Three
more knockout productions at Stratford present a gentle comedy, a laugh riot,
and a Shakespeare whatsit.
Shakespeare’s
Timon
of Athens partly seems to be written by someone else, is both tragic
and garishly comical, and brilliantly and really badly written. Yet, this is
the third Stratford production of Timon that
has made it look like a minor masterpiece.
Michael
Langham’s landmark reworking of this messy play in 1963 with Duke Ellington at
Stratford to create its score, and in 1991, again directed by Langham, gave
variety to Shakespeare’s tedious repetitions.
In
this revival director Stephen Ouimette tones down that showy stage brilliance
with more naturalistic acting. His starkly theatrical staging achieves vivid
effects but does not call attention to his inventiveness. And, though he also
uses modern dress, the music does not emphasize modernity the way Ellington’s
great score did.
The
play may be a talky story, but this version is riveting. Its large cast is
uniformly grabbing. Sean Arbuckle’s powerful Alcibiades grows from impressive
soldier to a menacing, wronged threat to Athens’ corrupt leaders. Tom McCamus
gives the cynical railer Apemantus more sympathetic humanity than usual. And
Bernard Hopkins as Flavius, Timon’s ever-faithful steward, takes us into his
thoughts and feelings so completely that he almost takes over the play.
Peter
Donaldson’s Timon is sincerely in love with his own generosity but allows us to
see the egocentricity of his giving while not accepting recompense. When he is
betrayed by his ungrateful beneficiaries, his disappointment and wrath, though
sympathetic, are excessive enough to lead logically to overwrought hatred of
mankind. If not noble, his bitter hermit is titanic.
The loopy
sweetness and eccentricity of Marivaux’s The Triumph Of Love may account for
this 18th-century comedy’s recent popularity. Ignored here for more than two
centuries, The Triumph Of Love had
its first English-language production in Canada and a movie with Mira Sorvino
and Ben Kingsley, both in 2001. A Broadway musical version with Betty Buckley
and F. Murray Abraham in 1997 followed the straight play to New York, after
which there was a production in Central Park and many around the US.
This
2004 Triumph Of Love is Stratford’s
first Marivaux, translated by associate-director John Van Burek, the
director-translator of that first Canadian production. Reportedly less elegant,
Stratford’s Artistic Director Richard Monette’s direction does seem a little
too boisterous for Marivaux’s uniquely gentle wit. But it’s funny and entirely
entertaining.
The
fantasy plot involves beautiful princess Leonide who wants to return her throne
to its rightful, deposed heir, young Agis. Disguised as a young man, Phocion,
Leonide spots Agis and immediately falls in love with him, determining to win
him as her husband while crowning him ruler. Agis is orphaned and brought up by
the philosopher Hermocrate and his sister Leontine. Beautiful and innocent, he
is guarded by Hermocrate from outsiders and taught to fear Princess Leonide,
whom Hermocrate believes to be plotting to find and kill Agis.
To
gain access to Agis, Leonide has to play woman and man to seduce both
Hermocrate and his sister Leontine. Both plan to drop their asceticism and run
off to marry Leonide/Phocion. Cute, lonely Agis is an easy conquest.
Monette
doesn’t make the philosopher and his spinster sister caricatures enough for us
to laugh without some discomfort at their being made butts of the joke. James
Blendick is warm, smart, and likable as Hermocrate; and Lucy Peacock’s Leontine
is dotty and goofy enough when she falls in love with this young ‘man’ to not
only make us laugh but also win our affection. Still, both show such liberation
from their former restraints that their betrayal seems almost justified. More
problematical are both Andy Velasquez’s Harlequin and Jeffrey Renn’s loud
Dimas: Their slapstick certainly gets laughs but seems too vulgar.
Claire
Jullien is authoritative and properly in command at the happy ending, but seems
tomboyish and awkward in some of her earlier romantic scenes. In the less
demanding role of Corine, Brigit Wilson makes the switch from silly male to
romantic female more easily. David Snelgrove is as plausible as Agis is likely
to be. Overall, this handsomely produced comedy is good-natured and nonsensical
enough to please a taste for light entertainment.
Michael
Frayn’sNoises
Off, on the other hand, is more intentionally broad comedy. Brian
Bedford’s let-it-all-hang-out direction turns one of the most successful
laugh-getting plays about the theater into the
funniest play on the topic ever. I was lucky to sit next to a sophisticated
couple that has been attending Stratford since 1961: Neither knew this play,
and both shook with laughter all through it.
The
playwright provides an inner program for Robin Housemonger’s Nothing On, the god-awful farce that is
being performed by the characters in Noises
Off. We are supposedly seeing untalented TV actors touring bush-league
resort towns in a cheesy farce. So, even before the play starts, you can giggle
at such program notes as: “Recently he made his ‘big screen’ debut in Up the Virgin Soldiers.”
Act
one introduces the characters: Dotty Otley — longtime TV sitcom star and
sometime stage actress, at least in Australia; Garry LeJeune — dim-witted,
young handsome actor having a fling with Dotty; Lloyd Dallas — the frazzled
director who is sure that he is too good for this assignment; Brooke Ashton —
stereotypical dumb blonde who is having a thing with director Lloyd; Poppy
Norton-Taylor — stage manager and all-purpose handy girl secretly pregnant by
director Lloyd; Frederick Fellowes — nervous, insecure actor; Belinda Blair
— glamorous actress in comic roles after an injury stopped her real talent as
a dancer; Tim Allgood — hapless techie and gofer; and Selsdon Mowbray —
hard-of-hearing old character actor, undependable when drunk.
We
see this company in Nothing On from
three perspectives, starting with a disastrous rehearsal in act one. Act two
takes place backstage as we watch the performers’ personal conflicts while
different disasters are happening onstage during a performance. Act three lets
us see a performance onstage when everything goes really wrong.
Seanna
McKenna plays Dotty as a raunchy comedienne beset with problem props. Steve
Cumyn is Lloyd, whose frustrations peak when his backside is hit backstage with
a cactus plant. Jean-Michel LeGal’s lovelorn Garry has glorious shtick showing
jealous fury with an axe. His victim, Steven Sutcliffe’s Frederick, innocently
gets into the most obscene-looking groupings with Dotty, then has nervous
nosebleeds at any sign of violence.
Chick
Reed can look dazedly funny even when her Belinda is the only sensible one
onstage. Jacob James’ Tim, the sad factotum and fixer, is a whiz at most of the
show’s prop-jokes. Sara Topham can be as comical as sexy when semi-nude. Sophie
Goulet’s Poppy is riotous just making announcements on the mike. And Barry
MacGregor is not only a parody ham actor vocally as Selsdon, but an absolute
master at slapstick and comic poses.
Space
permits only a kudo for all creators of design, sound, movement, music, and
fights. This is low comedy as high art.
Stratford
Festival,Stratford, Ontario: Timon
of Athens at
the Tom Patterson Theatrethrough
September 25;The Triumph Of Love at the Studio Theatre through September 25; Noises Off at the Avon Theatrethrough October 30. Tix: $23.65 to
$100.48 ($17.95 to $76.28 US). 800-567-1600,
www.stratfordfestival.ca.
This article appears in Aug 18-24, 2004.
