**** (out of five)
Reviewed by James
Karas
The Dance of Death is a series of variations on the theme of spousal hatred. August
Strindberg was no stranger to marital acrimony and he did not have to go too far
from his home when he wrote the play that premiered in 1900. Martha Henry
directs the play for the Shaw Festival with powerful performances by Jim Mezon,
Fiona Reid and Patrick Galligan.
Edgar (Jim Mezon) is
an army captain in charge of a fortress on an island near a port in Sweden. His
wife Alice (Fiona Reid) is a former actress and the two are about to
“celebrate” their silver wedding anniversary. Perched above the sea, the
fortress is in fact a former prison but it is the perfect living quarters
metaphorically and realistically for the warring couple which are isolated from the rest of the community and are left
with only a Sentry (Landon Doak) walking silently back and forth outside their
residence.
Jim Mezon as Edgar, Patrick Galligan as Kurt and Fiona Reid
as Alice. Photo by David Cooper.
Mezon with his shaven
pate, generous size and thundering voice gives us a powerful Edgar. The power
may be more apparent than real because Edgar has some health issues including
poor eyesight, excessive use of alcohol and collapsing fits. He admits to
nothing and his booming voice brooks no argument.
Fiona Reid’s Alice is
no pushover. Her hatred of Edgar is a powerful as his for her and she wants revenge
and elimination of him. She engineers his arrest and incarceration but is
unsuccessful He attempted to kill her but failed. He chases her around with a
sword, makes a shambles of their apartment and as if by divine contempt, they cannot
get rid of each other. Fiona Reid excels in comic roles with splendid
intonations, physical moves and hilarious pauses. Here we see her in a dramatic
role that she handles superbly.
The catalyst for some
of the more egregious explosions of marital loathing is the arrival of Alice’s
cousin Kurt (Patrick Galligan). He is a quarantine master sent to open a
quarantine station on the island. Edgar hates him and wants to destroy him
directly and indirectly by affecting his son’s future. Kurt has some experience
in spousal combat. A court ordered him to have no communication with his some
fifteen years ago.
Galligan’s Kurt can
stand his ground against Edgar and he goes many steps further with his
attraction to Alice. The two express great passion for each other and plan to
get rid of Edgar. This is not a comedy and as you may suspect they do not
succeed.
The only other character
in the play is the silent Sentry who walks back and forth in the first half
without any sign of weariness but who limps during the second half.
The play profits from
playwright Conor McPherson’s translation and syncopation. He gets rid of the minor
characters of the maid Jenny and the Old Man and provides a colloquial language
that is not stilted or awkward. The natural flow of the dialogue works
exceptionally well in moving along the plot of a play that has very little
plot.
Jim Mezon as Edgar, Fiona Reid as Alice and Patrick Galligan
as Kurt in The Dance of Death. Photo by David Cooper
The set by William
Schmuck gives the impression of an apartment above the harbor that still seems
claustrophobic and indeed prison-like. Going down to the harbor requires
descending numerous steps and Martha Henry makes sure we hear the loud
footsteps when the characters go down or come up the stairs.
The dance of Death is
not always easy to bring off but Martha Henry with an excellent cast and a
superb version of the play by Conor McPherson succeeds in bringing the
Strindbergian war into a fine evening at the theatre.
______
The Dance of Death by August Strindberg in a version by Conor McPherson runs until
September 10, 2016 at the Studio Theater, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, www.shawfest.com/
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