THEATRE REVIEW: THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE

JOHN COULBOURN, Special to TorSun
19 APR 2012
R: 2.5/5

Pictured: Harry Judge, Trish Lindström

Influenced as he was by Italy’s commedia dell’arte style (which, lest we forget, gave us, for better or for worse, something called slapstick), it is difficult to imagine anyone ever held French playwright Marivaux up as a paragon of comedic subtlety. Still, in his long career, he scored some telling points about the inherent differences (and the attendant similarities) between 18th century France’s ruling class and its subservient working class.

Of course, today, in the wake of a little event called the French Revolution, many of those points are moot, unless of course, plays like his Le Jeu de l’amour et du hasard (THE GAME OF LOVE AND CHANCE) are presented in the context of the period in which they were written — which is precisely what translator/director John Van Burek did in a revival of the work back in 2000 in a charming production for Pleiades Theatre. But in mounting the work for a Canadian Stage/Centaur Theatre co-production, director Matthew Jocelyn has opted to explore new ground, taking a translated adaptation from playwright Nicolas Billon and setting it down in the midst of a distinctly contemporary and highly theatrical milieu. His production of THE GAME opened a Toronto run at the Bluma Appel Theatre Thursday.

Jocelyn’s choice, one suspects, was made in an attempt to strip away hidebound theatrical convention and add a certain theatrical relevance for those who see theatre as merely a spectator sport — and to some degree, it works. As Jocelyn and his tremendously hardworking cast plunder the comedic canon from commedia to Jim Carrey in search of anything that might possibly get them a laugh, they get more than a few.

But, for all their efforts, in the end, it simply doesn’t work, for while the setting has been updated, the story hasn’t, and while the whole notion of a father giving his daughter permission to choose her own husband lent a piquant comedic element to the play in 18th century France, it is simply the norm in 21st century Toronto, where the whole notion of maids and valets is of another time as well. Which means that things are shaky from the get-go as Silvia (Trish Lindström) frets about meeting the man her father (William Webster) wishes her to marry.

To get a more honest take on her potential groom, she switches places with her maid, Lisette (Gemma James-Smith), happily oblivious to the fact her suitor, Dorante (Harry Judge) has made a similar switch with his valet, Arlequino (over-played by Gil Garratt). Zach Fraser plays Silvia’s brother, Mario. By modern lights, what happens next is entirely predictable as true love triumphs, in the face of all of Marivaux’s mixed signals and human roadblocks.

Recognizing that in placing the work in a contemporary setting, he has reduced it to what is at best a moderately amusing tale, Jocelyn overdraws his account at the Ministry of Funny Walks, demands that every entrance be made as if in full flight from a proctologist and finally allows designer Anick La Bissonnière to transform her graceless set into a house of mirrors in an attempt to find modern humour in the tale. In the process, he strips the story of any subtlety and humanity as well.