DEATH OF A SALESMAN A NEAR PERFECT PRODUCTION

REAL LIFE COUPLE NANCY PALK AND JOSEPH ZIEGLER, MARRIED FOR 31 YEARS, AS LINDA AND WILLIE LOMAN, AN ARCHETYPAL AMERICAN FAMILY GONE TERRIBLY WRONG

"A small man can be as exhausted as a great man."

Death of A Salesman, one of the most acclaimed American plays of the 20^th century, ran for 745 performances in 1949 and won the Pulitzer Prize later that year. Comprised primarily of flashbacks chronicling the downfall of a sixty-three year old man struggling to keep his career alive, the script is a relentless, melancholy exercise in the American Dream gone terribly wrong. Playwright Arthur Miller crafted a semi-linear, intricate narrative that defies the laws of naturalism by skillfully writing scenes that move seamlessly in and out of dialogue depicting family drama, corporate greed, and the escalating dementia of the title character, Willie Loman. Unable to let go of his flawed, supercilious belief in personable charm as the measure of a good man, Willie never fully recognizes his utterly fictional claim to fame as the ever-popular New England representative for a New York company. His two sons, Biff and Happy, become traumatized side-effects of his lifelong delusion, while wife Linda occupies a stalwart, altruistic position as the ever-loving spouse unable to say a single negative thing about her dear demented hubby.

The current Soulpepper ensemble takes this lengthy script and manages, under the direction of Albert Schultz, to create a moving and energetic two hours and fifty five minutes in the theatre - never lapsing into the drudgery of non-stop, abject emotion for a moment, finding the humour and the pathos necessary to a successful production of a play that could easily become bogged down by the never ending tragedy of the text. Nancy Palk plays the role of Linda with genuine affection, and the power and dignity necessary in order to render the famous “attention must be paid” speech with absolute conviction. Palk’s husband, Joeseph Zeigler, in the role of Willy, employs immense emotional range and impeccable timing as he shows his muddled brand of love for his onstage wife with the intrusive, overlapping, bickering dialogue that characterizes his abusive rhetorical gabbing during the heyday of his tragic downfall. And this is perhaps the true strength of the Soulpeper production. Director Albert Schultz has wrought, from a diverse palette of glory and ghastliness, the sense of a man and a family blinded by glory and bogged down by illusion. The cast and director have created a believable family of actors who understand, with each facial gesture and each emotion, the intricacy of thought and feeling essential to their characters. Tim Campbell’s beleaguered Happy winces at every word his father utters as he takes a backseat to Biff, the favored son. But when the stakes heighten and Happy has the opportunity to create his own brand of paternalistic bravado, he never falters, defending himself and his father’s delusional ways at every turn. Ari Cohen’s Biff finds a truly elegant range of emotion as he moves from brash argumentative son to a character struggling against all odds to be honest with himself and a father who triggered Biff’s own lifelong struggle to become a great man. The emotional range sought by the ensemble weakens only slightly at pivotal moments for the extremely difficult ‘crying scenes’ - scenes that might have been sculpted a little more judiciously with an eye for suppressed inner turmoil rather than overt emotion. Ziegler finds his teary moments in a successful, restrained, glassy-eyed mode, while some of the other actors don’t quite reach the summit of their chosen emotional peaks. These heart- wrenching highs are achieved in so many other ways that the tearless wailing that marks some of the later scenes appears somewhat overplayed and slightly cringeworthy.

Nevertheless, the overall production is a tour de force for a twelve actor ensemble that embarks upon this incredible urban journey, allowing an audience to laugh, cry, and frequently wince at the sometimes wanton, sometimes whimsical wanderings of men half in love with themselves and half in love with the women they - perhaps unconsciouslly? - use as pawns in their timeworn homosocial game of emotional monopoly. This is a nearly perfect production of a classic script that endures changing social histories as it reflects the ongoing roller coaster of capitalist economies with its universal themes on life, love, and the pursuit of a secure income. Not to be missed!!!

held over at the Young Centre (Distillery District) until November 20th

A RAISIN IN THE SUN

What happens to a dream deferred?

Does it dry up

Like a raisin in the sun?

Or fester like a sore--

And then run?

Does it stink like rotten meat?

Or crust and sugar over--

like a syrupy sweet?

Maybe it just sags

like a heavy load.

Or does it explode?

Langston Hughes

The current Soulpepper production of Lorraine Hansberrry’s acclaimed A Raisin In The Sun is an emotionally charged rendition of an historic script that examines American race politics through the gaze of a struggling black family on the threshold of moving to a white middle-class neighbourhood in Chicago. The drama unfolds through a complex series of relationships between mother and son, daughter and suitors, husband and wife. This triumvirate of social interaction manages, in Hansberry’s intricately developed text, to feature broad historical issues ranging from African/American history as it relates to inter-cultural generational experience from Nigeria to the U.S., as well as the ways in which racism and real estate become entangled within vicious circles of oppressive class-based sentiments.

The cast, led by Alison Sealy-Smith as Lena Younger, the matriarch struggling to do the right thing with her late husband’s substantial insurance policy, presents a lively yet frequently uneven production that resonates with subtle tragic-comic overtones expertly crafted into the script. Sealy-Smith shines as the steadfast mother, surrounded by a supporting cast that falters from time to time through an uneven emotional range that makes some of the social realism a little hard to fathom. Bahia Watson as Beneatha Younger, skillfully portrays the intelligence and vivacity necessary to the role, yet her physicality and vocal ability frequently verge on the melodramatic. This works well in certain physical scenes but becomes somewhat awkward when the realism turns to dialogue requiring more nuanced interaction. Similarly, Charles Officer’s Walter Lee Younger, although a very strong and credible son to Sealy-Smith's powerful mother, lapses into moments of awkwardness that don’t quite live up to his otherwise powerful, smouldering persona. Barbara Barnes-Hopkins gives a surprising and expertly comic cameo as Mrs. Johnson as she draws on skillfully and delicately managed gestural nuance in order to reveal Hansberry’s concerns over particular responses to stereotypes projected onto black communities of the time.

Although uneven at times, the ensemble brings Hansberry’s work to life with rich layers of emotional intensity. Based on an incident experienced by her and her family in 1940 when they won the right to a day in court regarding the purchase of a new home in a white neighbourhood , the playwright wrote about this formative event in her book To Be Young, Gifted, and Black:

"25 years ago, [my father] spent a small personal fortune, his considerable talents, and many years of his life fighting, in association with NAACP attorneys, Chicago’s ‘restrictive covenants’ in one of this nation's ugliest ghettos. That fight also required our family to occupy disputed property in a hellishly hostile ‘white neighborhood’ in which literally howling mobs surrounded our house… My memories of this ‘correct’ way of fighting white supremacy in America include being spat at, cursed and pummeled in the daily trek to and from school. And I also remember my desperate and courageous mother, patrolling our household all night with a loaded German Luger (pistol), doggedly guarding her four children, while my father fought the respectable part of the battle in the Washington court."

The Soulpepper production has been held over until November 20^th and is a crowd- pleasing family saga that brings an iconic script to a Toronto stage for the second time in the past two years. The 2008 production won Sealy-Smith a Dora award for outstanding performance by a female in a principal role. The resonant, timeless strength of A Raisin In The Sun play can still be seen in 2010 as a production of Clybourne Park, a contemporary response to Hansberry’s play, opened at Playwright’s Horizon in New York last February with a subsequent production at London’s Royal Court Theatre.

DANCEWORKS - THE FUTURE MEMORY HEARTBREAK JUNCTION, DIPTYCH - 'A FASCINATING DISJUNCTURE OF STYLES BOTH PHYSICAL AND VOCAL'

BRENDAN WYATT &

SASHA IVANOCHKO

The current Danceworks production at Harbourfront is an intriguing and powerful piece of choreography that combines a variety of performance disciplines in order to create an eighty-five minute meditation on the uneven nature of love and physical interplay. The uneven nature of the theme however, seeps into the overall mise-en-scene, making for a frequently bewildering yet fascinating exploration of voice and movement.

Sasha Ivanochko both performs and choreographs the two connected pieces that comprise the evening. Her presence onstage is immediately engaging as she exhibits vivid facial and bodily expression. The first ten to fifteen minute section lags somewhat as the subtle, somewhat ponderous gestural movements take time to morph into an explosive mixture of physicality and staccato text.

Ivanochko’s environment for the piece includes an evocative backdrop by designer Trevor Schwellnus that, although an impressive and simple brick wall with painted signage, quickly becomes a rather static and naturalistic addition to an otherwise expressionistic piece. Similarly, the text, both spoken and sung, including excerpted citations to Ethel Merman and Patsy Cline, entices the audience with an idea of story that might have been further developed through the use of recorded sound in order to add another layer to what appears to be a rather inconsistent approach to dance theatre. Although a kind of stylistic inconsistency may be part and parcel of some multi-disciplinary experimentation, this production could use a little judicious trimming.

Ivanochko’s vocal abilities are very effective and pleasing throughout, and yet they bear an incongruous relationship to the rest of the piece, and might have been balanced by a more pervasive recorded soundscape, giving her a more condensed and integrated opportunity in which to explore the physical nuances of the work. The highlight of the first section occurs during an extremely visceral moment that combines both physical and vocal agility, revealing Ivanochko’s impressive and graceful ability to defy gravity with her lower body while she lies onstage and emits Patti Smith-like song stylings into a prostrate microphone. In her program notes she asks her audience to bear witness to an exploration of “the pleasure/pain” reflex” and to “play a role” in the proceedings by taking “what you wish from the story (or stories).” Her desire to explore these areas through a combination of dance and spoken narrative has prompted a surprising mixture of citational movement and sound, ranging from Broadway divas to country music icons, ultimately creating a very contrasting and unexpected mixture of styles.

The second half of the evening brings the male counterpart to Ivanochko’s emotional journey onstage. Brendan Wyatt’s presence gives the choreographer the opportunity to produce even more explosive images for a dancer able to create ballet-like, gestural performance that frequently explodes into extreme physical aggression. Wyatt’s expertise with this range of styles, and the coupling between him and Ivanochko, makes for a number of memorable, heart wrenching moments where the duo engage in loving equations that end in total physical collapse.

Overall, the evening provides a series of very guttural and beautiful testaments to romantic interaction as it is played out within a highly theatrical environment that playfully flirts with the idea of performer as diva through the use of an onstage microphone that becomes a literal metaphor for frequently comic emotional bravado. A more condensed version, with the use of projections and a stronger, less intermittent soundscape, could move the piece into a fully integrated, less uneven atmosphere for what the artist has called The Future Memory Heartbreak Junction, Diptych - an entertaining and evocative coupling that might benefit by becoming a single panel for two dancers.

LOVE, LOSS, AND WHAT I WORE

Love Loss, and What I Wore

Powerful Stories for Powerful Women

Originally intended as a nostalgic souvenir for friends, Ilene Beckermans’s book Love, Loss, and What I Wore has become a huge theatrical success story as a vehicle for a diverse collection of actresses to gather together and tell stories about women and clothing, stories that both tug at the heart and entertain with great comic finesse.

Adapted for the stage by Nora and Delia Ephron, this collection of monologues and interactive dialogue is reminiscent of The Vagina Monologues as it presents five performers lined up onstage, all in black dresses, and reading these tales from simple podiums. The simple and direct staging highlights the storytelling quality but doesn’t restrict the superb theatricality as performers move seamlessly in and out of memorized and read dialogue, adding their individual acting talents to each new narrative.

Playing in Toronto, Los Angeles and New York, the piece has featured, in a rotating cast, luminaries such as Kristin Chenowith, Tyne Daly, Loretta Swit, Barbara Feldon, Brooke Shields, Fran Drescher, Rita Wilson, Carol Kane, and Rhea Perlman - to name only a few. The current Toronto cast features Patricia Hamilton, Mary Lou Fallis, Lisa Horner, Leah Pinsent, trey anthony, and Stacey Farber. In recent months the Canadian ensemble has included Andrea Martin, Sharron Matthews, Mary Walsh, Paula Brancati, and Louise Pitrie.

Stories range from heart wrenching tales of rape and breast cancer to lighthearted memories of what it’s like to wear a bra. In the current incarnation Mary Lou Fallis, Canadian operatic singer/comedienne extraordinaire, performs a single line from the hilarious brassiere segment with great diva-esque flair, while the entire ensemble does a Madonna clothing riff with impeccable timing and great ‘girlpower’ as memorable lines are sent out to an empathetic and thoroughly engaged audience.

“Any woman who says she has never dressed like Madonna is either lying or Amish.”

“I made out with a girl.”

“I made out with a bunch of gay men.”

Whether they are reflecting upon the influence of a spectacular pop icon and her bold fashion sense, letting us in on the secret life of a not so cherished purse, or interrogating the omnipresence of black as a favored hue for frocks, the five women onstage are a fabulous example of the kind of storytelling that universalizes gender experience in a very special way, moving beyond the theatre and into the hearts of women in their daily lives.

A portion from proceeds from some of the productions benefits the ‘Dress for Success’ charity, providing work clothing and job support for low income women. The production gives actresses and audiences the opportunity to experience women’s stories in a simple, direct, and refreshing way that highlights the physical and emotional presence of a range of extraordinary performers who have made their marks, and continue to, in the entertainment world. Lisa Horner recently finished a run in the highly successful My Mother’s Lesbian Jewish Wiccan Wedding, while trey anthony holds the distinction of being the first Black Canadian woman to write and produce a television show (da’ Kink in My Hair) on a prime time Canadian network. Da’ Kink in My Hair was already an award winning piece of Canadian theatre before becoming a popular series. All of the actresses involved in Love, Loss, and What I Wore bring their own success stories to the stage as they create an ongoing ensemble of powerful women sharing powerful tales.

The current Toronto production runs at the Panasonic Theatre (651 Yonge St) until Oct 30th

THE CLOCKMAKER NEEDS A LITTLE WINDING

The Clockmaker is a charming and alarming little play about broken moments, domestic abuse, keeping time, and ending up in the same place long after you've stopped your watch and had your day. The current Tarragon production of Stephen Massicotte’s new drama, directed by Bob White, clips along at an uneven pace that effectively highlights a kind of stylized acting appropriate to this fable of sorts. Unfortunately the ensemble, although skilful in their delivery and physical nuance, is not entirely consistent with the allegorical overtones, thereby rendering the drama a little uneven, and the final pivotal moments somewhat anti-climactic.

Damien Atkins as Monsieur Pierre and Christian Goutsis as Herr Mann deliver stylish, subtly melodramatic performances suitable to this simple tale of love and poorly timed mayhem, with Claire Calnan presenting a charming and emotionally nuanced Frieda, the hapless wife who wanders into the clock shop in need of repair. Kevin Bundy’s portrayal of Adolphus however, although proficient and physically powerful, tips the scale in an unexpected direction as he appears to be in a more realist version of the drama at hand, contrasting uncomfortably with the ‘fairy tale gone terribly wrong’ style of the play.

Nevertheless, The Clockmaker is a thoughtful and provocative drama with moments of dark comic respite and reward for four characters trapped in an untimely dimension.

THE CLOCKMAKER RUNS AT TARRAGON THEATRE UNTIL OCTOBER 24TH

BLASTED Terrifying

&Visceral !!!

Two things to remember when you see the current Buddies In Bad Times Production of Blasted;

1/ when the stage directions frighten you, you know you’re in for a terrifying and visceral ride in the country

2/ when the stage directions seem impossible to actually produce, and you know the director has a knack for making the implausible look very real and very frightening, you’re in for a terrifying and visceral ride in the country

It could be just about any posh hotel room, in just about any country, but it cannot be anything other than terrifying and visceral if it’s going to work - perhaps the best words to describe director Brendan Healey’s production of Sarah Kanes Blasted - terrifying and visceral - and it works!!!

Initially perceived by critics as a vulgar piece of shock value theatrical warfare, the play has become a contemporary classic that is truly Shakespearean and extremely queer as it moves through a series of extended tableaus, with sex, dialogue, and man to man lusty brutality that shakes the flaming stick at cross-cultural homophobia in a striking and complex manner.

As social commentary Blasted achingly reminds many of us of our privilege, and how that privilege can be literally shattered and torn apart, from the outside in, even when we are feeling safe inside pricey lodgings.

Daivd Ferry as the lead male character is superb as he delivers a breakneck performance . His interpretation of Ian, the gun wielding rebel without a cause, is a truly mesmerizing portrait of how skewed romantic notions of love can include abuse, racism, and, well, lets keep the worst part of his appetites a secret for the faint of heart. Ferry is a superb interpreter of the physicality of this complex monster, and manages, against all odds, to bring depth and seamy, questionable substance to a shallow and deplorable character.

Similarly, Michelle Monteith’s Cate is an exquisite mixture of childish, traumatized femininity that knows how to survive in the worst situation imaginable. Although a much smaller part than the two principles, Dylan Smith’s Soldier matches, measure for measure, his co-stars craft with the crucial violence of the piece as he rounds out a three hander ensemble that has pulled out all the stops, giving the audience close to tow hours of stomach churning action packed misadventure

The tendency to write this play off as a vulgar piece of gratuitous stage indecency is reductionist at best. Kane’s ability to create profound socially conscious moments throughout seem timeless as they remind us of every global atrocity-cum-conflict we hear, and see image of, through daily media accounts. Kane has given us those accounts in a meta-theatrical way by crafting a journalist character into a psychopath who balks at the kind brutal reality that his public doesn’t care to read about.

But there is a a price to pay for the casual ways in which culture ignores what is right in front of us. By literally inviting us in through the back door of the theatre, the Buddies production brings it all into our collective living rooms as a captive audience, thereby living up to every grueling moment of Kane’s relentless dramaturgy. We are left breathless and overwhelmed by superb acting skill and superb drama as we laugh, cry, cringe, squirm, and finally file out of the beautifully designed battleground and back into our own little televised lives.

BLASTED RUNS AT BUDDIES IN BAD TIMES THEATRE UNTIL OCTOBER 17TH

Strings Attached

Ronnie Burkett’s new show a very queer triumph

Ronnie Burkett’s newest show, Billy Twinkle: Requiem for a Golden Boy, currently running at Factory Theatre, is a queer spectacle of autobiographical proportions. Burkett may not have lived exactly the same life as his protagonist, but the potential similarities are impossible to miss as the title character guides us through the remarkable life of an acclaimed marionette artist from humble prairie beginnings who struggles with a variety of problems regarding his identity as an artist and as a man.

As a designer, actor, and writer, Billy grapples with his position as a cruise ship entertainer, and early on in the show, becomes dissatisfied and disgusted with his audience. This is perhaps the boldest, most meta-theatrical, and funniest aspect of Burkett’s new show, and sets the stage for a daring exploration of the relationship between the artist, his fans, his mentors, and his creations. The humour is contrasted and blended with sharp moments of homophobia as Billy, and Burkett, directly rebuke invisible spectators for homophobic remarks. The puppet and the puppeteer become larger than life examples of the risks a queer performer takes every time he or she sets foot onstage and faces the possibility of an insensitive, potentially queer bashing audience.

The term faggot surfaces early on and begins Billy’s unsettling journey from creative boy to brilliant young man, ultimately finding himself in the position of an older mentor to a younger generation of marionette artists. As the recipient of the 2009 Simonovitch award for design, Burkett has reaped the benefits of collegial acclaim and has been able to encourage new talent as part of the award. The prize comes with a $75,000 cash component as well as another $25,000 for the winner to give to an aspiring artist of their choice

Billy Twinkle possesses all of the same stokes of genius that Burkett has amply revealed in past shows. The beautifully rendered songs (with music by John Alcorn), the gorgeous costumes and characters, the gloriously irreverent animal puppets - but the difference in this show is the incredible scope of the text. All of Burkett’s scripts tend to deal with large world issues, and yet, as a somewhat auto-biographical text, this one is perhaps the queerest and the most ambitious, as it tackles ideas around the distinctions between fine art and popular art, sexual identity, and even inter-generational desire in one uncomfortable and beautifully rendered scene between Billy as a young man and an older spectator who invites him to his hotel room after a show. But even when Burkett moves into these difficult spaces around identity he does it with such sensitivity that it moves the message into a broad world of love, creativity, and desire.

Billy Twinkle is a tour de force that sparkles with all the intensity and glamour of human triumph, indignity, and the brutal, often rewarding decisions artists are forced to make when they commit themselves to lives in the theatre.

running at Factory Theatre until October 24th