REAR WINDOW – REVIEW OF HUMAN CARGO THEATRE PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

Rear Window is a murder mystery that started as a short story by Cornell Woolrich titled It Had to Be Murder first published in 1942. It was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for his famous 1954 movie starring the unforgettable Grace Kelly and James Stewart.

Emily Dix, the Artistic Executive Director of Bygone Theatre has now adapted the story and mostly the film for the stage. It is now playing at the Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto. She has taken liberties with both as is her right and the result is not always a happy one.

The plot. Jeff (Tristan Claxton) is a photojournalist who is confined in a wheelchair in his Manhattan apartment in the early 1950’s. His apartment has a rear window from which Jeff can look into several apartments and in fact follow what the residents are doing in some detail. He does so with considerable enthusiasm and devotion of time. He may be uncharitably described as a peeping tom or a voyeur but let’s say he was living in a different time. More about this later.

He sees a young, pretty woman who hangs her undergarments to dry, dances a lot and welcomes her friends. She is listed in the program as the Dancing Girl played by Sarah Marchand. She does not say a word. A young couple, The Newlyweds played by Casey Romanin and Kathleen Welch, is in another apartment. They are all over each other but we don’t find out much more about them.

The couple that draws our attention is Mr. and Mrs. Thorwald. Jeff witnesses some unusual activity in that apartment and becomes convinced that Mr. Thorwald (Antonino Pruiti) has murdered Mrs. Thorwald (Elizabeth Rose Morriss).

In the meantime we have met Jeff’s girlfriend Lena (Kate McArthur) and his co-worker at the paper Charlie (Alex Clay). Lena is a pretty, intelligent, self-assured and a successful actress. She is deeply in love with Jeff and her main goal in life is to get married to him. What is she doing with him? She threatens to leave him and keeps coming back. Is another textbook example of love is blind and women were so desperate to get married in the 1950’s that they would settle for anything? I saw the performance on International Women’s Day and my reaction may have been coloured by that.

Charles works for Jeff and he visits Jeff to offer his help. Charles is diffident and anxious to help all while being abused by Jeff.

Dix as the writer and director and Tristan Claxton as the actor presents Jeff as an angry, bored, rude, depressed and quite obnoxious person. He becomes obsessed with his conviction that Mr. Thorwald murdered his wife and he acts in such an irrational, offensive and idiotic manner that no one believes him.

He treats Lena and Charlie badly. What are his redeeming features? Does he have any? Should Dix not toned down Jeff’s negative traits in the script and lowered the level of his rants and given him some redeeming features? All I saw was just a self-righteous, jerk who would not be able to get a woman on Dating for Losers let alone collar a woman like Lena.

Dix has added a number of angles to the original story and the movie and the suspense does build up to a punch of discovery at the end. But her take on the characters detracts from the main plotline rather than enhancing it.     

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Rear Window by Emily Dix based on short story by Cornell Woolrich , in a production by The Rear Window Collective supported by Bygone Theatre will run until March 17, 2019 at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Avenue, Toronto, Ontario. www.bygonetheatre.com www.passemuraille.on.ca

CORIOLANUS – REVIEW OF STRATFORD FESTIVAL FILM OF 2018 PRODUCTION

Reviewed by James Karas

The Stratford Festival has brought out a film version of its 2018 production of Coriolanus. It was directed by the uniquely talented Robert Lepage and critics were falling over their superlatives in praise of the stage version. The film version deserves equal praise and the Festival’s intention to film productions of all of Shakespeare’s plays is a creditworthy ambition.

Lepage has re-imagined Shakespeare’s violent melodrama as a modern play complete with a broadcast studio, reporters running around with cameras, a sports car being driven at high speeds, a dinner in a posh restaurant and a scene in a sauna. Yes, they are all in Shakespeare’s play but the bard simply forgot to put in the stage directions especially about things that did not exist when he wrote it. Lepage corrects the omissions.  

Members of the company in Coriolanus. Photography by David Hou.

Lepage used cinematic techniques for the stage version therefore the transfer to film directed by Barry Avrich becomes easier. The generous use of projections, the zeroing in on scenes and characters, the split screens are all in the original stage production and of course are the same in the film.

The film gives us the advantage of seeing facial expressions, grimaces and movements close up. In other words we get the best of a stage performance and a film. Those who did not see the Stratford performance may have missed the ambience and pleasure of live theatre (you can’t have everything) but this Coriolanus is pretty close to “the real thing.”

Lepage also designed the sets. Steve Blanchet is the Creative Director and Designer, Mara Gottler is the Costume Designer, Laurent Laurier is the Lighting Designer and Pedro Pires is the Images Designer. Needless to say much of the credit for the result goes to them.

The problem with dealing with the character of Coriolanus remains. Andre Sills brings out all of Coriolanus’s warrior qualities, brutality, ego, contempt for the people and unbending sense of entitlement. He enjoys war and killing because it is his code of honour. His mother Volumnia (played with utter conviction and expertise by Lucy Peacock) raised him with that code and given the choice between death and glory, he would choose death.

When Volumnia expresses her pride in her son’s return as a hero from a cruel war, his wife Virgilia (Alexis Gordon) points out that he could have died. Then his renown would have become her son, says Volumnia. She does not stop there. If she had a dozen sons she would just as soon lose eleven of them fighting nobly for their country than have one succumb to the sensual pleasures of life.

The performances have been praised extensively and deservedly. Andre Sills as Coriolanus exudes pitiless animal strength and considers blood and wounds as badges of honour. His hatred of the citizens of Rome is so boundless and offensive as to result in his expulsion from Rome. He joins Rome’s enemy to wreak vengeance on Rome. 

From left: Graham Abbey, André Sills, Tom McCamus and Farhang Ghajar. 

Photography by David Hou.

Graham Abbey gives an exemplary performance as Aufidius, the general of the enemy Volscians who has the same ethos but not the same thirst for blood and cruelty. He has been defeated by Coriolanus numerous times and yearns for revenge.

Stephen Ouimette and Tom Rooney as the tribunes of the people provide perfect contrast to the warriors. They are downright gentlemen.  Michael Blake as General Cominius and Tom McCamus  as Menenius have the unpleasant task of trying to advise and control Coriolanus’s worst instincts. They fail.

As to the scenes mentioned in the second paragraph above, you will just have to see the film to figure out how they fit in.

If you saw the play, you are in luck because you can enjoy the experience again by seeing the film. If you didn’t, you get to see Shakespeare like you never saw before.

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Coriolanus by William Shakespeare in a film of the 2018 production at the Stratford Festival will be released on March 23, 2019 and shown in Cineplex Cinemas across the country. For participating locations visit https://www.cineplex.com/Events/Stage.

Coriolanus and The Tempest will air on CBC in the summer of 2019.

THE LAST SHIP – REVIEW OF STING MUSICAL AT PRINCESS OF WALES

James Karas

The Last Ship is a stirring, muscular and deeply moving musical that tells the story of the closing of a shipyard in Wallsend, Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in north-east England. Two thousand workers were about to be thrown out of work. Shipbuilding had been done in the area and become a part of the fabric of the community for generations.

In fact shipbuilding had been going on in that part of England for some 700 years but by the late 20^th century it had become unprofitable and shipyards began closing. The unionized workers of Wallsend took matters in their own hands, occupied the shipyard and decided to finish the last ship on which they were working by themselves. 

 Sting and the cast of THE LAST SHIP – Toronto Production 2019. 

Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann.

British musician Sting, who comes from that area, has written the music and lyrics with a new book by Lorne Campbell. Sting also plays the part of Jackie White, the union foreman.

The workers’ takeover of the shipyard is told along with the personal story of Gideon Fletcher (Oliver Savile) and Meg Dawson (Frances McNamee). The two are young lovers but Fletcher leaves her and joins the navy. Seventeen years later he returns to find out that he has a sixteen-year old daughter, Ellen (Sophie Reid) that he was never told about.

There are vignettes of some of the people in the story but we get a closer look at Jackie White (Sting), the union foreman who shows leadership, courage and tenacity despite being mortally ill. Sting’s music and lyrics are muscular, defiant and at times melodic.

The workers are told that the shipyard will close just as they are finishing the construction of a ship for which the order has been cancelled. Five hundred of the 2000 will be given jobs dismantling the ship for scrap. Freddy Newlands (Sean Kearns) the owner with a Thatcheresque Baroness Tynedale (Annie Grace) inform and later threaten the workers with police action if they do not leave the ship yard.

There is some powerful choral singing. Sting has a thrusting vocal delivery as a strong man who feels deeply about the workers and the injustice of closing the shipyard. Frances McNamee displays some fine vocal flourishes as the abandoned woman who has fight bigotry and raise her out-of-wedlock daughter. Savile has to work hard and sing well to convince her to take him back.

Frances McNamee and Oliver Savile in THE LAST SHIP – Toronto Production 2019. 

Photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann.

The set (by 59 Productions), sound design (Seb Frost) and Lighting Design (Matt Daw) are quite brilliant. There is generous use of projections to give the impression of the hull of a ship, a pub or an interior scene. The sky and the atmosphere in general are dark, threatening and gloomy. The projections show kaleidoscopic effects from a fire to welding sparks, to the demonstrators who take over the shipyard, to the finished ship about to sail down the river. All are highly effective.

The Last Ship is about the tragic effect that social change brings. The workers fight to keep an industry that is no longer viable. Sting has great sympathy for them and so do we. It has special resonance for southern Ontario where General Motors announced the closing of a plant in Oshawa. Sting took the play to the workers as a gesture of support for their plight.

I won’t tell you the ending if you don’t know it but in the end you will get a marvellous musical and you can think about the workers in the musical and in Oshawa after you leave the theatre.

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The Last Ship by Sting (music and Lyrics0, Lorne Campbell (Director and New Book), John Logan and Brian Yorkey (original book) continues until March 24, 2019 at the Princess of Wales Theatre, 300 King St. West, Toronto, Ontario. www.mirvish.com/  416 872 1212 or 1 800 461 3333

NEW MAGIC VALLEY FUN TOWN – REVIEW OF MACIVOR PLAY AT TARRAGON

James Karas

New Magic Valley Fun Town, Daniel McIvor’s new play at the Tarragon, could not be simpler on the surface. We see a nice living room with a small kitchen and one door leading to the outside and another to the bedroom and bathroom. A middle-aged man enters overladen with bags of chips and bottles of booze. He is Dougie (Daniel MacIvor) an overexcited klutz who drops a couple bottles of wine on the floor causing a mess. He is humorously neurotic. He lives in a trailer park house in Cape Breton.     

A middle aged woman enters who knows him well and is fairly assertive. She is Cheryl (Caroline Gillis), Dougie’s wife. We find out that Dougie’s old and best friend Allen is about to visit. They have not seen each other for 25 years and Dougie is in overdrive wanting to please his old friend. Oops, you say. Your best friend and you have not seen him for 25 years? How reliable are your memories of your friends?

In comes Dougie’s loutish daughter Sandy (Stephanie MacDonald) in her pajamas and slippers and she looks like an oddball. She is suffering from depression and who knows what else. 

Caroline Gillis, Andrew Moodie, Daniel MacIvor and Stephanie MacDonald. 

Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

All appears fairly normal on the surface but we quickly realize that there is a serious undercurrent in all the characters that is probably very far from normal. All of them seem to have some loose if not missing screws, to put it colloquially. We laugh at their foibles, we give them the benefit of the doubt for a while but we try hard to figure out what is going on.

Allen (Andrew Moodie) arrives and the normal humorous/smooth surface is maintained but the contradictions and the latent undercurrent persist and increase. They eat, they drink, they dance boisterously and are funny but the mystery thickens as we notice more contradictions between surface appearance and latent reality.

With Harold Pinter’s ten short plays (Little Menace: Pinter Plays at Soulpepper) fresh in my mind, the play strikes me as Pintersque. I won’ go further than that.

Daniel MacIvor as Dougie dominates the play with a very delicate performance that is full of nervous energy while concealing a great deal. MacIvor can be very funny as he fumbles with everything that he touches and is able to let us know that there is another side to him.

Andrew Moodie and Stephanie MacDonald. Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann

Moodie as the athletic-looking Allan is not what Dougie remembers or attempts to remember. He does not know his “friend” very well. Moodie turns in a strong performance.

Gillis’s Cheryl is a practical woman who is very religious and seems to be living in the real world. But you start having your doubts. We have our doubts about Sandy as well and MacDonald is very impressive in the role.

There is a punch line of a revelation in the play which is dramatically effective if a bit long in coming. The play is good but it is raised above that by Richard Rose’s fine directing and the acting by a superb cast. A lesser cast would have given us a flop. They did the opposite.

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New Magic Valley Fun Town by Daniel MacIvor in a co-production by Prairie Theatre Exchange and Tarragon Theatre opened on February 27 and will play until March 30, 2019 at the Tarragon Theatre, 30 Bridgman Ave. Toronto, Ontario.  www.tarragontheatre.com

LITTLE MENACE: PINTER PLAYS – REVIEW OF SOULPEPPER PRODUCTION OF SHORT PLAYS

Reviewed by James Karas

Soulpepper, having solidly established itself as Toronto’s premier classical theatre company, offers us a gift of something unexpected. They have given us ten short plays by Harold Pinter in finely-tuned productions. The ten pieces are performed in ninety minutes.

To be precise, we see seven sketches and three short plays. The plays are The Basement (1966), Victoria Station (1982) and The New World Order (1991).

The writing of the sketches stretch from 1959 to 2006 and are the following, in chronological order: Trouble in the Works (1959), Last to Go and Special Offer (1960), That’s your Trouble (1964), Night (1969), Press Conference (2002) and Apart From That (2006).

These short plays and sketches are produced infrequently but they are representative of the ideas we associate with Pinter. From the well-known pauses, to the obvious political satire, to the subtle suggestion of menace, to the humour, to the oblique examination of character and situation, they add up to the word minted to describe his great work: Pintersque.

 Diego Matamoros, Alex McCooeye, Gregory Prest, and Maev Beaty. Photo: Dahlia Katz.

Director Thomas Moschopoulos uses four actors for all ten pieces; Maev Beaty, Diego Matamoros, Alex McCooeye and Gregory Prest. Beaty gives a fine performance as she always does but she is underused. The three men go through a variety of roles with excellent results and display of talent.

I do have a few quibbles but they are not intended to take away anything from the value and achievement of the production.

Moschopoulos shows Apart from That four times, played by different actors but faithful to the short text. Two people ask each other how they are and both reply that they are fine “apart from that.” The phrase is repeated a number of times but we are never told what “apart from that” is.

The sketch sets the tone that goes from the simple to the mysterious, from everyday banter to an unstated dark side, perhaps menacing, perhaps terrible and only hinted at.

The New World Order is played twice. This is a direct look at threatened violence of unknown severity for no defined reason. It is a totalitarian regime in action. In the first run-through, two men face the audience and talk about what they might do to a man. They can do all sorts of things but we never learn precisely what. It is a horrifying picture. During the second performance, we do see what the script calls for: a blindfolded man sitting in a chair being threatened with violence. We have reached the new world order.

Press Conference deals with a similar theme. The minister of culture of an unnamed country answers questions. Children: they are abducted and raised properly if their parents are subversives. Or they are killed. Women are raped. The violence goes much further than in The New World Order.

 Diego Matamoros, Alex McCooeye, Gregory Prest, and Maev Beaty. 

Photo: Dahlia Katz.

Trouble in the Works is hilarious but just as insidious. Mr. Fibbs, a factory owner is told by his employee Wills that the workers have taken a turn against some of the products that they produce. There is a recitation of obscure, technical and funny-sounding items that the workers do not like any more. It is funny, mysterious and obscure. And there is a funny punch line about what the workers want to produce but we don’t get any more information. Go figure.

Victoria Station is a hilarious conversation late at night between a Controller (the dispatchers) and a dumb cab Driver. The Controller tries to figure out where the Driver is so he can send him to Victoria Station to pick up a client. Between pauses, he gets all kinds of nonsensical, non sequitors that are humorous with the usual Pintersque uncertainties and obscurities.

The Basement is one of the longest pieces. It involves two old friends who had not seen each other for a long time, a woman and a basement flat. The woman has a relationship with both of them at different times. There are numerous scene changes and different seasons. A room, the beach, a cave, a field, a bar, day, night, summer, winter are some of the scenes involved. They sound realistic but of course they are not. The performance did not work particularly well on Shannon Lea Doyle’s set. It is unrealistic with squares and rectangles formed by bars. The set serves the other pieces well but they do not give any sense of place for The Basement.

Little Menace is extraordinary on many levels and the best comment is “Go see it.”

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Little Menace: Pinter Plays by Harold Pinter continues until March 17, 2019 at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, 55 Tank House Lane, Toronto, Ontario. www.soulpepper.ca  416 866-8666.

THE ANGEL SPEAKS – REVIEW OF OPERA ATELIER CONCERT AT THE ROM

Reviewed by James Karas

Every city deserves a Marshall Pynkoski and a Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg but very few have even one let alone two. Toronto does. As Co-artistic Directors of the incomparable Opera Atelier, they organized a highly civilized concert at the Royal Ontario Museum entitled The Angel Speaks.

The one-hour concert featured instrumental music, singing and ballet in a gorgeous combination. The music ranges from the baroque to the modern with Henry Purcell and William Boyce providing the former and Edwin Huizinga bringing the latter. 

Edwin Huizinga, Tyler Gledhill, Mireille Asselin, Jesse Blumberg and 

Tafelmusik members. Photo: Bruce Zinger

Soprano Mireille Asselin and baritone Jesse Bloomberg Sang pieces by Purcell (See Nature Rejoicing, The Blessed Virgin’s Expostulation and An Evening Hymn. Members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra played the music of the two baroque composers including Purcell’s Music for a While and his Trio Sonata in F.

Edwin Huizinga’s compositions were a major part of the evening. He has composed Annunciation inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke’s mystical poem as translated by Grace Andreacchi. Annunciation, of course refers to the announcement by Gabriel to Mary that she will give birth to Jesus Christ. Huizinga, a prominent violinist, also composed and played Inception, a piece for baroque violin. His music is modern but looks back to the baroque in an amazing blend of the two styles. Tyler Gledhill choreographed contemporary dance to accompany Huizinga’s performance and the singing by Asselin and Blumberg. Simply remarkable.

It is worthy of note that Opera Atelier commissioned Inception and its performance at the concert was its North American premiere.   

Most of the concert pieces were accompanied by dances performed by the Artists of Atelier Ballet. The five dancers, Tyler Gledhill, Juri Hiraoka, Edward Tracz, Dominic Who and Jeannette Lajeunesse Zingg performed the baroque sequences which were choreographed by Ms Zingg. 

Members of the Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra with Music Director David Fallis performed the music.

 Edwin Huizinga and Tyler Gledhill. Photo: Bruce Zinger 

The concert was performed in the Currelly Gallery in the Royal Ontario Museum. This is a rectangular theatre-in-the-round with several rows of seats surrounding the playing area. The spectators were no more than several feet from the playing area.

The Angel Speaks was originally performed in the Royal Chapel at Versailles in 2017. A photograph of the performance at the Royal Chapel makes you regret ex post facto that fate did not place you there for the performance.

It was a highly civilized evening. If the intent was to showcase the work of Opera Atelier, so be it. In early April, they are producing Mozart’s Idomeneo with Measha Brueggergosman at the Ed Mirvish Theatre.  My only and persistent complaint is why are there so pitifully few productions of baroque opera in Toronto?

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The Angel Speaks was performed once on Thursday, February 21, 2019 and will not be performed again as far as I know but you can ask Opera Atelier if it will be repeated. www.operaatelier.com

MULES - REVIEW OF THEATREFRONT PRODUCTION OF NEW PLAY

James Karas

Holy, feces!

Mules is a powerful new play that starts on an emotional pitch that keeps increasing until the lights go down ninety minutes later. The three actors give stellar performances that display emotional range, power of expression and endurance that call for nothing but superlatives. The impact on the audience is stunning, relentless and jaw-dropping.

A few details. The plot of Mules could not be simpler. Two women walk into the bathroom of Vancouver Airport. Crystal is bringing cocaine from Colombia and she must give it to Cindy who has to deliver it to her dealer.  That is the whole plot. Playwrights Beth Graham and Daniela Vlaskalic have created an outstanding play out of this by filling in the details.

Eva Barrie in Mules. Photo: Dahlia Katz

The background. Cindy and Crystal are old friends. They went to high school together and did some silly things like smoking pot and one of them perhaps putting manure in a girl’s locker. They both live on the lower rung of the social order. Crystal has a child out of wedlock and works in a store. She is not very bright and can’t make ends meet.

Cindy, who was a leader in high school, adored by Crystal, is an exotic dancer who dabbles in drug trading and has recently lost her job. She is in desperate financial straits and works for a drug dealer who would not hesitate to kill someone for an ounce of cocaine. She lives in terror of him. She is also a liar and did not hesitate to use Crystal.

The two friends drifted apart but Cindy found Crystal and promised her $10,000. All she had to do was go to Colombia, swallow one kilo of cocaine and bring it to Canada. The cocaine comes in 35 capsules that Crystal swallows. The details of the ingestion can be described as painful, cruel, unbelievable and disgusting. Some of those reactions are simply middle class ignorance of the “real” world.

The play opens when Crystal and Cindy enter the airport washroom. Crystal is exhausted and ready to faint. She has not eaten anything for 2 days and customs kept her for quite a while listening to her explanations about a quick trip to Colombia.

Cindy puts out a sign at the toilet door saying it is being cleaned to prevent anyone from entering. Now Crystal has to dislodge the capsules from her anal canal for Cindy to rinse and take them to her dealer who is anxiously waiting for them like a beast of prey.

Many complications arise not least of which is the appearance of Troy the cleaner who discovers what the women are up to. The complications will continue to mount up until the shattering conclusion when the lights go down.

A few words about the acting. Anita Majumbar as Cindy and Eva Barrie as Crystal are on stage for the entire 90 minutes. They start on an emotional high and their distress, agonizing fear of being caught, paralyzing terror of the dealer and the dreadful anguish for the ejection of the capsules lead to emotional highs that they must express. They do with acting skill and expressiveness of the highest order.

Tim Walker, Anita Majumbar and Eva Barrie. Photo: Dahlia Katz

Tim Walker as Troy has a smaller role but he is no less deserving of recognition for his acting. He escalates the emotional level and does a superb job in the role.

Vikki Anderson directs the play with a sure hand for emotional highs that may seem difficult to maintain for the whole performance. Outstanding work.

The set by Brandon Kleiman consists of three toilet stalls facing the audience and a sink on the opposite side. The stalls and the sink are put to good use. 

I am giving you only a few fairly scanty detail about this extraordinary play and outstanding production. It may not be suitable for people with delicate palates. For the rest of us it is incredible theatre. My reaction when the lights went down was (in less polite lingo)

Holy, feces!

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Mules  by Beth Graham and Daniela Vlaskalic in a production by Theatrefront in Association with Hit and Myth premiered on February 15 and continues until March2, 2019 at Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto, Ontario M4M 2T1. theatrefront.com, http://crowstheatre.com/