THEATRE REVIEW: HALF AN HOUR
16 Jul'10

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE - Whether it's simply as a quick snack or a theatrical hors d'oeuvre, chances are you're going to enjoy the tasty little dish that the Shaw Festival has cooked up as its lunchtime offering this season. Playing on the stage of the Royal George Theatre, where it opened last week, it's a tidy little one act, titled (rather appropriately, it turns out) HALF AN HOUR and it's from the pen of one J.M. Barrie, who is perhaps best remembered for spinning a little story titled PETER PAN.

And once again, Barrie seems to be playing with time, although this time out, it's turning it back that seems to intrigue him -- and not stopping it outright so that little boys never have to grow up.

Reviewed here in preview, HALF AN HOUR opens, circa 1913, when the play debuted, in the posh Park Lane drawing room of the wealthy arriviste Richard Garson, played by Peter Krantz -- and after a delightful demonstration of how to get a show running like clockwork, it quickly degenerates into a slanging match between Garson and his well-born but impoverished wife, Lady Lilian, played by Diana Donnelly. And clearly, it's not their first exchange, for it quickly develops that while Lady Lilian roundly loathes her spouse, he remains unconcerned, convinced that she cannot afford to leave him.

Then it quickly develops that he is wrong as she sets out to show him, fleeing his bed and board for a new life with an exciting adventurer (Gord Rand in a lovely turn), leaving behind only a note and some expensive trinkets her husband has given her. But fate intervenes and her new life disappears under the wheels of the mechanical revolution before it can even begin, forcing her to retrace her steps to try to reclaim her old life, which while loveless, is at least comfortable.

Under the direction of Gina Wilkinson, things get off to a shaky start -- Krantz and Donnelly could use a few lessons in venomous sparring, it seems -- but then stabilizes, thanks as much to strong performances from the principals, supported by Shaw vets like Peter Millard, Michael Ball, Norman Browning and Laurie Paton, all of whom are utterly masterful in small but pivotal roles. The only clanger here comes in the work of Jennifer Dzialoszynski, who gets so tied up delivering the perfect cadences of a lower cast dialect that would be used by her character that one can't understand most of what she is saying.

And finally, for those who enjoy the occasional theatrical peek at how the better class used to live, set designer Tyler Sainsbury offers up some nice work, ably supported by the lighting design of Kirsten Watt.