Rants, Raves and Reviews: Richard the Third
Directed by Scott Bellis
Studio 58, Langara
November 15- Dec 9, 2007
Vancouver, BC: In Stephen Greenblatt's introduction to Richard lll in the Norton Shakespeare, he relates a story about Shakespeare and the play, said to have been recorded in 1602 in the diary of a London law student. The gist of it was that a woman was so impressed with Richard Burbage in the title role that she invited him to visit her that very night as Richard lll. Shakespeare contrived to arrive before Burbage. When the announcement came that Richard lll was at the door, WS sent a return message that William the conqueror was before Richard lll. True or not, as Greenblatt points out, the story illustrates that despite Richard's physical deformities and anti-heroic villainy, this protagonist has exerted a compelling attraction on generations of playgoers.
So thinking back to when I wondered how handsome hunk, Bob Frazer (remember those jeans in Taming of the Shrew) could possibly portray the "rudely stamped, deformed and unfinished" Richard – I can only sigh "oh ye, of little faith". The man can act! From the minute he dragged himself on crutches, leg in a brace, face discolored by a birthmark, and declared with a devilish smile that since he could not be a lover, he was determined to be a villain – I was entranced. Frazer plays Richard as a charming sociopath who, in fulfillment of his desire to rule, manipulates others to bump off anyone who stands in way of his ambition. The only moment when he drops his shield of arrogance and insouciance allowing us to see the vulnerable,inner Richard, is when he stumbles while moving to ascend his newly acquired throne.Brilliant.
Rants, Raves and Reviews: John and Beatrice - maybe, perhaps?
Directed by Del Surjik
PAL Theatre, Cardero Street.
Pi Theatre
Nov 14 to Dec 1, 2007.
Vancouver, BC: Not so very long ago, playing strategy games on my computer was my favoured form of procrastination, and SimTower kept me distracted for hours at a time. The game objective was to build a towering skyscraper, with hotel rooms, condominiums, offices and restaurants, increase the resident population and keep the Sim people happy. Still today I keep calm in interminable lineups by remembering the Sims turning pink with frustration and then red with rage, as they waited for elevators to carry them down to their offices or up to their homes. As the hours progressed through days and nights, lights in the building units would switch on and off when the Sims woke or went to bed. I was reminded of this, watching Tim Matheson's video projection of lights flicking on and off in the high rise buildings behind the new PAL Theatre. Pi Theatre's Western Canadian Premiere of "John and Beatrice," directed by Del Surjik, is the production chosen to launch this welcome addition to theatre space in Vancouver's downtown core.
Beatrice (Karen Rae) is a young woman who has never loved, living alone on the 33rd floor of an abandoned building with no working elevator. Describing herself as a "well-to-do young heiress" seeking to find a man who will "interest, move and seduce her" she plasters the city with posters offering a substantial reward to the right man. Enter John (Vincent Gale), a trifle breathless after dragging himself up 33 flights of stairs. No romantic, he is a bounty hunter, with a briefcase full of surprises, here solely to earn the substantial reward, which he wants to be paid in a stack of 20 dollar bills.
Rants, Raves and Reviews: Tideline
Tideline by Wajdi Mouawad
Translated by Shelley Tepperman
Directed: Katrina Dunn, Camyar Chai
Roundhouse Community Centre
Neworldtheatre and Touchstone Theatre
November 8-24, 2007
Vancouver, BC: In 1997 I spent a week in war-torn Beirut. It was a mere 7 years after the official end of the civil war between Christians and Muslims that ravaged the city. Syria was effectively in control of Lebanon and in the south, fighting between Hezbollah and Israeli forces was ongoing. I was invited to Beirut to lecture and give workshops at a medical conference. When an ex-student of mine, suggested I combine the trip to Lebanon with a visit to Egypt to meet her family, against the advice of family and colleagues I decided to go. I saw the news of Princess Diana's death in a Cairo travel Agency as I was booking a tour to Luxor and the Valley of the Kings. Less than 10 weeks after I had wandered enthralled among the temple ruins, news headlines told of tourists gunned down on that very site. A random conjunction of time, place and terror - and 62 lives lost.
Beirut - for me the name evokes memories of driving past bombed buildings where people once lived and worked. Pipes and cables dangling from shattered bare concrete walls open to the elements, as we pass by on our way to dinner at an opulent mountainside apartment overlooking the shattered city. Images flicker through my mind like frames of a film.
Which brings me to Tideline, a play about - the mind of a man in a film or a film in the mind of a man - or is it about dreaming of death or the death of dreams, about murdering a father or killing a mother, or perhaps about burying the past or returning to it - see a problem?
Rants, Raves and Reviews: Haunting on Halloween: BENT by Martin Sherman
As Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of this young theatre company, Meta.for Theatre, and as mother of Amanda Lockitch, director of Bent, it is hard for me to view this production objectively so I won't comment on the show. You will simply have to see it for yourself. But as I am not Martin Sherman's mom, I see no conflict in writing about a few impressions that stand out for me about Sherman's script.
For starters, Sherman's protagonist, Maximilian Berber is not a sympathetic character. A psychologically damaged man, estranged from his family for his overt homosexuality, he uses cocaine, drinks himself into oblivion and flaunts his promiscuity before his current lover, Rudy, a hapless, naive dancer. Having been made to believe that "Queers aren't meant to love," Max is unable to accept himself for whom he is and rejects all overtures of love. Ultimately he has to learn to love himself before he can accept that he is worthy of the love of others. And we have to accompany him on his journey to understand the forces that made him what he is, so that we are emotionally with him for his ultimate redemption.
