I saw the Belfry Theatre production of Yaga by Kat Sandler this week. Sandler’s plays are always comic and smart, and this one follows that pattern. Rooted in the traditional beliefs around the myth of Baba Yaga, a witchy character in Ukrainian and Russian folklore who may or may not eat children, grinding their bones into soup broth. In this modern version, Yaga is a university professor with an aged mother and young daughter. She gets involved with a young man named Henry Yalles (Nicholas Nahwegahbow) who goes missing and later turns up dead. The case is being examined by a private investigator named Rapp (also played by Nicholas Nahwegahbow) who works on the case alongside a police detective named Carson (Anastasiia Ziurkalova) who gets romantically involved with Rapp, while having her own hidden priorities. Throughout the play, we travel along parallel lines, learning about the mythology of Baba Yaga as we meet a range of characters, including a local waitress at the diner, her daughter who has allegedly been raped by Henry, and others. This can get a bit complicated as the play continues, especially as the three actors have to carry out numerous costume and set changes that can feel a bit fussy across the 2.5 hour long play.
The three actors are appealing, in particular Nepinak and Nahwegahbow, and the set design by Stephanie Bahniuk is effective, although I felt that the curved upstage part was underused. Director Jani Lauzon has a good handle on things, but the over-busyness, too many quick changes all in view of the audience, proved distracting (at least for me). The play culminates in a scene where Rapp has to fight for his life against Yaga and her daughter, using his knowledge of the Yaga myth to (spoiler alert!) save his life. Overall, this was a pleasant evening at the theatre, although I don’t see this particular Sandler play standing the test of time, as it skates across the surface of things, rather than digging a bit more deeply, and dramatically, into the lives of these characters. Runs until October 8th with tickets available online at https://www.belfry.bc.ca/yaga/ or calling the box office at 250-385-6815.
From left to right, Ryan Kniel as Parker/Jessie and Christine Upright as Kennedy
Last weekend I had the chance to see this intriguing play by Bema Productions, performing at Congregation Emanu-el Synagogue on Blanshard at Pandora. The play is written by Caroline Russell-King, and is directed by Artistic Director of Bema, Zelda Dean. Russell-King is a prolific playwright, telling us in the program notes that this is her 31st play. Impressive! The set-up of this 90 minute one-act is simple; a young man in high school, Parker, is sent by his father to receive playwriting lessons from local playwright Kennedy. The fact that Parker has never even seen a play is Kennedy’s first task, as is his expressed interest in screenwriting over playwriting. She assigns him the job of seeing a play, and he returns after seeing Waiting for Godot at the university.
So far, so good. Kennedy persists and makes some slow progress in fostering an appreciation of the art of theatre in her student. But then things get a bit more interesting. We learn that Kennedy is also tutoring a young man in a rehab program. We also learn that this young man, Jessie, was with her son who died of a drug overdose, and that her son was the same age as Parker. The silent Jessie is hostile to her, writing crude things on the chart paper she provides. But she is undeterred, and keeps trying to break through to him. In the meantime, every visit from Parker, Kennedy pretends to be in a different part of the world. We begin in Paris, where she drinks absinthe. Then we go to New Orleans for bourbon, Russia for vodka and finally Japan for sake. It becomes clear to the audience that Kennedy drinks too much. She also schools Parker on the art of theatre, teaching him about pantomime, improvisation and dramatic dialogue. These sections of the play feel a bit school-like, to their detriment.
The play takes a more positive turn when the roles Parker and Kennedy play with each other begin to shift. Parker starts to challenge her, questioning the advice she’s given him, and then reveals that he knows about her son’s death. This shatters Kennedy, and she reveals the depths of her grief. I won’t say more, as there is a further twist in the plot that offers a genuine thrill to audiences, but suffice it to say that all is not as it appears to be.
Dean directs the two-hander with fluidity and pulls strong performances from both actors. Upright plays Kennedy as sure of herself, even a bit arrogant, until the facade falls and we see the vulnerable and grieving mother underneath. Kniel plays both roles with confidence and is an appealing presence onstage. Playwright Russell-King tells us that the theme of the play is “Wherever you run to, you always bring yourself.” Too true. Recommended. Runs until August 6th with tickets at https://bemaproductions.com.
Hannah Ockenden as Helen, with Kai Tawil-Morsink (L) as Paroles and Ciaran Volke (R) as Bertram. Photo credit: Lara Eichorn
I saw the second last show of this very successful production, well-directed by Jemma Alix Levy and featuring some strong performances throughout. I admired the simplicity of the show, with no set to speak of, just a couple of chairs, and a brisk 100 minute, one-act length. All’s Well is one of Shakespeare’s so-called ‘problem plays’ as it features a pretty nasty leading man in the character of Bertram. He is a selfish and self-centred young man, and resists when told he is to marry Helen, the daughter of a doctor, not a noblewoman, as he is. So he makes a deal with her…if she can prove that he has slept with her, and impregnated her, he will accept their marriage. Talk about a deal with the devil! That Helen accomplishes this task is a given, even though it involves tricking her husband into thinking he is sleeping with a young maiden in Florence, Diana (Michelle Naidu). These nasty sexual politics leave a bad taste in the mouth for 21st century audiences, but it’s to the credit of the production that these matters resolve in away that we can stomach. Hannah Ockenden plays Helen with intelligence and determination. We feel her love for the rascal Bertram, undeserved though it may be. And we also feel her determination to win him over. She is well-supported by the ensemble; in particular, I enjoyed Renee Bucciarelli’s turn as the Countess, Bertam’s long-suffering mother, Cam Culham playing a sympathetic Lafeu, and Jason Stevens as the King. Another standout was Aidan Guerreiro as Lavatch, showing good comic timing in the role of the Fool. This was Artistic Director Karen Lee Pickett’s final production. She leaves the company knowing that this final show was an exceptional one. I admire a Shakespeare play in which every actor speaks with clarity and intent, not easy to do in an outdoor setting, but evident in this excellent show.
Left, David Sklar and Ben Francis in The Guardsman (Credit: Jam Hamidi, Times-colonist)
Last Thursday night I saw the opening night of Ferenc Molnar’s 1910 play The Guardsman. I had not heard of the Hungarian playwright Ferenc Molnár, so found the play to be both entertaining and educational. Well-directed by Kevin McKendrick, the play centres on two celebrated actors, who have been married for only six months. The husband (well played by David Sklar) suspects the wife of infidelity, so decides to disguise himself as a royal guardsman, hoping to lure her into an affair. They meet at their home, then he visits her at the opera where they share a passionate kiss. He later confronts his wife to find her surprisingly nonplussed by the trickery. Instead, she claims that she knew all along he was in disguise. The truth of the matter? That’s up to the audience to decide. The play is witty and the performances strong throughout. The wife is played by Cherise Clarke, who imbues her role with the right amount of sexuality and keeps you guessing as to her true intent. Theatre critic friend Dr. Mazai (Ben Francis) serves to try to dissuade the Actor from his foolish path, only to get directly involved in the shenanigans. Jenn Griffin plays the Actress’s Mama (but not really her mother) and finds good comic moments throughout. The cast is rounded out with two smaller roles; recent UVIC theatre grad Sophie Redford plays the Maid with good comic instincts, and Andrea Lemus plays the Debt Collector, a role that would traditionally be played by a male. Overall, this was a pleasing production that provided plenty of chuckles and introduced me to a playwright whose work included the play Liliom that became the inspiration for the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical Carousel. Recommended. Runs until July 16th. Tickets are available at
NOTE: I admit that I have fallen way behind with my reviews, sorry about that! Some good shows I’ve seen but did not post on include Sense and Sensibility at the Arts Club, shows at Theatre Inconnu, the Belfry and elsewhere. I’ll try to get back on track!
I had a playgoing blitz in London the end of February, and here I’m going to rank the 12 shows I saw from best to worst. The reviews were previously posted on Facebook, but the ranking is on reflection about everything I managed to see.
1.
The Lehman Trilogy: …best play so far, by far. An old-fashioned three-act play, running three and a half hours. Directed by Sam Mendes, acted to perfection by three actors, words, words, words. Set in a revolving glass office cube, with file boxes used as stairs, chairs, and towers. The scope is vast, covering 150 years as we follow the original three Lehman brothers arriving in America, moving to Alabama to run a fabric business that grows into a bank and finally a trading company. The family moves to New York, inevitably, weathers the stock market crash, World War II, and sees grandsons running the family business, until finally being taken over by outsiders before collapsing into bankruptcy. A chilling yet riveting expose of capitalism, a world we all live in, filled with wanting more, more, always more.
2.
Medea: A powerful version of Euripides’ Medea, adapted by Robinson Jeffers, with Sophie Okonedo giving a chilling portrayal of a woman bent on vengeance at any cost. Ben Daniels plays the abandoning husband Jason and all other male roles. A chorus of women start from the audience but take the stage to weep over Medea, her children and their fate. The play is staged in the round, in an intimate space, and director Dominic Cooke moves things along briskly in this 90 minute version, ending in a chilling climax soaked with rain. Perhaps not as potent as Helen McRory’s version at the National Theatre, where she dragged her sons’ bodies on stage in blood-soaked sleeping bags. But still a great start to this week of theatre!
3.
Sylvia, is a musical about the suffragette Sylvia Pankhurst. A hip hop musical (can anyone say Hamilton?) with a diverse cast, this one took me by surprise. In short, it was terrific, with an excellent cast and band, standout performances by Beverley Knight as Sylvia’s mother Emmeline Pankhurst and Sylvia herself, Sharon Rose. Great singing and dancing, this one earned its standing ovation.
4.
Orlando: Emma Corrin (The Crown) shines in this role, as does the ensemble of Virginia Woolfs who accompany Orlando on his/her journey through time. Fluidly directed by Michael Grandage, with a lovely turn as Orlando’s housekeeper by Deborah Findlay, this was a swift 90 minute adaptation of Woolf’s novel.
5.
Rusalka by Dvořák: Performed in the Royal Opera House, Rusalka is a water spirit who loves a mortal prince, but of course it all goes tragically wrong. She sacrifices her voice to win the love of her prince, which ends up costing her everything. Sublime singing and orchestration. I loved it!
6.
Romeo and Julie, a new play by Gary Owen, was performed at the National Theatre. About two working class kids in Cardiff who find each other, except that Romeo is already a single father with a baby. Then Julie gets pregnant too, threatening her future dreams of studying physics at Cambridge. This was a moving new play, with five wonderful actors in the ensemble.
7.
Lemons, Lemons, Lemons with Jenna Coleman (Dr. Who) and Aidan Turner (Poldark). We follow a couple who are living through repressive times as the government votes to limit speech to 140 words per person per day. This absurd premise plays out between the two lovers in bittersweet ways, as they try to ration their words, inventing shortcuts, even using Morse Code. I liked the simplicity of the play and its staging, but thought that overall, there was not much there, there.
8.
Cirque du Soleil’s Kurios at Royal Albert Hall. Kurios was inventive and so imaginative, with a cool steampunk vibe, lots of fun! I’m always impressed with the acrobatics and clowning, but the look of this show is what will stay with me.
9.
Phaedra: A new adaptation by Simon Stone, who also directs, doesn’t resemble the original much at all, to its detriment. In this version, Phaedra is Helen (Janet McTeer), a high-powered MP who reunites with her Moroccan former lover’s son Sofiane (Assaad Bouab from Call My Agent). They start an affair, until her daughter Isolde (Mackenzie Davis) also falls for the mysterious man who turns everyone’s lives upside down. McTeer is a powerhouse in the role, self-absorbed and self-critical in equal measure, her end is bloody, as in Euripides’ original but under very different circumstances. The set is yet another revolving glass cube, that magically transforms from a family home, to a field, a restaurant and finally, a hilltop in Morocco. I enjoyed this production, but was also frustrated by it…why not simply stage the original tragedy? I saw Helen Mirren in the title role on National Theatre Live, and she was amazing. It’s too bad the great Janet McTeer wasn’t given the same chance to shine.
10.
Wicked: I’ve been wanting to see this musical ever since I read the book by Gregory Maguire. It’s a great show, with a stunning set and fabulous costumes, and a great troupe of performers, in particular Glinda and Elphaba, of course. A couple of memorable songs makes it a keeper!
11.
Titus Andronicus at the Globe Theatre, in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, lit by candles. And candles became a metaphor to protect us, somewhat, from this violent and gory play, Shakespeare’s first tragedy, probably co-authored with George Peele. This all-women production makes a strong point about gender and violence, as the cast opens and closes the show singing (to live music) “Men killing men, killing women, killing children…”. And so it goes. When people are killed, their hand-held candles are snuffed out, and the wicks (souls) retrieved. It’s a nice conceit, but nothing can protect us from the horror of Titus’s daughter Lavinia’s rape and mutilation at the hands of his enemy Tamora’s sons. A previous Globe production had audiences fainting from the blood. We are spared that, but not the horror of the vicious and violent world Shakespeare presents.
12.
& Juliet has fun mashing up pop songs with giving R&J a happy ending. But I found it all a bit so what. Great singing and dancing though, I’ll give them credit for that.
So there you have it! My top twelve from a memorable week in London!
From This & The Last Caribou (Credit: Daniel Paquet)
I was in Vancouver last weekend to see some shows at the PuSH Festival, always a worthwhile event. I’ve seen some tremendous work at PuSH before, including Robert Lepage and other national and international works. This time was a bit more hit and miss, beginning with a three part dance piece from Regina’s New Dance Horizons. This performance was a mashup of dance and movement, more movement than dance, which left me wishing for more of the latter. I found the experience to be disappointing one, with the caribou in the piece above wrapping herself up in the long strip of white paper…to what effect exactly? And although the middle piece had more merit, with a male Indigenous dancer in a long red dress, it also left me scratching my head. What was it all about? The last piece featured six dancers, prancing with caribou antlers about the stage, as a meditation on their fate. It was all a bit so what for me, I’m sorry to say.
Top, Laara Sadiq, Bottom, Ensemble (L to R: Laara Sadiq, Amy Rutherford, Andrew McNee and Ryan Beil) (Credit: David Cooper)
Electric Company is one of Vancouver’s most exciting and edgy theatre companies. Founded by Jonathan Young, his former partner Kim Collier and playwright Kevin Kerr, Electric has produced some fabulous theatre over many years. This new play, An Undeveloped Sound, takes place in a call centre where we meet four characters who we think are selling condo units on a sound near Vancouver. But there is something strange going on in this workplace, it has the feeling of a cult, with a mysterious baby sitting with its back to us who is know as “The Developer”. Who is this baby and what is its purpose? Who are these four people and why do we get the sense they are trapped here, like in Sartre’s No Exit? The play is written and directed by Jonathan Young, and is filled with witty dialogue that perplexes as much as it amuses us. The acting is excellent throughout, with all four actors having wonderful moments. The play resolves, somewhat, with a punchline that makes one think about what we mean by the word “development” especially in a city like Vancouver that is development-mad. The design, lighting and use of a giant screen reflected Electric’s aesthetic of pushing boundaries of what’s possible on stage. I really liked it, even though I’m still not sure what it was all about.
Itai Erdal in Soldiers of Tomorrow (Credit: Matt Reznek)
I saw lighting designer Itai Erdal’s previous one-person show, How to Disappear Completely, twice, both times it came to Victoria. It was a moving performance about the death of his mother mashed up with a lecture on basic lighting design. Filled with photos and videos of his family in Israel, Erdal traced his mother’s decline while sharing his knowledge of sidelight and the effect of various lighting angles on the human body.
Now he is premiering a new show titled Soldiers of Tomorrow, co-authored with playwright Colleen Murphy, about his mandatory time spent serving in the Israeli Defence Force. When Israelis turn 18, they must serve for three years, and Erdal served in Lebanon as well as at a border crossing between Israel and Palestine. This 70 minute show is presented in a similar way to his previous one, as Erdal speaks directly to the audience throughout, in a kind of lecture-performance. He is a natural storyteller, and shares that his goal was to prevent his nephew from doing his stint in the army. He brings out a photo of his newborn nephew and sticks it to the stylized backdrop portraying the Middle East. He then walks us through his initiation into the army, his close ties with his commanding officer and some of the hard lessons he learned. Erdal makes effective use of both smaller and larger plastic soldier figurines, animating them to show conversations between himself and his comrades, and focusses in on a tension-filled encounter at the border. A Palestinian grandmother wants to bring her sick grandchild back to Israel to care for him. Erdal and his fellow soldiers are suspicious, as he was serving in the early 90s when suicide bombings were all too common. He makes us feel the nervousness of the moment, when we realize in a moment that things could go horribly wrong.
The production looks wonderful, beautifully lit by Alan Brodie, and fluidly directed by Anita Rochon. It features a live musician, a Syrian refugee named Emed Armoush, whose soft music effectively underscores the play. It also features a moving cameo at the end, which caused some leakage from my eyes. I hope more audiences get to see this lovely show.
As we crawl towards finish line of this year, I’m thinking about my theatregoing experiences of this year. What sticks in my mind? What moved me? So here are my picks for 2022, in ascending order:
10) Seventeen at Western Gold Theatre: This Australian play has a cast of elders playing adolescents. I resonated with the juxtapositions, as an elder myself, and it took me back to my own lost youth. Smart and funny, with strong performances from the ensemble cast, who each take on multiple roles.
Cast of Seventeen (photo from Facebook)
9) East Van Panto: The Little Mermaid by Theatre Replacement: There’s nothing like a traditional pantomime, with its audience participation and kids in the audience, some of them perhaps experiencing their very first play. This show, in its tenth year, was filled with plenty of laughs, great costumes and funny performances from the leads Dawn Patten as the villainous Ursula, Amanda Sum as a charming and glasses-wearing Ariel, and Mark Chavez as world-weary crab Sebastian. Well directed by Meg Roe. On now until January 1st with tickets at https://thecultch.com/event/east-van-panto/
Ensemble photo by Emily Cooper, from website
Amanda Sum, Ghazal Azerbad and Dawn Petten, photo by Emily Cooper
8) Cliff Cardinal’s William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal: I saw this show in February as part of Vancouver’s PuSH Festival and was taken with Cardinal’s extended monologue as a pre-show chat that covers a lot of territory, including land claims, indigeneity and many other topics. Cardinal is a charismatic performer and holds the audience in the palm of his hand throughout. You can read my review here.
Cliff Cardinal in William Shakespeare’s As You Like It: A Radical Retelling by Cliff Cardinal (Dahlia Katz/Crow’s Theatre)
7) The Book of Dust at Bridge Theatre, London: I had read this book by Philip Pullman and loved it, and I loved the stage adaptation just as much. It had it all; appealing characters, plenty of stage magic (the projections were next-level!), and puppet daemons that were terrific. This show is coming up on screen in the NTLive series…don’t miss it!
Photo from Bridge Theatre production of The Book of Dust (from website)
6) Wuthering Heights at National Theatre, London: Here’s what I wrote on Facebook about this show: A most unorthodox production, with singing, dancing and almost cartoon-broad portrayals, it is not for everyone. Cathy is played as a bit of a manic case, twitchy and obsessive, at one point screeching a rock song directly at the audience. Heathcliff is played more straight, and to better effect. The rest of the ensemble play multiple roles, each one given a chance to shine. There is a lot of darkness and death in this novel, with each death announced with a name written on a blackboard slate and paraded across the stage. The nearly 3 hour show did make me want to reread this great novel, so I suppose that’s a mark of success.
From left, Ash Hunter (Heathcliff), Nandi Bhebhe (The Moor), Lucy McCormick (Cathy). Photograph: Steve Tanner
5) Battles and Metamorphoses of a Woman at International Theatre, Amsterdam: Another Facebook review: Tonight we saw this excellent adaptation of a French novel, Battles and Metamorphoses of a Woman, a two-hander between an embittered poverty stricken mother and her gay son. Ultimately surprisingly uplifting, the acting was very fine and the show was directed by hotshot international theatre director Ivo Van Hove. I will add that the surprise of the play is its happy ending, as the mother meets a new man and moves to Paris. The moment when this happens, the mother and son physically push the set upstage, replacing it with a bistro table and chairs. The mother then brings out all of her new dresses, placing them in a circle around the stage. I found this very moving, after feeling beaten up by the psychological warfare between this mother and son. Metamorphoses indeed!
Marieke Heebink and Majd Mardo in Battles and Metamorphoses of a Woman (photo from website)
4) TIE: Clean/Espejos and Bunny: In March I saw two excellent shows in Vancouver. Clean/Espejos is a new play by Christine Quintana, looking at the complex relationship between a Mexican resort guest and worker. This was followed by Hannah Moscovitch’s Bunny, about the sexual awakening of a young woman. I saw three Moscovitch plays this year, which only confirmed my sense that she’s one of the best Canadian playwrights I know. Read my reviews of these two shows here.
Photos of Alexandra Lainfiesta & Genevieve Fleming by Sewari Campillo (from website)
Emma Slipp as Bunny – Photo by Emily Cooper (from website)
3) Much Ado About Nothing at The Globe Theatre, London: This was my first time seeing a show in the outdoor theatre at the Globe, and it did not disappoint. This was a note-perfect production that mined the play for maximum laughs while also finding the pathos. There were plenty of sparks between Lucy Phelps as Beatrice and Ralph Davis as Benedick. A delightful afternoon at the theatre!
Curtain call of Much Ado About Nothing (photo by Monica Prendergast)
2) The Black Rider and Vigil: I would be remiss if I didn’t include a couple of shows from my hometown of Victoria! These two really impressed, so have made my list…you can read my reviews here.
Cast of The Black Rider (photo by Clayton Jevne)
Anton Lipovetsky as Kemp and Nicola Lipman as Grace (photos by Emily Cooper from Belfry website).
1) Cabaret, London: This show knocked my socks off, with Amy Lennox’s portrayal of Sally Bowles erasing forever the anodyne version in the Liza Minnelli film version of this great musical. She was intense, very intense, as you can see in her singing of the title song at the Olivier Awards earlier this year. Staged in the round, everything about the show worked. Definitely my number one theatre experience of the year! Here’s to more theatregoing in 2023!
Eddie Redmayne as the Emcee in original cast of Cabaret, with Jessie Buckley as Sally Bowles. We saw the second cast, with Amy Lennox as Sally Bowles and Fra Fee as the Emcee, below. Photos from website.
Above, cast of The Black Rider (photo by Clayton Jevne)
Well, it is not your typical Christmas Holiday fare, but you could do a lot worse than take yourself to see Theatre Inconnu’s production of Tom Waits’ and William Burroughs’ 1993 musical The Black Rider. The plot is based on an early 1800s German folktale titled The Fatal Marksman, a familiar twist on the sell-your-soul-to-the-Devil trope so popular in literature and art. Young Kathchen (Melissa Blank) has fallen for a clerk, Wilhelm (Nicholas Guerreiro), but father Bertram (Cam Culham) insists that his son-in-law be a hunter, so Wilhelm falls into the clutches of Pegleg (Rosemary Jeffery) who provides him with magic bullets that lead to his success at winning Kathchen as his bride. But the twist in the tale leads to inevitable tragedy.
All of this is supported by Waits’ songs and Burroughs’ poetic text, written in rhyming couplets. The music features a couple of memorable tunes, “The Briar and the Rose” and “I’ll Shoot the Moon” are two that stuck in my head after the show. Director Clayton Jevne has cast the show very well, and as usual makes the most of the small stage in Paul Phillips Hall. Here, he’s supported by movement coach Sylvia Hosie, who creates some good effects with simple gestural motions rather than full-on dance. The set, designed by Jevne, works well, with shimmery translucent legs on each side of the stage, and a shadow theatre in the rear that is used effectively in multiple ways throughout. The costumes by Linda MacNaughton work well, capturing the early 1800s period.
While everyone in this nine-person cast has a standout moment or two, I want to highlight three actors who really impress. First is Nicholas Guerreiro, who shines in his role as Wilhelm, capturing well the manic intensity of a man who has given himself over to the dark side. Guerreiro is all arms and legs and makes the most of his lanky physicality in the role. Next is Ian Case, who plays multiple roles including Wilhelm’s uncle, the Duke’s messenger, and my favourite, William Burroughs himself. Case is an excellent actor, and he nails each of these characters with economy and precision. Finally, I was blown away by Rosemary Jeffery’s portrayal of Pegleg. She plays the part with great gusto, cackling with delight as all of her nefarious plans fall into place. The company all wear German Expressionist style pale face makeup, which heightens the theatricality throughout.
My one regret about this excellent show is that it lacks live music. While Brooke Maxwell has created an effective soundtrack (although not nearly as edgy as Waits’ original recording), I did miss seeing a live band perform. That said, this is an excellent production, and one you only have until next weekend to catch. Highly recommended. Tickets are available online at theatreinconnu.com.
Ian Case as William Burroughs (photo by Clayton Jevne)
Nicholas Guerreiro as Wilhelm and Rosemary Jeffery as Pegleg (photo by Clayton Jevne)
I was very pleased to see the production of Morris Panych’s early play Vigil, on now at the Belfry. I have read but have never before seen this play, and it’s a good one, from one of Canada’s best playwrights. The plot is simple: a man named Kemp (Anton Lipovetsky) arrives at his sick aunt’s home, supposedly to care for her, although he seems more interested in her shuffling off this mortal coil. The aunt (Nicola Lipman) fails to deliver on this promise, so a year passes by before a terrific plot twist turns everything upside down. All of this is delivered with dollops of Panache’s black humour, reminding me in moments of Beckett in its casual existential despair, especially when Kemp keeps hinting out loud that his aunt is taking too long to die. Both actors in this two-hander mine the script for all of its comic potential, with Lipovetsky playing Kemp as a Panych-like stand-in (the playwright played the role in Vancouver and Calgary) with both acid wit and a dose of pathos too. Who is this strange man? Why has he dropped everything to come and live with his long-lost aunt? He tells us that his aunt has been out of his life for decades, and we get no closer to understanding his decision, not that it really matters. As he attempts to care for her, with endless trays of butterscotch pudding, a homemade device to help her commit suicide (which backfires on Kemp, of course!), his playing of old records and searching for photographic evidence that his aunt cares about him, Lipovetsky manages to build some empathy from the audience. This is quite a dramatic feat, as he is not a very likeable character, awkward and alone in the world as he is, but Panych does the unexpected here. And Nicola Lipman does wonders in her almost silent role as Grace the aunt. Her reactions to Kemp throughout are priceless, and the few lines she does have are delivered with full comic force.
Director Glynis Leyshon is in her element with this play, as comedy is her directorial strength, and she keeps us engaged throughout. Leyshon is well-supported by Ken MacDonald’s set design (as Panych’s partner, MacDonald has designed most of his shows) where we enter an off-kilter warehouse-like attic apartment, with paper over the windows, hermetically sealed off from the world. Tobin Stokes’ sound design also adds to the proceedings, offering music that supports rather than competes with the play. Finally Luc Prairie’s lighting works well to define this odd world and its two inhabitants. Runs until December 11th with tickets at www.belfry.bc.ca. Highly recommended.
[Images, top: Anton Lipovetsky as Kemp; bottom, Anton Lipovetsky as Kemp and Nicola Lipman as Grace (photos by Emily Cooper from Belfry website).]
Poster for The Incredible Glowing Woman (hapax theatre website)
I have seen all three of hapax theatre’s shows this year, and am impressed by the quality of the work and the commitment to nurturing local plays and playwrights that Artistic Director Heather Jarvie and Production Manager Chad Laidlaw are demonstrating. All three plays this season are by local women playwrights. This final production is by Ingrid Moore and tells the fascinating and true story of women who were afflicted by radium poisoning due to working with radium paint in a clock factory in America in the 20s and 30s. You can read more about this historical event here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radium_Girls.
In Moore’s retelling, local girl Ruth meets Anna at the Radium Dial Paint Factory and they fall in love. Ruth has seen Anna aglow with the radiation effects of the paint, and romanticizes this encounter. Ruth’s former lover has died of what the factory claims was syphilis, but as Ruth sickens, the women come to learn that it is the paint itself that is poisoning them. Added to the cast are the factory owner Mr. Kelly (Chris Salt), and Anna’s mother (Wendy Magahay). As usual, director Heather Jarvie pulls solid performances from her four actors, and makes the best use of the small stage space borrowed from Theatre Inconnu. While the pace could have used a bit of a lift throughout, I remained engaged by the story and angered by the knowledge that these women were exploited and discarded by their employer. The workers sued the company and won their case, gaining important labour and safety legislation as a result.
Frozen River poster (from Kaleidoscope Theatre website)
The second show I saw this weekend was a touring production from Manitoba Theatre for Young People, Frozen River. It tells a touching story, narrated by Grandmother Moon (Krystle Pederson), of the friendship between a Cree young girl Okânawâpacikêw (Wâpam) (Keely McPeek) and Scottish immigrant Eilidh (Mallory James). They make a promise to each other to spend the winter with each family. And although Wâpam keeps her promise, Eilidh fails to, leading to the end of their friendship. Jumping forward many generations to the present, we meet modern days versions of these girls, who this time follow though on the intergenerational promise.
There is a lot to like in this production, including puppets and effective shadow and video work projected onto a moon screen upstage. But I did think the show was very talky, leading some small children in the audience to become a bit restless. And although the set works quite well, with a four part modular circular stage that breaks apart to become other things, I wondered why at times these pieces were shown with legs facing the audience. I found this unsightly and for me it lessened the visual impact. That said, director Katie German does a commendable job with the three-person cast and I enjoyed the message of the play, which won the Playwrights Guild of Canada 2021 Sharon Enkin Plays for Young People Award.
VICTORIA THEATRE REVIEWS 