PRODIGAL - REVIEW OF NEW PLAY BY SANTALUCIA AT STREETCAR CROWSNEST THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

In the famous words of Leo Tolstoy, happy families are all alike; every dysfunctional family  is a great source of material for drama, comedy, satire and soap operas. It gets an additional blast of energy if it can reach to the even greater source of material: the Bible.

Playwright Paolo Santalucia has done all those things in his new play Prodigal,  now playing at the Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre in Toronto.

Santalucia’s version of the dysfunctional and Bible-associated group is the wealthy Clark family. The patriarch  is Rowan Clark (Rick Roberts), who is rich, well-connected, has a mistress and is being considered for the position of Governor-General of Canada.  

His older son Henry (Cameron Laurie) is a model of rectitude (in other words, a stupid bore) who is about to marry Sadie (Veronica Hortiguela), a lovely and ditzy influencer (able to make money from stupid people) and a daughter Violet (Hallie Seline) who has brains and hates her mother. Rowan and his wife Marilyn (Nancy Palk) also have a younger son Edmund (Dan Mousseau) and now you may turn to Luke 15; 11-24. Yes, Edmund is the Prodigal Son with a few additions by Santalucia. Edmund is a drug and alcohol addict, and can alliteratively be described as dissipated, debauched and  dissolute. He has found temporary happiness with Levi (Michael Ayres), a man he met in the flight back home and has  engaged in enthusiastic erotic exercises with him.

Dan Mousseau, Cameron Laurie, Rick Reberts. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Rowan’s mistress Simone (Shauna Thompson) is also his assistant and paramour and the two express devotion to each other. Simone is beautiful, bright and knows what she wants. Rowan gives every indication that he wants the same. His wife Marilyn has the the emotional depth of a bowl of soup but she does know the price of things and is deeply concerned about the fate of her flowers and her chestnut tree. Just one more complication: Levi is Simone’s brother and he is an illegal migrant with a criminal record who wants to stay in Canada. A homosexual binge with Edmund is just the beginning for him.

Roberts’ Rowan Clark is a patrician gentleman who sets the aristocratic tone of a family of high standing but reality throws in some serious roadblocks to maintaining that status. A beautiful mistress may be fun but not something you can put on your resumé. Worse, a prodigal wastrel of a son who has returned home with the mistress’s brother is more like an earthquake than a roadblock.  Robert’s gives a superb performance as the anxious aristocrat trying to keep up appearances.

The central character of course is Edmund and Mousseau has a tough role to handle. He has to present an emotional and physical wreck whom we see in alcoholic and drug induced stupor. Edmund does show some insight into his behaviour but the role is highly demanding and Mousseau does outstanding work.

Shauna Thompson plays the Preacher, a character who opens the play with a sermon about forgiveness and redemption and makes the closing remarks providing nice bookends for a play that does have some roots in the famous parable of the Prodigal Son. Thompson can join any evangelical church if acting jobs dry up.  

Veronica Hortiguela and Meghan Swaby. Photo: Dahlia Katz

The backdrop of the play is a fancy dinner at the Clark house where Pauline (Meghan Swaby), a chef and her husband Quentin (Jeff Yung) are serving the hoity-toity Clarks. The no nonsense and sharp-tongued Pauline and the henpecked Quentin provide much of the humour of the play.

Santalucia manages to give some substance even to the secondary roles of Marilyn, Sadie and  Violet and Nancy Palk, Veronica Hortiguela and Hallie Seline earn kudos for their performances.

The set by Mark Hockin  shows a part of the kitchen of the Clark residence which consists of an island with cooking facilities and is separated from the rest of the house by a white wall. It does the job very well.

Santalucia directs his own play and except for a ridiculous musical interlude, he does a fine job.

Santalucia makes intelligent use of the material for drama, comedy and satire provided by a dysfunctional family. He has the moral and religious overtones of the Biblical parable but he does not overdo them, praise the Lord. But a story about internecine hatreds of the wealthy with the added flavour of discovered infidelity, political ambition and a son who is a total loser can often brush shoulders with soap opera dimensions. We still like the story, enjoy its development and await the resolution of the many plot strands. Unfortunately, there are far too many plot strands that are left dangling and the play seems ready for a TV serial.

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Prodigal  by Paolo Santalucia in a production by The Howland Company and Crow’s Theatre continues until March 12, 2023, at Streetcar Crowsnest Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4M 2T1. https://howlandcompanytheatre.com/   http://crowstheatre.com/

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press

A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM – REVIEW OF VANCOUVER OPERA PRODUCTION

 WELL SUNG, WELL ACTED, WELL DONE

Reviewed by James Karas

For its second opera for the 2022/2023 season, the Vancouver Opera is offering Benjamin Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a delightful and superbly done production. Conductor Jacques Lacombe and director Aria Umezawa handle the musical, vocal and dramatic parts of the opera with expertise leading to a standing ovation.

Britten shaped the libretto with his partner Peter Pears from Shakespeare’s play by making major cuts but remaining faithful to the remaining text. The editing resulted in presenting three worlds in the opera, each requiring different musical treatment. They judiciously removed the opening scene in Athens and almost all the action takes place in the woods outside the city.

First there is the magic of the fairies with their king Oberon and queen Tytania. Then we have the world of the young lovers escaping the rigours of Athenian law and parental control. They are Demetrius and Hermia, and Helen and Lysander who provide an outpouring of delicious romantic poetry and a deluge of hilarious acrimony. The third world is that of the Athenian artisans who rehearse a play for the wedding of Theseus and Hippolyta.

Daniel Moody and Magali Simard-Galdes as 

Oberon and Tytania surrounded by chorus. 

Photo Tim Matheson

Countertenor Daniel Moody and Soprano Magali Simard-Galdes deliver splendid singing as the fighting King and Queen of the Faeries. They argue over a boy that Oberon wants, and he has the ethereal and mischievous Puck to help him wreak havoc among the lovers. The four gorgeous lovers’ quarrels and reconciliations have lyrical poetry and beautiful music that are a delight to the ear. Kudos to tenor Spencer Britten (Lysander), baritone Clarence Frazer (Demetrius), mezzo-soprano Hillary Tufford (Hermia) and soprano Jonelle Sills (Helena). The fight scene is choreographed beautifully by Anna Kuman and done hilariously.

The six artisans who rehearse and put on the story of Pyramus and Thisbe to celebrate the wedding of Theseus (Neil Craighead) and Hippolyta (Stephanie Tritchew) are outstandingly successful. The artisans are Bottom (Peter McGillivray), Flute (Asitha Tennekoon), Quince (Luka Kawabata), Snug (Peter Monaghan) Snout (Ian Cleary) and Starveling (Jason Cook). They deserve collective and individual praise because they are simple and touching people who form a comedy troupe to bring the house down.

McGillivray as Bottom deserves some extra applause for his braggadocio and showmanship. He is turned into an ass and Tytania falls in love with him.

Kunji Ikeda should be charged with theft. He plays the speaking-only-role of the spirit Puck. He is athletic (cartwheels and flips), engages the audience for laughter and can be seen on stage and in the audience at will. He mixes up the lovers and moves at the speed of light. Obviously, director Umezawa deserves the credit for developing the character of Puck for Ikeda to do it. We love him.

The set by Craig Alfredson features diaphanous panels and magical scenes are projected on them. Centerstage consists of a raised platform with a hole in the middle with steps on each side leading to the top. It is turned around as necessary.

Britten’s music represents the ethereal world of the fairies, the romantic music of the lovers and the earthy tone of the artisans. It is not always easy music, but the Vancouver Opera Orchestra does outstanding work. The Children’s Chorus opens the opera with the lovely “Over hill, over dale” and is a pleasure to hear throughout.

The three worlds of the woods finally go to the place where order is established and the artisans perform their outrageous version of Pyramus and Thisbe. Oberon and Tytania are re-united, the lovers are reconciled, Theseus and Hippolyta are married and the artisans score a triumph.

Director Umezawa has done superb work in general and in particular in staging the lovers’ quarrel, the scenes of the artisans and Puck’s delightful activities.                                                    

An outstanding production from the Vancouver Opera.

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A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Benjamin Britten opened on February 11 and will be performed on February 16 and 19, 2023 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre, 630 Hamilton St. Vancouver, BC.  www.Vancouveropera.ca/

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspaper.

THINGS I KNOW TO BE TRUE - REVIEW OF BOVELL’S PLAY AT CAA THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

Things I Know To BE True is an outstanding play by Australian playwright Andrew Bovell and it is now playing at the CAA Theatre in Toronto.  Don’t waste your time with other duties: see this amazing production.

Bovell builds his play around a happy, loving family that lives in a suburb and all is going well. Bob and Fran Price have four grown-up children who will bring problems that Bob and Fran never expected when they dreamed of the “usual” progression of life through love, marriage and grandchildren. Fate does not always arrange matters as dreamt.

The play begins with a monologue by Rosie (Alanna Bale), the youngest child of a startling incident that she was involved in. She is on the verge of adulthood and  went to Europe where she met a beautiful Spanish lad who bedded her and proceeded to steal her money and other possessions and disappear. She returns home distraught but the family supports her and the ugly incident is put behind.

(L to R, clockwise) Alanna Bale, Daniel Maslany, 

Christine Horne, Michael Derworiz, Seana McKenna 

and Tom McCamus. Photo Credit Dahlia Katz

The family gets together upon Rosie’s return and we hear a great deal of family minutiae that resonate with most people. Dealing with a coffee maker, bringing chickens for dinner, recalling old incidents and numerous other mundane events, many repetitive ones, that make up family life.

But some events are not mundane at all and the picture of the happy family begins to show fissures. Pip (Christine Horne), the oldest is married to a wonderful man and they have two children. But she has fallen out of love with her husband and is leaving him, to go live with another man.

Mark (Michael Derworiz) looks effeminate, and his parents suspect that he is gay. But it goes much further than that. To the utter shock of his parents, Mark reveals that he is transgender and wants to change his sex. He calls himself Mia and in the final scene appears wearing a dress. He is starting a new life away from home. 

Ben (Daniel Maslany) is a successful worker in the financial services sector. But he is greedy and, worse, has become a drug addict. He has siphoned off a small fortune from his employer and may end up in jail.

Rosie too wants to spread her wings and leaves the family to go live in another city.

Fran (Seana McKenna) has diverted a large amount of money from the family expenses just in case she separated from her husband Bob (Tom McCamus). Unlike her daughter Pip, she stayed in the marriage for the sake of the children. She had an unconsummated affair with a patient in the hospital where she works as a nurse.

Rosie has decided that she wants to break away from her parents and plans to drive a long way away from her parents.

The father seems befuddled by what is happening around him. It seems he was not aware of the issues facing the family in the past and has difficulty comprehending the present. He is happy tending his garden and all he wants is for his children to grow up, marry and provide him with grandchildren

The vision of a once happy, working class family that is now falling apart is a mirage. There have been unresolved issues all along but they were hidden or camouflaged, or temporarily ignored but they were always there and life somehow went on.  

The genius of the play is the intricate integration of the mundane events of life with the tragic occurrences that separate and destroy the family. The great success of the production is the ability of director Philip Riccio to present all the details of this family’s banal and  tragic events in a coherent, realistic, credible and superb manner. He has two great actors in McKenna and McManus who show masterly intonation, gesture, movement and emotional gauge through the comic, the dramatic and the tragic parts of the play.

Bale, Derworiz, Horne and Maslany give outstanding performances as Bob and Fran’s children. The issues that develop between them and the parents are never resolved.

The set by Shannon Lea Doyle consists of an ordinary kitchen on one side and a garden on the other side. The latter is the symbol of happy and perhaps not so happy memories in the life of the Price family.

This is an outstanding production with its superb cast that captures the humour, drama and tragedy of the one family and provides marvelous theatre.

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Things I Know To Be True by Andrew Bovell in a coproduction by David Mirvish and The Company Theatre will run until February 19, 2023 at the CAA Theatre, 651 Yonge St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

SALOME – REVIEW OF 2023 REVIVAL OF EGOYAN’S PRODUCTION FOR THE CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY

Reviewed by James Karas 

In 2013 Atom Egoyan, the brilliant film director, put his own stamp on Richard Strauss’s Salome when he staged the opera for the Canadian Opera Company. That production is revived for the COC’s current season and it has lost none of its luster.

Egoyan brings much of his cinematic expertise to the production and we get a riveting Salome. He makes extensive use of projections including for the always problematic dance by Salome for her step-father, the lecherous and unhinged Herod, Tetrarch of Judea.

A few plot points. Herod (Michael Schade) is married to Herodias (Karita Mattia), his late brother’s wife. Her daughter Salome, a girl in her teens, has developed an obsessive attraction, make that lust, for St. John the Baptist, Jochanaan in the opera, (Michael Kupfer-Radecky) who is a prisoner of Herod’s. The saint is kept in a cistern under the palace terrace and can be heard fulminating through a hole.

Egoyan’s production is set entirely on the terrace of the palace which consists of green-gray concrete walls with a few openings. It fits his dark and gloomy view of the opera. The floor is slanted and we see the basement below where the Baptist is imprisoned. There are projections above the terrace showing a kaleidoscope of scenes. At first, we see Salome luxuriating in a swimming pool and then a projection of the Baptist’s mouth as he announces the coming of the Son of Man and condemns Herod and Herodias for their sinful life. The view of his mouth projected on the screen gives us direct contact with the Baptist who otherwise is supposed to sing through a hole in the floor.

Ambur Braid as Salome (top left), Michael Kupfer-Radecky

 as Jochanaan (below), and Frédéric Antoun as Narraboth (top right). 

Photo: Michael Cooper

Soprano Ambur Braid has the toughest role in the  opera and her performance is simply superb. She has a big, powerful voice and throughout the opera and especially in the long final scene she gives outstanding results. In the final scene, she holds the bloodied head of the Baptist, kisses the lips in triumph for having him be headed and in defeat at being unable to get him to return her passion. She shows a huge emotional range as demanded by Strauss and it is a thrill to see and hear her.

Baritone Kupfer-Radecky sings with the sonorous and powerful intonations of a believer who condemns sinners and rejects Salome’s powerful expressions of passionate love. She is clearly psychologically unbalanced in her love for him but it is beyond control. Christ’s  disciple is not moved.

Tenor Michael Schade gives us a Herod who is clearly deranged in his lust for his stepdaughter, his fear of putting the strange Jochanaan to death and a man driven to the edge by Salome’s refusal to dance for him. Numerous offers do not sway Salome and “Half my kingdom for a dance” does not cut it until he promises “anything” and he gets his way. Schade was not always at his best and at times sounded strident or was overpowered by the orchestra. It may be because he was acting like a lunatic that he gave that impression.

Karita Mattila sang Herodias quite effectively. She gave impressive performances as Salome at the Met about 15 years ago and her voice may have deteriorated over time. Her Herodias was generally good but at 62, it is a very commendable performance.

Michael Schade as Herod, Karita Mattila as Herodias (back), 

and Ambur Braid as Salome. Pphoto: Michael Cooper

Salome’s dance is sometimes considered of central importance to the opera, probably influenced by memories of Rita Hayworth doing the Dance of the Seven Veils for a leering Charles Laughton in the 1953 film. There are few singers who can dance and directors must find a way of presenting it. Egoyan uses video projections showing. Salome on a swing with various backgrounds. He uses shadow performers (Clea Minaker and Faye Dupras) to do the dancing to the revival choreography of Julia Aplin. We realize that Salome was abused as a young girl and that may explain her conduct towards John who may have been the only man who did not abuse her. Does she kill him in order to make love to him?

The costumes by Catherine Zuber were from “any era” that you want. Captain Naraboth (Frederic Antoun) wore a khaki-coloured suit and tie and the guards sported the same colour costume that blended with the colours of the walls of the terrace. The arguing Jews wore white as did Herod and Herodias. The latter had orange gowns on top. Salome wore a bathing suit and a white gown at the start and a white gown later. They were adequate.

Strauss’s music requires an orchestra of Wagnerian proportions with 105 players. It is one of those operas where the music dominates, making the life of the singers more difficult than usual. The COC Orchestra under Johannes Debus gave us a full concert’s worth of a performance.

Egoyan adds his own touch to the end of the opera. According to the libretto, Herod orders the guards to kill Salome. In this production, Herod grabs Salome and is about to strangle her when the lights go out. End of the opera.

This is an extraordinary production by any measuring stick and a Salome not to be missed.

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Salome by Richard Strauss opened on February 3 and will be performed seven times until February 24, 2023, on various dates at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts, 145 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  416-363-6671. www.coc.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspaper.

FALL ON YOUR KNEES – REVIEW OF CANADIAN STAGE ET. AL. PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Fall on Your Knees is a 6-hour theatre epic, played in two parts at the Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto. The first part is titled Family Tree and it covers the period from the early 1900s to the 1960s. This is a review of Part 1 which centres on the lives and experiences of the Piper family from the time James Piper falls in love and marries the 13-year old Materia Mahmoud to the time when they become grandparents. The family saga continues in Part 2 with recollections and revelations from the past.

We witness the good, the bad and the ugly parts of the lives of the extended family over many decades. There are moments of happiness and humour; there are fights, assaults, and murderous attacks. We get to see them all in mostly realistic theatre that holds its own for much of the time but also strolls through the lives of the characters with some strain on our attention span.

For a start, we are in Cape Breton and we meet James Piper (Tim Campbell), a strapping young man, a piano tuner, who meets Materia Mahmoud (Cara Rebecca) and they fall in love. Mr. Mahmoud, (Antoine Yared), her father, a Lebanese immigrant, holds the old-world morality, disapproves of the relationship and ties up Piper and gives him a few hammer blows. James and Materia get married and they are deliciously happy. For a short while. Their relationship turns ugly. Details withheld.

They have three daughters, Kathleen (Samantha Hill), Frances (Deborah Hay) and Mercedes (Jenny L. Wright). There are some moments of happiness but most of their lives are punctured with misery and distress.  Kathleen has a promising singing career and she goes to New York to study to become an opera singer. She returns home pregnant with tragic consequences. Frances is the family clown and Hay takes advantage of every opportunity to create comic scenes. Frances becomes a hooker. 

Tim Campbell and Cara Rebecca. Photo: Dahlia Katz

James goes off to fight in The Great War, is invalided and discharged. Eventually he supplements his work as a piano tuner by engaging in bootlegging. He also drinks to excess. Mercedes stays home to look after his needs and endures his perennial dictatorial conduct. Though he shows affection and has some positive traits, Piper has a violent streak in him and he strikes his wife and daughters brutally with the expected consequences. He dotes on Kathleen with suggestions of incestuous attraction to her, hates Frances and loves Mercedes.

The is an intentionally sketchy description of the plot involving the central characters. The play has a much larger canvas with the Mahmoud family at the beginning, Frances’s experience in a Catholic school run by nuns, the bar where Frances sells herself and the story of their “sister” Lilly (Eva Foote) and the Piper’s Jewish neighbour Mrs. Luvovitz (a funny Diane Flacks who also acts as a nun), and a number of other characters.

We meander through the lives of the characters and there are flashes of violence that are shocking in their brutality. When James Piper strikes, as he mistakenly hits one daughter, he loosens a tooth. Other assaults are more targeted and lethal. But there are issues with the development of the plot. The chronology of events is sometimes opaque and I was not always certain about the identity of some of the characters. 

Frances’ descent into the lowlife is graphically illustrated and we have our breath taken away when Materia attends to the delivery of Kathleen’s child(ren) when she returns from New York impregnated by an unknown man.

The acting is superb from Campbell’s hulking Piper displaying decency with an undercurrent of brutality and perhaps incestuous interest in his daughter. Deborah Hay gets the juicy role of Frances and she gets kudos for making the most of it among the unfunny roles played by the other actors. Flacks’ Mrs. Luvovits is a decent woman with some humour that again becomes noticeable.   

The play has a rich assortment of music with a band on stage playing. It is a good diversion and perhaps appropriate considering James Piper’s trade.

The set by Camelia Koo features black cables around the playing area and rising to the top of the stage. The scene changes from the Mahmoud residence to the Piper house, to New York, to school, to the sleazy bar where Frances works with speed and a minimum of props being used. 

The adaptation of Ann-Marie MacDonald’s popular novel took 8 years and it has involved some significant persons in Canadian theatre and generous amounts of money. Alisa Palmer and Hannah Moscovitch adapted the novel for the stage. The two are also credited as co-creators as well as writer (Moscovitch) and director (Palmer). There are seventeen other people listed  as members of the creative team. Five theatre companies are credited for the production, namely the National Arts Centre, Vita Brevis Arts, Canadian Stage, Neptune Theatre, Halifax and the Grand Theatre, London, Ont.

The production will travel to Hamilton, London, Halifax and other theatres across Canada.

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Fall on Your Knees, Part 1 by Alisa Palmer and Hannah Moscovitch, adapted from the novel by Ann-Marie MacDonald ran until February 5, 2023, at the Bluma Appel Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspaper.

PRESSURE – REVIEW OF SUPERB PLAY ABOUT D-DAY AT ROYAL ALEX

Reviewed by James Karas 

Can you write a good play about a weather forecast? Would you see play about a weather forecast when you know very well what the weather was like on the date for which a forecast was necessary? The answer is a resounding Yes.

The play is Pressure by David Haig and it is now playing at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, Toronto. You should see it for many good reasons the most essential being that you will enjoy it thoroughly.

Let’s begin. It is 1:00 p.m. on Friday, June 2, 1944 and the weatherman is Dr James Stagg (Kevin Doyle) who must forecast accurately what the weather conditions will be on Monday, Morning June 5. General Eisenhower (Malcolm Sinclair) informs him of the enormity of the reason. He informs Stagg that 7000 vessels, 160,000 ground troops, 200,000 naval personnel, 15 hospital ships, 8000 doctors and 4 airborne divisions are about to embark on the biggest amphibious landing in history. Everything is ready and the only thing that can stop the expedition is the weather. Stagg has to predict it accurately or the landing could prove to be a disaster.

We are in the opening scene of the play. Haig builds up suspense, provides humour and human conflict and personal problems to keep the plot moving and fascinating and entertaining us.

Foreground L-R: Philip Cairns, Malcolm Sinclair, Kevin Doyle. 

Background L-R: Stuart Milligan, Laura Rogers, James Sheldon. 

Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

Colonel Irving Krick (Philip Cairns) is the expert American meteorologist who knows the historic weather for June 5^th and believes that the same conditions will prevail on June 5, 1944. Stagg, a meticulous scientist, looks at the evidence carefully and disagrees with Krick. The American and British forces’ brass, General “Tooey” Spaatz (Stuart Milligan) and Air Chief Marshall Sir Trafford Leigh-Mallory (David Sibley), in their smart uniforms, must choose whom to support. But the decision lies solely with Eisenhower. He is gruff and humane and the play does nothing to denigrate his status.

The lovely Lieutenant Kay Summersby (Laura Rogers) is Eisenhower’s chauffeur and private secretary and Haig presents them as close to each other without suggesting a more intimate relationship. Summersby does not want the war to end because that will finish her relationship with the general. She is a decent human being and perhaps the most attractive character in the play.     

Eisenhower is ready to order the landing to begin on Monday, June 5. Stagg cannot be certain because as he makes it clear, long-term forecasts are informed guesses and twenty-four hours are considered long term.  

The personal relationship between Eisenhower and Kay Summersby is in the end tragic for her. But we see her humanity in what is happening to Stagg. His wife is in hospital having a difficult delivery and her survival is up in the air. He wants to go and see her but the armed guards well not let him. Security, you know. Kay makes arrangements through Eisenhower and she goes and sees his wife.

Malcolm Sinclair as General Eisenhower and Kevin

 Doyle as Dr. James Stagg. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann

The acting is outstanding.  Doyle as Stagg starts as a dour, unsmiling professional but develops into a decent human being, knowledgeable and sympathetic. Sinclair’s Eisenhower is commanding and demanding but deeply aware of his responsibility and as such he is also humane. Cairns as Krick is arrogant, a bit silly and one may say typically American. A fine cast overall.

The set by Colin Richmond consists of an unprepossessing large room with huge maps of the Atlantic from Newfoundland to the French coast. Wind currents are shown on it and there is a constant flow of information about changing conditions. Not all of it is comprehensible to mere mortals but we always know what is happening and whether the prevailing conditions or the forecast are favourable for an amphibious landing on a massive scale.

The world knows that Stagg’s conclusion about weather conditions were favourable for the landing June 6^th and not on the 5^th as planned so meticulously. Eisenhower took Stagg’s advice over that of that of the American Krick. The landing was successful.

Haig does justice to the persons planning the Normandy landing and Pressure, directed by John Dove and Josh Roche is a wonderful, suspenseful, humorous and humane play that is a joy to see.

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Pressure by David Haig continues until March 5, 2023, at the Royal Alexandra Theatre, 260 King St. W. Toronto, Ont. www.mirvish.com

James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press. This review appears in the newspaper.