By James Karas
Do you want to see a play in
which the actors speak, make that yell, at the top of their lungs in a small
theatre for much of the performance? And you can’t really tell who three of the
seven characters are until near the end of the play?
You do? Well, the Stratford
Festival has just the ticket for you. It is The Virgin Trial by Kate
Hennig, a new play that the Festival commissioned and is now playing in the Studio
Theatre.
The virgin of the title in Bess
better known as Queen Elizabeth I of England who earned the moniker denoting
complete abstention from sexual intercourse largely because she never married.
The Bess we see in the play is Princess Elizabeth at age fourteen shortly after
her father, King Henry VIII died and who lived with Katherine Parr, his last
wife. Her uncle Ted was appointed Lord Protector of the Realm and Ted’s brother
got the job of Lord High Admiral and he married Katherine Parr.
Members of the company in The Virgin Trial.
Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.
The identity of Bess, Ted, Thom
and Mary are quickly discerned. But there are three other characters who are
listed in the program as Eleanor, Parry and Ashley with no other information.
Why is Stratford showing such lack of consideration for its audience? How hard
would it be to tell us that Ted is Edward Seymour, the Lord Protector or that
Thom is Thomas Seymour, the Lord High Admiral? Yes, they are the brothers of
Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth’s mother.
Who are Eleanor, Parry and
Ashley? We first see Eleanor as a fierce, nasty woman serving water to Bess on
a tray. When the unctuous Ted appears, she becomes the note taker for the
questioning of Bess. Later we see her as a gleeful torturer. Near the end of
the play we discover that she is responsible for the security of the realm. The
play has a modern setting and historical accuracy is not an issue but telling us
who the repugnant woman is from the start may have been a good idea.
Ashley and Parry mill around Bess
and we guess that they have some position wherever she is living. But what? We
should not have to guess and even if we did we may be wrong.
Henry VIII was succeeded by his
nine year old son thus creating a power vacuum and certain nobles started
jockeying for control. The play deals with Thom’s relations with Bess and his
ill-fated attempt to probably abduct King Edward, perhaps become Lord Protector
in place of his brother, marry Bess and eventually become king.
From left: Sara Farb as Mary, André Morin
as Parry, Bahia Watson as Bess and
Laura Condlln as Ashley in The Virgin Trial.
Photography by Cylla von Tiedemann.
The play features enough plots,
counterplots, machinations, intrigues, lies and torture to make your head spin
but that’s part and parcel of struggles for power be it in the sixteenth or
twenty-first century.
The teenage Bess played by Bahia
Watson is smart, stupid, naïve sophisticated, truthful, mendacious, sexually
active and, in the end, virginal. Hennig loads her with all these
characteristics and because Bess was precocious
but nevertheless young, all of them may well apply. Watson gives quite a
performance except for the volume level that she spoke in.
Yanna McIntosh is powerful,
conniving and brutal as Eleanor and if we knew her job from the start we would
have enjoyed her performance even more. Appearing with a tray in her first
appearance did not help. Think of Eleanor as a KGB or CIA interrogator when
torture was (is) permitted.
Even creepier was Ted played by
Nigel Bennett. He raises hypocrisy to new levels as he pretends to be the
benign protector of Bess, ever solicitous of her safety. Then we see him as the
conniving, power-hungry brute that he is. You don’t want him against you or
around you.
Brad Hodder as Thom is an
ambitious manipulator who wants power but lacks the cunning to get it and ends
up in the tower. Andre Morin as Parry and Laura Condlin as Ashley are pawns in
the chess game of power politics and end up getting tortured and worse.
Sara Farb plays Princess Mary,
the future Bloody Queen who is ambivalent about supporting her sister while
fearing for her life.
Much of the action takes place on
an empty stage save for a table and a couple of chairs. The torture scenes are played
behind a cloudy plastic curtain for reasons that escape me. The design is by
Yannik Larivée.
Director Alan Dilworth seems to
think that speaking loudly, really loudly, makes a scene more dramatic. In a
small theatre, it makes it unnecessary and annoying. Two actors speaking at the
same time or interrupting each other may be effective in certain situations. In
this play it was not.
__________________
The Virgin Trial by Kate Hennig continues in repertory
until October 8, 2017 at the Studio Theatre. 34 George Street, Stratford,
Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca
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