Reviewed by James Karas
Wildwoman is a new play written and directed by Kat Sandler and playing at the Young Centre in a production by Soulpepper. It is part of her words, a series of productions of plays by women. The program for the series describes Wildwoman as “a bold and sexy new comedy that explores class, gender and power.”
I found it a rigmarole of a play that is manic, at times idiotic, shallow, funny and unfunny in the first half. It turns “serious” in the second act where brutality and oppression are real even if the dialogue does not improve. How many times can you describe things as effing this and effing that before it becomes tiresome.
Sandler claims that the play is 99.9% true.
Catherine de Medici (1519 – 1589) was born to the noble, wealthy and powerful Medici family in Florence. When it comes to being well-connected, she could blithely mention that the Pope was her uncle. Try topping that. She was brought to France at age 14 to marry the fifteen-year-old second son of the King Francis I in 1533. He became King Henry II in 1547.
Love did not explode between the two teenagers. Sandler’s Catherine (Rose Napoli) and Henry (Toni Ofori) can’t quite “do” it but he does have a sexually alluring mistress Didi, more accurately, the noble Diane de Poitiers (Rosemary Dunsmore) who does a lot more than satisfy Henry’s hormonal needs. There is a servant named Kitty (Gabriella Sundar Singh) who plays a prominent role in the life of Cathrine. In any event, we have three women in the turbulent 16th century France.
When the heir to the throne dies in 1536, Henry becomes the heir apparent and the pressure is on for him and Catherine to produce an heir. I am not sure when the pressure was first put on but, in the play, it is a palpable demand, especially important when the young couple were not doing it.
Matters become very complicated when Henry gets a present of a hairy, wild man in a cage. Pete (Dan Mousseau) as the wild man is named is scary, was raised in a cage and is incapable of speech. That is soon remedied and Pete turns out to be a wise, well-spoken albeit still seriously hairy man. Catherine is attracted to him and it is possible that Beauty Catherine may have gone all the way with the Hairy Beast and he may have been the father of one of her children. I am not sure. In any event, she bore nine children in all.
The cast sings Happy Birthday to Henry (in French) and the boisterous audience at the Young Centre is invited to join in the singing. Henry is getting older and becomes King in 1547 and would last until 1559.
Didi or no Didi, the sexual problem of the couple is resolved but Henry ignores Catherine in matters of state completely and continues to place his trust in his mistress and in Hairy Pete. All that changed after 1959 when Catherine became regent to her underage son and she lasted in that position until 1563. She continued to be influential in varying degrees until her death in 1589.
Some of this information comes from the play and some from history. Sandler is not writing a biography of Catherine de Medici but dramatizes a few points in the life of the pathetic young bride and the powerful woman in the French court of her time.
The play is fast paced, at times farcical and not always compressible. Was Sandler as director having the cast deliver their lines at breakneck speed to finish the whole thing in about 2 hours and 40 minutes? The set by Nick Blais and the costumes by Michelle Tracey are spectacular. The set looks like a grand throne room and the costumes are 16th century haute couture, I assume, elaborate, colourful, marvelous.
The production has virtues but, in the end, it did not resonate with me. The claim that it is 99.9% historically accurate is, well, not 99.9%. I don’t know what Sandler’s assertion is based on but in the context of a play the claim seems gratuitous. It makes no difference in any event.
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Wildwoman by Kat Sandler continues until October 29, 2023, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.
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