Thursday, August 25, 2011

Thought-provoking, contemporary theatre this season at both Shaw and Stratford

Both the Shaw and Stratford Festivals introduced their smaller, studio theatres a few seasons back, and both use the opportunity of a smaller space to program more cutting-edge, riskier productions.  In most cases, the gamble pays off handsomely with some great productions open for only a short run.  Such is the case this season with two productions currently onstage at each festival, which we'll look at in this space today.

The Shaw Festival presented the Canadian premiere of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play Topdog/Underdog, from playwright Suzan-Lori Parks late this season, and in fact it closes this weekend at the Studio Theatre.  I attended one of the final performances this week, and it is both crude and exhilarating at the same time, employing more foul language than we are used to hearing in Shaw theatres, to be sure.  In fact, a few years ago I doubt this production would have made it to the stage at Shaw, but it has, and the work is a triumph.

Artistic Director Jackie Maxwell knew this would be a gamble, especially given the age of a large part of the audience base at Shaw, but looking around me at the performance I attended this week, young and old shared space in the audience in almost equal numbers, and almost everyone gave the performers a resounding standing ovation at the end.

The two performers, Kevin Hanchard and Nigel Shawn Williams, each give exceptional performances here, directed with a sure hand by Philip Akin.  Hanchard plays the part of Booth; Williams the part of Lincoln.  Yes, the irony is not lost on the audience, of course, as the two young men, cast adrift by their parents years before, struggle to find themselves in a tough world that is often unforgiving.

The older brother, Lincoln, plays the late American president in a carnival show, dressing up with white-face and sitting there while carnival-goers pay for the opportunity to "shoot" him.  How demeaning!  Younger brother Booth, meanwhile, shares his apartment with Lincoln, who has left his wife.  Booth, although unemployed, knows how to "acquire" things with great regularity, so manages quite well, thank you very much.

Their trials and tribulations in a seedy apartment in a seedy part of town make up the play, a telling expose on the hopelessness of the poor and how difficult it can be for them as they struggle to make a go of it.  The whole thing is very sad and quite unsettling, but also makes for some riveting theatre.

Topdog/Underdog continues at the Shaw Festival Studio Theatre until August 27th, and rates a strong 4 out of 4 stars.

Over at Stratford, their production of Canadian playwright John  Mighton's The Little Years continues at their Studio Theatre until September 24th, with a larger cast than the Shaw show, and just about as much  of an edge.

Director Chris Abraham assembled a strong cast for this tough, soul-searching play about what matters most in life, or at least what should matter most.  It begins in the 1950s with a young Kate, played by Bethany Jillard, being fed the female stereotypical career paths by both mother and her teacher.  The play progresses through Kate's life with its ups and downs and the characters she meets along the way.

The older Kate, played by Irene Poole, is a much wiser Kate, but also quite bitter and angry with the world.  Others in the cast also age and learn from life, including Grace, played by Yanna McIntosh, whose husband is away and never appears in the play.  She ends up having an affair with an artist named Roger, played by Evan Builung, who discovers much later having his work compared to the music of Barry Manilow is not necessarily a good thing.

It is amazing watching some of the characters age right before our eyes, including Kate.  But most interesting of all is Kate's mother Alice, played by Chick Reid, who is so convincing as both young mother and very old mother near the end of her life.  Bethany Jillard appears later in the play as Tanya, a young lady who found her way through life with the help of Kate's diary entries, which she read while Kate was away.  The fact Tanya learned from Kate's life experiences heartens and softens Kate somewhat at the end, and she winds up thinking perhaps, her life was not so bad after all.

There is a lot of content to this soul-searching play making it a little hard to follow at times, but it is a journey and challenge worth taking as we watch the characters age and learn from youth through to old age, and the life experiences that bring them there.

The Little Years continues until September 24th at the Stratford Festival's Studio Theatre, and rates a strong 3 out of 4 stars.

August 25th, 2011.

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