SALOME - REVIEW OF 2025 BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE MET

Reviewed by James Karas

Holy ….

I am at a loss for the next word to express the effect that the live transmission of a performance of Richard Straus’s Salome from New York’s Met Opera had on me in the Cineplex theatre where I saw it. I could invoke a deity, an animal or an imprecation or say simply that I was overwhelmed or bowled over. I was.

The production is directed by the brilliant and unorthodox Claus Guth with dramatic effects and gore that you will not forget, Guth directed Salome for the Deutsche Oper in 2016 that was very different from what he has done for the Met. I saw it and I will comment on it below.

Guth and Set Designer Etienne Pluss set the opera in the large hall of Herod’s palace. It features heavy wood paneling resembling a 19^th century mansion perhaps and the costumes are from the same era. The other set is the cistern referred to in the libretto or the dungeon of the palace which has bare concrete walls and the chained Jochanaan (John the Baptist) where most of the action takes place. There is a steep staircase leading to the dungeon.

As in the 2016 Deutsche Oper production there are seven Salomes ranging from a young girl to the grown-up Salome sung by soprano Elza van den Heever. The Met production, aside from the seven Salomes, bears little resemblance to the 2016 Berlin production.

Salome is dressed in a black dress with a white collar looking very proper and perhaps Puritan. She takes the black dress off and wears a modest white undergarment when trying to attract Jochanaan. The other six Salomes are blonde girls resembling Heever’s Salome. 

A scene from Salome at the Met. Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

But the innocent-looking Salome is obsessed with the wild, religious fanatic Jochanaan and she tries to get him to kiss her on the mouth. The holy man rejects her forcefully and she finds a way of wreaking vengeance on him and kissing him passionately.

Strauss composed powerful music and lyrics based on Oscar Wilde’s play of the same name and Heever has the vocal power to knock you out of your seat or glue you into it for the entire performance. Watching and listening to Heever is an unforgettable experience. Her holding up Jochanaan’s severed head beside his headless torso and kissing it passionately may be unsettling for some, but it is incredibly dramatic.

Salome’s mother Herodias is an unapologetic slut dressed in red with red hair. She stands against a wall and a man’s hands come out and gives her a glass of wine. He then reaches out and massages her chest. Mezzo soprano Michelle DeYoung gives an outstanding performance as Herodias.

Herod, Salome’s uncle and stepfather (he is Salome’s father’s half-brother who married her mother Herodias) is a debauched man who lusts after Salome. He is petrified of the prophet Jochanaan who is damning him for his incestuous sin. Again, a marvelous performance both vocally and theatrically.

Peter Mattei gives a bravura performance as Jochanaan. He is fearless in his announcement of the coming of Christ and fights off not just Salome but the world of sinners.

The famous scene of the Dance of the Seven Veils has music that Strauss composed music for especially. Salome sheds her veils and is almost or totally naked raising Herod’s hormonal levels to the bursting point. The problem here is where are you going to find a soprano who can sing the notes and have the ability and physical attributes to achieve what the opera demands or what we imagine. Guth’s solution is to put a veil on the head of the Salomes and have them take a ballet stand or position and go off the stage. A couple of them seemed able to do some ballet but it is not important. We hear the music and see Herod’s response who reluctantly accedes to Salome’s demand for the Baptist’s head.

The scene is blood-curdling as Salome takes the head and kisses it passionately as Jochanaan’s blood covers her. All seven Salomes have blood on them. It is astounding and riveting.

Naraboth (Peter Buszewski), the Syrian soldier who is in love with Salome is sung with exceptional passion. He commits suicide according to the libretto, but Guth has him stabbed by Salome as he tries to intervene in her pursuit of Jochanaan. We do not witness his death, but we are informed that he killed himself.

Yannick Nezet-Seguin conducted the Met Opera Orchestra with heroic vigour and effectiveness,

A few reminiscences of Guth’s 2016 production of Salome in Berlin. The opera was set in a modern fashionable men’s clothing store owned by Herod. The men wore nice suits, and the women have becoming dresses.

When the curtain went down at the end of the performance, soprano Allison Oakes who sang the title role stepped out for a bow. She was greeted with a widespread chorus of boos.

The gentleman who was sitting beside me leaned forward and put his head between his hands. The applause of the audience became polite and enthusiastic when the performers took their bows, and they applauded Oakes positively if not enthusiastically. My neighbor (unknown to me) refused to lift a finger of approval, and I finally asked him how he would rate the production on a scale of 1 to 10. He said that he wished fervently that he had missed it completely.

The audience at the Met burst into enthusiastic applause at the end and proceeded to give the production a standing ovation. The Berlin production was tame compared to the gory New York production where there was blood all over. Go figure.
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Salome by Richard Strauss was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on May 17, 2025. It will be shown again at select theatres on June 7, 2025. For more information go to: www.cineplex.com/events

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

THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE – REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The program cover for The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe shows a serious-looking lion with a crown on its head worn slightly askance. It seems appropriate for the adaptation of C. S. Lewis’s children’s novel of that name and part of the Narnia Chronicles.  It tells the story of English children during World War II who were evacuated to an old mansion in the country owned by the kindly Professor Kirke (David Adams) and his officious assistant Mrs. Macready (Kiera Sangster). The reason for their evacuation from London is to escape the dangers of the bombing  by Germany.

The story has much to recommend it as children’s literature. The four sibling children, Susan (Kristi Frank), Lucy (Alexandra Gratton), Peter (Jeff Irving) and the treacherous Edmund (Dieter Lische-Parkes) go through the back panel of a wardrobe to the magical land of Narnia. Lucy enters that magical kingdom and meets Mr. Tumnus (Michael Theriault) a nice faun, with horns who complains that Narnia is ruled by the wicked White Witch and it has permanent winter. The icicles hanging from the ceiling of the stage confirm that.

But Mr. Tumnus is also a spy for the White Witch and must report the sighting of any Sons of Adam or Daughters of Eve or else face severe punishment. Decency wins over fear of punishment and Tumnus allows Lucy to return to the wardrobe.

Narnia has a talking animal, of course. In addition to Tumnus, we have Mr. and Mrs. Beaver (Shawn Wright and Jade Repeta) as the nice beavers who carry their puppet heads in front of them, and other members of the Ensemble with animal puppet heads. The puppetry is superbly directed and designed by Brendan McMurtry Howlett. 

(t to b) Jeff Irving as Peter, Dieter Lische-Parkes as Edmund, 
Alexandra Gratton as Lucy and Kristi Frank as Susan. Photo by David Cooper.

What about the lion. Yes, there is a lion, Aslan (Kelly Wong), dressed like any young man in slacks and a shirt. What happened to his lion costume and his crown? Nothing. We know he is the  rightful king of Narnia and the White Witch has taken over and brought permanent winter and we know that justice will prevail. But we have a problem.

I expected more from a children’s/young adults’ book. The young audience should laugh, be frightened, be engaged, be enthralled, cheer the good guys, boo the bad ones, and be amazed by the magic kingdom. Some of these reactions must be there. I can’t say that many of them were there substantially, to capture the attention of young and old.

The White Witch (Elodie Gillett) is dressed stylishly in a white gown and she screams a couple of times and we know that she is evil (she turns people who disobey her into stones) but she does not evoke fear in the audience. The Lion, the hero of the story, does not inspire cheers. Edmund is perhaps the real villain because he betrays his siblings. A sound boo from the audience was certainly called for but it did not happen.

Most of the actors join the Ensemble and participate in some of the dances choreographed by Genny Sermonia with original music and sound design by Ryan deSouza. The program does not credit a set designer but does mention James Lavoie as scenic consultant. The sets are very good.

Lewis’s book was adapted for this production by the Shaw Festival’s Artistic Director Tim Carroll and Selma Dimitriejevic. She also directs the production which has a straightforward telling of the novel that somehow misfires.
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The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe in an adaptation for the stage of C. S. Lewis’s novel by Tim Carroll and Selma Dimitrijevic continues in repertory until October 4, 2025  at the Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

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

COMFORT FOOD - REVIEW OF 2025 PLAY BY ZORANA SADIQ AT CROW’S THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

Crow’s Theatre is finishing its current season with Comfort Food, a play by Zorana Sadiq that it commissioned. The author is also the star, together with Noah Grittani, a newcomer to professional theatre.

Bette (Sadiq) has a cooking show on television and she is good at it. The play opens with a display of chopping and the making of waffles, real waffles, with efficiency and wit, that we see projected on a screen. As the play begins, we are invited to pop cooking questions for Bette in  jar and she may select yours during the performance. There are some questions that she takes and answers with aplomb and wit. She also makes the wise comment that the more you rush things, the longer they take.

We can’t have 90 minutes devoted to cooking however well it may be done and we soon meet Bette’s son KitKat (Grittani). She has issues with the producers of her show but the main conflict is with her son, a bright and rebellious teenager. KitKat is interested in saving the world. He studies blackholes, is concerned about climate change and other issues that I could not follow very clearly. He skips school and has a running conflict with a classmate. Bette tries to deal with the teenager with very little success and people of a certain age can appreciate her problem and others of a different age group may sympathize with KitKat.

The producers of her cooking show change the format from just cooking to a program with interviews of guests. Grittani does quick changes into the guests on the show and they are quirky, unorthodox and perhaps unique people that we may or may not understand. We see KitKat engaged in social media and appearing disruptively but very successfully on his mother’s show thus increasing his presence on his own social medium platform exponentially.

Zorana Sadiq and Noah Grittani in Comfort Food. Photo: Dahlia Katz 

He is trying to grow or create healthy food, for example, some kind of artificial meat that tastes like feces when his mother tastes it. He skips school and goes to gas stations where he ties up the gas hoses in protest against fossil fuels and, as I said, engages in conduct that may be incomprehensible to some.

His disagreeable relationship with his classmate Kendra leads him to lose his temper and push her violently. She falls on the ground and hits her head.

The set for the play in the tiny theatre is intelligently and efficiently designed by Sim Suzer. Two cooking tables with all the necessary utensils for cooking that are used by Bette. What she does is projected on a screen behind her and it works well. The tables are pushed to the side and two closet doors open for KitKat’s place from which he connects with his social media. We see him making films about what he does and public reaction to his posts. Again, very well done.

Sadiq does a wonderful job as a cook for television, a troubled single mother who had a child in vitro and has tried to raise him the best way she could. She did not count on teenage rebelliousness and the stresses of making a living, satisfying the producers of her tv program and dealing with a teenage son.

Kudos to Noah Grittani on his debut performance. As KitKat he has his work cut out. He is an intelligent, concerned and passionate teenager. He is ambitious and, in a hurry, to save the planet but that makes him unpleasant and, in the end, violent. He has to change gears and represent  the eccentric guests on the Comfort Food show and gives a fine performance.

Mitchell Cushman acted as dramaturge for the play and directed it with a sure hand. He maintains a good pace and does a highly commendable job.
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Comfort Food  by Zorana Sadiq, in a Crow’s Theatre production, will run until June 8, 2025, at Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario.  http://crowstheatre.com/

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

GARDEN OF VANISHED PLEASURES - REVIEW OF 2025 SOUNDSTREAMS PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Garden of Vanished Pleasures is an opera that bears small resemblance to what most of us have in mind when we hear that word. The music is provided by Canadian composer Cecilia Livingston and English composer Donna McKevitt who write modern, experimental songs. The texts are provided by the five writers listed below and the work is described by David Jaeger in the program  as “an emotional journey inspired by the details of the life and work of the English artist, author, film maker, stage designer, experimental gardener and queer rights activist Derek Jarman.

Tim Albery is credited as the Stage Director and Devisor. There are four vocal performers, namely sopranos Mireille Asselin and Danika Loren, mezzo-soprano Hillary Tufford and counter-tenor Daniel Cabena.  Hyejin Kwon is the music director and pianist with Brenna Hardy-Kavanagh playing viola and Amahi Arulanandam playing cello.

The program consists of some spoken text and songs performed by the four singers in various combinations. The musical accompaniment is provided by the three musicians listed above. Unfortunately, the lyrics are frequently not comprehensible and that creates a problem of finding a connecting link to the libretto if we can call it that, or the life of Jarman. We need context to understand the songs. 

One example is the following bit from Shakespeare’s Antony and Cleopatra which is spoken:

The barge she sat in, like a burnish’d throne,

Burn’d on the water; the poop was beaten gold,

Purple the sails, and so perfum’d

The winds were love-sick with them.

Cleopatra’s vessel is so luxurious that the winds were lovesick over the sails. If there is a reference to Jarman, direct or indirect, it escaped me. 

Scene fro Garden of Vanished Pleasures. Photo: Cylla von Tidenham

Kalypso, music by Cecilia Livingston with text by Duncan McFarlane, describes the pain of separation, and it may well refer to the goddess who was abandoned by Odysseus after seven years of cohabitation on an island. He chose to abandon her and return to his wife  

                         I don’t know why I should repeat this sad old fallacy:

somehow the weather thinks that we should be together;

night, night comes around,

but it’s too hot for me to sleep,

now so much of what we had you took, took with you, when you were away.

 The words may apply to Jarman but there is nothing in the opera to connect him to the text

Translucence is one of the longer songs composed by Donna McKevitt with text by Jarman. It has complex imagery that is all but impossible to decipher on a single hearing. Here are the first three lines:

A phosphorescent apparition translucent in my ghostly eye shimmers in the star-lit sky the stars shine through him, bright as a child’s sparkler The ghost, a Mister See-through from somewhere back before tiptoes across sea horses drifts along the corridor.

Sebastian, with music by McKevitt and text by Jarman, shows the arrow-ridden body of the Christian saint in the painting by Andrea Mantegna. But Jarman mixes the Christian with the pagan and after his death Sebastian goes to the sun and is united with Apollo. There is nothing Christian about him and he is not referred to as a saint. The connection of the poem with the life of Jarman as the opera is presumably presenting, escaped me.

The music of Livingston and McKevitt, call it experimental or modern, does not show enough variety even in a program that lasted only one hour. There is scant melody and without getting the lyrics listening becomes unprofitable.

The production has huge production values in the set and costume design. the lighting and projection design. Cameron Davis’s projection designs are brilliant as he shows videos of starry skies, snowflakes, the sea and the garden of vanished pleasures. We get a kaleidoscope of images that are quite stunning. Siobhan Keath provides imaginative and wonderful lighting and Michelle Tracey handles the costumes and sets with finesse and superb taste.

I tip my hat to the singers, musicians and perhaps the creative team. Albery no doubt had a vision of what he wanted us to absorb from the show but without content or context about Jarman, I got very little out of it. As for the composers and text providers (except Jarman) were any of their texts written for Garden of Vanished Pleasures?
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Garden of Vanished Pleasures by Cecilia Livingston and Donna McKevitt (music) and Derek Jarman, Janey Lew, Cecilia Livingston, Walter de la Mare and Duncan McFarlane (texts), in a production by Soundtstreams played from April 25 to 27, 2025 at the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre, 26 Berkeley St. Toronto Ont.   

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

EUGENE ONEGIN – REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Canadian Opera Company is wrapping up its current season with a production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. This production was directed by Robert Carsen for the Metropolitan Opera and premiered at Lincoln Centre in 1997. In 2013 the Met replaced it with a production by Deborah Warner but the Canadian Opera Company (COC) borrowed all scenery and costumes from of the 1997 Met production  for its staging of Eugene Onegin in 2018 which it has revived for the current season. More about Carsen’s production below.

The COC production is well equipped vocally. Our attention is focused on lovely Tatyana (soprano Lauren Fagan), the impressionable young girl who falls hopelessly in love with the playboy Eugene Onegin (bass-baritone Andril Kymach). Tatyana dominates the opera vocally and emotionally as she does the audience. The famous Letter Scene covers a breadth of hope, fear, passion and doubt as Tatyana tries to write a letter to Onegin. Fagan captures and expresses Tatyana’s emotional turmoil beautifully.

Kymach as Onegin is arrogant, unsympathetic and even obnoxious especially in the treatment of his friend Lensky (tenor Evan LeRoy Johnson), His treatment of Tatyana is abominable, his action against his friend repulsive and even though singing is good, we do not like him. LeRoy Johnson sings his Farewell to Olga gorgeously.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Marino does superb work as Tatyana’s sister Olga. She is engaged to Lensky and flirts with Onegin at the ball precipitating the duel. But she is excellent vocally and we forgive her because of her youth.

Bass Dimitry Ivashchenko deserves kudos for his role as Prince Gremin, a retired general who marries Tatyana on the rebound no doubt. He is a dignified gentleman who sings in moving sonority about being married to a younger woman. Ivashchenko gives a show-stopping performance.

The set and costume designs are by Michael  Levine. More about the sets in a minute but the costumes are what the Russian upper crust aspired to and what the Metropolitan Opera could afford. A lot.

Lauren Fagan as Tatyana in the Letter Scene : Photo: Michael Cooper

A few words about Carsen’s production are a propos. Carsen has opted for a minimalist production which may have its attractions but also some detractions. The opening scene takes place in the garden of the Larin estate somewhere in Russia. The libretto calls for a house with a terrace on one side, with a flower bed and shady tree nearby. There is thick foliage and a village and a church visible in the distance. In the Carsen production we have the stage floor covered with orange leaves. There are several leafless tree trunks and we see the estate owner Madame Larina (Krisztina Szabo), Tatyana’s mother, doing something with the help of Filipyevna (Emily Treigle).  

The director and set designer are not bound by what the librettist imagined but an almost bare stage may be taking it a bit far.

The leaves are partially swept away and we are transported to Tatyana’s bedroom for the Letter Scene. It is supposed to be furnished but all we get is a bed and a table on a bare stage with a view of the sky and the moon. Is that taking minimalism a bit too far?

There is a ball scene where people dance. The waltz is meant for that. The stage is cleared but only a small part of the stage is used for dancing. The square where the dancers are squeezed is so small that the dancers are given very little space in which to dance. I thought some of them had no idea how to waltz but it may have been that there was not enough space for them to move.

The revival director is Peter McLintock and the lighting designer is Christine Binder.

Speranza Scapucci conducted the Canadian Opera Company Orchestra in its marvelous performance of Tchaikovsky’s plush score in production that raises a few eyebrows in its choice of sets but that is otherwise splendid.    
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Eugene Onegin by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky is being performed six times until May 24, 2025, 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 f The Greek Press

WOZZECK - REVIEW OF 2025 CANADIAN OPERA COMPANY PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

In 1925 Alban Berg’s first opera Wozzeck received its first performance in Berlin. It gave a solid kick in the butt to the operatic tradition of the previous several centuries. Monteverdi, Mozert, Verdi and Puccini felt the kick but they survived and are still thriving. But Wozzeck made its mark. It is an opera about the wretched of the earth, the abused and downtrodden who live in poverty and hopelessness. It is composed in atonal music and you can forget nice melodies and arias but you do get powerful music that, combined with William Kentridge’s directing and art, will give you something stunning.

Wozzeck is a soldier around 1820 according to the libretto but director William Kentridge sets the production in the 20^th century, perhaps around World War I. In the opening scene according to the libretto the soldier Wozzeck is shaving his Captain but Kentridge does away with that and we have Wozzeck wheeling in a movie projector and showing some fast clips. The Captain abusively tells him to slow down the gnarly film. We get a snapshot of the life of the pathetic Wozzeck.

It should be noted that this is not an ordinary production. William Kentridge is a brilliant artist who has become involved in theatre and opera productions of distinction, not to say genius. The current staging of Wozzeck is a co-production with The Salzburg Festival, The Metropolitan Opera and Opera Australia. It premiered at The Salzburg Festival in 2017.

The distinctive feature of this, as of all Kentridge productions, is the set. It is designed by Sabine Theunissen with generous use of video projections, especially of Kentridge’s line drawings. There are scenes that must be from World War I but one is never quite sure what is happening with the complex and changeable set.

Scene from Wozzeck. Photo: Michael Cooper#

The set is a complicated and almost incomprehensible mixture of paintings, drawings and physical objects that surround the poor soldier and the people in his life. You can only pay so much attention to it impressive as it is, or you may miss parts of the opera.

Baritone Michael Kupfer-Radecky plays the pathetic Wozzeck  He must deliver a man who is buffeted by misfortunes,  like King Lear, without having any social position to fight back. Superb singing and acting by Kupfer-Radecky. Wozzeck is abused and ridiculed by his Captain (excellent work by tenor Michael Shade), used by the quack Doctor (bass Anthony Robin Schneider) and gets the coup de grace of humiliation by his common law wife and mother of his child, Marie (soprano Ambur Braid in a moving and stunning performance). Marie reads the Bible looking for solace from the guilt precipitated by her infidelity. Does that provide us with a twinge of sympathy for Marie? The strutting and macho Drum Major (a fine-voiced, strutting and macho tenor Matthew Cairns) is too strong of a sexual attraction for her to resist, Bible or no Bible.

As if that were not enough or because of it, Wozzeck has some strange visions that lead us to believe that he is unhinged. His neighbor Margret (mezzo soprano Krisztina Szabo) and his friend Andres (tenor Owen McCausland) are perhaps the sane people in his life but he is a pitiful creature without the standing of a tragic hero. We pity him for his simplicity and his suffering,

Kentridge’s direction, like his art, is brilliant as he combines the atonal music of Berg with the plot delineated by  the superb acting and singing into ninety minutes of astonishing opera. The Canadian Opera Company Orchestra under the baton Johannes Debus plays Berg’s music magnificently for a memorable night at the opera.
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Wozzeck by Alban Berg is being performed a total of seven  times until May 16., 2025, at the Four Seasons Centre, 145 Queen St. West Toronto. www.coc.ca/

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

TONS OF MONEY – REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Shaw Festival is up and running at full speed. There are three productions at the big Festival Theatre starting with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, an adaptation of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia Chronicles novel adapted by Tim Carroll and Selma Dimitrijevic. Cole Porter’s Anything Goes, with a new book by Timothy Crouse and John Weidman, is the big musical offering. Wait Until Dark by Frederick Knott, adapted by Jeffery Hatcher is a suspenser thriller that should keep people nailed to their seats.

There are three productions at the elegant Royal George Theatre. Major Barbara, the only play by Bernard Shaw that will be staged there this year even though the Festival is named after him. This is the eighth production of the play so it must be judged “a winner.” Tons of Money, reviewed here, and Murder-On-The-Lake which is billed as “A spontaneous theatre creation” by Rebecca Northan and Judith Bowden. A murder (?) in Niagara-on-the-Lake has stumped the authorities and an audience member is invited on the stage to go undercover to help catch the perpetrator.

There are two productions at the Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre: Gnit by Will Eno is directed by the Festival’s Artistic Director Tim Carroll about someone looking for his true self with references to Ibsen’s Peer Gynt and much more no doubt. Blues for an Alabama Sky by Pearls Cleage is about survival by black performers in 1930 Harlem.

 In the Spiegeltent you can see Dear Liar by Jerome Kilty co-created and acted by Marla McLean and Graeme Somerville. The Festival’s program informs us that there will be cabarets, concerts, singing and dancing and laughter and more in the tent so you may choose among the six offerings including Dear Liar. One may comment on the choice of plays offered but I think it is more prudent to pass judgment on each production and in the end on the season rather than a priori on the choices of the Artistic Director.

Mike Nadajewski and Julia Course in “Tons of Money.” 
Photo: David Cooper

Tons of Money by Will Evans and Valentine had its London premiere in 1922 and despite some fallow years has never disappeared from the repertoire. The Shaw Festival showed it in 1981 with the great farceur Heath Lamberts. He was a rare talent and Canada has not found a true successor to him.

The current production directed by Eda Holmes generates considerable energy in telling the farcical plot. There are moments of genuine laughter, especially in the second half but the farce never really catches fire. Comparisons are always odious or is it odorous but one cannot fail to recall One Man, Two Gunvors, last year’s farce, that had us roaring with laughter.

The plot of Tons of Money is classic farce. Aubrey (Mike Nadajewski) lives in a well-appointed house (thanks to set designer Judith Bowden who also designed the beautiful dresses for the ladies) but he is seriously broke and his creditors have lost their sense of humour – they want to be paid. Fate is about to reprieve him with a big inheritance from a relative in Mexico. But if he gets any money, his creditors will grab it. His wife Louisa (Julia Couse) suggests that he fake his death and come come as his cousin Henery (Andre Morin) who is to get the money if Aubrey predeceases him. Done.

But complications set in. Aubrey’s cousin’s wife claims the late Aubrey acting as the present cousin Henery as her husband.  And as if that were not bad enough, the real   cousin Henery shows up very much alive. Aubrey has no choice but to fake another suicide. Things get more complicated when the watchful butler Sprules (Graeme  Somerville) gets his brother to impersonate the Mexican cousin. Aubrey takes cover as a curate. It’s time to make a deal with the pretend cousin until they are interrupted by the real cousin from Mexico. It’s time to wrap up all those complications and I will not disclose them to you.

The actors try to generate energy and laughter to guffaw levels. There is physical comedy including pratfalls and a naked man running around the stage. We laugh, but the magic ingredient for making the audience roar is simply missing. There is polite laughter that grows into genuine merriment but no heartfelt guffaws. Director Eda Holmes tapped into some of the available resources of the play but, as they say under other circumstances, almost is not enough in a farce.
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Tons of Money  by Will Evans and Valentine continues in repertory until October 5, 2025, at the Royal George Theatre, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

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

SHEDDING A SKIN – REVIEW OF 2025 NIGHTWOOD THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Shedding A Skin is a one-actor play about Myah (Vanessa Sears), a half-black young woman in London, England. Myah has a low-level office job where management sends a photographer to take pictures of her because head office needs proof of diversity in its staff. The employer has drawn 3 non-white workers including a cleaner who has been made to wear a suit for the photo shoot that is intended to improve the company’s image.

Myah loses it, as they say, and causes an altercation that results in her grabbing the camera and smashing it into pieces. She is fired of course and turns to her parents for help and support and receives none. She becomes homeless and seeks shelter.

Her rebellion against her employer’s attempt to use her to perpetuate a lie about inclusion is an act of bravery, resistance and desperation but Myah has problems that make self-assertion and survival difficult. She is uncertain of herself, of who she is and feels inferior and envious of self-assured co-workers. She has a forced smile and body movements that indicate how pathetic she is. She wants to be different and if she could shed a layer of skin, she might  become the person she wants to be.

Vanessa Sears, in her monologue, tells us about Myah’s journey of self-discovery and change. Myah rents a room from Mildred, an elderly Jamaican woman and looks for a job as she leads a miserable life. Mildred is a self-assured immigrant who has found her niche in England and much of the plot develops around her influence on Myah and the latter’s development. Myah gains self-assurance from Mildred and in the end outgrows all her fears, awkwardness and weaknesses and psychological issues. 

Vanessa Sears in Shedding A Skin. Photo Roya DelSol

The play is performed on the stage of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre and the set by  Jung-Hye Kim consists of a purple box in which we find Myah. The purple box is the prison in which  she lives. There are seven screens on the back wall on which we see photographs and some videos of Myah’s life projected on them. We have shots of her apartment, the stairs, the street and other images of her life including a photo of Donald Trump

The purple box in which we first see Myah changes color and she starts pushing the ceiling and the wall as the plot unfolds and her character changes. Myah will eventually get out of the box as she opens it out completely and in effect it disappears. The change in lighting by Lighting Designer Shawn Henry is impressive and it follows the development and progress towards the liberation of Myah from herself.

The play ends in Piccadilly Circus with a view of the statue of Eros and a rainfall that drenches Myah. It may be a baptism into her new, liberated self or a cleansing of her past issues  and a splendid new beginning.

Director Cherissa Richards controls every movement and vocal intonation of the performance to superb effect.

Kudos to Vanessa Sears for a nuanced, extraordinary performance. She speaks with an expressive English accent and mimics the other characters that she mentions expertly, especially Mildred’s  Jamaican intonation. Her body language is especially effective in accentuating her neurotic character showing all her uncertainties and fears.  A stunning performance.

In the end Myah does not shed a skin because she overcomes what made her uncomfortable in it. She finds herself.
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Shedding A Skin by Amanda Wilkin in a Nightwood Theatre production in association with Buddies in Bad Times Theatre played until May 4, 2025, at the Buddies in Bad Times Theatre, 12 Alexander Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.buddiesinbadtimes.com

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

THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO - REVIEW OF 2025 BROADCAST LIVE FROM THE MET

Reviewed by James Karas

New York’s Met Opera has broadcast the 2014 production of The Marriage of Figaro to movie theatres around the world. Directed by Richard Eyre, this is an outstanding and I dare say extraordinary production of one of the best operas ever composed. Is that enough superlatives? Stay tuned.

Eyre is a consummate man of the theatre and he directs this Figaro as if it were a play at a major theatre. I have seen the production before and this time I paid more attention not just to the singers but to the person that she or he was singing to or was with. In the theatre the reaction or facial expression of the listener is of the utmost importance. It is equally importance in an opera but when you are watching and listening to the tenor or the soprano trying to reach for the stratosphere vocally, your attention to the person being addressed may waiver.

Let’s start with Eyre’s theatricality during the overture, before the plot begins to unravel. Eyre starts the action during the breathless opening music and gives us a better understanding of the plot that follows. A young, pretty and scantily dressed woman runs onto the stage and hurriedly tries to put some clothes on. We then see a young man (Count Almaviva as it turns out) putting on his robe. He is self-satisfied and happy. He just had sex with one of his servants and when he tries to seduce Suzanna, Figaro’s intended wife, we know what type of man he is. The scene is a marvelous preview of the plot. Credit is due to revival stage director Jonathon Loy. 

Olga Kulchynska as Susanna, Sun-Ly Pierce as Cherubino, and 
Federica Lombardi as Countess Almaviva. 
Photo: Evan Zimmerman / Met Opera

Then, there is the scene of the Countess and Suzanna listening to the testosterone-driven  Cherubino expressing his massive sexual urges to the two ladies. We know his hormonal urges but if we watch the facial expressions of the Countess and Suzanna, we see that they are infected by his enthusiasm, or more bluntly they too are aroused.

It is worthwhile paying attention to such details as you listen to and watch the opera. I hasten to add that the luxury of seeing details like that are almost certainly not available in a huge theatre like Lincoln Centre and perhaps from many seats in  smaller venues. The live transmission and judicious handling of the camera shots makes it all possible. And it is a bonus to see the production in a movie theatre. Who can afford to go and see it in New York anyway?

Another virtue of the production is the revolving stage by Set Designer Rob Howell. It is monumental in size and resembles a medieval cathedral but you see different rooms such as the Countess’s bedroom, Figaro and Suzanna’s room and the garden. The big advantage of the revolving set is the seamless continuity between scenes. No curtain. No furniture, nothing needs to stop or delay the continuity of the plot. Howell designs the costumes for 1930’s Seville where the wealthy men wear handsome three-piece suits, the women are adorned with elegant gowns and the lower orders are attired modestly.

The Met provides some young, talented and attractive singers for most of the roles. Staring with the central role of Suzanna, we have Ukrainian soprano Olga Kulchynska with a lovely voice and lively acting in the biggest role in the opera. Bass-baritone Michael Samuel as Figaro is the schemer-in-chief and the deliverer of some of the best melodies such as ”Se vuol ballare”  “Non piu andrai farfallone amoriso” and much more.

Canadian baritone Joshua Hopkins is the suave, jealous, philandering Count Almaviva. All his sins are absolved near the end of the opera when he sings the two words “Contessa, Perdono.” With resplendent sonority and emotion, he seeks benediction from his wife which she readily grants.

The noble countess is sung by soprano Federica Lombardi who sings the gorgeous “Dove sono” and “Porgi amor” in a ravishing voice that expresses loss, longing and resolution. Mezzo-soprano Sun Ly-Pierce as the young, pursuer of sex is on the opposite side of the scale as his body and voice tremble when his being is under the influence of Eros which happens to be all the time.

Conductor Joana Mallwitz in her debut at the Met set a brisk pace and gave a wonderful performance. Yes, she is a woman conductor and I hope this is the last time I feel the necessity of mentioning the gender of the conductor.
This is an exemplary production and a display of what is being done to bring first class opera around the world.
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The Marriage of Figaro (Le Nozze di Figaro) by W A. Mozart was shown Live in HD from the Metropolitan Opera at select Cineplex theatres across Canada on April 26, 2025. It will be shown again at select theatres on May 10, 2025. For more information including dates for reprises go to: www.cineplex.com/events

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

JOB – REVIEW OF 2025 COAL MINE THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Kara 

Job, the three-letter title of Max Wolf Friedrich’s play is not helpful. Initially I thought it would be a play about the much abused and suffering Job of the Old Testament. Then I realized it refers to what people do for a living but that was not very helpful. It is about two people who earn their daily bread one as a therapist and the other as an employee at an unnamed tech company where she watches and vets nightmarish posts.

Jane (Charlotte Dennis) has had a meltdown and a video of her screaming and screeching has gone viral. She has been put on leave and will be able to continue working if she can get a doctor’s letter confirming that she can do her job.

Lloyd (Diego Matamoros) is one of the best therapists around and she consults him to get the letter that she needs. Note, he is not a psychiatrist. The two-hander play lasts 80 minutes and we are treated to extensive information about the patient and the therapist, The piece  does veer into minor longueurs but by the end we are sitting on the edge of our seats with our jaws dropping to the ground. We have witnessed outstanding acting and a plot that may have fooled us completely. The word “thriller” may be used to describe the play but that makes it sound like an ordinary whodunnit and this play is much, much more than that.

Jane is a deeply troubled young woman whose description of the posts that she has witnessed on social media are too horrible to describe let alone being exposed to them daily. She is young and attractive but has had a checkered background and is quite passionate about everything.

Charlotte Dennis and Diego Matamoros in Job. Photo: ElenaEmer

Lloyd is a calm, urbane and methodical therapist who needs to decide if he can recommend that Jane can resume her job. He discloses that he is separated from his wife with whom he had two children, a son, and a daughter who committed suicide at age thirteen.

In the opening scene in the therapist’s office, Jane is holding a gun to the doctor and the lights go off momentarily and we hear a bang. No, she does not shoot the therapist and she eventually puts the gun in her purse. We are not sure if we are watching a therapy session or a holdup but the calm and professional therapist seems to control the situation as he digs deep into Jane’s past and her recent breakdown. This is a clearly troubled woman and he tries to get to the bottom of her trouble to decide if she is sufficiently recovered to return to her job.

I do not want to give any further information and spoil the plot. Suffice it to say that once you have seen the play you will not soon forget the plot and will go over its details with fascination, disbelief and shock.

Jane and Lloyd represent two generations. He is a product of the sixties and she is a  product of the social media generation. You may find their approaches interesting.

The entire action takes place in a modestly furnished office and the drama is accentuated in the small theatre-in-the-round Coal Mine Theatre.  Nick Blais is the set designer.

There is extensive use of lighting by designer Wesley Babcock and sound by designer Michael Wanless. There are moments when lights flash on and off and sounds are heard. You may wish to decide what they indicate when you see the play or when you think about it afterwards.

Charlotte Dennis gives a powerful performance as a complex but troubled young woman who has seen humanity at its most depraved. A bravura performance that demands stamina, ability and just plain talent.

Matamoros is a veteran of Toronto theatre and across Canada. He gives a superb, nuanced performance as a complex man and therapist. He draws us into complacency. Outstanding work.

David Ferry directs the complex plot with superb control. It needs perfect timing and control of the detailed development and emotional wavelength of the play. Superb directing.

It is theatre at its best.

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Job  by Max Wolf Friedrich continues until May 18, 2025, 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 Greek Press