THEATRE REVIEW:
AFTER AKHMATOVA
30 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5


In a world obsessed with celebrity, it grows increasingly difficult sometimes to separate art from artist -- the life the artist lives from the art he makes. That's the very conflict that sits at the centre of AFTER AKHMATOVA, a challenging and thought-provoking new play from Kate Cayley that premièred Wednesday on the stage of the Tarragon Extra Space.

If the name Akhmatova doesn't ring a bell, small wonder. In a time when poetry is held in ever-more-diminished regard, there is every chance you've never heard of a lot of 20th century Canadian poets (and yes, they do exist), and few would be expected to know of the the 20th century Russian poet Anna Akhmatova. Or of Requiem -- her poetic cri de coeur for a tortured nation, written under the very noses of Stalin and his brutal henchmen, all of whom only ever saw the smoke of its burning after it was committed to memory. Requiem was not published until 1963.

Fittingly, the play begins just over two years after Akhmatova's death in 1966, after Alan Taylor -- an American historian played by Paul Dunn -- has made his way to Russia to interview Lev Gumilyov (Eric Goulem), Akhmatova's only son. But the Russian professor Taylor comes to interview is more than merely the son of the deceased poet, it develops. He is also the inspiration for her masterwork, all of which was written in the wake of his imprisonment for nebulous political crimes. What begins as an interview quickly becomes a confrontation, however, as the two principals struggle to create a portrait of the deceased poet that reflects each man's image of her.

As a fan, self-cast as a worshipful biographer, Taylor's vision of the late poet is shaped by the romantic notion that great art grows from great suffering, while Gumilyov's vision is informed more by recollections of an often absent parent who too often seemed to care more for her art than for her child. At the heart of both visions is Requiem -- a work of art that neither man seems quite capable of divorcing from the artist who created it.

Slowly, as they move often reluctantly through Gumilyov's memories of his mother (played by Sarah Orenstein) and the community that sustained her -- Richard McMillan is cast as the poet Osop Mandelstam, Caroline Gillis as his wife Nadezhda and Claire Calnan as Akhmatova's friend, Lydia Chukovskaya -- the two find common ground in the art the poet left behind.
It's a complex story and it is well brought to life by a powerful cast, used to maximum advantage by director Alan Dilworth, (who coincidentally was named as a new participant in the Stratford Festival's Michael Langham Workshop for Classical Direction on Thursday.)

Working with designers Jung-Hye Kim (set and costumes), Kimberly Purtell (Lighting) and Thomas Ryder Payne (sound), Dilworth and his cast conspire to overlay the entire production with an unmistakable aura of Russian mystery and suffering, without resorting to accents, black bread or other clichés.

Best of all, more often than not they are equal to whatever complex challenges Cayley throws at them, in terms of time and character shifting. Goulem's Gumilyov often seems carved from a block of endless suffering, while McMillan gives a moving and uncharacteristically understated performance that meshes beautifully with fine work from Gillis, Calnan and Orenstein. Indeed, only Dunn seems out of his depth here, offering up a Taylor more driven by mannered ticks and earnestness than any true sense of romance -- an over-embroidered performance that robs the character of much of its dramatic arc, shortchanging the production in the process. Happily, there's enough left over to make this a memorable play.

THEATRE REVIEW: ZERO HOUR
29 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4 out of 5



Jim Brochu tries to get as close as possible to absolute Zero. And he comes so close, it's positively chilling — a madcap theatrical portrait of the legendary Zero Mostel that is absolutely delightful and, ultimately, deeply moving. Written by and starring Brochu, under the direction of Piper Laurie, the show is called ZERO HOUR and it opened at the Al Green Theatre on Monday, a presentation of the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company.

Set days before his death, in the studio the legendary actor maintained to indulge his passion for painting, ZERO HOUR introduces us to Mostel at the height of his career, full of life and completely oblivious to the little signs that hint that the end of his life is near. Clearly, he's here to indulge his passion for painting — and he resents the intrusion of a New York Times reporter who arrives for an interview.

In one of those awkward conceits that mark the one-man-show genre, ZERO HOUR's audience finds itself playing the hapless journalist — a device that for all its preciousness serves nonetheless to launch Brochu into a rambling vintage Mostel monologue. But not surprisingly, for all its great good humour, that monologue is quickly mired in embittered recollections of the blacklists that grew out of the communist witch-hunts that marked the McCarthy era, and the suffering those lists engendered among Mostel and his politically active friends.

It's a subject worthy of examination, of course — and if ZERO HOUR merely contented itself with retelling the horrors of that era, it would still make for a compelling piece of cautionary theatre, for all that victims don't make for the most compelling theatre. For Brochu, it's only half the story. Dividing ZERO by two acts gives him something delightfully greater than the sum of its parts. For while his first act covers off on the pitfalls of young Samuel Mostel's rise to fame — an immigrant childhood, a failed marriage, a remarriage outside his faith that costs him his family and, of course, the repressive and unconscionable blacklisting he and his friends endured — Brochu gives us a second act about rebuilding, healing and, ultimately, the world on the other side of forgiveness.

This is, of course, the part of Mostel's life with which we are most familiar, his time of triumph in shows such as A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Rhinoceros and Fiddler on the Roof, and in movies such as The Producers, which he apparently loathed.

But it is a time of healing too — and not just from the lingering effects of an horrific confrontation with an out-of-control bus. When Jerome Robbins is called in to doctor Forum in its out-of-town tryouts, Mostel comes face to face with a man he considers a McCarthy collaborator, and while he never forgets Robbins' transgressions, he puts his anger aside and finds common ground in their shared art. And in finding his version of forgiveness for Robbins, Mostel finds a way to forgive himself too.

Brochu the writer may not have resolved all the kinks in his Act I script, but Brochu the performer fares much better. Under Laurie's direction, he moves far beyond the realm of mere impersonation, inhabiting the character so completely one wonders if there is an exorcist rather than a dresser waiting to help him put the character to bed. Together, writer and performer tell a simple, powerful story of a man who refused to remain a victim and, in the process, gave us ways far beyond the physical to take the measure of a man. By Brochu's reckoning, not a lot of people equal Zero.

THEATRE INTERVIEW:
Playwright Brochu takes on Zero, his hero
28 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

It's mathematics, with a theatrical twist. Perhaps only in theatre could one take two larger-than-life characters and put 'em together, only to come up with zero. Actually, make that Zero, as in Zero Mostel, the legendary larger-than-life funnyman best known on stage for scene-stealing performances in A Funny Thing Happened On the Way to the Forum, Rhinoceros and Fiddler On the Roof — and, famously, on film for his portrayal of Max Bialystock in The Producers.

ZERO HOUR is a new play created by another large-than-life character, Jim Brochu. It promises to bring Mostel back to life in a context and a setting almost certain to add new dimension to the public persona of the beloved comic, who died way too young in 1977. Fresh from New York, Los Angeles and points south, ZERO HOUR— written by and starring Brochu, under the direction of Piper Laurie — IS all set to open Monday night in the Al Green Theatre of the Miles Nadal JCC, a presentation of Harold Green Jewish Theatre.

Reached in New York as he prepares to decamp for his Toronto run, Brochu happily retraced the genesis of the show all the way back to his early meetings with Mostel, who was then appearing in Forum with Brochu's long-time mentor, David Burns. At the time Brochu was on furlough from the military school he was attending, but still in uniform. After being dubbed General Nuisance by Mostel, the two struck up a lasting friendship. In fact, Brochu has developed a real knack for making famous friends, a knack developed early and still maintained as he boasts a buddy list that includes everyone from the late Ethel Merman (the subject of his stage play, The Big Voice: God Or Merman) to Lucille Ball (whose biography, Lucy In the Afternoon, he authored).

"My idols became my friends," he says simply, "And that is the greatest blessing of all — I know how blessed I have been." Still, Brochu admits, Mostel initially could be a little intimidating to a young school boy: "He terrified me. He absolutely terrified me." Soon, however, the fear passed. "Then, he was very sweet to me," Brochu says. After Forum closed, the two stayed in touch, and a friendship blossomed. So did the idea of a show, albeit slowly.

"This has been long in my head to do this," Brochu says, adding that he figured he had a few things he could bring to the part. "I'm big like him. I'm light on my feet and I like to be a little crazy once in a while," the playwright/actor says. Still, he started small and somewhat tentatively. "The play really took shape when his friends started to come to see the show. They all came with a scowl on their face and their arms crossed — and we all became good friends." And once they became good friends, they started helping Brochu shape the show.

Madeline Gilford was one of them. She was the widow of the late actor Jack Gilford, who starred opposite Mostel in Forum and who, like his wife and Mostel, had been blacklisted during the McCarthy era. "She's the one that taught me about the smell of the studio," Brochu says. "The play takes place in (Mostel's) studio. He considered himself a painter who acted, not an actor who painted."

With tips like that the show has grown, and brought Brochu closer to Mostel. "It really has," he says, with a degree of wonder. "Who can know what makes anybody else tick, but Zero and I are very close in a lot of ways. That's kind of fun — to use your own heart beating for someone else."

And, no, Brochu is not about to make a career out of Mostel, tempting though that may be. "I have the new script in front of me, in fact," he says. "I'm going to be doing P.T. Barnum — a two-character play with me playing the old Barnum and the young Barnum. And then, after Barnum," he continues without missing a beat, "I'm doing Rosemary Clooney."

DANCE REVIEW: MIXED PROGRAM, NBOC
National Ballet’s Mixed Program brings vibrancy, colour and light
24 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 5 out of 5

Despite the fact that Winterlicious is now behind us for another year — winter itself, maybe not so much — Karen Kain is offering up a menu you might want to consider — and best of all, it’s a zero-calorie affair. In fact, you might even burn up a calorie or two in enthusiastic applause, should you decide to chow down on the dance banquet that Kain has cooked up for the National Ballet of Canada’s new evening of mixed programming, which opened a limited run Wednesday on the stage of the Four Seasons Centre.

To whet the appetite, the evening launches with the cool and sustained elegance of George Balanchine’s APOLLO, set to the the haunting notes of Apollon Musagète, composed by Igor Stravinsky. A work designed to showcase the danseur noble at the zenith of his career, it seems a role almost tailor-made for Aleksandar Antonijevic, who brought a lovely sense of disciplined vulnerability to his opening night performance.

Birthed by a flame-haired Leto (Stephanie Hutchison) and instructed by his half-sisters Calliope (Jillian Vanstone), Polyhymnia (Elena Lobsanova) and most especially Terpsichore (Sonia Rodriguez), Antonijevic gives us an Apollo worthy of the pantheon of memorable performances in this demanding work.

Balanchine is also on offer for the dessert course, with his THEME AND VARIATIONS, an often thrilling homage to the glory days of Russian ballet, taking centre-stage. Set to the music of Tchaikovsky and given the whole tutu-tiara-tights rig-out by designer Santo Loquasto, this is a ballet rich in both tradition and talent, particularly when it showcases dancers the likes of Heather Ogden and Piotr Stanczyk, backed as they are by the hugely talented corps. Technically strong, the work lacked only that nebulous spark that in its brief flaring can join two dancers into a single unit.

Such connections were certainly on offer in the main course Kain cooked up for the evening, however — the company première of choreographer Alexei Ratmansky’s explosively colourful RUSSIAN SEASONS, created originally for the New York City Ballet in 2006. But as the ballet unfolds on the wings of Leonid Desyatnikov’s glorious score — a nod to soprano Susana Poretsky and violinist Stephen Sitarski, as well as the NBOC Orchestra and conductor David Briskin is certainly in order here — the dancers of the National Ballet lose no time at all in making it their own, tackling it with the same joyous skill and professional ferocity with which they once tackled demanding new works from James Kudelka, the company’s erstwhile artistic director.

Led by Guillaume Côté and Greta Hodgkinson, a dozen dancers, including Ogden and Antonijevic, Xiao Nan Yu and McGee Maddox and Brett Van Sickle and Lobsanova, fill the stage with the colour and explosive passion of a Russian year, seemingly tumbling over each other in their natural drive to dance. From an awakening spring to a winter’s lingering and frozen death, this thrilling explosion of colour and skill — at times, brooding and threatening, at others whimsical and silly, but always passionate through and through — represents a steppe by steppe celebration of the shifting of the Russian seasons. Galina Solovyeva’s costumes are jewel-like and timeless, flawlessly lit by Mark Stanley.

And fittingly, as winter ultimately strips the life from RUSSIAN SEASONS, the promise of a new awakening — in the new production of ROMEO AND JULIET that Ratmansky has been commissioned to create for the company to launch its 60th anniversary season — hovers tantalizingly in the future.

A feast for the eyes, the ears and the soul, the National Ballet has put a new spin on Winterlicious. And chances are, you’re going to love it.

THEATRE REVIEW: MONTPARNASSE
23 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
Rating: 3 out of 5

For many of the artistic residents of the Montparnasse in the wake of World War I — Chagall, Man Ray, Soutine, Picasso, Stein and Hemingway to name but a few — suffering for one's art would prove to be a lucrative long-term investment. At the same time, for a few often nameless (but rarely faceless) individuals, suffering for the art of others would prove to be a pretty thankless endeavour.

They were the models for many renowned paintings, sculptures and other works of art and while the names of many of them may be well known among the cognoscenti in the arts world, to the world at large, they are merely the nameless subject of works like Nude Reclining, Nude Bathing, Nude Sleeping and the like. But now, two Toronto theatre artists have set out to change all that in a new work titled MONTPARNASSE, that opened on the Theatre Passe Muraille mainstage, a production of Groundwater Productions.

Change it, that is, to the degree that it can be changed in a work built around two fictitious Canadian women who flee the constraints of Toronto the good in favour of la vie bohème on offer in Paris the naughty, where ultimately they shed far more than a few inhibitions.

Mag is played by Erin Shields, while Amelia is played by Maev Beaty, both of whom share a writing credit under the direction of Andrea Donaldson. The more adventurous Mag is already in Paris when the show opens and, having ruled out careers in dancing and sausage making, she has doffed her duds and settled into life as an artist's model. Along the way, she has also invited the more timorous Amelia to join her in her wastrelling ways, but has neglected to leave a forwarding address.

So, upon her arrival, an already fraught Amelia's first challenge is to track down her peripatetic friend. That accomplished, she too sets out to conquer Paris, and while Amelia's ambitions trend more towards the wielding of a paintbrush than being captured by it, she soon finds herself sharing modeling assignments with her freewheeling friend, while she waits for artistic inspiration to strike. As they get caught up in the life of Montparnasse — Mag is soon embroiled in a 'meaty collaboration' with Soutine, while Amelia finds herself inspired by the the charms of literary facilitator Sylvia Beach — each of them, ever so subtly, loses her way and her focus.

They come together again, however, in a grand collaboration that ultimately destroys their friendship, even while they destroy what they've created. The entire story unfolds on an adaptable two level set, created by designer Jung-Hye Kim (and who in fairness, considering the amount of time this cast spends au natural, should share costuming credits with Mother Nature or the gene pools from which this cast has sprung).

The goal here, of course, is to examine the role inspiration plays in the world of art and the value we put on it, and while Beaty and Shields make some valid points, they ultimately fail in their attempt to offer new and fresh perspectives. Part of the problem one suspects, is the fact that, as collaborators, they fail to find a unified theatrical voice to speak on their behalf, instead contenting themselves with careering happily between theatrical styles in a manner that is frankly more exhausting than entertaining.

Nudity aside, there is much here to showcase the talents of each of these performers, although it must be said that by digging deeper, Beaty certainly seems to soar higher. But in the end, one suspects, it will take a stronger director than Donaldson to adequately showcase their abilities as playwright/collaborators.

THEATRE NEWS: Young Peoples change kicks off new season
23 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency

After a decade of styling itself The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People, the company that operates out of the Front Street Theatre will once again revert to the name first chosen by founder Susan Douglas Rubes back in 1966.

And to celebrate the change in name, LKTYP (or Young Peoples Theatre, as it will be known, come July 1) has announced a 2011-12 season they hope will challenge young audiences to "Change Your World." The season was announced Tuesday by Artistic Director Allen MacInnis.

The mainstage season opens with a movement piece for kids titled THE STUDIO, directed and choreographed by Helene Langevin, which will then be followed by a brand new production of SEUSSICAL, written by Lynn Ahrens and featuring music by Stephen Flaherty.

Next up on the mainstage will be Red Sky performance's production of Tracey Power's THE GREAT MOUNTAIN, which will then give way to David S. Craig's new adaptation of Michael Ende's THE NEVERENDING STORY, produced by Roseneath Theatre.

Linda Garson's new version of JACK IN THE BEANSTOCK follows, with BEYOND THE CUCKOO'S NEST, a new play from Edward Roy, slated to close the mainstage season.

Meanwhile, on the YPT Studio Stage, two productions are planned: (WOULD YOU SAY THE NAME OF THIS PLAY?), written by Berend McKenzie and produced by Small Brown Package Productions and BAOBAB, written by Helene Ducharm and produced by Theatre Motus and SO Company (Mali).

For further information, visit lktyp.ca or call 416-862-2222.

DANCE REVIEW: ONEGIN
18 MAR/11

JOHN COULBOURN,
QMI Agency
Rating: 5 out of 5

Some insist that only candlelight can bring out the true beauty of precious gems. And while that may be true, a diamond lit only by a single naked bulb is still a thing of breathtaking beauty — and certainly no less precious. So it is with the National Ballet of Canada’s exquisitely refurbished production of John Cranko’s ONEGIN, a balletic jewel that debuted last June in what was certainly the theatrical equivalent of candlelight — a lush spring Toronto evening that set off the tragedy of the tale in the same magical way champagne sets off the sweetness of strawberries.

Now it’s March, of course, and while the artists of the National Ballet don’t have the perfection of June to help them showcase Cranko’s dazzling masterpiece, they still manage to find the enduring beauty of the work, bringing it to life once again on the stage of the Four Seasons Centre, where it opened a limited run Thursday.

It is based on a poetic tale, written by Russia’s Alexander Pushkin, that tells of the innocent young woman Tatiana (danced by Sonia Rodriguez) and the ill-fated love she bears for Eugene Onegin (Aleksandar Antonijevic), an arrogant nobleman she meets almost by chance. Onegin is, in fact, in the country simply to visit his friend Lensky (Piotr Stanczyk), a good-hearted young man smitten with Tatiana’s sister, Olga (Jillian Vanstone). When Lensky comes to call on Olga, Onegin tags along.

For Tatiana, it is love at first sight. She writes the stranger a long letter, declaring her love — but both letter and sentiment are spurned by the bored dandy, who instead picks a fight with Lensky that ends in tragedy. The two meet again in the St. Petersburg home she now shares with the prince — and Onegin quickly regrets his earlier dismissal and begs to be forgiven.

As story ballets go, this one is certainly hard to top. It’s set to an enduring and moving score composed by Russian master Pyotr Illyich Tchaikovsky, a score beautifully rendered by the NBOC Orchestra under principal conductor and music director David Briskin. It is also lushly designed by Santo Loquasto, who proved conclusively with THE NUTCRACKER that he’s a master at evoking the opulence of Czarist Russia.

It is, however, on the backs of the dancers that a ballet quite literally rises and falls, and this is a company tailor-made to showcase the glory of Cranko’s choreography. Rodriguez, for her part, renders Tatiana’s transformation from innocent maiden in Act 1 to mature and compassionate woman in Act 3 as something not only utterly believable but a chrysalis of great beauty too.

Sadly we live in a world where June represents only one 12th of any year — and while ONEGIN seemed to sparkle brightest in the glow of a June evening, this staging proves it’s a precious jewel that can add lustre to a March evening as well.