Sisters starts
auspiciously enough. The stage of the Michael Young Theatre resembles a cubicle
which is open on all sides. We see a man and a woman at the rear of the stage
and then are led into the cubicle which is a shop run by two seamstresses, the sisters
Ann (Laura Condlin) and Evelina (Nicole Power). The man of the opening scene is
Herman Ramy (Kevin Bundy) who runs a clock shop around the corner from the
sisters’ business.
They are not in their first blush of youth and they have a hard time
making ends meet. We meet their upstairs neighbour, the ebullient dressmaker
Mrs. Mellins (Karen Robinson) and a couple of customers to get the flavour of
their business. But most importantly, we meet Ramy. He is of a certain age and
he has or had some serious health problems but in the meantime he is interested
in one of the sisters and one of the sisters is interested in him.
Rosamund Small’s adaptation of Edith Wharton’s 1891 novella Bunner
Sisters moves away from the original text rather quickly. Dancing is
mentioned near the beginning of the play and Mr. Ramy walks in and waltzes a
few turns with one of the sisters.
The play continues to move from realism to dream or nightmare sequences
to the point where one is not sure where events take place. The core story of
Ann’s self-sacrifice for her sister remains. She rejects Ramy’s marriage proposal
and allows her sister to marry him
Mr. Ramy is not the decent if lonely gentlemen that the sisters thought
him to be. His health problem is far more serious and disturbing than anyone
thought, his description of his former position is a lie and in the end he
proves to be a horrible husband.
The two loving sisters lose touch with one another and the play takes us
on Ann’s search for her sister that includes train rides and incessant
searching. Eventually there is a type of reconciliation but I won’t spoil it
for you.
Laura Condlln and Nicole Power. Photo: Cylla
von Tiedemann
Sisters is the
story of the world of two sisters falling apart, of deterioration, separation
and a tragic conclusion. Rosamund Small, a young playwright from Toronto, has
taken Wharton’s languid telling of the tragedy and tried to add her own dimension
to it by changing time sequences, adding dream or nightmare sections and in the
end adding more confusion than clarity. She does not owe any loyalty to Wharton’s
story but we expect more clarity than we get.
Bundy’s character is not well developed in that we see him as the would-be
gentleman, awkward, at first, ill-tempered and perhaps stupid later on and then
we mostly hear about him.
Condlin’s Ann is an attractive, strong and capable sister willing to
sacrifice her happiness for her sister. We are not sure about Evelina who
converts to Catholicism during a horrid marriage. There is an explanation and
Power gives a fine performance.
Michelle Tracey deserves credit for an imaginative and fluid set. Peter
Pasyk directs a play that is unfocused and in the end unsatisfactory.
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