A KIND OF PEOPLE – REVIEW OF BHATTI’S PLAY AT ROYAL COURT THEATRE

Reviewed by James Karas

All white people must be racists (?). All blacks must be victims of racism (?).

These are two of the questions or, if you will, issues raised by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti in A Kind of People now playing at the Royal Court Theatre in London. It is a powerful play with some outstanding acting that that is riveting in every respect.

Bhatti starts her play with a happy gathering to celebrate the birthday of a friend. It is a racially mixed crowd. The hosts are a happily married couple, Nicky (white) and her husband Gary (black).

The guests are Mo (Pakistani) and his wife Anjum, also Pakistani who wears a hijab more as a sword than an expression of devotion to her Muslim faith. Gary’s sister Karen cares more about having a good time than any racial or social issues. Mark (white) is Gary’s co-worker and seems like a decent guy but you may wish to reserve judgment on him

But there is a surprise guest, Victoria, Gary’s boss, drops in. and proceeds to get drunk. She makes some clearly racist gestures and leaves. 

The cast of A Kind of People. Photo: Manuel Harlan

The people in the play have far more than racial problems. There is the issue of upward social mobility. Gary and Nicky live in subsidized (council) housing and are dreaming of him getting a promotion to be able to buy a house. They are struggling to get their children in better schools as a steppingstone to a better life.

The clash comes when Gary does not get the promotion and is convinced that he was rejected because of Victoria’s racism. His relationship with Nicky falters and his whole world collapses. 

The deterioration of Nicky and Gary’s world culminates in an extraordinary emotional climax that leaves the audience stunned. There is a brief epilogue and I will not disclose its content.

Claire-Louise Cordwell as Nicky gives a performance of enormous depth and power. Her love for Gary and devotion to her children is immeasurable. When her father found out that she was in love with a black man he beat her up and broke two of her ribs. Cordwell displays Nicky’s power to withstand anything in defence of her family and her dreams of a better life. In the climactic scene she is simply heart-wrenching.

Richie Campbell as Gary is a man of pride and principal. He is unwilling to compromise those characteristics but he does not realize that pride can become arrogance and failure to embrace realism over principal in the face of self-destruction makes no sense. We see all of that brilliantly conveyed by Campbell in his bravura performance.

Gary’s boss Victoria, impeccably played by Amy Morgan, displays the cool, fair-minded white person who can hide her racism under a veneer of good conduct. She is the most dangerous racist of them all.

Claire-Louise Cordwell and Richie Campbell. Photo: Manuel Harlan

Petra Letang is a pleasure to watch as Karen, the free-spirited sister of Gary.

The hijab wearing Anjum played by Manjinder Virk shows another way of dealing with racists. She knows she can’t win so she says to hell with them. She fights them by sticking to her own kind, thumbing her nose at them and beating them wherever she can.

Gary’s friend Mark played well as a clown with a dark side by Thomas Coompbes is white and a supporter of his buddy. But watch out.    

Anna Fleischie’s set of a kitchen and living room for Gary and Nicky’s apartment is easily changed to Victoria’s office and a staff room and is suitable.

Kudos to director Michael Buffong for expert handling of the cast and the pace of the production and providing us with an extraordinary night at the theatre.      

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A Kind of People by Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti continues until January 18, 2020 at the Royal Court Theatre, Sloane Square, London SW1W 8AS. Box office: 020 7565 5000. www.royalcourttheatre.com/

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

ANTIGONE – REVIEW OF HOLY WHAT THEATRE PRODUTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Lulu Raczka is a young English playwright who has tackled a part of the great myth of the Royal House of Thebes dealing with the rebellious Antigone. Her play Antigone is “after Sophocles” but Raczka puts her own stamp on the work.

Raczka’s Antigone has only two characters, the sisters Antigone and Ismene as teenagers at an undetermined time. In the small New Diorama Theatre, the play begins with slow, pounding, bass music. There is a mound in front of us full of dirt. We see two figures rise out of the dirt and shake if off. They are Antigone (Annabel Baldwin) and Ismene (Rachel Hosker).

Rachel Hosker and Annabel Baldwin. Photo: Ali Wright

The somber scene is quickly dispelled as the two teenagers start dancing wildly and erotically. The opening dialogue is about having fun, sex (“can you take it hard?), and drinking. The innocent Ismene wants to know “what it’s it like.”   

Through the girlish chatter and enthusiasms, the story of Creon, King Oedipus and Jocasta begins to emerge. The girls’ brothers Eteocles and Polyneices who were supposed to rule Thebes in rotation after Oedipus have gone to war because one of them refused to pass the throne to the other when his turn was up. The dethroned brother raised an army and attacked Thebes. Both brothers were killed, and their uncle Creon has taken over.

The war is over now and people are relieved and want to celebrate. But there is some unfinished business. Creon has forbidden anyone from giving the “bad” brother Polyneices who raised an army and attacked Thebes burial or any last rites. The “good” brother Eteocles who fought with Creon is a hero who deserves a military funeral full of honors.

Antigone decides to bury Polyneices despite the clear threat by Creon to kill anyone who does it. The main conflict of the Antigone story is joined as the two sisters argue about the burial. Antigone, as we all know, buries Polyneices simply because everyone deserves a decent burial. We may translate that as a fundamental human right that Ismene simply does not espouse or know anything about.

The sisters go through various permutations of the arguments for and against the “illegal” burial of their brother.

Much of the dialogue consists of short, clipped sentences many having one or two words.  It follows the level of teenagers where the word “like” appears where it has no business to be except in Teengliah.

Photo: Ali Wright

The story cannot be told without involving other people. The men in the bar and the involvement of Haemon are dealt by Ismene and Antigone speaking what they would have said.

The play ends with a long and somber speech by Ismene. She tells us the usual highs and lows of human existence from having sex, to picking up men, to marriage, children and friendships. But she cannot get past the fate of Antigone and her own role in it.  She imagines the end of her life and her greatest fear is facing Antigone.

The story of  Antigone’s sacrifice and her disobedience of a human law in obedience to something higher as told by Sophocles is reduced to the language and emotional and intellectual range of two teenagers. Antigone does what she feels is right with perhaps little understanding of why she is doing it.

The most rewarding part of the evening is the superb performances by Baldwin and Hosker. They are on stage for almost an hour and a half in a small circle full of dirt. They have mastered the parts and deliver their lines clearly and sharply. Antigone is the dominant character and Baldwin asserts that dominance well. Hosker as Ismene is the less imposing character who tries to find a solution (and lose her virginity) so that her sister can survive.

It is an interesting take on the Antigone myth.

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Antigone by Lulu Raczka, directed by Adi Pidsley in a production by Holy What Theatre continues until February 1, 2020 at the New Diorama Theatre, London, England. www.newdiorama.com/whats-on/antigone. 

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James Karas is the Senior Editor - Culture of The Greek Press.

A TASTE OF HONEY – REVIEW OF NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The appearance and success of Shelagh Delaney’s A Taste of Honey became a theatrical legend almost from the beginning. A 19-year old woman from a working-class background, with little education and almost no knowledge of theatre wrote a play about people on the bottom rung of the social ladder. She sent the script to the legendary Joan Littlewood and the play was presented by the Theatre Workshop in Stratford. Not Stratford-upon-Avon but the suburb of London.

It was a smashing success and was made into a film. Delaney continued writing but she never duplicated the success of A Taste of Honey. She died in 2011.

The play has been revived by the National Theatre in a superbly acted production that also contains some interesting choices by director Bijan Sheibani.

The plot involves the lives of Helen (Jodi Prenger), a buxom, crude woman described by Delaney as a “semi-whore,” her daughter Jo (Gemma Dobson) and several men who enter their lives. They live in a dump in Manchester, near a slaughterhouse and a smelly river. The two women show contempt for each other but there are suggestions of affection. There are indications of artistic talent that was quashed by poverty and life choices. 

Gemma Dobson, Tom Varey and Jodie Prenger. Photo: Marc Brenner

There are three men in their lives. Peter (Tom Varey), a car salesman, is one of Helen’s customers. Jimmie (Durone Stokes) is a black sailor who promises marriage and leaves Jo pregnant. Geoffrey is a decent young man who happens to be homosexual.

It is a richly textured play with numerous undertones in its description of the horrors and degradation of poverty and the strength to survive it however by any means available.

The issue of the production is the choices made by director Bijan Sheibani. The play begins with Helen and Jo arriving at the cold and dreary apartment in a slum of Manchester. Sheibani does not find that satisfactory and he has the play open in a pub. There is a band playing jazz music and Helen drinks and sings. When she finishes her song, a large crew rushes on the stage with the furniture for the apartment and Delaney’s opening lines are heard. The stage crew is used several times to move props on and off the stage.

There are many references to music in the play but there is no mention of a band staying on the stage throughout the performance. This is what Sheibani does. The musicians do nothing most of the time, but they do play a few bars here and there. In one scene change, Geoff does a sizeable song and dance routine for which I can find no explanation. The musicians add nothing, but they do change the tenor of the play which you may classify as slightly annoying or ridiculous.

The production is saved by outstanding performances. Jodie Prenger delivers a Helen who is sluttish, selfish, crude and odious. Her maternal instinct, to the extent that it exists, appears infrequently and it is rebuffed by her daughter. A stellar performance.

 Stuart Thompson and Gemma Dobson. Photo: Marc Brenner

Gemma Dobson’s Jo is a pathetic teenager who hates her mother and is looking for something or someone that she is not even sure of. We feel sorry her for her without liking her and are never quite sure why or if we dislike her. Dobson’s finely balanced performance is a pleasure to watch.

Tom Varey as Peter is a drunk cad, the type of slimeball that brags about his conquest of women, lies about his prowess and descends to proposing marriage to a woman like Helen. She probably could be had for a few bob.

Durone Stokes as Jimmie the sailor is a “nice guy” who is looking for sex and finds the eternal formula for getting it: offer love, promise marriage, have sex and disappear. Stuart Thomson is excellent as Geoff who befriends Jo and is basically the soul of decency in an indecent situation.

The actors speak in a thick Manchester accent that is not always comprehensible to the untuned ear. There were times when I had to strain to understand what was being said and looked for surtitles.

The creation of A Taste of Honey is a marvelous story of an almost instantaneous eruption of talent in a most unlikely of places that results in marvelous theatre generations later.

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The Taste of Honey by Shelagh Delaney continues until February 29, 2020 at Trafalgar Studios, 14 Whitehall, The Norman Conquests (2013)
Photos by Cylla von Tiedemann

London, England.  http://www.nationaltheatre.org.uk/

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

THE GYPSY BARON – REVIEW OF 2019 TORONTO OPERETTA THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

It’s the holiday season including the celebration of a new year, a new decade and a farewell to 2019. How about some light and civilized entertainment?

No, I did not mean that.

I mean something lively, indeed boisterous, civilized, with beautiful music, gorgeous melodies, a visit to another world and, of course, a happy ending. And something you may not have tried for long time. How about an operetta?

Toronto Operetta Theatre delivers a production of The Gypsy Baron by Johann Strauss II that meets all of the above criteria. There are some limitations to what TOT can do but more of that below. In short, this is an enjoyable production with some fine signing by the chorus, superior singing by the women in the key roles and mostly good stuff by the male singers. 

 The company of The Gypsy Baron. Photo: Gary Beechey

The operetta takes place in Hungary and Vienna sometime in the past – that is another world. Director and Designer Guillermo Silva-Main makes no effort to give us a precise date or century and we do not need it. (There is a number of historical events mentioned that will give you a more precise chronology, but get a life. This is operetta)

The plot involves Barinkay who is returning to claim his father’s estate. He meets Zsupan the crooked pig farmer who has helped himself to parts of his estate but has a pretty daughter named Arsena. Barinkay proposes to her but she rebuffs him because she has eyes only for Ottokar.

In the meantime, Arsena’s governess Mirabella finds her long-lost husband who happens to be the Royal Commissioner Carnero. Barinkay finds the beautiful gypsy girl Saffi who we think is the daughter of the lively, fortune-telling gypsy Czipra but keep an open mind. Complicated, no? Well, the men will go to war, come back heroes and Governor Homonay will drop in near the end to tie up all the plot strands and provide a happy ending for us all.

That is the plot of an operetta. I could not understand all the lyrics as the chorus was singing but they did a marvelous job. You want to hear military music, a waltz, polka, love duets and generally delightful music, Strauss never disappoints. Much of it is quite familiar even if you did not place it the other times that you heard it.

Derek Bate conducted the 12-piece orchestra lined up in front of the stage of the Jane Mallett Theatre. The limitation of the seating area and number of players of the orchestra are obvious. A decent pit and two or three dozen musicians would be preferable, of course. The real delight is how well they played and the marvelous music they gave us.

There is very little in the way of a set. A few chairs and settees, some flowers, are pretty much used for the scene in Vienna. A few platforms are all that you get in the first scenes. The costumes are from Malabar but they are more than adequate for the job. Those are the limitations that TOT has to live with.

The Gypsy Baron provides ample opportunities for comedy, dancing and fine singing. TOT does not have the wherewithal to do all of these things but it does have some excellent singers. Soprano Meghan Lindsay with her plush, mellifluous and simply lovely voice makes a splendid Saffi, the “gypsy” that Barinkay loves. She outsings everyone. 

Meghan Lindsay and Michael Barrett. Photo: Gary Beechey

Mezzo soprano Beste Kalender sings a Czipra that is full of voice and life and a delight to hear and watch. Soprano Daniela Agostino is a spunky and well-sung Arsena. Mezzo soprano Karen Bojti sang a spirited and matronly Mirabella, Arsena’s governess. 

The male singers were generally not as successful as the women. They had more limited ranges but were quite expressive. Tenor Joshua Clemenger did well singing the pig farmer Zsupan but he missed the opportunity for comic acting. Zsupan could be acted as a broadly comic character. Baritone Austin Larusson was properly wooden as the self-righteous and puritanical protector of morals, Royal Commissioner Carnero.

Tenor Michael Barrett as Barinkay has a big voice with a sturdy midrange but he did not display a huge a range. Edward Larocque as Ottokar has the same issue.

       

Guillermo Silver-Marin, the company’s General Director and the Stage Director of the production reminds us that TOT is the only professional operetta company in Canada. That’s bad enough but the fact that it is inadequately funded (to put it politely) is a disgrace.  

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The Gypsy Baron  by Johann Strauss II is being performed between December 28, 2019 and January 5, 2020 at the Jane Mallett Theatre, St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, 27 Front Street East, Toronto, Ontario. Tel:  (416) 922-2912. www.torontooperetta.com

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

PRESENT LAUGHTER – REVIEW OF TELECAST OF NATIONAL THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Present Laughter is one of Noe Coward’s best comedies and is centered on the life of a matinee idol, Garry Essendine. He is a supremely successful theatre actor in 1930’s London. Essendine is flamboyant, egocentric, outrageously popular and pursued assiduously by women.  He is partly a self-portrait of Coward but there is a small inaccuracy. Coward was a homosexual and in the original play Essendine is vigorously heterosexual.

Director Matthew Warchus has decided to set the record and the play straight in his production at the Old Vic by revamping the plot and presenting Essendine a practicing homosexual, perhaps bisexual. Needless to say, he takes some liberties with the text to do that. 

 Andrew Scott as Garry Essendine and Indira Varma as Liz Essendine. 

Photo: Manuel Harlan

In addition to his household staff, Essendine (Andrew Scott) has a wife, Liz (Indira Varma) from whom he is separated and three friends. His household staff includes Monica Reed, his efficient secretary who has a high human quotient and is played superbly by Sophie Thompson. He also has the amoral butler Fred (Joshua Hill), an eccentric house keeper in Miss Ericson, overplayed by Liza Sadovy who also becomes the even more eccentric and wheel chair-bound Lady Saltburn.

In the original play, Essendine’s friend Joanna is married to Henry, has an affair with Morris and seduces Garry in his posh apartment. She is found in his apartment the morning after the night before to hilarious effect as she tries to conceal what had happened.

In Warchus’s version Joanna (Enzo Cilenti) becomes Joe who is Helen’s (Suzie Toase) partner but is having an affair with Morris (Abdul Salis) and is in love and having an affair with Garry. Warchus does not shy from explicit physical contact between the men and, if nothing else, the play has the authenticity, we presume, it would have had if homosexuality was not only spurned but was a criminal offence when the play was written.

Coward’s homosexuality was known among his friends but he did not dare disclose it openly for good reason. In 1953 the great John Gielgud was convicted of a homosexual encounter in a public washroom.

 

Kitty Archer and Andrew Scott in Present Laughter: Manuel Harlan

Scott as Essendine is expected to be flamboyant and overact. As he himself admits, it is impossible to tell when he is acting and when he is not. The problem with Scott is that he overacts at overacting. Essendine is supposed to be self-conscious about aging and about losing some hair. Scott is muscular (Warchus makes sure we see that), very youthful and certainly not losing any hair.

Many of the characters in the play are in extremis or driven to it by Garry. His wife Liz is calmly and wonderfully funny. Luke Thalion as the lunatic playwright Roland Maule is hilarious and Kitty Archer as the would-be actress Daphne is entertaining.

Present Laughter is a superb light comedy. Changing it into a homosexual one may be of some interest as reflecting Coward’s sexuality but we are not watching a documentary about the author’s life. This is a display of directorial freedom that does not make the play better or funnier. Sometimes leaving what is good enough alone is good enough.

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Present Laughter by Noel Coward in a production by the National Theatre played originally at the Old Vic, London and was shown on December 4, 2019 at select Cineplex Cinemas across Canada.  For more information: www.cineplex.com/events   

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

CASH ME IF YOU CAN - REVIEW OF PATRICK COMBS PERFORMANCE

James Karas

Cash Me If You Can is a one-man show in which a non-actor tells his story about depositing a non-negotiable cheque from one of those get-rich-quick snake oil sales companies. Stop yawning. It is a terrific show that succeeds on all counts including the completely unexpected.

A few facts. Patrick Combs, a young San Franciscan, got a junk-mail letter which contained a cheque for $95,093.33. As a joke, he deposited the cheque and waited for it bounce. Days went by and the money remained in his account. He made inquiries, told friends, asked lawyers, worried about having committed fraud but the money stayed in his account.

He never seriously considered keeping his mouth shut and spending the money which he probably could have done. He told the bank and its lawyer about what had happened and he asked the bank for an apology for its incompetent and idiotic behaviour. He told his story to the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. He got a lot of attention including heavy-handed threats from the bank’s Mafia-like enforcer and representatives.

The incident from the deposit of the cheque to final resolution of the problem took about six months in 1995. If you want precise dating, the incident came to an end the day the verdict in the O.J. Simpson trial was announced.

Combs took the incident and created a brilliant, touching, funny and resoundingly successful show which has finally reached Toronto. He is the writer, director and performer of the show and its success is well deservedly. It is the type of feel-good show that is an amazing example of human decency and resilience that makes superb theatre as well.

Combs if a great story teller. He knows how to pace his performance, involve the audience, build up suspense and do a bang-up job with the punch lines. The outline of the story sounds unprepossessing but the structure and performance by Combs makes it utterly successful.

Can you deposit a cheque that is marked clearly “non-negotiable” and expect the bank to honour it? It should be an easy question to answer but it is not. Combs goes to legal libraries, finds a foot-thick legal treatise (without a table of contents) and tracks down the author of the book. What is the answer? Combs keeps us in suspense (and laughter) until he gives us the answer. That is a good example of how he makes the performance work.

He makes very good use of video projections that provide illustrations and humorous cartoons and he rarely stays still.

You will ask yourself, why does he not spend the money when he can and keep his mouth shut? Why does he not keep the money and his mouth shut? These and many other questions will occur to you during the performance and afterwards. I have all the answers. Go see the show and tell me if you do as well.

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Cash Me If You Can by Patrick Combs, produced by Horse and Hound Productions, continues until December 21, 2019 at the Marilyn and Charles Baillie Theatre (aka Berkeley Street Theatre) 26 Berkeley Street, Toronto, Ontario. www.canadianstage.com

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

CHRISTMAS STORY – REVIEW OF TORONTO CONSORT PERFORMANCE

Reviewed by James Karas

If you went to church, specifically to the court chapel of Johann Georg II of Saxony in Dresden, on Christmas day in 1660, you would have found a surprise waiting for you. Instead of the reading from the gospel, you would have been treated to a musical setting of parts of the New Testament by Heinrich Schutz.

Since you obviously did not go to church on that date, The Toronto Consort has decided to give you a Christmas gift, a musical bouquet, by performing Schutz’s Christmas Story and several other musical settings of the Gospels in the Jeanne Lamon Hall of Trinity-St. Paul Centre in Toronto.

The Toronto Consort offers more than the Christmas Story. The concert opens with seven shorter pieces, four by Schutz, two by Johann Herman Schein and one by Hans Hassler. All three were 17^th century German composers.

The programme opens with Schutz’s “Lobet den Herrn” (praise ye the Lord) and continues with Schein’s “Verbum caro factum est” (The Word was made flesh). We hear “Quem vidistis pastores” (Whom did you see, shepherds) twice in settings by Hassler and Schein.

Toronto Consort. Photo: Bruce Zinger

The first half of the programme concludes with the spirited “Alleluja! Lobet den Herren,” a beautiful setting of Psalm 150 by Schutz.

Fallis conducts the Toronto Consort on original instruments that are a delight to hear. He also plays the organ in the Christmas Story.

English Tenor Charles Daniels is the featured artist. He is an expert in baroque music and has an extensive discography. He did most of the singing which consists of biblical passages in recitative.

The Christmas Story consists of an Introduction seven Intermediums (interludes) and a conclusion. After the Introduction of the subject by the chorus (the birth of Jesus as told by the Evangelists) the Evangelist (Daniels) tells the story of the decree of Caesar Augustus that forces the pregnant Mary and Joseph to go to Bethlehem for tax purposes. There is no room at the inn and we know the rest. The recitatives are not particularly taxing and Daniels handles them well.

Soprano Katherine Hill sings the Angel who delivers to the shepherds the good tidings of great joy and informs them of the place of His birth.

The chorus as the multitude of angels sings the beautiful “Glory to God” and the shepherds (members of the chorus, of course) set out for the manger. The Evangelist recites the story of the Magi and they sing and we hear the story of their visit with the nasty King Herod (an impressive Joel Allison).

Schutz includes the story of Joseph and Mary’s escape from Bethlehem before the execution of all the children by Herod.

  

It was an enjoyable concert of infrequently performed works. The timing could not be better and, under the circumstances, the church setting almost transcendent. There are a few small issues. The chorus did not always enunciate the German lyrics. Enunciating German in the biblical settings may be like having teeth fall out of your mouth but pronunciation was not perfect. The balance between singers and musicians was not always as good as it should be. At times some of the singers were difficult to hear or simply overwhelmed by the instrumentalists. Some ironing out was required in both areas.

The faithful in the court chapel in Dresden in 1660 no doubt expressed their Christian devotion, celebrated the birth of the Nazarene and exalted our Lord Christ who through his birth enlightened us and through his blood redeemed us from the devil’s power. Or so Schutz tells us in the Conclusion of his Christmas Story. I don’t think David Fallis and the Toronto Consort harbored such ambitions for the audience but listening to them in the beautiful setting of Trinity-St. Paul’s was decidedly delightful and uplifting.    

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CHRISTMAS STORY by Heinrich Schutz with works by Johann Schein and Hans Hassler was performed December 13, 14 and 15 at Jeanne Lamon Hall, Trinity-St. Paul Centre, Toronto, Ont. www.TorontoConsort.org/

         

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