Friday, June 8, 2018

LA BÊTE – REVIEW OF SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION OF HIRSON’S PLAY


James Karas

David Hirson’s 1991 play La Bête is a brilliant tour de force combining intelligence, wit, brilliant dialogue and stirring arguments, all done in rhyming iambic pentameters. Soulpepper Theatre does justice to the play with some bravura performances that would test the mettle of the most experienced players.

La Bête is set in France in 1654, in other words in the age of Moliere. It is a play about culture in general and about the theatre in particular. Valère (Gregory Prest), the beast of the title represents low-brow, street theatre. Elomire (Sarah Wilson) represents high-brow theatre and both she and Valère depend on Princess Conti (Rachel Jones) for their livelihood. The stage is set for the two sides to put forth their positions.
 
 La Bête Ensemble. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann.
Elomire despises Valère and considers him a low-class clown who has no business being in the court of the Princess. But Valère has arrived there and we hear from him. That is an understatement because Valère delivers a monologue at the beginning of the play that lasts for half an hour. No one says anything, while Prest as the beast delivers his incredibly lengthy deluge of words.

Valère is common, vulgar, crude, arrogant and fawning, a one-man street troupe who needs a few more offensive words to do him justice. He is the epitome of everything that people of taste and culture would abhor. Prest’s half-hour monologue is astounding for his ability to memorize that many line alone. But he does more than that. His performance is modulated as he shows us all his disgusting characteristics which at times are very funny and never become boring. It is an unforgettable performance.

In the meantime, Elomire (the name is an anagram for Moliere) listens and reacts with facial expressions. Sarah Wilson, dressed in a beautiful gown, is tall, beautiful, statuesque and the epitome of the cultured woman and the representative of the “theatuh.”

Rachel Jones’s Princess Conti must decide which path her court theatre will take. She saw Valère perform in a town square and invited him to her court to work with Elomire. She puts Valère to the test in a solo performance and with Elomire’s troupe. Conti, the essence of aristocracy, is generous, reasonable, and affable and exudes beauty, class and culture. She asks for only one thing: that she be obeyed at all times. Aristocrats then and now are wonderful people provided you do what they want.
Oliver Dennis, Sarah Wilson, and Gregory Prest. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann.
Oliver Dennis plays the limping, humpback Bejart and does a good job, as usual. Fiona Sauder plays the servant Dorine who cannot say more than a syllable and I am not sure what the character is all about. There are four other characters who are part of the troupe but they are not very well developed. James Smith is De Brie, Ghazal Azarbad plays Catherine De Brie, Raquel Duffy plays Madeleine Bejart and Paolo Santalucia plays Rene du Parc. They participated in Valère’s performance but aside from that they did not do very much.

There is a Marquise-Therese Du Parc listed as being played by Michaela Washburn but for the performance that I saw the role was distributed amongst the ensemble to no good effect. I found out afterwards that Ms Washburn was indisposed.

The principal actors gave extraordinary performances in a play that combines meaty intellectual arguments, high and low humour (Prest scratching parts of his body and emitting gas).

Tanja Jacobs’ direction is outstanding. The play takes place in the court theatre and Ken MacKenzie’s set is appropriate and well done.

La Bête as a play about the theatre and culture has obvious appeal to theatre lovers. But it is also a reflection of today’s cultural and even political milieu where people like Donald Trump and Doug Ford are considered as acceptable leaders. Classical theatre, music and opera have difficulty in surviving, let alone thriving and standards appear to be falling.  La Bête raises the flag and shows that all of that is not true. Go see it.
____________
La Bête by David Hirson continues until June 22, 2018 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario M5A 3C4. www.soulpepper.ca.

No comments:

Post a Comment