nicholas Guerreiro, James Johnson, Andrea Eggenberger. Photo credit: Clayton Jevne
Last weekend, I saw Theatre Inconnu’s final show of their 2023 season, by American playwright Aaron Posner. Posner has made a career of sorts by adapting the great plays of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. This one is based on his play The Seagull, but he has also written adaptations of Uncle Vanya (titled His Life Sucks: Or the Present Ridiculous (2015)) and Three Sisters (titled No Sisters (2017)). The play premiered in Washington, DC in 2013, and is both a comedy and an homage to this great play. Program notes by director Morgan Gadd tell me that the play has had success internationally, with more than 200 productions in many countries.
The play begins with Emma’s (Wendy Magahay) son Con presenting his ‘performance event’ featuring his girlfriend Nina (Andrea Eggenberger) in a monologue of little literary value that ends up with Con in a temper tantrum stopping the performance. We meet his uncle Sorn (Eric Grace), his aunt Mash (Melissa Blank), her friend Dev (Nicholas Guerreiro), and Emma’s younger lover Trigorin (James Johnson). Nina is drawn to Trigorin, who is famous writer, and we see a relationship begin between the two of them, despite Emma’s attempts to prevent it. The two of them run off together, leaving Con bereft and attempting suicide, but failing. Four years pass by, and we hear that Trigorin and Nina are no longer together, after Nina lost their baby daughter. Indeed, he is back with Emma and we see them celebrating Sorn’s 70th birthday. Dev and Mash are now married, although Mash is still in love with Con, and they have three children. Nina returns to talk with Con, and we witness what may be the most faithful scene from the original play, the one in which Nina claims repeatedly that she is a seagull.
Throughout the play it is not uncommon for various characters to break out of role and directly address the audience. Con asks for relationship advice as he struggles to keep Nina, and there are wonderfully bleak songs sung by Mash on her ukulele. The production features strong performances by the majority of the cast, with strong performances from Wendy Magahay, Melissa Blank, James Johnson, Eric Grace, and Nicholas Guerreiro. Andrea Eggenberger was best in her ‘I am a seagull’ scene, but was less convincing in other parts of the play. As ever, director Gadd does well staging the play on the small stage in Paul Phillips Hall, and keeps the audience laughing throughout. I found the play witty and fun, but also true in essential ways to Chekhov’s great play. Recommended. The play runs until December 16th with tickets available at https://www.theatreinconnu.com/stupid-bird.
I recently spent 10 days in New York, staying with my brother and sister-in-law in Brooklyn. I managed to get to 9 shows while there, and this post will rank these shows from best to worst.
From left to right: Daniel Radcliffe, Jonathan Groff and Lindsay Mendez Photo: Monica Prendergast
This production, of Stephen Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along took me off-guard, as it surprisingly makes it to the very top of my list. This was a masterful production featuring strong performances from the three leads and other smaller roles. This was one of Sondheim’s rare flops, although I learned from Sondheim himself, at a staged reading of the musical some years back, that he felt the show was cursed. In out of town tryouts, a dancer died when he fell into the pit. This tragedy marked the show, and it flopped in its first run on Broadway. There have been successful revivals over the years, but it’s hard to imagine one as good as this one. The backwards timeline of the story, telling the story of the friendship between Groff as composer Franklin Shepard, Radcliffe as lyricist and playwright Charley Kringas and Mary Flynn, a novelist and journalist, shows us how the friendship begins, and 20 years later, how it sadly ends.
From left to right, Michael Shannon, Jeff Biehl, Toussaint Francois Battiste, Ajay Naidu and Paul Sparks. Photo: Monica Prendergast
My second pick was a masterful production of Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, starring Michael Shannon as Estragon and Paul Sparks as Vladimir. The production, directed by Arin Arbus at Theatre for a New Audience in Brooklyn, was wonderful. Both leads gave blistering performances, and I was reminded yet again, how important this towering play of the 20th century is, and will always be. The supporting performances by Ajay Naidu as Pozzo, Jeff Biehl as Lucky and Toussaint Francois Battiste as Boy, were all excellent. There are so many lines that resonate in this play, perhaps the most memorable being, “They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it’s night once more.” I also love it when the clowns ‘see’ the audience and judge it to be “a charnel house”.
Curtain call of Some Like it Hot. Photo: Monica Prendergast
Third pick, another pleasant surprise, was the musical version of the popular Jack Lemmon/Tony Curtis and Marilyn Monroe movie, Some Like it Hot. The show looked fabulous, with gorgeous costumes and sets, some fabulous tap dancing by the leads and the ensemble, and some songs that worked. Both of the lead performances, Christian Boyle as Joe/Josephine and J. Harrison Ghee as Jerry/Daphne were excellent, funny and even moving at times. Ghee won a Tony for their performance, one of the first non-binary performers to win. At the end of the show, we feel that Jerry will stay committed to being Daphne, shifting the story into the 21st century very well. The show also won a Tony for best choreography, and the dancing was thrilling, with tap dancing being the main form. Adrianna Hicks as Sugar was also very effective in her role. A winner!
Curtain call for The Frogs. Photo: Monica Prendergast
My fourth pick was a revival of Sondheim’s little-known musical The Frogs. The MasterVoices chorus, under the direction of artistic director Ted Sperling, presented a production of The Frogs at the Rose Theater at Jazz at Lincoln Center on Friday, November 3, and Saturday, November 4, 2023. The cast included Douglas Sills, Kevin Chamberlin, Marc Kudisch, Chuck Cooper, Peter Bartlett, Dylan Baker, Jordan Donica, Candice Corbin, and Nathan Lane. My sister-in-law and niece sing in MasterVoices, and it was such a pleasure to see and hear this musical, first performed, famously, at Yale University in 1974 in a swimming pool, featuring Meryl Streep. It was revived in 2004, with additional material by Nathan Lane, who played the Narrator in the performance. The show featured wonderful singing and dancing by a dance chorus, well-supported by the MasterVoices choir. I thoroughly enjoyed this show, which had some genuine laughs and looked like everyone involved was having a wonderful time.
Curtain call for Kimberly Akimbo. Photo: Monica Prendergast
Another wonderful show, coming in fifth! The show tells the story of a lonely teenage girl, Kimberly Levaco, who suffers from a condition similar to progeria that causes her to age rapidly, thereby giving her the appearance of an elderly woman, and how, according to Playbill, “[f]orced to maneuver family secrets, borderline personalities, and possible felony charges, Kim is determined to find happiness in a world where not even time is on her side.” Victoria Clark plays the lead role, masterfully, earning her a Tony award for best leading actress performance and Bonnie Milligan, as Kimberly’s aunt Debra, a Tony for best supporting actress. The musical features some lovely songs and strong performances from Steven Boyer as Kimberly’s father and Alli Mauzey as her mother. The teen performers also shine in their roles. Another winner!
Oratorio Society of New York concert at Carnegie Hall
My sister-in-law also sings for the Oratorio Society of New York, and I was very happy to see her sing Bach’s Magnificat and Mozart’s Requiem at Carnegie Hall. Both pieces were sung beautifully, by both the choir and the supporting singers. A lovely concert!
Curtain call of Here We Are. Photo: Monica Prendergast
Seventh on my list was Sondheim’s final musical, Here We Are. Here We Are premiered at The Shed‘s Griffin Theatre in previews on September 28, 2023 and officially opened on October 22, 2023 running until January 21, 2024 (after being extended from January 7). The production, directed by Joe Mantello, features a cast including Francois Battiste, Tracie Bennett, Bobby Cannavale, Micaela Diamond, Amber Gray, Jin Ha, Rachel Bay Jones, Denis O’Hare, Steven Pasquale, David Hyde Pierce, and Jeremy Shamos. While ‘musical’ is a bit of a misnomer in this case, act one does feature some songs, while act two becomes more of a play. The musical was inspired by two Buñuel films, The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and The Exterminating Angel. The show follows a group of friends as they try to find a restaurant to eat brunch in on a Sunday morning. The play takes a dark turn as we realize this group has become trapped (by what? Their collective fears of the outside world perhaps?) in the embassy of the fictional country of Miranda. Unable to leave, they stew in their collective fears. Director Joe Mantello has a wonderful cast to work with here, including Bobby Cannavale and David Hyde Pierce. But overall, the so-called musical is a dark one, and not to everyone’s taste. I liked it, but its ranking tells the tale.
Curtain call for Shucked. Photo: Monica Prendergast
Eighth for me was the musical Shucked. While a pleasant way to spend the afternoon, the musical is very slight, centering on a small town in corn country where the corn is dying. Protagonists here are Maizy and Beau, who are engaged. But with the death of the corn, Maizy decides to leave Cob County to see if she can fix the corn. She travels to Tampa where she meets a podiatrist and con artist named Gordy. He agrees to go back with her to help her save the corn. When they arrive, Beau is very unhappy, especially as he sees Maizy getting closer to Gordy. Gordy tricks the town into believing he has cured the corn, but he hasn’t. Maizy and best friend Lulu have a falling out and further shenanigans ensue. At the end of the show, Maizy and Beau are back together and Gordy has taken up with Lulu. The show has some pleasant songs, and the cast give it their all (impressive for a Wednesday matinee!), but the overall impression is of a show that goes in one ear (sorry!) and out the other.
Curtain call for Daphne. Photo: Monica Prendergast
Last on my list was the play Daphne by Renae Simone Jarrett, performed at Lincoln Center. The synopsis of the play reads: “Daphne has left the city to live with her girlfriend Winona in the woods, and things in the house are beginning to sour. As the days slip through her fingers and a series of unsettling incidents make her question the boundaries of her reality, a strange transformation takes hold of Daphne’s body. Daphne is a surreal and moving new work about the stories we tell ourselves, and the moments we’re forced to choose between difficult truths and comfortable illusions.” That all sounds good, right? But the play itself I found confusing and frustrating. Described by critics as, “Endlessly engaging” and “An intriguing psychological puzzle”, I sometimes wondered if they saw the same play I did. While I thought the two leads were fine, Jasmine Batchelor as Daphne and Kelly McQuail as Winona, their relationship was never clear to me, as Winona seemed to dominate Daphne quite horribly. And while the show had the decency to be a one-act of 85 minutes, I never felt very engaged. Overall, a palpable miss! But a great set design.
Left, Naomi Simpson as Annie; Right, Trevor Hinton as Paul (Photo credit: Times Colonist)
I saw the first performance of Misery on Tuesday night, based on the Stephen King novel and starring Naomi Simpson as Annie Wilkes and Trevor Hinton as Paul Sheldon, the famous novelist she rescues and imprisons after freeing him from a serious car accident. Some may be familiar with the 1990 film, directed by Rob Reiner, which earned Kathy Bates an Academy Award for her performance as Wilkes. The novel appeared in 1987, and this stage adaptation was written by William Goldman. Director Michael Armstrong has put together a gold standard cast, with strong performances from both Simpson and Hinton, with solid support from Sarah Murphy as the local Sheriff, who gets involved with the case and (spoiler alert!) meets with a predictable fate.
The play sets up the action right away, as we see Paul in his bed, being nursed by Annie. He is in tremendous pain, suffering from two broken legs. He begs for his pain medication, which Annie doles out, often not soon enough for Paul. We find out the she is Paul’s “number one fan”, having read all of his books in the MiseryChastain series, Victorian bodice rippers that have proved very popular, in particular with women. Paul manages to sneak out of his room on some occasions, to seek more pain medication and to find out more about Annie. They share a dinner together one night, and Paul tries to drug Annie’s wine, in an escape attempt. This fails when she knocks over her glass. When Annie reads Paul’s latest Misery book, she flies into a rage when she reads that Paul has killed off his main character. She buys a second-hand typewriter and insists that Paul write a Misery novel that revives her heroine.
Later, when Annie discovers that Paul has been getting out of his room, she punishes him by smashing his ankles (in the novel, she cuts off his foot with an ax, so I’m happy we were spared that!) When the local Sheriff comes around, Annie shoots her to death, leading Paul to become desperate about his chances to escape. To provoke Annie into a final confrontation, he burns his new book, enraging Annie, then attacks her, finally knocking her out with the typewriter and smothering her in his bed. He makes his escape, but we imagine that recovering from the trauma of this experience, over a number of months, will take a lot of time.
Both Simpson and Hinton are excellent in their respective roles. Simpson portrays Annie as warm and caring at times, cold and cruel at others. She navigates the role with ease, and it’s a pleasure to see her work here. Hinton is also very strong as Paul, showing us his terror and fear, and his resolve to survive, no matter the cost. It costs him an awful lot, as we see, but his determination to survive burns in him, and keeps him going. Director Armstrong moves the action along well, and is supported by an effective set design by Armstrong and Hans Saefkow, with lighting by Jason king and atmospheric music of the period designed by Jason King, costumes by Rachel McAdam and lighting by Rebekah Johnson. Julian Cervello was the fight director. Overall, this was an enjoyable production, well worth seeking out. Recommended. Tickets are available at https://bbrt.na.ticketsearch.com/sales/salesevent/15441
On Saturday night, I saw Macbeth: The Scottish Slay, playing until the 25th at Vancouver’s Oddfellows Hall. This review will be somewhat biased, as the director of the production is my niece, Bronwen Maeve. But I can say with all honesty that I was very impressed by the production; the acting, lighting and sound were all top-notch, with some standout performances. Maeve has cast the play intentionally all-female, inspired by her enjoyment of the TV series Pretty Little Liars, mashed up with Shakespeare’s ever-popular tragedy. It works, and works surprisingly well! We begin with the witches, played by Xiaoqing Ye, Julia Abreu and Sophie Offei, with appropriate witchy glee and taunting Macbeth from the play’s beginning with their truthful/untruthful prophecies. Macbeth is played with great confidence by Jessica O’Gorman, who portrays the ambition and the torment in good balance throughout. Lady Macbeth is another strong performance from Hannah Mitchell, whose sleepwalking scene was very well done. I also liked Holly Collis Handford’s Banquo, in particular her delight in haunting Macbeth in the famous banquet scene. When she gives him the finger, with both hands, before exiting, it was exactly the kind of edgy moment this production has in abundance.
Another strong performance can be seen in Macduff, played by Fiona Jenkins. The scene where the news reaches her that her wife and children have been killed was very effective, so much so that I shed a tear. And her final battle with Macbeth provided the satisfaction of knowing she is going to best him, as she reveals the witches’ final falsehood, that she was born via a Caesarean birth. Macbeth, meanwhile, delivered both of the monologues late in the play with confidence and commitment. “Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow” is one of the best-known soliloquies in Shakespeare’s canon, as the failing king realizes that his life is drawing to a bloody end, “signifying nothing.”
The staging of the play in Vancouver’s Oddfellows Hall is simple but effective. Three small stages are used throughout to create levels, and are particularly effective when used by the witches. The backdrop of shiny silver works well, and the costumes are all black, featuring short black dresses of various kinds, with the witches wearing glittery makeup that highlights their otherworldliness. Simple but effective lighting by Colleen Bayati works well, and sound design is also effective, by Max Livant. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this production, which was clear, committed and cohesive throughout. Tickets (which are going fast, so don’t delay!) are available here: https://plainstage.com/events/macbeth-the-scottish-slay. Go out and support this troupe of emerging theatre artists, you’ll have a wonderful time!
Last night I saw the first preview performance of I Think I’m Fallin’ a so-called ‘jukebox musical’ based on the songs of Joni Mitchell. This production features strong singing, singers who also play guitars, keyboards and a baby grand piano, and a through-line that allows all five singers and musicians to shine. The cast includes Jonathan Gould, Linda Kidder, Anton Lipovetsky, Hannah Mazurek, and Chelsea Rose. I was pleased to see the cast includes a mature artist, Linda Kidder, who plays a mean electric guitar! Jonathan Gould and Chelsea Rose (who I saw in Bard on the Beach’s wonderful Beatle version of As You Like It this summer) are both strong singers and actors, although I found the sexual tension established between the two to be a bit extraneous and a distraction that took me out of the show. Anton Lipovetsky was seen last season in Morris Panych’s Vigil, and is wonderful here as well (he is also the Musical Director) . Hannah Mazurek mostly provides piano and rhythm support, but was very talented in those roles. The programme lists Treena Stubel as choreographer, although I was stymied somewhat to see that on stage. Michael Shamata directs with his usual fluidity and co-created the show with local composer and musician Tobin Stokes. Jeremy MacLeod does the sound design, and Alan Brodie lights the show effectively with assistant lighting design support from Keith Houghton. Cory Sincennes designed the set and costumes, both of which worked well. Highlights for me included songs Circle Game, Both Sides Now, Chelsea Morning, Carrie, River, and (of course), the title song. Anyone who loves Joni Mitchell’s music will enjoy this show! Recommended. Runs until November 26th with tickets available at https://www.belfry.bc.ca/i-think-im-fallin/#sp_crew
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