VOLPONE AND THE DUCHESS OF MALFI IN GREENWICH

Reviewed by James Karas

Ben Jonson and John Webster are two prominent English playwrights who are generally ignored in Canada. I can’t recall the last time there was a professional production of one of their plays in Toronto and as for the redoubtable Stratford Shakespeare Festival, it gives them a wide berth. Stratford has produced Webster only twice since the Festival was founded and Jonson is not exactly a frequent guest.

Things are different in England where Jonson’s Volpone and Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi could be seen back to back at The Greenwich Theatre London.

Ironically, the royally ignored Jonson (1572-1637) was a contemporary of Shakespeare’s and in fact Shakespeare acted in some of his plays. He was a colourful character and two facts come to mind when I hear his name. Whereas many playwrights dream of killing an actor, Johnson actually did. He was also thrown in jail for his allegedly anti-Scottish views. You don’t insult the Scottish when there is a Scottish king on the English throne.

Volpone is one of the greatest comedies of the English theatre. It is a play about greed and it opens with the brilliant line spoken by Volpone to his servant: “Good morning to the day; and next my gold: Open the shrine that I may see my Saint.” For Volpone gold and precious jewelry do not represent only wealth; they have become his god and are to be worshipped. Volpone kneels before his gold with reverence. The world has been turned upside down.

Volpone, played brilliantly by Richard Bremmer, is a citizen of Venice and with his wily servant Mosca (Mark Hadfield), he wants to hoard more gold. He comes up with a brilliant scheme to dupe other people who have a similar degree of avarice into parting with their money. He pretends that he is about to die and will leave his wealth to the person who pleases him the most.

Voltore (Tim Treloar), Corbaccio (Maxwell Hutcheson) and Corvino (Tim Steed) quickly arrive bringing gifts and much more. One of them is willing to disinherit his son; the other is willing to give his pretty wife to Volpone, all on the promise of becoming his sole heir.

Volpone’s undoing is not his greed but his lust. The pretty wife, Celia, will not succumb to his lechery and the whole scheme unravels.

The production is done in modern dress (more or less) with a few props. A couch for Volpone, a piano and a coffee table are about all that is required for the scenes in Volpone’s house and similarly few items for the scenes around Venice.

Hadfield is a wiry and effective Mosca and the greedy visitors are worthy of their names – vulture, raven, crow. I did not like Aislin McGuckin’s Celia. She is supposed to be a very beautiful woman after whom men would lust. In this production she is given an awful wig, an ugly dress and a horrible accent. Volpone would not risk all for a woman like that.

Director Elizabeth Freestone allowed Brigid Zengeni as Lady Would-Be and James Wallace as Sir Politic Would-Be to overact because the roles call for it.

If Volpone presents a world corrupted by avarice and people who are willing to betray most sacred human relations for money, it is nothing compared to the universe of The Duchess of Malfi. This is theatre of cruelty and bloodshed to make the most stout-hearted cringe.

Elizabeth Freestone directed this production as well using the same cast as in Volpone. Aislin McGuckin was given the title role and she gave a superb performance as a strong woman surrounded by evil, treachery, duplicity and cruelty. The widowed Duchess is forbidden by her brother the Cardinal (Max Hadfield) who has a mistress and her brother the Duke (Tim Steed) who lusts after her, from marrying again. She defies them, marries and has several children.

Her brothers strike back with unimaginable viciousness which includes strangling her.

The production is done in modern dress with a lot of military uniforms. The tradition of revenge tragedy requires the full panoply of costumes. The modern outfits took away from the whole genre despite fine performances. The only believable costume was that of the cardinal but the Catholic Church has not exactly updated their costumes.

Freestone tended to treat some scenes as if they were straight from an opera production. The characters faced the audience and delivered their lines. This may be fine in a duet or a quartet in opera but without, say, Verdi’s music it is not as effective in the theatre.

There were seven cameras spread around the theatre. Stage on Screen recorded the performance for release on DVD. If Canadian companies will not produce Jonson and Webster, maybe we can get them in DVD and watch them on the small screen. www.stageonscreen.com

THE REAL THING and BEDROOM FARCE – TWO DISAPPOINTING COMEDIES IN LONDON

Daniel Betts and Finty Williams in Bedroom Farce. Photograph: Alastair Muir

Reviewed by James Karas

Tom Stoppard and Alan Ayckbourn are two of England’s most prolific playwrights and the chances of seeing one of their plays in London are, as they say, bloody good. Stoppard’s The Real Thing is currently playing at the Old Vic and Ayckbourn’s Bedroom Farce is at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London’s West End.

I first saw The Real Thing in 1984 in New York in a production directed by Mike Nichols with Jeremy Irons in the cast. It was so sophisticated and literate and funny it has stuck in my mind ever since.

I was perhaps hoping for a repeat of that performance at the venerable Old Vic and my expectations were sorely unfulfilled. Does memory play tricks on us and make past productions seem better than they were. Perhaps but the production at the Old Vic is simply not up to par. There are numerous witty and very funny lines but all dialogue needs timing. In this case some of the best lines were either killed or wounded by sloppy directing by Anna Mackmin.

For example, Max confirms to himself that his wife is unfaithful by finding her passport at home when she is supposed to be abroad. On her “return”, his wife asks him where he found her passport and he tells her that it was in a recipe drawer. That was the last place she would have looked in, she tells him.

“It was” he replies dryly. If there is a slight pause before the reply, it would be funny. Without the pause, the humor is lost. There was no pause in this production and there were numerous such examples of simple failure to take advantage of Stoppard’s humour.

The set for the first half consisted of a couple of couches and some furniture in front of a blank backdrop. Designer Lez Brotherston does add some bookshelves in the second half but we could have used some better sets.

The play covers love, adultery, political activism and writing (and there may be topics that I missed). Stoppard moves quickly and brilliantly and you find yourself at times enjoying the repartee at the expense of the content.

Barnaby Kay, Hattie Morahan, Toby Stephens and Fennella Woolgar have their moments of fine performances especially in the dramatic parts of the play but more careful directing would have borne greater dividends for actors and audience alike.

Alan Ayckbourn is nothing less than a play writing industry. He has written 74 full-length plays and has directed 300 plays. And that’s just the beginning.

His 19th play was Bedroom Farce and it opened in 1975. It made the rounds and in January 1979 it came to the Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto directed by Peter Hall and Ayckbourn himself.

The same Peter Hall has now staged a revival of the play at the Duke of York’s Theatre in London.

Bedroom Farce has three bedrooms (beds really – space is at a premium in London) and four couples. With the word farce attached to the title one may be led to expect frenetic action, sexual escapades and a lot of door-slamming as dictated by Feydeau and Company. Well, not quite.

Bedroom Farce is somewhat amusing, there are a few decent lines and you will end up laughing out loud a few times but that’s about it. Is this theatre for the tourists who want some relief from the endless parade of musicals?

Bedroom Left is occupied by Ernest (David Horovitch) and Delia (Jenny Seagrove), a middle-aged couple. They are about to go out for dinner and Ernest is worried about the roof and Delia is concerned about their son Trevor. A few chuckles.

In Bedroom Right we find Jan (Sara Crowe) and Nick (Tony Gardner). She is a feisty young woman who had the hots for Trevor at one time. Nick is bedridden and cannot go to the party that Jan will attend where she will run into Trevor. More chuckles and mild laughter.

Bedroom Centre is occupied by Malcolm (Daniel Betts) and Kate (Finty Williams) who are having a party. Trevor (Orlando Seale) and his batty wife Susannah (Rachel Pickup) will arrive separately and cause all the ruckus that will keep the play moving. Susannah will visit Trevor’s parents and both will drop by Nick and Jan’s bedroom. More chuckles and perhaps a couple of good laughs.

The scene changes from one bedroom to the next with speed but in the end, after a couple of hours, you wonder what you got out of it and was it worth after all, as they say. What was in the play or the production that a good television sitcom without commercials could not provide? I am not sure.

The actors deserve full credit for doing a fine job. Whatever the quality of the play, they got all the laughs that Ayckbourn put in.

TALK HAS TOO MANY ASIDES AND TOO MUCH EDITORIALIZING

(L to R) KEVIN BUNDY (Gordon) and MICHAEL RUBENFELD (Josh)
PHOTO: Racheal McCaig

Reviewed by James Karas
jameskaras@rogers.com

What is he thinking or what did he really mean when he said that?

Playwrights have developed several methods of providing that information when they want the audience to know more than what is being said. In Ancient Greek tragedy, the Chorus was used to comment on the action or on the characters. The favourite device in Shakespeare’s time was the aside where the actor spoke in an undertone that the audience heard but was presumably not heard by the other people on the stage. Asides are typically short remarks that provide a pithy editorial on the reaction or the feelings of the speaker.

The more extended method of describing inner feeling is, of course, the soliloquy which was mastered by Shakespeare.

Now imagine a play that is made largely of asides or soliloquies.

That is what Michael Nathanson provides in Talk which is now playing at the Jane Mallett Theatre in a production by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.

Joshua (Michael Rubenfeld) and Gordon (Kevin Bundy) are old and dear friends. Gordon has met this wonderful woman named Clotilde and he wants Joshua’s opinion of her. They meet over a drink. The exchange a few words and the action is stopped (indicated by spotlights) and each of them editorializes to the audience. Stop, go, stop, go is the feeling one gets.

They talk about how Joshua feels about Clotilde for what appears like an eternity and Clotilde’s mention of one word catapults the two characters into the talk that dominates the rest of the play. She mentions the word Palestine. Joshua is a Jew and Gordon is a Christian and this leads into a discussion (subject to innumerable interruptions for asides) of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Gordon ends up taking the Palestinian side. Israel has enacted racist legislation that will make the Nazis blush, he says. After decades of oppression, poverty and abuse, it is understandable that Hamas will resort to suicide bombings, he opines.

Joshua counters with the stated desire of the Palestinians is to murder every Jew in Israel. Jews are hated because they are Jews, he states, and they have no choice but to defend themselves.

The discussion between the two friends is interspersed with commentary about the meaning of friendship and the ability of friends to discuss a political topic without ruining their relationship. Is Jewishness more important than friendship is one of the questions to be asked.

The structure of the play blurs rather than clarifies the conflict in the Middle East and the conflict between the two friends. The asides and editorial comments interrupt the flow of the play without adding much to our knowledge about how the two men feel. After eighteen years of close friendship, they never got around to discussing the Middle East? Or is the whole thing brought up by Gordon’s new fiancée?

As for peace in the Middle East and the quandary of the two friends, both situations are perhaps explained in an anecdote about a wise old Jew. A friend of the old Jew expounded on a topic with conviction and the old Jew told him that he was right. Another friend took the opposite view and spoke with equal conviction. The old Jew told him that he too was right.

A third friend who heard all of this complained to the old Jew that his two friends held completely opposite viewpoints and that they both could not possibly be right.

“You are right” said the old Jew.

That is perhaps what is happening in the Middle East. Everybody is right as they kill each other. If Nathanson had striven to convey the wisdom of the old Jew, the play may have been more successful.

Director Ted Dykstra and Set and Lighting Designer Steve Lucas try to move the action along and change lighting to indicate different locations while using a minimum number of props.

Nathanson tries to provide some scaffolding for the discussion by creating some incidents in the play. But the lack of flow caused by the asides mars what could be a riveting dialogue about the many issues touched by Talk.

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Talk by Michael Nathanson played until March 20, 2010 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.hgjewishtheatre.com

THE OVERWHELMING ATTEMPTS TO TELL THE STORY OF THE UNSPEAKABLE MASSACRE IN RWANDA

Photo - David Storch, Brendan McMurtry-Howlett, Mariah Inger & Sterling Jarvis

by James Karas
jameskaras@rogers.com

In 1994 between 800,000 and 1,000,000 Rwandans were massacred. The rest of the world stood by and did nothing to stop the genocide even though they knew it was happening. In fact, the United Nations withdrew 90% of its peacekeeping troops and refused to call the killings a genocide.

It is this subject that J.T. Rogers tackles in his play The Overwhelming which is now playing at the Berkeley Street Theatre. It was an event of such horrific dimensions that it could not be described in almost any work of art. That Rogers fails to capture all the horror is inevitable; the extent to which he succeeds is admirable.

Rogers attempts to blend the personal story of an American family as they interact with foreign officials and Rwandans in the days leading up to the genocide. The play is part personal drama and part documentary and the two plot strands are interwoven.

Jack Exley (David Storch), a teacher of International Relations goes to Rwanda to write a book about Dr. Joseph Gasana (Nigel Shawn Williams). Exley and Gasana were roommates in college and Gasana is now running a paediatric hospital for AIDS sufferers. Exley needs to write a book in order to save his academic career.

Exley’s wife Linda (Mariah Inger) is a creative non-fiction writer and she wants to capture the sprit of Rwanda in a magazine article. Both Exleys are naïve to the point of stupidity and arrogance. They are so devoid of common sense that they are downright annoying. She is black and he has a son, Geoffrey (Brendan McMurtry-Howlett), from a previous marriage who is equally annoying.

The personal and family issues of the Exleys are the background to the swelling political problems as Tutsis threaten to return to Rwanda from Burundi where they were forced into exile by the Hutus. The extremist Hutus believe that the only means to ensure their own survival is by massacring all the Tutsis.

Rogers wants to bring a number of issues to the foreground and he uses twenty-two characters played by eleven actors in order to achieve that. There are French and American diplomats, a British and a Rwandan doctor, a UN Officer, and Rwandan government officials.

Samuel Mizinga (Sterling Jarvis) is a charming Rwandan official who befriends Linda and attempts to convince her that Tutsis are not real Rawands but mere invaders who must be resisted with every force. The French and American diplomats are not prepared to do anything and the UN forces are so few that they could not do anything even if they wanted to.

With twenty-two characters played by eleven actors in numerous locations, there are some scene changes that are not easy to follow and you have to pay very close attention to keep up with who is doing what.

This is a huge subject, as I said, and it cannot possibly be covered in a couple of hours but one does get the sense of the paranoia, the hatred and the fear between the two tribes. How two tribes that have a great deal in common can foment hatred leading to genocide is one of the astounding and unanswerable questions of history and the play.

The choice of the Exleys is not a sound one, I suggest. They should be less naïve, less annoying for the story to flow.

David Storch does a superb job as Jack Exley, the naïve and ridiculous academic. Storch was so effective in the role that I almost wished that Rogers had created a less disgusting character. Mariah Inger is a perfect foil for the foolish academic. Hardee T. Linehan is the hearty American diplomat Charles Woolsey whom we meet on the golf course as the massacre is proceeding.

Nigel Shawn Williams does well as Dr. Gasana and in several minor roles. Paul Essiembre successfully tackles three roles while Andre Sills takes on five rolls including that of UN Major.

Director Joel Greenberg prefers speed to ponderousness in scene changes. There are lot of scene changes done quickly and actors frequently speak simultaneously. There are at least four languages and the plot is not always easy to follow. Less speed may serve the play better.

The Overwhelming is a production of Studio 180 Theatre Company. This, they tell us, is their eighth major production following such successes as Stuff Happens and The Arab-Israeli Cookbook. Pretty good record that.
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The Overwhelming by J.T. Rogers continues until April 3, 2010 at the Berkeley Downstairs Theatre, 26 Berkeley St. Toronto, Ontario. 416 368-3110. www.canstage.com

HUSH TAKES US THROUGH NIGHTMARES IN PONDEROUS PROSE

Graeme Somerville, Vivien Endicott-Douglas, Conrad Coates.

Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

“This does not make sense” says one of the characters in Hush, Rosa Laborde’s new play, currently at the Tarragon Theatre’s Extra Space.

A play that is concerned with dreams and nightmares and matters spiritual may not be expected to make sense. Still, you may wish to understand something of what is going on and proceed from the beginning to the end of a one-act play with some enjoyment.

One cannot accuse Ms Laborde of lacking ambition. In a short play she tries to bring Greek mythology, Peruvian spiritualism, a witch doctor, rampant symbols of sacrificial lambs and, frankly, I don’t know what else. But rest assured it was all there.

We start with a simple premise of Lily (Vivien Endicott-Douglas), a 12-year old having a nightmare. She is a bright kid about to become a teenager and she is troubled. Her mother is dead. She is very articulate and her dentist father Harlem (Graeme Somerville), is trying to be supportive. He is named after the Dutch city and I am not sure that I caught the significance of that fact.

Harlem is involved with a very spiritual and spirited, if those are the right words, woman named Talia (Tara Rosling). At the end of the play there is a suggestion that she may be his long-dead wife but by that time maintaining any kind of interest in the play and its characters has become rather difficult.

The fourth character is Andre (Conrad Coates), another dentist who exhibits considerable charm. Coates doubles as the witch doctor of the dreams.

A play about dreams and nightmares cannot be expected to follow a logical sequence of events in its plotline but this one was so confusing that I was frequently bewildered about what the hell was going on.

World mythology is alive and well in these characters’ dreams and we are also told that Talia is named after the Muse of Comedy. The Muse’s name is usually written as Thalia but be grateful that we are told that much. You are on your own about the rest.

These people are very, very literate and they say some ponderous and some very ridiculous things. If you heard anyone talk like that you would scratch your head and wonder what part of the planet they are from. Maybe people get more articulate or just use more arcane language in their dreams and nightmares.

The acting talents of the four actors are very apparent despite the deficiencies of the script. Ms Endicott-Douglas can take on the role of any adolescent brat or genius or troubled girl and shine in it. Tara Rosling can do a good job even with bad lines.

Somerville gets some convoluted lines but he does a very good job in taking us through the nightmares whosoever’s they may be. Coates gets easier lines to speak and or he makes them seem easy. He carries the role Andre with aplomb.

A white sheet and some boxes covered with black cloth pretty much make up the set. All is black except for the sheet and a flower. There are some interesting sound effects and lighting but this is a play that can be produced on a string budget. The starry night at the end is quite effective.

Unfortunately I found little to enjoy in the play.

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Hush by Rosa Laborde ran until March 21, 2010 at the Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario. http://www.tarragontheatre.com/.

COMMUNION - NEW PLAY AT TARRAGON DISAPPOINTS

Athena Lamarre, Caroline Gillis, Sarah Dodd
Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann

Reviewed by James Karas
jameskaras@rogers.com

Communion, Daniel MacIvor’s new play at the Tarragon Theatre is simple and direct and may contain a great deal of subtext but it lacks text and theatricality. After eighty-four minutes with no intermission you step out of the theatre wondering what the play was all about and was it worth it after all.

A woman with the dramatic name of Leda (Caroline Gillis) is visiting her therapist Carolyn (Sarah Dodd). We don’t know if the therapist is a psychologist or psychiatrist but it may not matter. Leda is distraught, dramatic, and to call her a low-life may not be overly crude. Let’s say she has had a troubled life what with being an alcoholic, a woman estranged from her daughter and searching for advice.

The therapist probes into Leda’s life, coolly, carefully. She maintains a suggestion of a smile on her face but displays no emotion. She is the quintessential professional who asks a lot of questions and makes few comments. Leda is ill with cancer and she throws herself back on her chair at times as the sad narrative of her life is revealed. This is of some interest and may do nicely in a novel but it is not particularly theatrical.

In the next scene we meet Leda’s daughter Annie (Athena Lamarre). Mother and daughter confront each other in a hotel room and we are about to go behind what Leda was telling her therapist. The first thing we notice is that Leda is a different person from the Leda of the first scene. She is spruced up, reasonable and desperately trying to connect with her daughter whom she has not seen for many months.

Annie is angry, bitter and hateful and once she sets that tone she maintains it almost to the end of the play. Some variation on the theme would have been apropos but MacIvor is not interested in that. Annie is religious zealot but the sect she belongs to does not seem to be interested in love, charity or forgiveness. Annie married Bud some time ago but she did not invite her mother to the wedding. Her father and his new wife were there. Annie reveals that she is pregnant and the scene ends.

In the final scene Annie meets, indeed confronts, Carolyn. The latter is closing her practice and moving away. She is no longer the dispassionate therapist but a lesbian whose relationship has fallen apart and who is not happy with what she achieved in her professional life. We learn that Leda whose real name was Linda is dead and that Annie has given birth.

The confrontation ends with Carolyn sitting in the chair that Leda occupied in the firsts scene and throwing her head back the way her client used to do.

The situation and the characters are mildly interesting but are they interesting enough to sustain a whole play? There are flashes of humour but hardly enough to provide much bitter laughter.

Annie recalls going to Catholic service in her youth and taking communion and she calls the people lining up for it as “the catholic fashion review.” A good line. She has spent time in jail and has become a religious fanatic. This may be tragic or tragic-comic but Annie is far too bitchy in her scene with her mother to evoke much sympathy.

The play opens with the words “It’s the question” and there is the recurring theme of what lies behind the door and the fact that we fear the light rather than the darkness. That may be true but is there enough substance in MacIvor’s characters or their situation as he develops it for us to care about them.

In other words we may be interested in the philosophical question posed without being able to apply it to the situation in which these people are involved.

MacIvor directs his own play. Caroline Gillis in effect plays two different characters in the two scenes that she appears. The play gives her a good opportunity to display her acting talent by doing two very different people and she does it very well.

Athena Lamarre is limited to acting the angry and bitchy daughter until she breaks way from that posture near the end of the play. She does well within the limitations placed by the script and the director. Better character development by MacIvor would have displayed her talent in even better light.

Sarah Dodd has similar constraints. She is the dispassionate therapist in the first scene but she is allowed to become human and even move around in the last scene.

A disappointing night at the theatre.
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Communion by Daniel MacIvor opened on March 3 and will run until April 4, 2010 at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario. http://www.tarragontheatre.com/. 416 531-1827

CARMEN FROM CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY WITHOUT PASSION

Reviewed by James Karas

If two presumably rational men fall in love head-over-heels, as they say, with a woman and are prepared to risk everything that woman better be nothing less than sensational. Now when men indulge in that type of passion by “sensational” they do not mean a member of Mensa but someone with irresistible sexual appeal.

Two men who fall in love in that manner are Corporal Don Jose and Toreador Escamillo. The femme fatale is Carmen and they all meet in Georges Bizet’s opera that just finished playing at the Four Seasons Center in a production by the Canadian Opera Company.

It has been said hat if you don’t like Carmen, you do not like opera and should look elsewhere for musical nourishment. Carmen has so much that is both wonderful and familiar, from the habanera to the Song of the Toreador that it is impossible not to enjoy any competent production to some extent.

One can no doubt say that much and more about the COC’s production. It is competent and there are many enjoyable aspects to it. But it also falls short on a number of headings and one wonders why it should be so.

The role of Carmen was sung by Israeli mezzo-soprano Rinat Shaham except for the final performances for which she was replaced by Georgian soprano Anita Rachvelishvili. I did not see Ms Shaham and Ms Rachvelishvili was singing the night that I attended. She has a ringing voice with luscious tones. Unfortunately she did not exude much sexual electricity. She moved awkwardly, could not dance and she did not convince anyone that even dumb men would wreck their lives for her.

Speaking of dumb men, Don Jose is quite a prize. American tenor Garrett Sorenson replaced Bryan Hymel for the last two performances of the run and it was he who sang with Ms Rachvelishvili. The roly-poly Sorenson was vocally competent but as a lover he was simply wooden.

French baritone Paul Gay looked every inch the toreador and had a convincing swagger. He made a commanding Escamillo and Carmen should have no difficulty or hesitation in dumping Don Jos for this tall, dark and handsome dude who could sing up a storm.

The most successful performance was by Jessica Muirhead as the sweet peasant girl Micaela. She has a dulcet voice to go with her gentle personality and among the thieves and other low-lives of the opera she stands out like a beacon. Marvelous vocal work by Ms Muirhead.

The production is directed by Justin Way with sets designed by Michael Yeargan. Way has opted for spoken dialogue instead of recitatives. This should move the action at a faster clip but instead what we get is some really badly spoken French and not much speed. Now one could argue that Spanish soldiers and thieves cannot be expected to speak proper French and they may be right. But they will not speak with the strange accents of some of the COC singers either.

Way has some problems with handling crowd scenes and the effect is that of a largely static production that moves at a snail’s pace. In the opening scene there is a lively march by children. In this production thanks to an iron fence, the march is cut down to very little movement. There is no reason for that.

The costumes were non-descript but the red-hot shirts of the soldiers were a good indicator of the passion that was not generated by the performers and communicated to the audience.

The COC Orchestra was conducted by Rory Macdonald.
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Carmen by Georges Bizet opened on January 27 and was performed twelve times until February 27, 2010 on various dates at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel: 416-363-6671. www.coc.ca