THEATRE REVIEW: ETERNAL HYDRA
29 JAN/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5

TORONTO - It depends on which way you're headed.

A story called ETERNAL HYDRA could be almost as old as time itself, rooted in the mythology of the ancient Greeks. Or it could date back only as far as 2002, when the Stratford Festival christened its new Studio Theatre with two new one-act plays, one of which was titled ETERNAL HYDRA, by Canadian playwright Anton Piatgorsky.

Or it could be a mixture of both, as in an expanded version of Piatgorsky's play, which more effectively combines the legend of the first with the story of the second and earned four Dora Awards in a Crow's Theatre production at Buddies In Bad Times in 2009. Now, Piatgorsky's highly imaginative and literary script has been revived again by Crow's (in association with Factory Theatre) in a production that opened Thursday on the Factory mainstage. Directed again by Crow's Chris Abraham, the production reunites three of the principals from 2009 -- David Ferry, Liisa Repo-Martell and Sam Malkin -- with newcomer Cara Ricketts, casting them all in multiple roles as they tackle Piatgorsky's Gordian knot of a script.

That is, in fact, an apt comparison, considering not just the almost impenetrable complexity of the plot, but the fact that one of the principal characters (played by Ferry) is named Gordias Carbuncle. He's a deceased but certainly not desisted literary giant of supposedly Joycean calibre, largely unknown today because his magnum opus -- a tale in 100 chapters titled Eternal Hydra -- was lost at his death. But happily, it has been found by a clearly smitten Vivian Ezra, an academic (Repo-Martell) who after being closeted with Carbuncle's ghost, polishing the work, is now offering it for publication. The publishing house she has chosen is the one that, under its founder, published all of Carbuncle's earlier work, but they aren't as interested as she expects. Seems the founder, like Carbuncle, has passed on, and his son (père et fils both played by Malkin) is more interested in publishing popular literature than art.

That preference draws Pauline Newberry (Ricketts), a writer of historical fiction, into the fray. Newberry had fictionalized Carbuncle in her latest book. But it turns out her heroine -- a contemporary of Carbuncle's, also played by Newberry -- was even more involved in Carbuncle's life and work than anyone first assumed. It raised all sorts of questions about cultural appropriation, ownership of voice, and of ideas including the relationship between commerce and art, art and craft, and finally, even the making of a fine shoe.

Director Abrahams makes maximum use of John Thompson's strikingly beautiful set and lighting design to create high theatre, all the while keeping a firm hand on a story that plays fast and loose with time and character. And while he draws otherwise commendable performances from Repo-Martell and Ferry, one wishes that in a story already rich in literary and mythic references, he had eliminated their clearly unintentional evocation of Demosthenes and his mouthful of pebbles. Always annoying, sloppy diction borders on infuriating in a work as erudite and intellectually rigourous as this.

Malkin, for his part, seems oddly miscast in either of the sophisticated publishing roles he's asked to play, although he finally cobbles together a credible performance as a Creole shoemaker. The real revelation here is Ricketts, who steps to the fore in a second act that still feels more like a mere appendage to the first than a continuation -- and manages to sear herself into the consciousness with a performance of breathtaking clarity and simplicity. With Ricketts' performance, HYDRA finally steps out of the arty pretensions in which it has been cast and becomes riveting theatre.