Reviewed
by James Karas
The Stratford Shakespeare Festival
has taken Canadian content seriously this year. Four out of fourteen plays can
claim to be “made in Canada” and one of them, Wanderlust, goes one step
further. It is a musical that was commissioned by the Festival from playwright
Morris Panych and composer Marek Norman, both Canadians and it is about a
“Canadian” poet.
They have taken the poetry of Robert Service (played by Tom Rooney) as their starting point and fashioned a pleasant musical around his verse and a fictionalized version of his life. Panych directs the production.
Panych sets the story in a bank (Service
did work for the Canadian Bank of Commerce) where as a lowly bank employee he
dreams of visiting strange places like the north and writes poetry. He often
sleeps on the bank vault because he stays late versifying and he is also in
love with Louise Montgomery (Robin Hutton) who happens to be engaged to Dan
McGrew the Assistant Manager (Dan Chameroy).
The action does move to the Yukon for “The Shooting of Dan McGrew” and “The Cremation of Sam McGee,” two of Service’s most famous poems.
The plot will turn around the
eternal triangle (which will not have the usual happy resolution) and the
composition of verses by Service.
Panych manages to inject some light
humour into the courtship of Louise and the activities of the tellers in the
bank. Mr. McGee, the bank manager, is quite amusing in the hands of Randy
Hughson as is Ken James Stewart as Noah the clerk. He is quite funny.
Lucy Peacock is the drunken
landlady who is in love with our hero but she is almost wasted in the role.
Dan Chameroy is the straight-laced McGrew in contrasts to the dreamy and passionate Service.
The rather thin pot is augmented with a number of musical numbers. It is after all a musical. The music is pleasant enough though hardly memorable. It is partly controlled by the rhythm, of Service’s poetry. He wrote in simple language with the regular rhythm of rhyming couplets.
Norman’s music usually follows
the poetry as if he were reciting it but he does manage some melodies. I cannot
remember a single one of them but the performance was good, especially during the second half which was
reasonably enjoyable.
Rooney is good as Service – a dreamy,
decent man in love with Louise who insists that she loves him. Unfortunately,
she is a modern woman and is lying to both McGrew and to Service.
Service (1874-1958) led a full
and very colourful life but I guess Panych and Norman could not condense it or
pick a few incidents from it and at the
same time give us some of his poetry.
In the end you get some poetry, a
few pleasant laughs, some forgettable songs around a fictionalized life.
______
Wanderlust by
Morris Panych (book) and Marek Norman (music) opened on July 11 and will run
until September 28, 2012 at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford , Ontario
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