Reviewed by James Karas
Brutal crimes are a frequent source material for plays and films and
what happened in the town of Ipswich, England, proved to be no exception. In
2006, five prostitutes were murdered and the life of the town, especially of
London Road where the crimes were committed, was understandably affected.
There is plenty of Jack-the-Ripper type of material from bloody murders
to arrest and trial but playwright Alecky Blythe chose a different route for
the creation of the musical London Road now playing at the Bluma
Appel Theatre. She conducted and recorded extensive interviews with the
townspeople and constructed a script based on what they said. She used verbatim
what more than fifty people said from the time of the murders to the end of the
trial and conviction of the murderer. Composer Adam Cork added music to
highlight some of the comments with no attempt at creating any traditional
melodies.
Without the music and sometimes with the music, the play struck me as
another form of reality TV or it bore frightful resemblance to, say, CNN
reporting a bloody crime in Smalltown, U.S.A. The breathless reporters trying
to capture the mood of the town, the frightened, shocked, bewildered citizens
with almost formulaic reactions are all too familiar and hardly seem the stuff
of a two-hour musical.
Canadian Stage believes that they are and it has assembled a first-rate
cast under the direction of Jackie Maxwell for the North American premiere of
the musical.
At the back of the stage we see the
picture of an ordinary street. It has gray, depressing looking houses on each
side and presents an atmosphere of bleakness. There is not a single car in view
but the street looks quite wide. The press kept referring to the street as “the
red light district” after the murders and the residents formed a neighbourhood watch
committee to beautify their street. This is where the play opens.
We meet the townspeople played by Ben Carlson, Fiona Reid, Damien
Atkins, Deborah Hay, George Masswohl and others. They will play the roles or
repeat what the real people of Ipswich said to Blythe. They will sing some of
the lines in a type of recitative that will not tax the vocal abilities of
anyone.
The scene will change effortlessly from house to house, from street to
courthouse as we hear what these people have to say about the victims, the
murderer and the situation in town. Just because what we hear is authentic
reactions by “real people” does not necessarily make it more interesting or
interesting at all. The views, after a while, sound repetitive as does the music.
Once you get past the “isn’t it interesting hearing what real people have to
say” you realize that they don’t have all that much to say.
Verbatim or recorded theatre is much more interesting as a concept than
as a reality in performance. Leave that type of reality to people who stay home
in front of the television.
In fairness, I should mention that London Road won the Critics’ Circle
Theatre Award as the best musical of 2011. Go see it and let me know what you
think.
______
London Road by Alecky Blythe and Adam Cork opened on January
23 and will run until February 9, 2014 at the Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence
Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com
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