Two very challenging and interesting shows at Shaw this season

I wrapped up my season at the Shaw Festival on the weekend, and will be wrapping up my Stratford visits this week as well, so let's get back to the business at hand and get to the rest of the reviews still on the docket before summer is done.  Today, two very interesting shows at the Shaw Festival.

Tom Stoppard's Arcadia, arguably his best play, dates from 1993 and premiered in London.  It is alternately set in two different time periods - 1809 to 1812 and the present, whenever that might happen to be.  As such, it can get a little confusing going back and forth over the course of the play, but ultimately the audience is rewarded with a rare gem of a play that was already sold out before the first curtain went up at the small Studio Theatre last month.

All the action takes place within one room in Sidley Park, a large country estate in Derbyshire, England.  In this one room, we learn of the close relationship of Thomasina Coverly and the dashing Septimus Hodge, two of the inhabitants of the home in the earlier time period, set against the modern-day investigative efforts of Hannah Jarvis and Bernard Nightingale to learn more about the past members of the Coverly clan from that earlier period.

The premise is really quite clever and the dialogue is razor sharp throughout.  But the real fireworks are between Diana Donnelly's hard-edged Hannah and Patrick McManus' almost over-the-top researcher Bernard, almost at odds with each other from the very beginning, challenging each other's theories and ideas, all the while being oddly attracted to each other as the verbal jousting continues.

Watching all this unfold are Valentine Coverly, played by Martin Happer, a dedicated academic who also happens to be Hannah's man, and Chloe Coverly and Gus Coverly, a young mute who shies away from confrontation and the noise it brings with it.

All the performances are exceptionally strong, with Diana especially as the foil for Bernard.  She is both somewhat bitchy and sexy at the same time.  Bernard is the kind of know-it-all you love to see get what's coming to him.  Other strong turns are provided by Nicole Underhay as Lady Croom and Michael Ball as the servant Jellaby in the earlier time period.

I love the bright, airy English-garden sort of room depicted in Sue LePage's design, although I question why everyone in the modern era seems to have a proper costume change other than Bernard Nightingale.  He changes his shirt and tie, but would it kill them to provide him with another suit so he doesn't look like he owns just one?  Just a small point, but it was rather odd.

Arcadia is directed by Eda Holmes and is far and away one of the best shows at Shaw this season, continuing an impressive track record at the small Studio Theatre.  Unfortunately for those who didn't get their tickets early this show is already sold out and the run can't be extended beyond the end-date of September 7th.

Arcadia rates a very strong 4 out of 4 stars.

Over at the Royal George Theatre, another contemporary play is on stage through to October 6th:  Irish playwright Brian Friel's Faith Healer, which opened on Broadway in 1979.  It is a pretty grim play with not a lot of humour in it until the second act, but for those up to the challenge it comes with its own rewards.

Essentially, Faith Healer is a play about memories:  theirs and ours.  The three characters in the play recount their own memories of time spent on the road for many years, playing to small crowds in small towns, offering whatever glimmer of hope the audience members can find in their otherwise unfortunate existence.

You see, Frank, the central character, is a so-called Faith Healer, going from town to town attempting to cure those afflicted with any number of ailments through their faith.  He has more misses than hits, as you can imagine, but there was one night, recounted in a faded newspaper article carried by Frank, when he hit the proverbial jackpot and managed to "cure" no less than 10 people in the audience that night.  Only one, Frank recounts, bothered to thank him afterwards, a farmer who paid him handsomely for the effort, which Frank and his lady Grace squandered on living the high life for that brief period before it was all gone and they were nearly penniless once again.

Their sorry existence is recounted in four monologues, delivered first by Frank, then Grace, then Teddy their manager, and finally by Frank again.  The scene is played out in a dank, plain meeting-house with a poster on the wall proclaiming the "Fantastic Francis Hardy" appearing for one night only.  You can just imagine the poor souls trudging in clinging to one last bit of hope they can better their lives if only Francis could heal them, too.

The grim nature of the play is only alleviated by Teddy in the second act, beautifully played by Peter Krantz, who offers some levity on the many experiences the three had encountered on the road for so long.  He offers as well a few moments of Fred Astaire singing "The Way You Look Tonight" on an old scratchy 78, the very record they played at every show for so many years.  All three characters refer to the song being part of the show, but all three pass the buck as to who came up with the idea for it.

The central character of Frank, or Francis Hardy, is played with great depth by Jim Mezon, who directed a production of this play over two decades ago in Toronto; his long-suffering lady, named Grace, is played by Corrine Koslo and she paints a pathetic picture as she drinks throughout her monologue.

The text is very dense and quite challenging, as all three actors never interact with each other, only directly with the audience.  I can imagine the challenge faced by the actors who are used to that interaction on stage.  The challenge for us in the audience is to listen to these monologues and consider just who is closest to relating what actually happened many years ago.  Three actors, three perspectives on the same story, each with their own set of embellishments.

Director Craig Hall keeps the play on the rails throughout, but it comes down to the exceptional performances that make this play work.  Still, this will be an acquired taste for many at the Shaw Festival this season.  It is worth the effort, ultimately, but the road is littered with lost dreams and hazy memories of a hard life spent on the road with little reward.

Faith Healer continues at the Royal George Theatre until October 6th and rates a respectable 3 out of 4 stars.

August 18th, 2013.