DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Die Frau Ohne Schatten is a marvelous opera by Richard Strauss that receives a stupendous production at the Aix-en-Provence Festival. All the ingredients for superb opera are present – outstanding orchestra, remarkable cast and excellent production values – for a great night at the opera.

Die Frau is considered part of the standard opera repertoire but the opportunities for seeing it do not seem particularly generous. This Grand Théâtre de Provence makes up for lost time for some of us.

The plot by the master librettist Hugo von Hofmannsthal involves an Emperor (Michael Spyres) and his Empress (Vida Mikneviciute) who have a problem. She cannot bear a child because she is not fully human and therefore does not have a shadow. If she does not find a shadow, the Emperor will be turned into stone.

The Empress’s crafty Nurse (Nina Stemme) thinks she can find someone to give up her shadow, and all their problems will be solved. She approaches Barak the Dyer (Brian Mulligan) and his Wife (Ambur Braid) with promises of a better life if the unhappy Wife will give up her desire for children and her shadow. Mr. and Mrs. Dyer are not happy.

In the second act, the plot thickens with the Nurse conjuring a handsome young man to seduce the Dyer’s Wife and a talking Falcon leads the Emperor to the forest. Morality becomes a serious consideration with the Empress dealing with decency and not wanting to deprive Dyer’s Wife of her shadow. The plot complications and ethical issues continue until a satisfactory resolution is achieved.

The Nurse and the two couples are the main drivers of the plot but there is a stageful of other characters. Barak has three brothers, The One-Eyed, The One-Armed and The Hunchback. There are voices from Above, a Hawk, a Falcon, City Guardians and children. There is a dancer (Prince Mihai), actors and actresses, the Choir of the Orchestra of Paris and the eminent Orchestre de Paris. They all add up to scenic and vocal splendor of the highest order. 

`DIE FRAU OHNE SCHATTEN in new production by 
Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, 2026. Photo © Monika Rittershaus

First the score. Strauss provides lush, complex music that would make a superb orchestral concert. This is post-Wagner music that demands a full orchestra playing at the top of their form. Klaus Mäkelä conducts the Orchestre de Paris in its epic performance of the music that lasts for 3 hours and 45 minutes with two intermissions. 

The redoubtable Swedish soprano Nina Stemme sings the role of the Empress’s Nurse who has a diabolical side to her. Stemme has excelled in roles like Isolde and Brunhilde and tackles the role of the Nurse with vocal prowess and convincing acting ability. This is magnificently powerful singing that leaves one breathless.

American baritone Mulligan and Canadian soprano Braid as the quarrelsome couple Barak the Dyer and his Wife are put through a series of emotional turmoils and vocal demands as they face temptation and resolution. They meet the vocal and acting demands with supreme performances as they maneuver through Strauss’s treacherous demands.

Lithuanian soprano Mikneviciute sings a splendid Empress. She is not quite human and needs to find a shadow, in other words become human so she can save her husband and have a child. She has some soaring vocal flourishes that Mikneviciute handles with gorgeous ease and is the moral force of the opera, adding to the attractiveness of the role.

American baritenor Michael Spyres sings the role of the hapless Emperor who is about to turn into stone unless the Empress can find a shadow. He is left alone through some of the opera, but he sings superbly when called upon. The term baritenor is not exactly frequently seen or heard but as you may have guessed it means a singer with a range that can qualify as tenor and baritone and Spyres is one of the exceptional singers who qualifies.

There many other small roles as indicated above and there are singers taking on two, three or four of them. I will not comment on each performance because there is not enough room in my review for that.

Die Frau Ohne Schatten takes place in some mythical kingdom run by the mysterious and invisible spirit god Keikobad. It also takes place in the humble abode of Barak and his wife on earth as well as the forest and a grotto somewhere below. That sounds like a set designer’s nightmare, but Michael Levine is non-plussed by it. The abode on earth is represented by a square multi-floored scaffold made of glass. It is high but relatively small otherwise. It is unrealistic but brilliant. The rest of the scenes are constructed equally economically and take away nothing from the opera. As to the complex symbols of the libretto, a lengthy essay could begin to decode them but not here. 

A word about the moral issue. Hofmannsthal wrote that Die Frau Ohne Schatten is related to The Magic Flute. Both operas have two couples striving for something higher. In The Magic Flute, Tamino strives for virtue through difficult trials and is eventually admitted to the temple of Sarastro. In Die Frau, the Empress is about to take the shadow of a human being but decides not to do that on the grounds of human decency. It is an amazing stand and I will not give you more details.

What counts is the stupendous production of a difficult opera, directed by Barrie Kosky and we can only hope that a video of it will become available soon.
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Die Frau Ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss with libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal opened on July 3 and was performed a total of five times until July 12, 2026, at the Grand Théâtre de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

James Karas is the Culture editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.

REQUIEM - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The production of Mozart’s Requiem at the Aix-en-Provence Festival beside The Magic Flute and Die Frau Ohne Schatten may appear odd but it was produced there in 2019 so there is that precedent at least. I associate a requiem done by an orchestra with a chorus and soloists, but this production is a fully staged work. A glance at the program reveals that the following people are involved: a director, a dramaturge, a choreographer as well as a set, lighting and costume designer. The last three are handled by Director Romeo Castellucci.

I saw the 2019 production and admittedly forgot it and was curious about my reaction to a fully staged offering.  Mozart’s Requiem lasts less than an hour and is at times recorded in beautiful cathedrals. By definition, a requiem is a mass for the dead, a solemn chant for their souls and a prayer for our eternal souls.

Mozart’s Requiem falls squarely in that description. It was left unfinished at his death, and several composers had a hand in finishing it and experts are not sure who contributed what but that is not our concern.

The Festival’s production goes beyond the Requiem that we have inherited incorporating other Mozart compositions and using some Gregorian chants. The program does not give us details of these, but what can be played in less than an hour is stretched to about 100 minutes. It goes from the solemnity and vigorous parts of the Requiem to dance routines and some boisterous celebratory segments.

First let us praise the Pygmalion Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Raphael Pinchon. The soloists are Melissa Petit, soprano, Beth Taylor (alto), Duke Kim (Tenor) and Alex Rosen (bass).  The interplay among soloists, the chorus and the orchestra reach heights of supreme splendor. They go from the simple four-word chant Kyrie eleison to the bleak Dies irae, the Day of Wrath, the day that will dissolve the earth in ashes.

The Requiem implores the Lord for eternal rest and perpetual light for the souls of the departed, prays for mercy on us, warns about the day of judgment that awaits all of us, and glorifies the Lord and expresses our gratitude for his mercy. That is a spectrum that covers the breadth of Christian life and faith.

Scene from Requiem. Aix-en-Provence Festival 2026 © Monika Rittershaus

But Castelucci, Dramaturge Piersandra Di Matteo, and Choreographer Evelin Facchini have a lot more in mind. As Costume designer, Castellucci adds costume changes including a scene with traditional red and white dresses, with flowers at the back of the stage, has colourful hats on the dancers who perform some dance-around-the-rosy and a number with plenty of colourful streamers around a Maypole. The stage décor changes and at one point the rear wall of the stage is sprayed and painted in green and red.

The back of the stage has titles preceded by the word Extinction and it calls for the disappearance of just about everything from music to literature to a couple of dozen things that may be considered as civilization and some others less crucial items that I cannot remember. They appeared on the dimly lit rear panel, and I stopped paying attention to them.

Near the end of the performance, the entire floor of the stage was raised from the back up so that it ended up standing almost vertically. Water ran down cleaning the dirt or whatever was supposed to be on the boards. I assume it was rather crude cleansing of our sins but after everything had become extinct, I am not sure.

The following two verses embrace the Catholic faith on which the Requiem is based. They encompass the extremes of heaven and hell and affirm the love and generosity of God and Jesus. I am not sure that the additional forty minutes inserted by Romeo Castellucci and his artistic so-workers added much to the Requiem.

Lord Jesus Christ, King of glory,

deliver the souls of all the faithful

departed from the pains of hell and from the bottomless pit.

King of awful majesty,

Who freely savest the redeemed,

Save me, O fount of goodness.

The end of the performance was greeted by a few loud boos followed by bravos from some members of the audience. The orchestra, the chorus, the soloists and the dancers received only positive responses. The artistic backstage people were booed again when they appeared for a bow.
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Requiem by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart opened on July 4th and will be performed a total of five times until July 12, 2026, at the Théâtre de l’Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE MAGIC FLUTE - REVIEW OF 2026 AIX-EN-PROVENCE FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Aix-en-Provence Festival is up and running for its 2026 season. It opened with Mozart’s Magic Flute and will run frum July 2 to July 21, 2026. The Magic Flute was produced at the Festival in 2014 by Simon McBurney and that production was revived in 2018. This year we get a new production conducted by Leonardo Garcia-Alarcon and directed by Clement Cogitore.

Cogitore has some definite views about his treatment of this opera. His Magic Flute is an opera about war and its grim consequences, and he wastes no time displaying his views. As soon as conductor Garcia-Alarcon begins the overture, we see projected videos and still photographs of a world at war. Destroyed buildings, hungry children rummaging for food, refugees and a world consumed by devastation are shown in frightful detail. It is so overwhelming, I found myself watching the horrors of war and not listening to the music. That is no fault of Garcia-Alarcon who does a splendid job conducting the Millenium Orchestra

The theme of war and its devastation is seen throughout the performance but there is progress towards peace, and we see construction or reconstruction as the damage is rebuilt and we see people enjoying life on the beach or by a pool as normality of sorts is restored.

The opening scene shows a little boy pulling a small cart. He stops and spreads a white sheet and lies down. We hear Prince Tamino (Mauro Peter), the hero of the opera, yell for help as he is pursued by a monster. The little boy is the adolescent Tamino, I guess, Peter is the adult Prince and there is an infant Tamino. The heroine Pamina is sung by Ying Fang but we also have an infant and adolescent Pamina played by two different actors on different nights.

There are numerous children on stage and Cogitore, I guess, wants to emphasize the fact that this is an opera about children’s innocence being destroyed by war and innocence and civilization perhaps being regained by the masonic faith which is the underlying message or strength of the opera for those who can get it.

 I repeat that the backdrop of war persists throughout the performance. The emphasis is on darkness, and we see many scenes through a scrim. Cogitore is responsible for the rich collection of videos. The sets designed by Alban Ho Van aid and abet the principal aim of the opera. The opera is seriously dramaturged by Simon Hatab.

Scene from The Magic Flue, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence 2026 
© Jean-Louis Fernandez 

Costumes by Wojciech Dziedzic are a potpourri of styles and far from royal or formal attire. The grim lighting by Sylvain Verdet added to the grim view of the production.

Chinese soprano Ying Fang and Swiss tenor Mauro Peter sing well amid the paraphernalia of children and sets that rob the opera of its humour and magic. French soprano Sabine Devieilhe as Queen of the Night is momentarily surrounded by children during her first aria and they sing or say something as she is singing that I did not get. During her second aria with those tortuous high notes, she did a decent job but the atmosphere in which she was singing did not prove propitious to a superb performance.

British bass Brindley Sherratt has a marvelous rolling low register that one needs for Sarastro, the High Priest of Isis. He has two major arias, and he sings one standing at a lectern on a raised platform. He sings his second aria seated at a desk, wearing a suit. What are we supposed to make of that for a character who is the voice of Masonic love and peace? 

We have the high-minded Tamino striving to prove himself worthy of becoming a Mason. But we also have the bird catcher Papageno (Sean Michel Plumb) and his future wife Papagena (Emma Fekete). They are comic characters in an opera produced in a popular theatre for the purpose of making money. It was the idea of Emanuel Schikaneder who wrote the libretto and financed it.

Papageno gets a laugh minutes after the curtain rises when he pretends to have slain the monster that was chasing Tamino. There was no monster and no laugh. If there was a twitter of a laugh during the entire production, I must have missed it.

This a production that is so overwhelmingly quirky, Mozart’s wonderful Magic Flute almost disappears. Too bad.

It may be worthwhile noting that this is a coproduction with Les Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg and Opera Ballet Vlaanderen.

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The Magic Flute by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart with libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder opened on July 2 and is being performed a total of ten times until July 21, 2026, at the  Théâtre de l'Archevêché, Aix-en-Provence, France.  http://festival-aix.com/

JAMES KARAS IS THE CULTURE EDITOR OF THE GREEK PRESS, TORONO

EL ULTIMO SUENO DE FRIDA Y DIEGO – REVIEW OF 2026 LIVE FROM THE MET IN HD TRANSMISSION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Met has wound up its 2025-2026 season of transmissions Live in HD with El Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego composed by Gabriella Lena Frank with a libretto by Nilo Cruz. It was first produced in 2022 and now gets a grand production by the Met. The title refers to artists Frida Khalo and her husband Diego Rivera but the opera has little to do with their lives. But we do see some of her paintings and Rivera’s famous scaffold and  we are made aware of some of their tempestuous lives together and apart.

The opera has more to do with the Orpheus and Euridice myth turned on its head. This opera takes place in 1957, three years after the death of Frida. Diego goes to the cemetery on The Day the Dead in 1957 to seek a connection with her. The mythology is neither Greek nor Christian. It is Aztec.

Diego wants to see Frida so she can help him on his journey to the underworld. He is dying or is already dead and he wants to see her on earth and then make his way to the underworld with her.

We all know that Orpheus went down to Hades to implore the gods to give Euridice back to him using his lyre to convince them. It works but in the end, he loses her because she disobeys the order of the god not to look at him until they reached the earth. She looks at him.

Carlos Álvarez as Diego and Isabel Leonard as Frida in a scene from 
"El Último Sueño de Frida y Diego." Photo: Marty Sohl / Met Opera

The Orpheus myth has mesmerized composers for more than four hundred years. The very first opera (now lost) was Jacopo Peri’s Euridice (1600). Monteverdi’s Orfeo (1607) was the first great opera and that was just the beginning. More than 80 operas have been written based on the myth and there have been six operas based on it in the 21^st  century.

Aside from the large Met chorus and dancers, El Ultimo Sueno has only four characters. Mezzo soprano Isabel Leonard sings Frida with an exceptionally beautiful voice. She is dressed as Frida in some of her self-portraits. Leonard bears amazing resemblance to Frida and it is one of the pleasures of the production.

Tenor Carlos Alvarez looks like a portly Diego thanks to padding and he is a passionate third husband to Frida. The marriage was tempestuous and, in many ways, unpleasant as they were both serially unfaithful but three years after her death and on the death of Diego we want them to find peace in the underworld. 

El Ultimo Sueno has huge production values that only an opera company like the Met can dream of providing. The first act in the cemetery and the underworld features a large cast of villagers in the cemetery who want to see their loved ones. It switches to the underworld, and we see skeletons, ghosts and dancers that are dazzling. There is a huge skeleton of a red tree with branches above and roots below. The tree of life and death?

The peasants recognize Diego in the cemetery and tell him that he needs faith in his heart to be allowed to see Frida. We meet the Warden of the Dead, Catrina with the hideous deathly face and body. She is the frightful guardian of the souls. She lays the rules for allowing someone to visit the earth. Only 24 hours and no touching. Frida had a horrible life on earth and is reluctant to go back but she eventually relents. 

Not much happens in the Orpheus myth and in El Ultimo. The librettist has added a character called Leonardo sung by countertenor Nils Wanderer. He is a fan of Greta Garbo and emulates her appearance and comically her manners. He wants to go to the earth to see her. Wanderer does a fine job vocally and is entertaining as a would-be Greta Garbo.

El Ultimo Sueno has some lush music and some grand flourishes but I would like to see and hear the opera more times to appreciate its contents and context. But the Met Opera Orchestra performs brilliantly under the baton of Yannick Nézet-Seguin. On first viewing, it proved impressive, enjoyable and a work that demands to be seen again and again.
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El Ultimo Sueno de Frida y Diego by Gabriella Lena Frank (music) and Nilo Cruz (libretto) was transmitted Live in HD from New York’s Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 30, 2026. There was an encore showing on June 19, 2026, that I saw. For more information go 

to: www.cineplex.com/events.

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

OTHELLO – REVIEW OF 2026 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Othello, along with The Tempest and A Midsummer Night’s Dream  is the third and final play by Shakespeare produced by the Stratford Festival this year. One cannot fault the choice of three major plays and appreciate that all three receive astounding productions. I do complain that they have only three plays at a festival that used to be called the Stratford Shakespeare  Festival.

The production, brilliantly directed by Haysam Kadri, shows some powerful performances that make it difficult to recall anything that approaches its effect. Start with Andre Sills as Othello. We start with the self-assured general, a black man in a white Venice, who has a commanding presence and fearless disposition. He has married Desdemona, the beautiful daughter of Senator Brabantia (Chick Reid) and racist slanders follow. He is not concerned because he  is honorable and Venice needs him more than he needs Venice.

This commanding presence will be subverted and lowered and Othello changed into a jealous, murderous man, an ugly being, a hideous man by the exercise of pure evil or what one scholar called motiveless malignity. He will try to reclaim his stature and regain his dignity only momentarily near the end. Sills gives us both Othellos in an unforgettable performance that rates with the best we have ever seen.

The source of Othello’s destruction is the malignity of Iago played masterfully by Evan Buliung. Iago is evil to the core but he is intelligent and knows human nature to the extent that he manipulates and destroys a man who seems indestructible. He is a consummate and brilliant actor who sounds believable and dependable. Moreover, he enjoys his evil and adds some humour to the character.  Iago may have reached the apogee of his evil and Othello the depth of his depravity when convinces Othello that Cassio, another black man, has cuckolded him.  He goes yet further by suggesting that Othello strangle Desdemona and he does it. A bravura performance by Buliung. 

André Sills as Othello, Krystin Pellerin as Desdemona
 and Evan Buliung as Iago. Stratford Festival 2026. 
Photo: Dariane Sanche.

The lovely Desdemona of Krystin Pellerin is a faithful daughter of Venetian nobility but a woman who falls in love with a mensch, a noble and decent man, a famous and capable general. She wants to help Cassio (Jordin Hall) a man who may have been unjustly punished. But her act of decency is noticed by the archdevil Iago who knows how to twist everything to punish the Moor. We love her and cry for her. as we applaud Pellerin 

Rylan Wilkie plays Roderigo perfectly as the dense, gullible and well-off junior officer who is reaching for the stars by wanting Desdemona. He is putty in Iago’s hands who makes him lose his fortune and his life.

Cassio (Jordin Hall) is the man who gets the position that Iago coveted and he becomes a victim of Iago as well. Iago sees his weakness, alcohol, and uses it to have him humiliated and demoted and then arranges for his death. Cassio tries to regain his position believing that his punishment was much greater than his misconduct called for. In the end he is rehabilitated and gets Othello’s office. Superb work by Wilkie. 

The lesser roles are done well and I give kudos to Jessica B. Hill as Emilia, the seriously abused wife of Iago and Vivien Endicott-Douglas as Bianca, the woman for hire. Chick Reid plays Brabantia, Desdemona’s mother instead of Brabantio, the father in the original play. She does not miss a beat and does a superb job.

This is the eighth production of Othello that I have seen at the Stratford Festival starting in 1973 with the disastrous staging directed by David Wiliam starring Nachum Buchman. The Israeli actor spoke little or no English and had no feel for Shakespeare’s poetry. There have been good productions since then but nothing in memory compares with the searing production directed by Haysam Kadri. I have seen a total of fourteen productions in various venues and none has moved or impressed me as much as the current production at Stratford.

Go see it.  
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Othello by William Shakespeare opened on June 18 and will run in repertory until September 27, 2026, at the Tom Patterson Theatre,  Stratford, Ont.

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toromtp.

THE IMPORTANCE OF BEING EARNEST – REVIEW OF 2026 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest is one of the best comedies ever written and pity anyone who has never seen it. Fortunately, for those who have seen it numerous times or for the first time, every production, in the right hands, can offer a terrific night at the theatre. I speak of the current production by the Stratford Festival at the Avon Theatre.

Director Krista Jackson finds humour to enhance Wilde’s wittiest lines and provides laughter in unexpected  and delightful ways.

If you have seen one or twenty productions of Earnest, you will recall and pay attention to Lady Bracknell, referred to as a gorgon in the play. Fiona Reid plays the role superbly. She has the physical presence of a commanding personality and the vocal aptitude to find the perfect pitch for every line. She can switch from her normal voice and go down an octave when she needs to emphasize what she is saying. When she hears that Jack Worthing was abandoned in a handbag in a railroad station, she enunciates “handbag” expressing shock and disbelief by repeating just those two syllables.

She has some of the best lines in the play and Reid does not allow a syllable to come out of her mouth without taking advantage of its comic potential. Jackson has deleted some lines from the text including Lady Bracknell’s famous line about General Moncrieff, the father of Jack Worthing. “The General was a man of peace, except in his domestic life.” I wanted to hear Fiona Reid say that line.

Carter Gulseth as the impecunious Algernon Moncrieff and Joe Perry as John Worthing played perfectly as young lovers. Jackson invented physical business for them from eating muffins, to almost a sword fight and their scenes were marvelous.

The cast of The Importance of Being Earnest. 

Stratford Festival, 2026.Photo: David Hou

Marissa Orjalo as Cecily and Allison Lynch as Gwendolen, the pretty young ladies that Algernon and John pursue are delightful and Jackson treats them with the same imagination and inventiveness. As a nice touch, Cecily is shown handling a spade in contrast to Gwendolyn who proudly tells her and us that she has never seen a spade, evidence that the two ladies come from different social circles.

Jackson gets comic mileage from the relatively minor characters of Canon Chasuble in the hands of Ben Carlson and Miss Prism played by Lucy Peacock, two outstanding actors from whom we can hardly expect anything short of outstanding performances.

Jackson makes great use even of the small roles of Algernon’s butler, Lane (Sean Arbuckle) and John’s butler Merriman (Liam Tobin). They garner laughter by simply standing at attention, pausing for effect or simple body language, Cecily puts a book on her head and holds one in each hand presumably to exercise her posture. She has to stop when Gwendolen arrives and Merriman takes the books, puts them on his head and exits the scene.

The Importance requires three sets, One for Algernon’s apartment in London, the exterior of John’s house in the country and the interior of his house for the final scene, Bretta  Gerecke has designed the three sets intelligently and economically. The first set has pink walls and a few pieces of furniture. For the second set we see a Greco-Roman portico in the back and again a few pieces of furniture for the tea and confrontation between the young ladies. The Landscape Paintings on the set are hand painted by Thomas Lappano, The scene pieces are wheeled on and off the stage and form the final set. Flowers and greenery are an important part of the play and in this production they are prominent and a pleasant addition.

The production proves one more time that with a strong and talented director and behind the scenes artists you have the beginnings of an outstanding production. Add a superb cast and a play that you may have seen twenty times looks as if you are seeing it for the first time.
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The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde opened on June 18 and will play in repertory at the Stratford Festival until October 29, 2026, at the Avon Theatre, 99 Downie St. Stratford, Ont. www.stratfordfestival.ca/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto

THE CAGED BIRD SINGS - REVIEW OF 2026 PRODUCTION AT TARRAGON THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

In their synopsis to The Caged Bird Sings, creators Rafeh Mahmud, Rouvan Silogix and Ahad Lakhani inform us that the play tells the story of three prisoners: Rumi (Mikaela Lily Davies) and Jin (Navtej Sandu), two star-crossed lovers and scientists who share a cell with Sal (Rouvan Silogix), a mysterious vagrant. As they navigate their newfound reality and reconcile their past lives, they are haunted by ghosts and demons of their own making.

They continue that we are to witness a radical re-imagining of Rumi’s “Masnavi” and explore the literal and metaphorical prisons that we are put in, put ourselves in, and the ones that we create. Inspired by Sufi mysticism and concepts of Fanafillah, the production examines our ability to overcome and break out of the cage.

They tell us that “Rumi’s ‘Masnavi’ spans over 25,000 metaphorical, mystical, provocative and twisting couplets, filled with parables, poetry, philosophy, farce, and surrealist investigations of our world and the inherent connectedness of each and every living being.” They conclude that their reimagination tries to bring the essence of his thoughts and aesthetics to a contemporary globalized perspective.

That flowery and adjective-overladen text bespeaks fearlessness on the part of the creators and perhaps overweening ambition to to express in an hour and a half all the complexities contained in that long sentence not least of which is the inherent connectedness of every living being.

Scene from The Caged Bird Sings. Photos by Jae Yang. 

The play is based or inspired by Rumi’s ‘Masnavi’ which, again according to the creators of the play, “consists of over 25,000 metaphorical, mystical, provocative and twisting couplets.” That means more than 50,000 lines or verses of poetry. To put it in context, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey have a total of 27,800 verses making ‘Masnavi’ almost twice as long as both Greek epics.

The play takes place in a cell with two comfortable cots where we meet Rumi and Jin, the two lesbian scientists. Their cellmate is Sal, a colourful figure, sometimes clownish, sometimes regal who tries to establish relationship with the women.

I do not know why the three people are imprisoned. The women are tastefully dressed in low-cut tops, and no one is mistreated. We do not see a jailer and what they are doing in jail is a mystery, but they are not mistreated.  The authors try hard to ease us into the play, no doubt aware that many of us are in terra incognita and I speak for myself only.

The play has numerous stories to tell and in addition to telling us the titles of the three parts, they show placards with the titles of each episode. “Of Mice and Alligators,” “Stardust,” “Songs for the Dead,” “King and the Slave” are examples. The creators seem enamoured of puns and we have “Gin Rumi.” “Rum-eo and Jiniet” three times. In addition, we have “Waiting for Godot’s Due Process” and “What’s New Pussycat” for good measure and I am not sure what they meant. The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet is initially expressed with Rumi and Jun jumping under the blankets.

The episodes follow one another quickly and absorbing them is difficult largely because I am not versed on the source material. The creators need to be far clearer for me to follow what is happening on stage let alone the lengthy description of their hopes.

The production is directed by Rafeh Mahmud, one of the creators, the Set Designer is Waleed Ansari, the Costume Designer is Niloufar Ziaee and the Lighting Designer is Arun Srinivasan.   

This is a production of Modern Times Stage Company and Theatre ARTaud. Modern Times (Rouvan Silogix artistic director) describes itself as an “immigrant theatre organization that has focused on celebrating and creating radical theatre in Canada.” Theatre ARTaud (Rafeh Mahmud artistic director) tells us it is “surrealist theatre and multimedia collective run by Artists of Colour.” Both companies have laudable goals and have been around for many years indicating their success.

Unfortunately, their production of The Caged Bird Sings did not get to me the way I hoped it would.
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The Caged Bird Sings, created by Rafeh Mahmud, Rouvan Silogix and Ahad Lakhani, produced by Modern Times Stage Company and Theatre ARTaud continues until June 28, 2026, at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com/

James Karas is the Culture Editor of The Greek Press, Toronto.