DANGEROUS LIAISONS – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Christopher Hampton’s exquisite play of wit, style and cruelty, Dangerous Liaisons, is back in Stratford fifteen years after its last production at the Stratford Festival. The play is based on Choderlos de Laclos’ novel Les Liaisons Dangereuses about the French nobility before the French Revolution. It makes for frightful and riveting theatre.

Two French aristocrats, Le Vicomte de Valmont (Jesse Gervais) and La Marquise de Merteuil (Jessica B. Hill) are polished, civilized and well-behaved people who happen to have a penchant for revenge and destroying lives for the fun of it. But it is all done with style, subtlety and panache. 

The Marquise and Valmont were lovers, but the relationship fell apart. Now she wants to get even with Madame de Volanges (Nadine Villasin) by having Valmont seduce her teenage daughter Cecile (Ashley Dingwel) who just left the convent. She is innocent, naïve, pretty and pure. Valmont, a man of the world with extensive experience with women, considers the task beneath his talents and rejects the proposal.

Valmont has his eye on a more difficult and desirable target. He wants to seduce Madame de Tourvel, (Celia Aloma) who is beautiful, religious, virtuous, and faithful to her husband. He wants more than a simple sexual conquest. He wants to conquer her while she keeps her virtues intact and falls in love with him and gives herself to him. In short, he wants to destroy her moral world and destroy her completely when he has sex with her and rejects her. This will require brilliant tactics, persuasive powers and fraud on a massive scale. He has the amoral and intellectual capacity to achieve total victory.

Madame Volanges has spoken ill of him and Valmont decides to seduce the hapless Cecile. He uses his usual cunning to achieve that while pretending to help her with a budding relationship with the young Chevalier Danceny.

Merteuil and Valmont have a complex relationship that he tries to rekindle but she holds him at arme’s length. She promises a night with him if he brings written proof of his conquest of Tourvel. Merteuil is crueler than Valmont, if that is possible.

From Left: Nadine Villasin as Madame de Volange, 
Jessica B. Hill as La Marquise de Merteuil and 
Seana McKenna as Madame de Rosemonde in 
Dangerous Liaisons. Stratford Festival 2025. Photo: David Hou

Valmont seduces Cecile but director Esther Jun censors the scene. The directions for the scene in the text indicate that Valmont places his hand where he shouldn’t, he takes his hand away as Cecile stares in amazement. You can imagine the rest but Jun finishes the scene before we get to the climax.

The production takes us through most of the text but its success is mixed. There are some lively, dramatic scenes laced with humour. But there are also scenes where the production is flat. Some of the dialogue is not heard and that is inexcusable. The old rule that the actors should speak to the last row in the theatre is not always followed.

Hill’s Merteuil shows her metal as a liberated woman who does not take orders from men and her evil side of wanting revenge against all who cross her including Valmont. Vilasin’s  Volange is also effective as the would-be upstanding mother who has a checkered past in bedroom experiences.

Gervais as Valmont and Aloma as Tourvel lack the passion, real or pretended, that we expect. At times they appear almost flat. Did Jun simply allow that? It’s hard to go wrong with Liaisons but you can do a lot better. And the word censorship should not be heard there. If your sensibilities are that delicate, stay home.

The play is a condemnation of the French aristocracy on the eve of the revolution that was about to deservedly decimate them. Hampton calls for the appearance of the silhouette of a guillotine that should be breathtaking. In this production we get the appearance of a small guillotine that was almost invisible.  
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Dangerous Liaisons by Christopher Hampton opened on August 22 and will run until October 25, 2025, at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

James Karas is the Senior Editor, Culture, of The Greek Prees, Toronto

MURDER-ON-THE-LAKE – REVIEW OF 2025 SHAW FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Murder-on-the-Lake is a “Spontaneous Theatre Creation by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak” (that is how it is billed) that had its world premiere at the Royal George Theatre in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

Some details please. An audience member is chosen and “interviewed” as a potential detective to solve the mystery of a murder. He gives us his occupation and is allowed to use that as a cover while doing his investigation into whodunnit. A different audience member is chosen for each  performance and on the date, I saw the play it was Brian.

The first scene takes place in the office of the Niagara Regional Police Department where the prospective volunteer for the stage and as detective is interviewed. His real name is Brian and that is all I will reveal. He is told that the play has thirteen characters played by eight actors because that is all they could afford. He is introduced to the idea of doubling in the theatre. He is given a detective’s badge and sent to Butler’s Island Bed and Breakfast where the murder occurred one year ago.

In a beautifully furnished room, we meet the people who were at the Bed and Breakfast a year ago and are gathered again for a memorial service for Jan, the murder victim. Brian is miked to communicate with HQ and searches for clues around the room and interviews the four guests to pinpoint the murderer. There are some clues. Jan’s ghost, unseen by anyone other than Brian, appears to help with the investigation but she recalls almost nothing. She was murdered by a fruit of a plant that makes her death look like a heart attack.

The cast of Murder-on-the-Lake (Shaw Festival, 2025). 

Photo by Michael Cooper.

There are suspects, of course, the most  obvious being her husband. They were married for a few hours when she died and he has ended up as a millionaire. Clearly a motive for snuffing her. 

Brian is the star of the show. He is on stage throughout the show while the eight actors come on and off the stage. He must adlib his role throughout and he is hilarious. The audience knows that he is an amateur thrown on the stage without any preparation and finds most of his lines hysterical. The actors must improvise around his lines and the result is highly entertaining.

The eight actors are Kristopher Bowman, Cosette Derome, Sochi Fried, Virgilia Griffith, Martin Happer, Bruce Horak, Rebecca Northan and Travis Seeto. Creator Northan also directs the show.

The actors take on different parts at random for each performance and the show is never the same because so much depends on the volunteer and the replies that he/she inspires. The actors have to be on their toes and come up with funny replies. The detective mentioned the United States and an actor said she does like the U.S. Someone lost a lot of money by investing in Tesla. The audience roared.

Much of the entertainment relies on a very friendly audience that wants to laugh and support the volunteer on the stage. They would not be that friendly without him and the show works up to uproarious applause of appreciation.

Judithe Bowden’s set shows a well-appointed room in the Bed and Breakfast. John Gzowski’s original music and sound design gives us thunder and lightning in the background and music appropriate for a murder mystery. Jeff Pybus helps with the lighting design to create the right atmosphere as we look for the murderers.

Rose Tavormina dresses the actors in primary colour outfits because they do not know what role they will be playing.   

And great fun was had by everyone.
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Murder-on-the-Lake created by Rebecca Northan and Bruce Horak continues in repertory until October 4, 2025, at the Royal George Theatre, Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario. www.shawfest.com.

James Karas is the Senior Ector, Culture, of The Greek Pres, Toronto

RANSACKING TROY – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed James Karas 

Ransacking Troy is a new play by Erin Shields that premiered on August 21, 2025, at the Tom Patterson Theatre, as part of the Stratford Festival. It is a brilliant play that received an outstanding production with a superb cast directed by the master director, Jackie Maxwell. That is quite a collection of superlatives, and my rave review may find a few more. If you see the production, you may come up with a few of your own.

The play is about the mythical Trojan War but with a fundamental difference. It shows the uprising of the women of Greece, the wives, children and a few others who are fed up with the ten-year struggle and decide to put an end to it. Enough of heroes like Achilles, Odysseus and Agamemnon fighting for glory and booty (with comfort women in their tents) while their wives take care of everything in Greece.

Led by Penelope (Maev Beaty), the wife of Odysseus, the women decide to go to Troy and put an end to the destructive lunacy that has drawn on for ten years. We get urgency, disagreement and hilarity as they find a ship and row across the Aegean Sea to Troy. They recall the abduction of Helen of Sparta irreverently with a limerick that continues with her batting her eyes like a tarta and attracting Paris to slide her smooth thighs aparta.

They recall the sacrifice of Iphigenia, the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra for the sake of good winds to launch a thousand ships to Troy. Agamemnon the king of kings and Achilles, the greatest warrior fight over Chryseis, a war trophy. Agamemnon is forced to give her up and takes Achilles’s prize Briseis. Hence the anger of Achilles that dominates the Trojan War.

There is drama, humour and physical activity as the women get behind the oars and make their way to Troy. They need to prepare to impersonate men. They put on beards and imitate the mannerisms of men including scratching their crotches. Hilarious.

The play has thirty-three characters played by nine actors, all women, of course. You can do your own arithmetic about how many roles each actor plays, but don’t waste your time. You will have no difficulty following the plot. I will not name all the parts that each actor plays but will give you a couple of examples. Sarah Topham plays Aegiale (the wife of King Diomedes), the Cowering Woman, King Diomedes and the gorgeous Helen of Troy, a sight to behold as she comes down the aisle through the audience in a spectacular gown.

From Left: Irene Poole as Clytemnestra and Maev Beaty
 as Penelope in Ransacking Troy. Stratford Festival 2025. 
Photo: David Hou.

Ijeoma Emesowum plays Psamathe, the hilarious goddess of sandy beaches as well as Briseis, Trojan Soldier, Antilochus, Circe and Cassandra.

The Greek women settle the war and head back to Greece but run into some problems. They encounter the Lotus Eaters, the goddess Circe who turns people into pigs, the Cyclops, the Sirens and Scylla and Charybdis. Yes, they are the same ones that Odysseus will encounter on his return.

The women make it back and they discuss what needs to be done. They want a radical transformation of society. Equality for women and a stop to their being slaves to the men who go to war for glory and loot. That message is not only for the women of Bronze Age Greece but for today’s people. The end is bitingly ironic as the women decide which way to proceed.

The performances by the nine actors are superb and I will name them all without enumerating all the roles that they play. Maev Beaty plays Penelope, the leader of the women, with commanding assurance and persuasive ability. She is outstanding. Irene Poole plays the powerful and bitter Clytemnestra whose husband sacrificed their daughter Iphigeneia for the war. She has anger and determination and a bitterly ironic finish.

Helen Belay plays Electra and the priest Chryses who begs for the release of his daughter Chryseis. We hear the encounter of the thirteen-year-old girl after Agamenon gets possession of her.  

Sarah Dodd has six roles including Galax, the half-sister of the great warrior Ajax. She is a fighter like him.

Caitlyn MacInnes plays a decidedly working-class character, Cur, the daughter of a boat builder. Yanna McIntosh plays two powerful women, Euridice, the wife of Nestor and Hecuba, the wife of King Priam of Troy. A performance to behold.

Marissa Orjalo plays Hermione, the fifteen-year-old daughter of Helen who abandoned her for Paris when she (Hermione) was five years old.

They all perform superbly, and my few words of praise are not sufficient to express the high quality of their acting.

The set and costumes designed by Judith Bowden are perfect for the production. There are easily moveable benches that can be lined up for the women to become rowers. The simple costumes can belong to almost any age as does the theme of the play. The lighting by Michael Walton, the music by Deanna H. Choi and the sound design by Thomas Ryder Payne combine splendidly for the storms and fights.

The number of actors representing a large variety of characters in Greece, Troy and locations across the Aegean Sea in rowing like crazy calm waters and sea storms like passing through Scylla and Charybdis pose huge problems. Enter the magical solver, director Jackie Maxwell. Her dealing with all issues from the position of each character to the overall control of the humour and drama of the play is a masterpiece of directing.

Theatre at its best.

Ransacking Troy by Erin Shields opened on August 21 and will play until September 28, 2025, at the Tom Patterson Theatre, Stratford, Ontario.

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

THE ART OF WAR – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

There is a story about the famous Russian ballerina Anna Pavlova. Following the performance, an audience member inquired about the meaning of the dance. Pavlova replied that “if I could say what it meant, I would not have danced it.” This story came to mind while watching The Art of War, a new play by Yvette Nolan that premiered at the Stortford Festival’s Studio Theatre on August 20, 2025.

The Art of War does not refer to strategy and tactics to help soldiers kill people and achieve conquests. It is about painting scenes of conflicts to communicate the brutality and horrors of war on canvas. The main character is Nick, an artist from Nova Scotia, who is with the Canadian army in World War II and is an appointed army artist. He believes that he can capture and communicate the suffering and terror of war by painting it better than photographs and films.

The photographer is called simply Nick (Josue Laboucane), a simple soldier with a love of painting and the conviction that a painting can be a powerful and deeper portrait than any other form. We believe him when he says that.

His friend Newman (Jordin Hall) visits him on the otherwise empty stage of the Studio Theatre. Nick sketches a painting of Newman in a heroic pose, but his friend is shot by the enemy and dies. His death is temporary because Newman appears several times after that alive, but not remembering the past, and he is “killed” again. We are not sure about what is happening, but Nick may be imagining his friend as still alive. If there are other clues about Newman’s fate and Nick’s imagination, I did not get them.

A woman named Magda (Jenna-Lee Hyde) limps into Nick’s space. She is hungry, fearful and desperate. Nick gives her a chocolate bar and later more food. He sketches her as well and she is a perfect example of the fate of innocent civilians in times of war. She probably ends up in a concentration camp and we see a horrifying image of her in the end.    

Eva (Julie Lumsden), a singer who entertains the troops, appears. Perhaps she represents the lighter side of military life but in war it is hard to find a lighter side. 

From Left: Jordin Hall as Newman and Josue Laboucane as 
Nick in The Art of War. Stratford Festival 2025. 
Photo: David Hou.

Dennis (Rylan Wilkie), a professional photographer and film taker appears, and he defends that what he does is the best way to represent and store the images of war. Nick argues that the camera is an inadequate means of communication compared to the feeling that an artist can add to a painting.

Matthaeus, (played by Wilkie), a German deserter appears, and he adds to the horrors we imagine with the knowledge of someone on the other side. 

The play is introduced by a woman whom we see only in silhouette. She informs us that members of the Group of Seven artists painted images of war in World War I and II but their work was ignored. In the late 1960’s someone catalogued some 5400 war paintings and Canadians started paying attention to the art form. Eva (played by Lumsden) appears at the end of the play and repeats the information from her introduction. She shows war paintings by the Group of Seven and meets Nick in old age who tells us that only two of his paintings are displayed anywhere with the rest being stored somewhere.

The problem with The Art of War is that it “says” things about war paintings, and about how they helped Canada understand itself as a nation through that art. It is as if Pavlova explained her dance, “the inexplicable dance” without actually doing it. We see a few paintings from the Group of Seven quickly around the theater with no chance to appreciate what they represent and how they help us understand Canada and its contribution to the wars.

Pavlova may not have been able to describe what she did on stage, but the people who asked what it meant had seen it and formed their own opinions. We did not see anything like that in The Art of War. The descriptions by Nick are of little help and the fate of the characters in the play does not tell us anything about the effectiveness of art.

Kudos to Laboucane as a simple soldier with a passion, to Hyde as the eternal image of the innocent victim of war, to Wilkie as a photographer who believes in his profession and Hall, the faithful friend who stays in Nick’s subconscious forever. All done under the careful tutelage of director Keith Barker. But they represent people and not works of art.
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The Art of War by Yvette Nolan opened on August 20 and will run in repertory until September 27, 2025, at the Studio Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

SENSE AND SENSIBILITY – REVIEW OF 2025 STRATFORD FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

The Stratford Festival has taken the bold step of adapting Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility for the stage and putting it on at the Festival Theatre. Austen’s novels have been the basis of many art forms but capturing her ineffable prose and the rituals of Regency England has never been easy. The current production by Kate Hamill is “based on the novel by Jane Austen” and is not referred to as an adaptation. There may be a clue there as to what we should expect.

You may recall that Sense and Sensibility is about Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters who are left destitute by virtue of the law of entailment. On the death of Mr. Dashwood, his property can only be inherited by a male heir, his son, and nothing goes to his wife or daughters. The decent Mr. Dashwood has his son John promise to support Mrs. Dashwood, and he intends to do it until his wife objects and forces him to give nothing to them.

Mrs. Dashwood and her three daughters move to a cottage provided by Sir John Middleton, a generous cousin and live in genteel poverty searching for husbands for Elinor, the eldest, and her younger sister Marianne. Margaret is too young for that mission.

The eligible bachelors are Edward Ferrars, John Willloughby and Colonel Brandon Thomas. Complications arise with all three to keep us watching for about two and a half hours until things are sorted out in a true Austen form. The young ladies do find husbands and we all live happily ever after.

That is the barebones of the plot that we read about in Austen’s elegant prose accompanied by the graceful rituals and civilized manners of Regency England. Hamill and Director Daryl Cloran pay scant attention to Austen and try to provide us with a production that is partly farce, partly brisk theatre and a result that can generously be classified as unsatisfactory.

Cloran uses 15 actors to play 22 roles. Of these roles 5 are called Gossip #1 to #5. The five Gossips are kept very busy. They are on stage for much of the performance and chatter, run on and off the stage, move furniture, engage in dialogue, scream, screech, and make other noises. They also crawl on the floor pretending to be dogs. In short, they provide more annoyance than one can bear. They have colourful costumes with feathers on their hats and if you can imagine all the acts enumerated in the previous sentence have been done numerous times you may conclude that they have no place in a play based on Austen and ask why in the world they are on stage. 

(l to r) Jade V. Robinson as Margaret Dashwood, Jessica B. Hill as 
Elinor Dashwood and Glynis Ranney as Mrs. Dashwood. Photo: David Hou 

They deserve credit for doing what they were supposed to do, and their names are: Christopher Allen, Jenna-Lee Hyde, Ashley Dingwel (on the night that I saw the performance but usually played by Celia Aloma), Jesse Gervais and Julie Lumsden.

The centre of attention are Elinor (Jessica B. Hill) and Marianne (Olivia Sinclair-Brisbane). They are romantic, innocent and lovely except when Cloran makes them act idiotically. Elinor falls in love with the honorable Edward Ferrars (Thomas Duplessie who also plays Robert Fearrars) who is shy and awkward. Cloran unfortunately makes him into a stuttering and bumbling fool, almost strictly a comic figure. John Wlloughby (Andrew Chown who also plays John Dashwood) is the cad that misleads Marianne into falling in love with him. But we do have Colonel Brandon Thomas (Shane Carty), the upstanding gentleman who wins Mariane’s heart.

We have seventeen characters to deal with aside from the five Gossips. Seana McKenna doubles as the garrulous and funny Mrs. Jennings and the almost speechless but comic Mrs. Ferrars.  Steve Ross plays Sir John Middleton, and he is not given much of a chance as a comic and the Doctor and there are no laughs in him. Glynis Ranney plays Mrs. Dashwood, the mother of the three girls as well as Anne Steele. Jade V. Robinson gives an exuberant performance as Margaret, the teenage sister.

There are a number of settings for the play, from the Dashwood cottage to Sir John’s residence, to London and some outdoor scenes. People go for a walk and instead of having them stroll around the stage, Cloran has them bop up and down in one spot. There are numerous frames for people to step in and out of rooms or doors and they are not always clear or necessary. During the outside walks the Gossips walk around the perimeter of the stage holding stalks of flowers.

Set and costume designer Dana Osborne provides numerous pieces of furniture on wheels which are easily wheeled on and off the stage by the Gossips or other characters. The costumes are fine except for the three sisters wearing very similar dresses in the early scenes. Presumably it is mourning attire and as far as we can tell their father just died. His corpse fell on the tea table from above and startled everyone. It is wrapped in a sheet and tossed off the stage.

There it is, a confusing production that strives for laughs and does get some. To be fair to Hamill by basing the play on the novel rather than adapting it for the stage, she may have had no intention of being faithful to Austen at all. That may be fair enough, but I suspect many people were drawn to the play because they thought they were getting Jane Austen’s novel in a different form. If that was Hamill’s intent, she should have warned us with changing the title to, say, Sense and Sensibility, Maybe or some such variation.
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Sense and Sensibility by Kate Hamill based on the novel by Jane Austen continues until October 2025 at the Festival Theatre, Stratford, Ontario. www.stratfordfestival.ca

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

OLD TIMES – REVIEW OF 2025 SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas 

Has Harold Pinter gone out of style? It seems that productions of his plays are infrequent and it may just be a cyclical thing that happens to most writers.  In any event Soulpepper has produced a fine production of Old Times, his fourth full-length play and we are grateful for it.

The title tells us that this is a play of reminiscences and in a play by Pinter that means a lot. Memory is very tricky. What we remember may have happened but what we retain of events may be different from the actual or we may think we recall but the events may not have happened at all. There are many variations of this.

Old Times has three characters, Deeley (Christopher Morris), his wife Kate (Anita Majumdar) and Anna (Jenny Young). We meet all three in Deely and Kate’s house in the country where Anne is visiting them. She was Kate’s best and only friend twenty years ago and they have not seen each other since then. Anna is living in a posh house at the top of a hill in Sicily, a volcanic island she tells us. Both women are attractive, in their early forties and smartly dressed.

(l to r) Jenny Young as Anna, Christopher Morris as Deeley and 

Anita Majumdar as Kate. Photo: Dahlia Katz/Soulpepper

Director Peter Pasyk captures the Pinteresque atmosphere of silences, mysterious looks and the air of the unidentified that pervades the action of the play. We can never tell if the “events” that the characters recall are real or imaginary or perhaps both. Everything that we hear leaves us uncertain as to its veracity or its intended effect on the listeners and for that matter the audience.

Anna, a stunning blonde, shared an apartment with the brunette Kate, and she recalls a carefree life including enjoyment of the cultural life of London. The two spent late nights of friendly intimacy. More than friendly intimacy? Kate told her husband that Anna stole her underwear but the latter tells us that she lent it to her. Deeley recalls that he met Anna in a bar and describes how he looked up her skirt and could see her underwear. He was looking at his future wife’s intimate apparel. The description is sexually charged as are other scenes in the play.

The soft battle lines are drawn up as Deeley and Anna try to top the other about who has known Kate best. Who is entitled to her affection? In the opening scene Kate and Anna looked at each other attentively, perhaps mysteriously, maybe affectionately. Anna describes Kate’s love of long baths and she advises Deeley about how to dry Kate with a towel after her bath. All these seem like attempts to see who can come out on top. Kate does not give anyone the upper hand.

The performances by Majumdar, Morris and Young are impeccable. Morries scores his points but Young, despite what she did in the past, including her presence in a bar where someone stares up her skirt, maintains her composure and her serene appearance. Majumdar maintains her composure and mystery.

The set and costumes by Snazana Pesic are perfect. For the first act living room, we have a couple of sofas, side tables and a comfortable armchair. For the second act we have the same furniture turned around for the bedroom. The dresses for the two women are stylish 1960’s. The play was first produced in 1971.

Carol Reed’s 1947 film Odd Man Out is mentioned several times, especially actor Robert Newton. He plays the small role of an eccentric painter in the film and I am not sure why he is glorified in Old Times. Does the title of the film give us a clue to Deeley’s final position in the play.

Pasyk crafts a marvelous production with meticulous attention to details. The play has some humour and Pasyk did not bring more than a smidgeon of it. Nonetheless. I thoroughly  enjoyed the production. 

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Old Times by Harold Pinter continues until September 7, 2025, at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca.

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

The Norman Conquests (2013)
Photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE - REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival once again tips its hat to Broadway by producing Sunday In The Park With George, the 1984 musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim and book by James Lapine.  The musical has won a carload of awards including the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1985.

George of the title is French painter Georges Seurat who painted A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte between 1884 and 1886. The island is in the Seine and was frequented by ordinary Parisians on Sundays and Seurat wanted to capture them promenading there. The plot of the musical is fictional so don’t try to learn anything about Seurat from it.

In the opening scene of the musical, George (John Riddle) tells us what a painter faces: "White, a blank page or canvas. The challenge: bring order to the whole, through design, composition, tension, balance, light and harmony." It is a tall order for the painter who is sitting in front of an easel and sketching his model Dot (Marina Pires). She is bored and frustrated (and very funny) at having to get up early every Sunday and stand still and pose as ordered by George. She is also his mistress. Parisians start arriving on the island.

An Old Lady (Lauretta Bybee) comes with her Nurse (Taylor-Alexis DuPont)and the latter plops her on the ground with some difficulty. The Old Lady turns out to be George’s Mother. The musical has 36 characters played by 17 singers/actors but many of them are inconsequential.

The action picks up and we see numerous vignettes. Artist Jules (Marc Webster) and his wife Yovonne (Claire McCahan) opine that George’s painting has “No life,” Dot befriends Louis, the baker, the two Celestes (Angela Yam and SarahAnn Duffy) argue over who will get the better-looking soldier and so on. George continues painting. 

John Riddle as George with the painting A Sunday Afternoon on
 the Island of La Grande Jatte. 
Photo by Brent DeLanoy/The Glimmerglass Festival

A pair of American tourists Betty (Claire McCahan and Bob Greenberg (Marc Webste) represent one view of the stupid American tourist from the South and they are very funny.

The plot complications recur and develop while George and Dot reach an impasse. She is carrying his child and she wants to marry Louis (Sahel Salam) and go to the United States. Jules sneaks away for a bit of fun with Frieda (Viviana Aurelia Goodwin) and his wife Yvonne finds out about it. Oops. Mayhem breaks out on the island. George takes control, after all it is his painting, and its subjects take their place in A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte which will end up in the Art Institute of Chicago.

That is the first act of the musical with some humour, drama and numerous complications and the appropriate ending with the completion of the work.

But Sondheim and Lapine add a second act that takes place 100 years later, in 1984. with George’s great-grandson also called George. The latter has a machine called "Chromolume #7" and he is showing his great-grandfather’s work with that machine and with the help of his 98-year-old grandmother Marie (Marina Pires), the daughter of Dot. Marie tells us what her mother told her on her deathbed.  Then Marie speaks to her mother in the painting.  Then a vision of Dot appears and by that time I have lost almost all interest in what is going on.

There are excellent performances by the cast. John Riddle is a dedicated, serious minded almost obsessed artist. He is lithe of foot and voice and a distinguished performer. The Americans provide good humour and Julius and Yvonne are notable for their work.

The sets by John Conklin are minimalist but effective. He set the standard for set design for all the season’s operas and deserves a standing ovation.

Director Ethan Heard does a fine job in the first act but I got diminishing returns in the second act that all but killed it for me.

Conductor Michael Ellis Ingram led the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra for an enthusiastic audience.  
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Sunday in the Park with George by Stephen Sondheim (music and lyrics) and James Lapine (book) is being performed six times until August 17, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

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

THE HOUSE ON MANGO STREET – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas 

The House On Mango Street is a new opera by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) It is based on Cisneros’ novel and it had its premiere at the Glimmerglass Festival in July of 2025.

The opera has thirty characters played by 22 actors/singers and is set in a poor, immigrant neighborhood of Chicago. The opera, like the novel, is episodic and deals with an array of events and personal stories in the lives of the residents of the community.

The main character is Esperanza (Mikaela Bennett), a young woman and aspiring writer. The opera opens with her at an old-fashioned typewriter pecking away stories about her life. The novel was published in 1984 and predates computers but the central message of the opera and the novel is Esperanza’s desire to get out of the hellish neighborhood.

Sally (Taylor Alexis-Dupont) is an adolescent who wants to have fun with the boys of the neighborhood but the two sides may have different ideas about fun. Sally, we learn, wants to keep the boys at bay but her real problem is an abusive father that she keeps as a secret.

We have Lucy (Samantha Sosa) and Rachel (Kaylan Hernandez) who are prepared to be Esperanza’s friends forever. But that will only happen if she gives them five dollars to buy a bike. Are they from Sicily?

Cast of House on Mango Street. 
Photo by Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival.

Geraldo (Angelo Silva), a young, undocumented street vendor has the most tragic end. He is killed in a street scuffle and the people  who witnessed the shooting “saw nothing. 

As I said, the opera has some thirty characters and the plotline becomes  unfocused and confusing. It would be pointless to name them all. The music seems to emanate from numerous styles that I could not recognize. More focus would have been better.

Set Designer John Conklin went to market in his set design. Two brightly lit towers represent two houses or whatever else you want. Extensive use of lighting patterns, projections by Greg Emetaz and by Lighting Designer Amith Chandrashaker provide a dizzying kaleidoscope of effects. Is there such a result as too much of a good thing? We get the life of a poor immigrant community, individual stories from many of them, an array of musical styles  -  it is too much to absorb on the first viewing of a new opera.

Costume Designer Erik Teague provides costumes that represent poor teenagers as well as more elaborate costumes for some who have different tastes. There is no issue with his designs.

Director Chia Patino manages the thirty characters in the two towers and on stage with efficiency. She does a fine job with the street fight and handling the emotional and humorous parts of the opera.   

Conductor Nicole Paiement conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera through the many musical styles that the score calls for.

It may seem that I did not enjoy the new opera at all. That is not entirely true and totally unfair for a new and thus unfamiliar work. The Glimmerglass Festival deserves kudos for commissioning the work and Bermel and Cisneros for creating an opera from her novel. There was exceptionally high-quality singing and some of stories were moving, tragic and funny. Unfortunately, I found the work as a whole disappointing.
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The House on Mango Street by Derek Bermel (music) and Sandra Cisneros and Derek Bermel (libretto) is being performed six times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. More information www.glimmerglass.org

James Karas is the Senior Editor Culture of The Greek Press

A MOON FOR THE MISBEGOTTEN – 2025 REVIEW OF ALMEIDA THEATRE PRODUCTON

Reviewed by James Karas

The Almeida Theatre is a very small venue in London but it stages some of the finest productions in London. It tackled Eugene O’Neill’s A Moon For The Misbegotten with mixed results. I should mention at the outset that the play is so creaky that it almost guarantees mixed results.

O’Neill finished what turned out to be his last play in 1943. It has been produced a handful of times including a production at the Shaw Festival in 2009 but producers have stayed clear of it most of the time. The production Directed by Rebecca Frecknall with a talented cast attempt to bring the play to life but it must work with their hands tied behind their backs.

The play is set in a farmhouse in Connecticut where Josie Hogan (Ruth Wilson) and her father Phil Hogan (David  Threlfall) live. Don’t look at the script if you can avoid it. But if you did check it, you will note O’Neill’s description of Josie as “so oversize for a woman that she is almost a freak – five feet eleven in her stockings and weighs around one hundred and eighty.” He adds that “she is more powerful than any but an exceptionally strong man …. But there is no mannish quality about her. She is all woman.” No need to imagine the freak because in this production, Josie is played by an attractive Ruth Wilson who has none of the attributes described by O’Neill.

That is positive but the play itself is dominated by verbosity and booze and by characters who are largely incapable of any meaningful contact or communication. Phil is a foulmouthed drunkard, who is so violent at times that his daughter has to use a stick to protect herself. His son Mike (Peter Corby) escapes furtively from the farm after stealing some of his father’s money and runs away to freedom. Phil is capable of some affection towards Josie and plots a way to get title to the farm, but overall, he is an unsavory and disgusting person.

Ruth Wilson and David Threlfall. Photograph: Marc Brenner

Josie is the central character and she is sexually active and very proudly permissive with sexual wares. If she looked like O’Neill describes her, she would have very few takers. Despite her foul mouth and slutty habits, she does have a positive side and she probably does fall in love with James Tyrone (Michael Shannon), the would-be owner of the farm (waiting for the probate of his mother’s will). But she and Tyrone are so inarticulate or beyond the ability to express affection that the only thing that comes out of their relationship is boredom.

Tyrone is usually stone drunk and spends a night with Josie who is trying to have him seduce her so she can claim the farm. One does not know what to make of the two emotional losers.

In fairness I should mention that Phil does show affection towards his daughter and Tyrone’s drinking may be the result of his feelings of guilt. But the writing is so turgid that not much comes across to the audience.

The set by Tom Scutt  shows a dilapidated house with a raised platform that may be a bedroom. There are ladders and boards around the stage indicating the lack of an orderly house.

Director Rebecca Frecknall  could not save the production from its booze and verbosity and in the end, we applauded because it was over.
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A Moon for the Misbegotten by Eugene O’Neill continues until August 16, 2025,  at the Almeida Theatre, Almeida Street, Islington, London, England. https://almeida.co.uk

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

THE RAKE’S PROGRESS – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

  Reviewed by James Karas

The Glimmerglass Festival has staged a powerful and stunning production of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress during the 50^th anniversary season at the Alice Busch Opera Theatre in Cooperstown, New York. The production features a strong cast directed by Eric Sean Fogel and the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus conducted by Joseph Colaneri.

The Rake’s Progress was a series of paintings by the eighteenth-century English painter Thomas Hogarth who charted the life of Tom Rakewell, “the rake.” Progress is meant ironically because Tom went from the heir to a large fortune to a life of luxury, waste, prostitution and loss of everything including his sanity. The aptly named Anne Trulove, the beautiful woman that he loved and abandoned continued to love him to the bitter end.

Igor Stravinsky was quite taken by the paintings and he decided to turn them into an opera. The libretto based on Hogarth’s paintings was prepared by the august W. H. Auden and Chester Simon Kallman  and was first performed in 1951 in Venice.

The Glimmerglass Festival production features Canadian tenor Adrian Kramer as Tom Rakewell. (The Glimmerglass Festival Program says he is from New York, New York! This is not the time to make mistakes like that.) He is from Toronto). Regardless of his origin, he turns in an energetic performance physically and especially vocally. He fulfills Rakewell’s complex role with superb singing and acting through the many stages of the rake’s life. It was a delight to hear and watch him

The lovely Anne is the antithesis of Rakewell and I pay tribute to soprano Lydia Grindatto. She plays the faithful and pure lover of Rakewell and pursues him until his bitter end. She sings the arias and duets with beauty and splendid vocal finesse. She makes the most difficult phrase appear simple, natural, and beautiful.

 

Aleksey Bogdanov (Nick Shadow), Adrian Kramer (Tom Rakewell)

Photo © The Glimmerglass Festival | Kayleen Bertrand

And we have the Mephistopheles of the opera, Nick Shadow (baritone Aleksey Bogdanov). He has the attire and manners of an English gentleman and tells the lazy lout Rakewell that he has inherited a large fortune. He invites him to enjoy the life that money can provide and Rakewell follows him to London to a “better life” in a brothel. Bogdanov has a sonorous and convincing baritone voice and manages to control Rakewell to the bitter end when he asks him for his soul in payment for his services. A marvelous performance by Bogdanov.

The first step that Rakewell takes on his way down is at the brothel where he meets Baba the Turk (mezzo-soprano Deborah Nansteel). She has a big voice and a pronounced presence on the stage. She may be considered nasty but she has, as they say, about members of her profession (and I mean prostitutes and not singers), a heart of gold. Baba marries Rakewell but when Anne shows up, she speaks well of him. I have no doubt that Deborah too has a heart of gold and she gives a grand performance.

Anne’s father Trulove (bass Marc Webster) sings with gorgeous sonority and sensitivity as the concerned parent who finds a job for the wastrel Rakewell. He has a relatively small roll but he makes the most of it. Well done.

The set by John Conklin is minimalist and unrealistic. The lighting by Robert Wierzel features generous use of projections illustrating certain events. They do the job. In the opening scene we see a cutout of the Venus de Milo statue, the one of the goddess of love with the missing arms. It disappears when Rakewell goes astray but at the end of the opera he thinks he is Adonis, the beautiful youth that Venus loved passionately.

Director Fogel handles the complex plot and characters with an eye to detail and drama. He gives us a coherent and splendidly done production.

Colaneri conducts the Glimmerglass Festival Opera and Chorus through Stravinsky’s multifaceted and complicated score brilliantly. We are left with a production to remember.
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The Rake’s Progress by Igor Stravinsky is being performed six times until August 15, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival, Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information at www.glimmerglass.org/

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

TOSCA – REVIEW OF 2025 GLIMMERGLASS FESTIVAL PRODUCTION

 Reviewed by James Karas

 The Glimmerglass Festival is celebrating its 50^th anniversary season and that speaks of its longevity and the high quality of its productions. For those who have not been there, it is held in the Alice Busch Opera Theatre on the shores of Lake Otsego in upstate New York. Doesn’t ring a bell? How about it is next door to Cooperstown, the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame? That’s better.

 This year the Festival offers four operas among other events. The operas represent the usual eclectic choice this year of the effervescent Artistic and General Director Rob Ainsley. Puccini’s Tosca is the staple. Sunday In The Park With George is the American classic musical. Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress is the adventurous 20^th century classic  and The House on Mango Street with music by Derek Merkel and libretto by Sandra Cisneros and Bermel is a new opera.

Director Louisa Proske and Designer John Conklin offer a unique, imaginative and brilliant production of Puccini’s masterpiece. They have their own take on the opera and despite some aspects that may strike us as unorthodox or head-scratching the result is a marvelous production.

First, the singers. You can’t have a Tosca without a highly qualified soprano. American soprano Michelle Bradley delivers a stunning performance in the lead role. She has a big, brilliant and expressive voice that simply knocks you over. She can be the jealous woman who goes crazy over the idea that her lover Cavaradossi is painting another beauty, a passionate lover in her duets with the same man and a fury when confronted by a sadistic would-be rapist. She can belt out her phrases and express tender memories as in “Vissi d’arte”.    

The other essential part of the opera is the sadistic Scarpia sung here by American bass-baritone Greer Grimsley. Scarpia relishes his lust and tells us he prefers force over consent. He is a rapist. He has the great scene with Tosca where he tries to seduce her and rape her. He thunders his joy at torturing people and at his absolute control over them. We watch with delight as Tosca stabs him to death on the bed in his office where he had a woman before Tosca arrived.

 

Greer Grimsley as Baron Scarpia, Yongzhao Yu as 

Mario Cavaradossi, and Kellan Dunlap as Spoletta. 

Photo Credit: Kayleen Bertrand/The Glimmerglass Festival

American tenor Yongzhao Yu sings a fine Cavaradossi. He sings a sound E lucevan le stelle but he is out sung in his duets with Tosca.

Proske and Conklin put their own stamp on the production. As the lights go on, the set appears and it seems that the monumental interior of the Church of St. Andrea where the first act is set is being renovated. There are tarps and scaffolding all around except for the back of a large easel and a small Madonna on a pedestal. We never see what Cavaradossi is painting. The tarps do fall for the Te Deum at the end of the act but there is no spectacular splendor.

The second act is in Scarpia’s presumably opulent office. The furniture is ordinary to cheap and there is a bed with a women getting dressed after having finished the obvious. There is a table, a bathroom with a shower and a cheap desk. The torture room is in the back.

All the furniture from Scarpia’s office is removed for the third act which is supposed to take place atop the Castel Sant’Angelo. It does not. There is no parapet for Tosca to jump off and Proske solves the problem with a gun. Tosca shoots herself.

We may miss the Zeffirellian grandeur but surprisingly the changes do not take away from the drama and effectiveness of the production. There are many nice touches. When the sacristan Sergio Martinez sees Cavaradossi’s painting he is startled and when he sweeps the floor, he pushes the dirt under the tarps. Funny.

For the Shepherd’s Song, Proske develops a scene with a small angel, a priest and a ritual with the Madonna (I think) appearing. It is cute and necessary for the stage to be cleared for  the following scene.

Proske along with Conklin gives us an original and stunning production of an old chestnut.

Conductor Joseph Colaneri leads the Glimmerglass Festival Orchestra and Chorus to a rousing performance that earns them all a standing ovation.

The Glimmerglass Festival strikes a significant note for freedom and democracy. The cover of its impressive 158-page program shows an unprepossessing picture of a wall. In fact, it is the space where Cavaradossi will be killed and Tosca commits suicide. The photograph on the program is not an accident. Tosca is about political oppression, abuse of power and murder and torture of people.

Before the opera begins, we read projected on a screen the words Prof. Timothy Snyder about tyranny. I do not recall the exact text but these words from him give you the idea: We are no wiser than the Europeans who saw democracy yield to fascism, Nazism, or communism. Our one advantage is that we might learn from their experience. He is talking about America today and the Festival shows guts where many Americans cave in to despotism.

Bravo Glimmerglass Festival.

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Tosca by Giacomo Puccini is being performed ten times until August 16, 2025, at the Alice Busch Opera Theater as part of the Glimmerglass Festival Cooperstown, New York. Tickets and information www.glimmerglass.org

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