Reviewed by James Karas
Gnit is a play by Will Eno that was first produced in 2013. Its production by the Shaw Festival, directed by Artistic Director Tim Carroll, marks the play’s first appearance in Canada. Carroll seems to have a high opinion of the play and hence its Canadian debut.
The Shaw’s program informs us that the play is based on Henrik Ibsen’ s Peer Gynt.
Upon entering the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, I asked the volunteer welcomer at the door what the word Gnit means. She did not know but told me it is a play about the mind. After being told by Peter Gnit, the main character in the play, that his name is the result of a typo, I figured out that the error resulted in Gynt becoming Gnit. Peter and Peer are obvious.
There are
extremely rare occasions when you watch a performance and understand very
little, get almost nothing out it and wonder on what criteria the play was
selected for production.
Gnit has six characters and I will set out the names of the actors and the roles they played.
Qasim Khan is the only actor who plays one role, Peter Gnit, and we see him in his youth and later life. He tells us that does not know who he is and we never get a grip of his identity either. In the opening scene we see him with his mother in a dialogue that can come from Samuel Becket or some absurdist play. He decides that he wants to marry a woman that he loves (?) but his mother informs him that she is getting married that day. Peter attends the wedding and elopes with the Bride on that very date. We do not see any of this but we do see the bride a number of times after that without understanding much of anything. That at least looks like a plot.
Julia Course: she plays six characters. They are Solvay, Bartender, Lady of Interest, Gravedigger, Auctioneer and Gabrielle. I think I recognized most of these characters but shoot me if I can say very much about them.
Nehassaiu deGannes: she played four roles - Mother. Uncle Joe, Beggar and Local Person. Let’s just say my acquaintance with most of them is nebulous.
Patrick Galligan: he played ten roles. Strangers 1 and 3, Moynihan, Voice, Hunter, Robber, Sphinx, Shackleton, Pale Man and Reporter. Nice to have met them but who are they all?
Mike Nadajewski: Town, Green Family, International Man, Begriffin. Come again?
Gabriella Sundar Singh has twelve roles: Stranger 2, Bridesmaid, Bride, Outdoorswoman, Woman in Green, Helen, Case Worker, Anitra, Pastor, Bremer, Anina.
If my counting is correct, the six actors had to represent 37 characters. I tip my hat to them in admiration for being able to do some fast costume changes and represent characters often for only a minute or so. As I key in the names of the characters from the program, I have no idea who many of them were or what they did for the play.
As for Ibsen’s Peer Gynt, no doubt there were people in the audience who know the play well and could relate Gnit to that play. I have seen Peer Gynt twice and have read it, but I could not relate the one play with the other except superficially.
Caroll sets a brisk pace for the almost countless scenes of the play. Some scenes last for less than a minute, I think, and there are others that last minutes. How they are connected escaped me. Once again, I commend the six actors who changed costumes and roles with amazing speed and tremendous acting ability.
The set design by Hanne Loosen consists of about a dozen easily moveable boxes and tubes hanging from above. There was a variety of costumes of all descriptions for the 37 characters that passed before our eyes.
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Gnit by Will Eno will run in repertory until October 4, 2025, at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre as part of the Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.
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