A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE – REVIEW OF 2024 SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Soulpepper has very wisely decided to revive its 2019 production of Tennessee Williams’ great play with almost the same cast.

The production is an undeniably superb staging owing to the bravura’s performance of Amy Rutherford as Blanche Dubois. Rutherford faces a character that is fragile, mendacious, egotistical, and trying desperately to conceal the fact that she is at the end of her rope. She has the fading beauty of Blanche, downs alcoholic drinks while pretending not to drink much if at all and wants to be admired for her clothes and her beauty regardless of reality.

Rutherford’s Blanche goes to extremes to appear sophisticated, cultured and a woman of refined tastes who looks down on everyone especially her sister Stella’s lifestyle and the manners of her husband, the “Pollack” Stanly Kowalski. The truth about her life, her lies and the depravity to which she has sunk, come creeping on her until they destroy her.

Rutherford brings out the deteriorating physical appearance, the mannerisms and the body language that define Blanche perfectly in a brilliant and unforgettable  performance. 

Stanley Kowalski played by Mac Fyfe, Blanche DuBois played by 

Amy Rutherford, and Stella Kowalski played by Shakura Dickson. 
Photo: Dahlia Katz

Blanche is the perfect opposite of her sister Stella who has married a crude, ill-mannered man but with whom she is in love, in lust and happy about it. The couple lives on the wrong side of the track but in an integrated community that gets along. Shakura Dickson delineates a sympathetic, tough and humane Stella who understands her sister and tries to cover up the awful reality that she sees. She has made her truce with life and is content but is forced to face the reality of her sister’s delusions and deterioration. Dickson shows Stella’s strengths and humanity and when Blanche is taken away to an asylum, she lets out a heart-wrenching scream that is like an emotional punch in the gut.

Mac Fyfe has no difficulty portraying Stanley. One of the most famous moments occurs when he bellows “Stella” following his drunken abuse of her. He yells her name but he adds two syllables to his bellow and the word Stella is elongated to Stella-ah-ah and modulates his voice to express anguish, regret, fear, terror, it is a masterly touch.

Blanche DuBois played by Amy Rutherford 

and Mitch played by Gregory PrestCredit: Dahlia Katz

What I did not get from Fyfe is the magnetism that should modify his character for the audience and Stella. His lust, his crudeness and love for Stella are there, but there is no other saving characteristic. We should not forget that in the end he becomes a rapist.

Gregory Prest deserves special praise for his portrayal of the decent, lonely, pathetic Mitch who tries to establish a relationship with Blanche. He is quickly disabused when he finds out a few facts about her past.

The set designed by Lorenzo Savoini showed a card table on the left separated by a curtain for  the kitchen and bedroom to the right, A staircase leads to the apartments of the neighbors. In short, it does the job well. The same may be said of the costumes designed by Rachel Forbes.

Director Weyni Mengesha has added some music and a large screen is projected on the stage and we hear a band play. I have no idea why she added the music but I found it distracting and annoying. aside from that I found this a landmark production and Mengesha deserves full credit for attending to the details required for an outstanding production. Except for the music, everything was done meticulously for a great  night at the theatre. 
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A Streetcar Named Desire by Tennessee Williams continues until July 7, 2024  at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario, M5A 3C4. www.soulpepper.ca

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

THE SHAW VARIETY SHOW and THE ROLL OF SHAW - REVIEW OF 2024 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTIONS

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Shaw Variety Show and The Roll of Shaw are two of the five free-wheeling cabaret-type performances to be presented this summer at the Shaw Festival in the 150-seat Spiegeltent behind the Festival Theatre. The Spiegeltent looks like a bar and the customers see  actors performing improv acts and involving the audience. The Shaw Variety Show opened on May 17 and will run until October 6, 2024. I saw the May 23 performance.

Kristopher Bowman created the show and he, together with Cosette Derome, Manami Hara, Travis Seetoo and Shawn Wright performed the various skits.

The show was engaging, entertaining, silly and funny. The actors poked fun at themselves (“please keep coming so we can get paid”) engaged the audience (singing Happy Birthday to two audience members) and kept us amused for about 90 minutes.

Bowman, famous for adorning Harlequin romance covers, they tell us, was our ebullient and energetic host. Seetoo was the music director, played a guitar and sang a Gordon Lightfoot song.

Bowman devised takeoffs on game shows like The Price is Right and the energetic actors did their bit providing humor and antics while playing the games. One of them sang a song in Korean and another sang in Japanese. It was noteworthy and laudable that they introduced actors from diverse backgrounds and let them perform in the language of their origin.

Manami Hara taught us how to count in Japanese and we joined her in singing a song in her native language. Jonathan Tan from Malaysia was “interviewed” by Bowman and he managed to be witty and provide some information about his performing career and ability with various accents. And no, he has not a string of 2500 Duolingo lessons and he did not sing for Queen Elizabeth II, if I understood correctly.

There is a hilarious town meeting in old Niagara-on-the-Lake where they advise citizens how to deal with coyotes and skunks. Americans in the audience are declared prisoners of war and sing the town anthem.

The Roll of Shaw is the second such feature and I saw it on June 13. It was not as successful as The Shaw Variety Show but as our host Travis Seetoo noted it was a performance “never seen before and never to be seen again.” The fact that the air conditioning system did not work was an unfortunate feature on a very hot afternoon.

Seetoo wants us to see role-playing, in effect the actor’s life. He devised whodunnit and had two actors sitting at a table adlib plot details as he prompted them. Imagine you are Eliza Doolittle of My Fair Lady leaving Professor Higgins or Ann Whitefield of Man and Superman. Now imagine a meeting of the International Socialist Society where Ann is talking with Eliza. Shaw arrives at the meeting and he is stabbed. Who done it?

In the heat and perspiration of that afternoon Shane Carty and Cosette Derome were not inspired on June 13, the date that I saw it, to come up with enough witty lines to carry the afternoon. The audience was not in a good mood and the actors, especially in situations like that, need feedback and very little was coming to them. As Seetoo told us it was a show not seen before and never to be seen again and that should apply to the malfunctioning air conditioning system.
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The Shaw Variety Show and The Roll of Shaw  continue until October 6 and September 28, 2024, respectively at the Spiegeltent, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com

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

WENDY AND PETER PAN - REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Every year the Stratford Festival produces a play for young people. It is a wise decision because it gives parents a chance to take the youngsters to the theatre and for the Stratford Festival to nurture the next generation of theatre lovers.

This year’s wise offering is J.M. Barrie’s Wendy and Peter Pan in one of its recent adaptations. The original play premiered on the stage as Peter Pan, or The Boy Who Would Not Grow Up in 1904 (yes, 1920 years ago) and it has been adapted for stage and screen numerous times. The Stratford Festival is much younger than that but planning for longevity is great thinking.

We first meet the Darling family in London at the turn of the twentieth century, the three boys, John, Michael and Tom and their older sister Wendy. They are a rambunctious lot but the boys will not let her play with them. Tragedy strikes when Tom falls ill and dies. The family is inconsolable and Wendy keeps looking for  her brother when a year later the windows of her bedroom fly open and Petr Pan and the fairy Tink a.k.a. Tinkerbell  arrive. Peter is looking for his shadow.

They will take Wendy to Neverland which is not a suburb of London or Toronto but precisely where the name implies. The Lost Boys live there and could Tom be there too? Wendy’s family is magically taken to Neverland. We will witness life there and join the extensive and adventurous search for Tom and meet some extraordinary characters and events. There is Hook, the pirate captain whose left hand has been eaten by a huge crocodile. The latter is brilliantly created, by, I assume, Special Projects Automation Programmer Johnathon Tackett, ZFX,  and we see it crossing the stage menacingly with its bright shining lights. The Lost Boys, a boisterous group of youngsters, will provide kinetic energy and entertain us.

Jake Runeckles as Peter Pan (left) and Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks 

as Wendy. Photo: David Hou.

Jake Runeckles as Peter Pan is so active and agile she looks as if she were made of rubber. Runeckles gives an amazingly athletic and effective performance. Wendy in the hands of  Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks shows maternal instincts but at the same time adapter Elle Hickson  makes her a recognizable  modern woman. The reversal of names in the title is intended to emphasize that message. An impeccable performance by Jimenez-Hicks.

Laura Condlin as the nasty pirate Captain Hook  is supposed to be scary and funny but with her sidekick Smee (Sara-Jeanne Hosie) hanging from her arm she comes along looking like someone  from The Pirates of Penzance despite displaying a philosophical side. Fine work by both actors.   

What does the production offer to the young, its target audience?

A great deal of first-rate entertainment. The play opens in the bedroom of the Darling children in London in 1908. The three boys, John (Noah Beemer) , Michael (Justin Eddy) and Tom (Chris Vergara) engage in a pillow fight and horsing around vigorously but want to exclude their sister Wendy because she is a girl. She will not stand for it. Things get more exciting when Peter Pan crashes through the window of the bedroom. There are swordfights, displays of athletic prowess, magic, and comically rambunctious activity. A pirate ship appears and the excitement stops when needed for more serious business.

Jake Runeckles as Peter Pan (left) and Laura Condlln as Hook

 with members of the company, Stratford Festival 2024. Photo: David Hou.

The piece de resistance is no doubt flying. The actors are suspended up to the stage rafters and moved around in a display of the technical talent of the Stratford Festival’s team. Credit goes to Senior Flying Director and Automaton Programmer Andrea Gentry, ZFX. The Program explains that the flying is coordinated by professionals who do it as part of their everyday job. No need for anyone to be frightened by one of the highlights of the production.

What do the adults who accompany the youngsters get?

Adapter Ella Hickson gives Barrie’s play a welcome feminist twist. The comedy is entertaining for all but having Wendy as an intelligent, assertive woman who is approaching maturity is a fine touch. Peter Pan may be the classic boy who does not want to grow up but may have chinks in his amour over and above what he may think he can control.

The play takes place in England and the actors try to speak in some kind of English accent. Their success is minimal and the attempt at an accent that they have difficulty with is unnecessary. They would sound just fine with an Ontario accent.

Director Thomas Morgan Jones had a mammoth production on his hands with flying directors, a choreographer (Jena Wolfe), Set and Costume Designer (Robin Fisher), a Fight and Intimacy Director (Anita Nittoly), a Fight Captain (David Ball), a Flight Captain (Agnes Tong)  and a regiment of behind-the-scenes workers and helpers. They all deserve individual kudos with the victor’s wreath going to Jones.

Wendy and Peter, adapted by Ella Hickson from the novel by J.M. Barrie continues in repertory until October 7, 2024, as part of the Schulich Children’s Plays, at the Avon  Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca 

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

MY FAIR LADY – REVIEW OF 2024 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

My Fair Lady opened on Broadway in 1956. There were many musicals before that and since but few have reached the artistic heights that it climbed. It remains one of the best musicals ever written. The Shaw Festival is staging it for the second time and it is a superb production.

The musical is by two of the best creators of Broadway musicals, Alan Jay Lerner (book and lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music). It is based on Bernard Shaw’s play Pygmalion and the film by Gabriel Pascal based on the same play. And if you are looking for pedigree, you need to know that the play is based on the Greek myth of Pygmalion, the sculptor who created a statue from a piece of ivory that was of such extraordinary beauty that he fell in love with it. The goddess Aphrodite gave life to the statue and it became Galatea. Pygmalion married her. You get the connection between the myth and Professor Higgins creating a lady from, as he puts it, a squashed cabbage leaf.

In My Fair Lady, Henry Higgins is a professor of phonetics (the science of language) in Edwardian London. He meets Eliza, a flower seller in Covent Garden with an atrocious Cockney) accent and he undertakes to teach her how to speak proper English so she can pass as a duchess at an embassy ball at Buckingham Palace.

Tom Rooney plays the gruff, pitiless, selfish disciplinarian who puts Eliza through the steps of proper pronunciation. Rooney must also sing several songs that are witty and really recitatives that are utterly delightful. “Why can’t the English learn to speak?” he asks and gives examples of painful accents including the comment that in some places English  has completely disappeared. “In America it hasn’t been spoken for years” he comments. Rooney is almost tyrannical in his discipline of Eliza but never without irony as in the rhetorical question: “Why can’t a woman be like a man” meaning himself.  A wonderful performance. 

  

 Kristi Frank as Eliza Doolittle and Tom Rooney as Henry Higgins in 

Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady (Shaw Festival, 2024). 

Photo by David Cooper.

The goal is to get Eliza to speak proper English and the pupil is played by Kristi Frank. Her Eliza is no doormat but improving her accent is no small task. Frank sings some of the most famous  and beautiful sings of the show from “Wouldn’t it be Loverly” to “I could have danced all night.” Frank has a beautiful, lustrous voice that comes through like rays of sunshine. Aside from her singing she shows her tough side by standing up for herself and of course making hilarious booboos like getting overexcited at the races and shouting to the horse to move its arse.

I had a small problem with some of her lines. There were times when she sounded shrill while usually, she sounded fine. I could not figure out the reason for the shrillness and surmise that it may been the sound system that caused it. Aside from that she was superb in every way.

The third character of note is the gentlemanly Colonel Pickering who contrasts with Higgins in his treatment of Eliza. He is a true gentleman and David Alan Anderson fulfills the role. He doe does not have much singing to do except for the awful “You did it.” I mean the song not his singing.

The most engaging person in the musical is Eliza’s father, Alfred P. Doolittle (David Adams.) He is a common dustman who likes to drink and is too poor to have morals. “With a little bit of luck” is a paean to the workers on the bottom of the earning scale and “Get me to the church on time” is an ironic celebration of the common man who has struck it rich, Adams as Doolittle together with the vegetable sellers at Covent Garden gives is a wonderful glimpse of the other world of My Fair Lady. A splendid performance.

David Adams as Alfred P. Doolittle and Kristi Frank 
as Eliza Doolittle in Lerner and Loewe’s My Fair Lady.
Photo by David Cooper.

We like and praise Patty Jamieson as Mrs. Pearce, Sharry Flett as the professor’s forthright mother and Taurian Teelucksingh who is besotted with Eliza and gets to belt out “On the street where you live.”

My Fair Lady is set in front of St. Paul’s Church, Covent Garden, the nearby market  itself where the awfully-accented merchants are selling vegetables, Prof. Higgins’ upper crust house and a ballroom. In the first scene in front of the church we see a foggy background with a dome of a church rising in the distance. It could be St. Paul’s Cathedral which is nowhere near Covent Garden. It can’t be St. Paul’s Church because it does not have a dome. Higgins’ booklined residence and the scene in the ballroom are fine but not ostentatious. Designer Lorenzo Savoini does a good job with Higgins’ house that includes a walkway of steel girders above across  the bookshelves.  There is minimal use of furniture and furnishings that are pushed on and off the stage as needed

The costumes especially the dresses designed by Joyce Padua were haute couture for the ladies and fine for the men according to their station in life. Paul Sportelli conducted the orchestra with enthusiasm.

A thoroughly enjoyable evening that the theatre.
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My Fair Lady by Alan Jay Lerner (book & lyrics) and Frederick Loewe (music)  continues in repertory until December 22, 2024  at the Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

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

ROMEO AND JULIET - REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The final offering in the week of openings at the Stratford Festival was the grandest of love stories, Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The production is directed by Sam White, a young woman who shows promise of good things to come. This effort is not a bad production but there are several issues that provoke criticism and my review may seem to deal more with them and for good sound reasons.

We start with a couple of loud and annoying drums that we will hear on and off. I could not figure out why they are in production. The Chorus sets the scene and theme in the opening lines of the play and it is usually recited by an actor. White seems to have taken the word chorus literally and she has it sung. Nothing was gained by it except with some difficulty in following some of the words.

The staging by director White is sound, the costumes suitable and we have every right to expect a fine production. Graham Abbey as Juliet’s father is remarkably effective. He shows his love for Juliet and is looking out for  her best interest. But  he is a 16^th century father who becomes furious and ugly when disobeyed by his child. An exceptional performance by Abbey.

Glynnis Ranney plays the nurse largely for comic relief. She is shrill, loud and at times difficult to understand but we know what she is about and accept White’s take on the role. The problem with many of the other characters is that they frequently spoke too quickly. Was there a reason for not making them slow down so we can hear and understand what they are saying all the time? Curious and incomprehensible.

        Jonatham Mason and Vanessa Sears meet in Romeo and Juliet, 
Photography by David Hou.

When Romeo and Juliet meet, they speak to each other in a beautiful sonnet. Romeo starts with “If I profane with my unworthiest hand/This holy shrine, the gentle fine is this:/My lips, two blushing pilgrims, ready stand/To smooth that rough touch with a tender kiss” Surely, they are looking in each other’s eyes and falling in love as they speak those beautiful lines. White has them standing at an angle to each other looking away. They then move away from each other and return for the sonnet to take effect and to kiss. One of the most beautiful scenes in the play is reduced in intensity and I have no idea why White chose to stage it thus.

In the final, tragic scene Romeo sees the lovely Juliet in the tomb and asks: “Ah, dear Juliet,/Why art thou yet so fair? Shall I believe/That unsubstantial death is amorous,/And that the lean abhorred monster keeps/Thee here in dark to be his paramour?” Juliet is so beautiful that Death personified keeps her for his mistress. The lines should be delivered with a depth of feeling and resonance that not a single dry eye should remain in the theatre. They were not because Jonathan Mason did not instill them with the emotional intensity that they demand.

Vanessa Sears as Juliet showed passion and vitality during the balcony scene and in her argument with father. She did not rush through her lines as much as some of the other actors. The gruff-voiced Scott Wentworth made a good Friar Laurence so there were good parts in the production but you cannot miss the big ones and expect the less important scenes to carry you.

The street scenes and fight were done well but the overall effect was not as positive we we expected.
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Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare opened on June 1 and will continue in repertory until October 26, 2024, at the Festival Theatre, 55 Queen Street, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor. Culture for The Greek Press 

LA CAGE AUX FOLLES – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

La Cage Aux Folles is the fifth opening and the second musical offered at the 2024 Stratford Festival. It is a wonderful choice and a thoroughly enjoyable production. La Cage opened on Broadway in 1983 and was revolutionary in its treatment of homosexual relations. It became a hit and now is simply a funny script with beautiful songs and outstanding dances.

The plot is simple and rather flimsy. Georges (Sean Arbuckle) and Albin (Steve Ross) are a gay couple living above and running La Cage aux Folles, a nightclub in St. Tropez. Georges is the manager and Albin is a star transvestite performer known as Zaza. They have been together  for a long time and raised Jean-Michel, Georges’ son and the result of a one-night stand following excessive drinking. Albin has raised Jean-Michel as if he were his son.

All is well until Jean-Michel (James Daly) announces to his parents that he is in love with the lovely Anne (Heather Kosik) and wants to marry her. In fact, her parents are coming to meet his family.

This presents logistical, moral, social and political problems that can only be considered as insurmountable. To wit: Anne’s father Edouard Dindon (Juan Chioran) is the leader of the  "Tradition, Family and Morality Party" a political wing that is not in favour of gay nightclubs, to put it politely. Her mother Marie Dindon is no better. How do you handle a sticky situation like this? Lie, yes, lie, fabricate, cover up and …lie. Change the furniture in the apartment and include a prominent cross above the door. Send Albin away. Pretend Georges is a retired diplomat and has nothing to do with the evil nightclub below. And hope that Jean-Michel’s birth mother does not come.  

Almost everything will go wrong with farcical and hilarious consequences. Albin refuses to disappear and another subterfuge is agreed on: make  Albin act like a he-man, let’s say like John Wayne. Imitate the slouch, the walk and look of the Duke. The reactions of the Dindons and the lunatic behavior of the “maid” Jacob (a stupendous Chris Vergara) are all hilarious.

      Members of the company in La Cage aux Folles.

 Stratford Festival 2024. Photo: David Hou.

When Jean-Michel’s biological mother does not show up, Albin, the master cross dresser and his real mother appears as his mother. It is a hilarious scene but the crucial point is that Albin raised Jean-Michel with the love and care of a real mother. When Albin throws off the wig that he is wearing representing the biological mother all hell breaks loose.    

The plot provides all the comedy  and I will not reveal any national secrets if I tell you that handsome Jean-Michel and pretty Anne will marry and be happy, and the parents are reconciled to their bliss.

The thin plot is good enough for the comedy and the singing and dancing are perhaps more important than the other aspects of the musical. Like the plot the music and songs are vintage Broadway, lively, fast paced, lyrical, comic, wonderful. The outstanding song and the one that may have catapulted the show into huge success is “I am what I am” sung by the fearless, exuberant and perhaps larger than life Zaza. It is a hymn, perhaps an anthem for gays who need not apologize or explain who they are.

The Chorus known as Les Cagelles is introduced individually and they are persons rather than just a chorus line. And they are outstanding. Gorgeous, colorful costumes, spectacular dance numbers and comedy, they are a delight to the ear and the eye. Kudos to Choreographer Cameron Carver and Costume Designer David Boechier.  

The sets by Brandon Kleiman represent the stage of the La Cage aux Folles nightclub, a restaurant and the apartment of Georges and Albin, all rich, colorful and beautiful.

Director Thom Allison puts all the parts together and provides an outstanding night at the theatre.
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La Cage aux Folles, with book by Harvey Fierstein, music and lyrics by Jerry Herman, based on the play by Jean Poiret opened on May 31 and will run in repertory until October 26, 2024, at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

HEDDA GABLER – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Kara 

After two plays by Shakespeare and a spectacular musical during opening nights’ week, the Stratford Festival offered us Henrik Ibsen’s astounding drama, Hedda Gabler. It is a well-acted production that is not helped by the large stage of the Tom Patterson Theatre and perhaps the approach of the version it used.

The strength of the production is Sara Topham as the ambitious, bitchy, power-hungry Hedda. Statuesque, imperious, manipulative, aristocratic are the characteristics that begin to define Hedda. The daughter of a now dead general she married the scholarly Tesman (Gordon S. Miller) because he seemed to be on the way up. He took her on a six-month honeymoon where he spent most of the time doing research. She was bored to death.

We first see Hedda on the morning after she returns from her honeymoon wearing a haute couture white gown that defines her social status. We will see her as a nasty person and awful wife but most importantly as a woman who seeks power and dominance over men. This desire reaches its apogee when she tells Lovborg (Brad Hodder), her former lover, to commit suicide by shooting himself in the temple with the gun that she provides.

Brad Hodder as Lovborg (left) and Gordon S. Miller as Tesman 

with Sara Topham as Hedda in Hedda Gabler. Stratford Festival 2024. 

Photo: David Hou

Hedda is caught in a man’s world, and she is rebelling for personal freedom. I prefer to think that her reprehensible conduct can only be understood as a rebellion from the shackles of a husband that she cannot respect and the machinations of Judge Brack (Tom McCamus) who wants her as his sex toy in a menage a trois where he is the dominant rooster. It is that rebellion for freedom that I did not sense in this production.

Gordon S. Miller played a fine Tesman, an ambitious scholar, unsure about his future and financially strapped with a woman who would try the patience of Job. Tom McCamus is a superb Judge Barck who tries to seduce Hedda and acquire her as an ongoing mistress. He almost succeeds.

Brad Hodder plays Lovborg a brilliant scholar who has fallen off the edge of respectability by becoming an alcoholic. He is on his way to rehabilitation and after a night of drinking and worse he loses the only copy of the manuscript of his masterpiece. He is a man at the end of his rope and commits suicide or is accidentally killed. The issue is left up in the air, but Hedda is crushed by the fact that he did not die heroically with wine leaves on his head and a shot in the temple.

McCamus gives a splendid performance as the self-assured, intelligent plotter to get his way with the beautiful Hedda. He is smooth, intelligent and patient. Superb performance.

Joella Crichton as Mrs. Elsvsted, the woman who helped Lovborg write his masterpiece and an abused acquaintance of Hedda’s in school is the antithesis of Hedda and she brings Hedda’s nastiness into focus.

The production is based on Patrick Marber’s version of the play that he wrote for London’s National Theatre in 2016. That production was directed by Ivo van Hove who had instructed Marber to shape his version for an almost empty stage. Director Molly Atkinson seems to have respected that idea on the large stage of the theatre-in-the round Tom Patterson. There is a fireplace and some seats around it at one end of the oval playing area and a chaise longue almost at the other extreme. That leaves a lot of empty space between the two and having someone by the fireplace and someone on the chaise longue looks like they are talking across a field.

There are no walls in a theatre-in-the-round, and we do not get the sense of a sparsely furnished house that we need perhaps to appreciate Brack’s and Aunt Juliana’s (Bola Aiyeola) financial contribution to Hedda’s comfort. The piano is an essential part of the furniture, but it is only heard and not seen.

Atkinson did the best that she could in the theatre that she was given but I suggest that it is the wrong place for this production.

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Hedda Gabler by Henrik Ibsen in a version by Patrick Marber opened on May 30  and will continues until September 28, 2024, at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, Ontario.   www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, The Greek Press