Aisle Say Toronto
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER in BRIEF
RED
Written by John Logan
Directed by Kim Collier
Featuring Jim Mezon and David Coomber
at the Bluma Appel Theatre
www.canadianstage.com
TOPDOG/ UNDERDOG
Written by Suzan-Lori Parks
Directed by Philip Akin
Featuring Kevin Hanchard and Nigel Shawn Williams
at the Theatre Centre
www.theatrecentre.org
THE REZ SISTERS
Written by Tomson Highway
Directed by Ken Gass
Factory Theatre
www.factorytheatre.ca
MARY POPPINS
Original music and lyrics by Richard M. Sherman and
Robert B. Sherman
Book by Juilian Fellowes (based on the original stories
by P.I. Travers)
Starring Rachel Wallace and Nicolas Dromard
Princess of Wales Theatre
www.mirvish.com
PARFUMERIE
Written by Miklos Laszlo
Adapted for Soulpepper by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins
Directed by Morris Panych
www.soulpepper.ca
Reviewed by Robin Breon
Plays about art and artists are always interesting because they
seek to reveal the creative process, elusive though it may be. Yasmina Rezas Art and Stephen Sondheim/
James Lapines musical Sunday in the Park with George come to mind as good examples. Now along
comes Josh
Logans play, Red, about the life and times
of the abstract expressionist painter, Mark Rothko, which is now taking the international repertory by storm and
being presented locally at the Bluma Appel Theatre as part of the Canadian
Stage Companys second season under the artistic direction of Matthew Jocelyn.
For Torontonians, this production comes after last springs blockbuster show at
the Art Gallery of Ontario dedicated to abstract expressionism where a number
of Rothkos works could be seen - especially the big red ones that figure
prominently as background props in the stage play.
Jim Mezon as Mark Rothko turns in a blockbuster performance himself in a
play that is big on bombast but short on nuance. Unlike Rezas smart and funny
play that is completely observational and totally subjective in its point of
view, Logan is more concerned with the internal angst that he imagined Rothko
suffered while producing his art. In other words, Red is a play about making the
art and Art is a play about taking the
art and tacking it up on a collectors living room wall for everyone to see and
comment on. A phenomenon that obsesses Rothko as much as it does the fictional
characters in Art.
With Rothkos suicide in 1970 at the age of 66, there is plenty
of evidence to suggest that the chronically depressed painter, who fueled
himself on alcohol and nicotine while calming himself with anti-depressants, is
fairly represented in Red.
The plays main structural problem rests with the thankless role of Ken (played
by Kim
Collier),
Rothkos fictional assistant, who acts as his (often silent) sounding board
throughout the play with little more to contribute than trying to keep pace
with the great artist (intellectually as well as physically) while at the same
time trying to carve out some character arch of his own. This finally comes
with a heartfelt eleventh hour appeal for attention which is a bit contrived to
my mind.
Given the circumstances sketched out above its an impossible
task for Ken to overcome, but then nobody ever said art was easy.
Topdog/Underdog, Suzan-Lori Parks Pulitzer Prize winning drama, had its Canadian premiere this past summer at the Shaw
Festivals Studio Theatre space in a co-production directed by Philip Akin, artistic director of
Torontos Obsidian Theatre. It was a rich and heart rendering production that
has at its core a dark rumination on race between relations - in this case two
African American brothers named Lincoln and Booth - who are both practitioners of the Three-card Monte sham. The
card trick forms the central metaphor of the play and as such sets out the conclusion
of the play early on - there are no winners here - only someone who gets
marked. As a result of the extended Shaw Festival run (which I saw on opening
night), the re-mount, currently playing at the Theatre Centre in Toronto, has
deepened the character development between Kevin Hanchard (as Booth) and Nigel Shawn Williams (who plays Lincoln) now
offering Toronto audiences
additional opportunities to see this fine production.
The Rez Sisters, which had its orginal premiere at the Canadian Native Centre
in 1986, is one of two plays by Tomson Highway that represents his most produced work. The other is its
companion piece, Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing, produced three years
later by Theatre Passe Muraille. In my opinion, Dry Lips...
is the superior play in many respects. The only reason I raise this is
because Factory Theatre obviously had to engage in a little dramaturgy in order
to make some decisions when considering which play to revive almost a quarter
of a century later. The choice seems to have rested on artistic as well as
sociological criteria.
Director Ken Gass has been wrestling for some time now with the whole concept of
color blind and non-traditional casting as it applies to ethnoculturally
specific plays. And Thomson Highway himself has gone on record (justifiably) in
suggesting that some theatres have passed on his plays because there were
simply not enough actors of Aboriginal descent available to cast the plays
appropriately, depending on the community. With the playwrights enthusiastic
consent, Gass has utilized a racially mixed cast with surprising results. The
syntax and the mise en scne rings true while the playwrights original
intentions are upheld. So far so good.
My problem is that the city of Toronto contains one of Canadas
brightest talent banks for Aboriginal actors who are ready and willing to work.
However much Mr. Thomson professes a rennovated position on the question of
ethnocentric casting, the fact is this production would have been enhanced with
an all Native cast and its a shame that more time and effort wasnt expended
to find one.
I invited my friend,
young Sam Zimbel, to reflect on this touring production of
Mary Poppins that has set down (umbrella in hand) in
Toronto as part of the Mirvish Productions subscription series because I
trusted the impressions of this articulate 10 year old more than my own.
Following is Sams review of the show:
The play, Mary Poppins, at the Princess of Wales Theatre, was very good in terms of
sound, actors and most of the time the story. The actors did a very good job
imitating and adding to the characters in the movie. The sound was great, but
seemed to always have to be adjusted. The story was good but they eliminated a
lot of my favorite parts from the movie, including the last scene in the park
where Mr.Banks is flying the kite with his son, and a man from the bank comes
up and says "Hello Banks. Sadly after you left the general manager laughed
to death (in the movie Mr. Banks gets fired and then cracks a joke that his
kids said to him and then leaves). Anyways, Mr. Banks promptly says, oh, I'm
very sorry to hear that. Finally the man says, oh don't mention it. In fact,
we've never seen him so happy before in the whole history of the bank! Would
you like to come back to work? Of course!! Says Mr. Banks! Sorry about that
kind of a long recount but I think you get what I mean. They eliminated some
really good parts. Otherwise it was a great show including Mary Poppins flying
over the audience. But I won't spoil it for you. Better to go see it!!!
Its been quite awhile since Ive seen the movie so no quibbling
from me on the fine points that Sam raises except to say that I agree
completely with his assessment of the shows warm hearted ending. Spiderman junkies take note: all
that banging around and nonsense to construct flying sequences are outdone by a
simple floating Mary Poppins who takes her leave in the most dignified of
airborne exits. Put that in your chim-chim-a-ney and smoke it.
Two seasons ago I called out Soulpeppers production of Perfumerie as a special holiday treat
that deserved to be remounted. Its back for another run at the Young Centre
for the Performing Arts. Following is a reprint of that review:
Morris Panych is pretty much a force of
nature in these parts. As a first rate theatre director and playwright he works
like an agronomist, tilling and cultivating the local talent from one end of
the country to the other, season after theatrical season. Not every crop blooms
as one might hope it would (100 productions and counting) but the bounty is
significant (two Governor General Awards along with numerous other accolades) and the
current seasonal harvest of delight at Soulpepper, Panych's production of
Hungarian playwright Miklos Laszlo's 1937 play, Parfumerie, is just
another example of how, when all the natural elements conspire as they should,
beauty can prevail.
Although this production will have closed by the
time Aisle Say readers see this review, let this be my early bid
(along with several others already submitted) to ensure that Soulpepper revives
the show next holiday season.
Most people will be familiar with the story of
the beauty shop owner, Miklos Hammerschmidt (played here with just the right
combination of authority and mordancy by Joeseph Ziegler) and its quirky covey of
employees by way of its reinvention in two films (The Shop Around the Corner, You've Got Mail), one musical (She Loves Me) and one film musical adaptation (In the Good Old
Summertime). What
a treat then, to be able to return to the original play in a lovingly rendered
new adaption by Adam Pettle and Brenda Robins that Soulpepper has
appropriately mounted as a holiday offering.
And before I go any further, let me say that Parfumerie
not only smells like a hit, it looks good too with an inspired art nouveau set
by Ken MacDonald that is the finest realization of design and
construction that I have yet to see in the unforgiving black box of a theatre
that represents the mainstage of the Young Centre for
the Performing Arts.
With no wing or fly space, MacDonald has worked a mini-miracle of his own.
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