COME FROM AWAY – REVIEW OF 2024 REVIVAL OF CANADIAN MUSICAL

Reviewed by James Karas

When the lights on the stage of the Royal Alexandra Theatre went on to signal the beginning of the performance, the audience broke into enthusiastic applause and howls of approval for an extended period. This is the third time Come From Away has played in Toronto and one can only assume that everyone in the theatre had seen the musical at least once. They came pumped up and intent on enjoying every minute of Irene Sankoff and David Hein’s story about the thousands of people that landed in Gander, Newfoundland on September 11, 2001 following the terrorist attacks on New York’s Twin Towers.

The story for those who have yet to get tickets, is about the forced landing of 38 planes in Gander and about seven thousand people from many parts of the world who arrived in the town of about the same size. What happened was a miraculous outpouring of support for the strange visitors. Food, shelter, transportation, assistance and everything imaginable had to be found and provided for them for five days.  

Irene Sankoff and David Hein have crafted a musical as it relates to the experiences of the locals and the visitors that has all the delights you want in the theatre. The music is rousing with moving quieter segments. The humour and the pace are brisk, hilarious and humane.  

The whole show is done by twelve actors/singers who play numerous roles into which they change smoothly and almost imperceptibly. We marvel at the organization and ability to find shelter for all the visitors in the houses of the residents, organize food for them and clothes as well as details like supplies for babies and other essentials that we take for granted. What about tampons?

David Silvestri plays the boisterous town mayor Claude. He frequents Tim Horton’s but that routine is interrupted by the forced landings. He is funny, affecting and humane and these words apply to almost all the characters, the qualification being necessary because some of them have limited opportunity for humour. Like all the other actors he takes other roles as needed. 

The cast of COME FROM AWAY – Toronto Company.
Photo Credit: Matthew Murphy, 2024.

It was a momentous event in the lives of the townspeople and they tell us where they were and how they found out about the arrival of the horde. The same actors as passengers in a plane relate their experience of learning of the landing and being kept in the plane for hours, trying to get in touch with their family and undergoing hardships that were ameliorated by descriptions of the attitude of the townspeople.

In tribute to the outstanding all-Canadian cast and their beautiful performances and Newfoundland accents, I will name them all with the main roles that they played. Cory O’Brien is Oz the town policeman, Lisa Horner plays Beulah, the teacher whose son is a firefighter, while Saccha Dennis plays Hannah the American mother of a firefighter, Kristen Peace is Bonnie the caring SPCA worker, Jeff Madden and Ali Momen are a gay couple. Momen plays a different Muslim character who is put through a humiliating body search because of his faith.

Cailin Stadnyk is the efficient and capable pilot Beverly who is a rarity in her profession. Kyle Brown plays Bob, Steffi Didomenicantonio is Janice, Barbara Fulton is Diane and James Kall is Nick.

Almost all the musical numbers are done by the company. Starting with “Welcome to the Rock”, the nickname of Newfoundland, to “38 Planes” that landed there, to “Blankets and Bedding” the songs describe the activities of the town people to “Somewhere in the Middle of Nowhere” and songs dealing with the anxieties of the visitors.

The sets by scenic designer Beowulf Boritt are simple. Several tables and chairs for the scene in Tim Horton’s and chairs lined up in rows for the in the plane and room for running around, establishing contact and perhaps falling in love.

Director Christopher Ashley creates the mood, speed and the quality of performance with unfailing discipline and precision. The show never lags and always manages to keep the audience gripped in the action. A major achievement.

After about an hour and forty minutes, the show reached its conclusion and the lights went down momentarily. The audience was on its feet applauding and roaring wildly before the lights could go on. They were faster than light.   

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Come From Away by Irene Sankoff and David Hein (Book, Music and Lyrics) opened on September 26, 2024, and continues until March 2, 2025, 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

THE DIVINERS – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

It is officially autumn and the Stratford Festival  is entering the last weeks of its season. This is a good time for a few comments about the one dozen productions Artistic Director Antoni Cimolino has offered us. It is an eclectic and well-thought-out list that covers the classics and modern plays but with a sharp eye on Canada’s multicultural population as well.

Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night and Cymbeline are chosen wisely from the Shakespearean canon. One of the most dramatic and unforgettable tragic love stories, one of the best comedies and the infrequently produced Cymbeline took care of the bard. The outstanding Something Rotten and the excellent La Cage Aux Folles satisfied the taste (and need) for musical entertainment.

For classic works, he reached to the 19^th century for Hedda Gabler and London Assurance and only people who don’t go to the theatre can complain about those choices. Edward Albee’s The Goat. Or, Who Is Sylvia is outstanding theatre with an added shocker when you find out the plot line.  Wendy and Peter Pan, the Schulich Children’s play, fulfilled the need for a production for younger audiences.

Salesman in China, aside from being a superb play, deals with the meeting of east and west and the cultural differences that many of us are not aware of. It is a bilingual play with subtitles in English and Chinese. Get That Hope deals with the lives of Jamaican immigrants in Canada. What was the last play you saw about them?

And finally, we got The Diviners, an adaptation of Margaret Laurene’s novel by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan. dealing with Canada’s Metis and indigenous people, a big story told well.

The adapters use a large canvas to paint a complex story that has borrowed or real memories going back to Louis Riel, Sir John A. MacDonald, the two world wars and the lives of ordinary people in western Canada. The connecting link is the story of Morag (Irene Poole) a woman of Scottish origin and her Metis daughter Pique (Julie Lumsden) in Manitoba and other parts of Canada in mid-twentieth century.

 

Jesse Gervais, Josue Laboucane, Caleigh Crow and Irene Poole in 
The Diviners, 2024. Photography by David Hou.

The plot begins in 1972 and Morag is trying to write a novel. Her parents died of polio when she was a child and she was raised by Christie Logan (Jonathan Goad), a decent Scotsman and friend of her father. She struggles with alcoholism and has great difficulty doing what she desperately wants to do – write.

She manages to go to university and married unhappily Brooke Skelton (Dan Chameroy), her professor. It is an unhappy marriage because he mistreats her and she leaves him. She meets Jules (Jessie Gervais) a decent man who loved her in the town of Manitoba, they connect and she has a child by him. She avoids telling Pique her background or the identity of her father and her daughter leaves her, distraught, to go and seek her background. Irene Poole has the toughest role as a mother, wife, lover, ambitious writer with a serious writer’s block and a struggle with alcoholism. She gives a stunning performance and faces all those complexities with superb control.  

The complex story has about twenty people with different backgrounds. Christie, a proud Scottish immigrant, oversees the town dump and is ridiculed for it. Jules is a troubadour who rarely sees his daughter. His father Lazarus (Josue Laboucane) peddles moonshine to survive. Royland (Anthony Santiago) is the diviner who can find underground water wells. The cast is outstanding and they give superb performances,

The play features an ensemble of tap dancers that sing and perform with gusto the steps choreographed by Cameron Carver. As befits an epic, there is also a violinist on stage. The Metis Fiddler Darla Daniels. Superb performances,

The play is of epic proportions and and it covers a lot of historical and personal tales. I admit that I found it somewhat confusing at times but the grand interconnected tales of the epic kept moving on with personal stories and historic episodes of the immigrants, the Metis and the Indigenous people.

The spacious stage of the theatre-in-the round Tom Patterson is ideal for the epic play.  A few steps at one end of the stage, a small table and most importantly a typewriter as a symbol of Morag’s passion to write are about all the props needed.  Bretta Gerecke handles the set and lighting designs with aptness and assurance.           

Director Krista Jackson with Genevieve Pelletier do superb work with a large cast and a demanding plot that plays homage to Canadian history and is a credit to the Stratford Festival.
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The Diviners,  based on the novel by Margaret Laurence and adapted for the stage by Vern Thiessen with Yvette Nolan runs in repertory until October 2, 2024, at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

ROSMERSHOLM - REVIEW OF 2014 CROW’S NEST THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Rosmersholm is a political extravaganza, a family saga, a war between conservatism and liberalism, all combined with complex personal relationships. In Duncan Macmillan’s adaptation, we get a stunning production by Crow’s Theatre that ranks with the best theatre in Toronto.

Macmillan makes some changes to Ibsen’s text, some of them reflecting current political reality especially the American elections. The adaptation was first produced in London in 2019 and reflected the political turmoil in England at the time but it applies just as well to today’s political mayhem south of the border.

John Rosmer (Jonathan Young) is the heir of an old prominent family and he has inherited wealth and position. But he has problems. His wife committed suicide and Rebecca West (Virgilia Griffith) a beautiful, complex and mysterious woman is living with him. He is haunted by his wife’s death and does not understand it. He is surrounded by portraits of his forebears and must face the possibility of being the last of the dynasty. Did his wife commit suicide because she could not give him a son?

Virgilia Griffith. Jonathan  Young  and Diego Matamoros in 

Rosmersholm at Crow's Theatre

Rebecca is probably the most complex character in the play. She was a friend of Rosmer’s wife and stayed on after her death. Griffith gives a superb performance of strength, conviction, and love for Rosmer but we are never sure if Rebecca is telling the truth. Rosmer and Rebecca seem to share philosophical and political opinions but we are not sure who is doing the thinking and calling the shots. Rosmer is a former pastor who has lost his faith and holds liberal views An idealist with no political experience, he thinks that he can sway the public with his decency and concern for people. Young exudes the confusion, decency and in the end the tragedy of a man caught between dynastic pressures, political turmoil, the influence of a strong woman and idealism. Tough role done marvelously. 

Virgilia Griffith and Jonathan Young in Rosmersholm 

Andreas Kroll (Ben Carlson) is Rosmer’s brother-in-law and the Governor who is facing an election. He is a rabid conservative, a bombastic politician, and a powerful man who must get his way. He needs Rosmer’s support and attacks him viciously when he does not get it. He is a modern politician and the idealist Rosmer does not stand a chance against him. Ben Carlson’s performance reflects all those characteristics of Kroll with complete assurance and precision. A pleasure to watch.

Kate Hennig as the servant Mrs. Helseth, Beau Dixon as Peter Mortensgaard and Diego Matamoros as Ulrik Mendel give superb performances.

Joshua Quinlan’s set is an outstanding flight of the imagination. The whole theatre becomes the Rosmer mansion with family portraits hanging above the audience. The costumes by Ming Wong and the furniture reflect the nineteenth century setting and we feel that we are in a mansion of that era.

The lighting design by Kimberly Purtell and Imogen Wilson enhances the size of the great house and the ghosts that occupy it.

All of that is combined with the work of Director Chris Abraham to give us an eclectic and brilliant production. Abraham pays attention to every detail and nuance of the performance.

Abraham, a meticulous, imaginative and talented man of the theatre, is one of the best directors around. He chooses plays wisely and produces them brilliantly making Crow’s  one of the best theatrical companies in Toronto. Rosmersholm is an outstanding example of his work.
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Rosmersholm by Henrik Ibsen in an adaptation by Duncan Macmillan continues until   October 11, 2024, Streetcar/Crowsnest Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/
James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture of The Greek Press

INFINITE LIFE – REVIEW OF 2024 COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

Infinite Life is a fascinating play by Annie Baker that receives a top-notch production by Coal Mine Theatre. Like many good plays, it is constructed on a simple premise. Five women and one man are in what looks like a therapy clinic. It is a former motel and we see the characters sitting or lying in chaises longues describing what ails them and why they are in the clinic.

All of them have serious ailments and the most salient symptom is pain. There is no mention of a doctor and only a nurse is somewhere in the building but we do not see her. The main method used to cure the patients is fasting and they stay in the clinic for a few days or weeks. Their conversations and revelations are fascinating but I am not sure if all or any of them are in fact cured.

We see the five woman lying on chaises lounges on a sunny day in northern California. They are familiar with each other but they know little about what each is suffering from except for the fact that the clinic deals with pain. Sofi (Christine Horne) at 47 is the youngest of the group. She provided us with the timeline of the play as scenes change (20 minutes. 10 hours, 25 hours later) and in the meantime she tries to speak with her husband who never answers her calls. She has a voracious appetite for sex and considers seven hours the appropriate length of time for some acts. She goes even further than that but you have to see the play to find out.

Eileen (Nancy Palk) walks with a cane and is perhaps the oldest of the group. She disapproves of discussions of sex and leaves the group when the conversation becomes raunchy. She is a Christian Scientist and we get a better appreciation of her humanity at the end of the play when she and Sofie make emotional contact in a moving scene. 

Brenda Bazinet, Kyra Harper and Jean Yoon in “Infinite Life” 
at Coal Mine Theatre.  Photo: Elana Emer Coal Mine Theatre

Elaine (Brenda Bazinet), Yvette (Kyra Harper) and Ginnie (Jean Yoon) complete the circle of women in pain at various stages of treatment. Ginnie tells us about a cousin of hers whose job is to describe pornographic movies for the blind. The play has a considerable amount of humour but that story brings the house down.

Nelson (Ari Cohen), the man in the group, walks in around the middle of the play. He struck me as a shirtless duffus who wants to display his physique and then tries to seduce Sofie to have a “quicky) with him (after he informs his wife of what he is about to do). She rejects him as an inconsequential partner.

The set by Joyce Padua consists of the lineup of chairs that could be on a cruise ship or the clinic. The lighting design by Steve Lucas is used to indicate different hours of the day.

The play moves deliberately but there is not a single moment when our interest lags. The humour and the revelations about the lives of the group keeps us glued to the stage. It is an intelligent play that touches on our capacity for pain and compassion and the endurance of pain and the search for relief. The performances of the actors are superb.

Jackie Maxwell directs the production with skill and expertise. A look, a grimace, a pause, a double take and more are handled with care and precision. Brilliant work.
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Infinite Life by Annie Baker continues until October 6, 2024, at the Coal Mine Theatre, 2076 Danforth Ave. Toronto, (northwest corner of Woodbine and Danforth). www.coalminetheatre.com/

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GR

SALESMAN IN CHINA – REVIEW OF 2024 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Salesman in China is a fascinating play by Leanna Bodie and Jovanni Sy that received its premiere at the Stratford Festival this year. The salesman of the title is Arthur Miller’s Willy Loman in Death of a Salesman and China is where Miller went in 1983 to direct his great play.

He quickly discovered the chasm that divides the two countries. The actors of the National Theatre of China did not know what a salesman or life insurance are because they do not exist in China. And that was just the beginning of misunderstandings or fundamental differences that appeared unbridgeable.

The Chinese actors led by Ying Ruocheng (Adrian Pang), a Chinese actor and director, and Vice-Minister of Culture, is a sophisticated gentlemen who must negotiate between the gruff and impatient Miller (Tom McCamus) and the actors and behind the scenes personnel of the theatre company. Miller insists on no wigs and no makeup. The Chinese find that unacceptable. Americans are seen with wigs and makeup in the theatre in China and how can they show them now without those fundamental accessories?

Ying Ruocheng (Adrian Pang) is a significant figure in Chinese theatre but he shows great deference to Miller. He is criticised for it. He is rehearsing for the role of Willy Loman and we see several short scenes from Death of a Salesman being rehearsed in Chinese. How does one deal with the woman (not his wife) that Willy sleeps with, slaps her bum and is therefore considered a “slut” by the Chinese? The Chinese actors cannot fathom a woman of such repute being represented on stage and an actor being slapped that way.

Adrian Pang as Ying Ruocheng (left) and Tom McCamus as Arthur 
Miller in Salesman in China. Stratford Festival 2024. Photo: David Hou.

There are some hilarious misunderstandings and some dramatic scenes. Miller finds out that Ying whom he considers a friend is also reporting all that is happening including personal information that Miller discloses to him to the authorities. Ying considers it as something that is simply expected and done in China. Miller has memories of the House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) and the witch hunts of the 1950’s. He refused to “name names” to the committee and was imprisoned and in China, he finds himself betrayed by being reported to the authorities.

The misunderstandings, the cultural and social differences reach their apogee when after weeks of rehearsal, Ying gets cold feet and refuses to perform on opening night.

Co-playwrights Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy have gone beyond Arthur Miller’s book about his trip to China to direct the play. The have examined diary entries by Miller and the autobiography of Ying for information. We are informed that most of the play is factual but there are conversations that the authors did not know about and invented them. They are more interested in catching the essential relationships, the drama and the humour rather than trying to write a documentary about it. It was a wise choice that works superbly. Sy also directs the production and does an outstanding job.

Salsman in China is a bilingual play with about a third of it in Chinese. When Chinese is spoken, the dialogue is translated into English and shown on subtitles. The opposite holds true when English is spoken. This is highly commendable as opposed to having the Chinese actors speak English as foreigners in whatever accent they can manage.

Salesman in China is a superb play that receives an outstanding production. Tom McCamus gives an exceptional performance as the gruff, sometimes arrogant famous American who changes into a more tolerant man of the theatre. Pang as Ying is a gentleman who has lived according to the mores of his culture, including reporting even  private conversations to the authorities. He gets cold feet before the opening of the play but he is persuaded to go on stage. 

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Salesman in China by Leanna Brodie and Jovanni Sy continues until October 26, 2024 at the Avon Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

LIFE OF PI - REVIEW OF ADAPTATION OF MARTEL’S NOVEL AT THE CAA ED MIRVISH THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas 

A seventeen-year-old Indian boy named Pi ends up on a small lifeboat  in the Pacific Ocean for 227 days with a Bengal tiger, a zebra, an orangutan and a hyena. He and his family were on a Japanese freighter transporting a zoo to Canada that sank and everyone perished except the aforementioned. The zebra, the orangutan and the hyena were eaten by the animals higher on the food chain and the tiger and Pi were the only ones left on the lifeboat.

That is undoubtedly a striking and unforgettable image that novelist Yann Martel’s 2001 novel Life of Pi is based on and its success may be described as a story that verges on the legendary. The novel was adapted for a movie and then for the stage in London and New York and a roadshow production has reached Toronto at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre.

Martel had 350 pages to describe Pi’s incredible adventures and the movie had the luxury of using animals. How do you put the animals on the stage? The answer of course is puppets manipulated expertly by puppeteers and appropriate sound bites. Life of Pi is thus, at the very least, a superb puppet show. The tiger has three handlers for its head (Fred Davis, Peter Twose and Akash Heer) and six for its heart and hind (Antony Antunes, Daisy Franks, Katie Kennedy-Rose, Aizah Khan and Mark Matthews). I give their names as a tribute for what looked like very demanding work.

Before the freighter foundered, we met the smart and lively Pi (Divesh Subaskaran) in India getting ready to travel to Canada with the zoo animals. His Father (Ameet Chana) is full of advice about life and animals, his Mother (Goldy Notay) and various people creating a lively atmosphere on the shore. There is commotion, humour and a lively atmosphere before the freighter sails away.

 Akash Keer and Divesh Subaskaran in Life of Pi. Photo Credit: Johan Persson.

The ship sinks and we find Pi on a lifeboat with the animals mentioned above. The weaker animals are devoured and Pi remains with the tiger. To avoid the fate of the other passengers, he constructs a small rowboat where he is safe from the tiger. Finding food, “taming” the tiger, going hungry and blind, and hallucination  are the incidents that cover his voyage across the Pacific Ocean. The voyage is also broken up with flashbacks in the hospital in Mexico where Pi ends up after being rescued. He is with the officious Mrs. Okamoto (Lilian Tsang) who is charged by Japan to find the truth about the sinking of the freighter.

Martell and Lolita Chakrabarti, the adapter of the novel for the stage, have broader interests than an incredible story. Pi is interested in religions and he tries to understand the Hindu, Muslim and Christian faiths. Mrs. Okamoto is an atheist and tells him religion is just a habit. When in despair, Pi invokes Vishnu, Mohamad and Christ and finds something positive in the different religions.     

When Mrs. Okamoto expresses incredulity at his narrative, he tells her another story of a voyage across the Pacific without animals but involving cannibalism as a means of survival. In other words what is the nature of a narrative, a legend or a myth?

I credited the actors manipulating the puppets which are designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell. The latter is also the director of puppetry and movement. There is use of videos directed by Andrzej Goulding with marvelous Lighting Design by Tim Lutkin and Tim Deiling.

The play is set in a hospital in Mexico, in the zoo and the ship loading dock in India and the Pacifica Ocean. It requires quick and efficient scene changes and Set Designer Tim Hatley’s wonderful work archives that with speed and effectiveness.

Life of Pi has complexity, drama, humour and presents obvious difficulties in staging and director Max Webster and his crew deserve a standing ovation for putting the whole thing together.

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Life of Pi  by Lolita Chakrabarti based on the novel by Yann Martel continues until October 6, 2024 at the CAA Ed Mirvish Theatre, 244 Victoria St. Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com

JAMES KARAS IS THE SENIOR EDITOR, CULTURE OF THE GREEK PRESS