Tonight was the final of Winnipeg's annual winter theatre festival focused on the works of one master playwright. This year someone decided three of the coldest weeks of the winter were perfect for August Strindberg, one of the major freaks of late 19th century European theatre.
All three pieces I saw were adaptations: Julie Tepperman's "The Father" at WJT, Ross McMillan's "Miss Julie at the Gates" a staged reading presented by MAP and Patrick Marber's post-war take on Miss Julie "After Miss Julie" at MTC Warehouse. I really wish I'd seen more but a late taxi last Saturday night kept me out of "The Creditors".
To say Strindberg had a twisted view of human relations is putting it mildly. Strindberg it seems, was never happy and neither is anyone in any of his plays. It's often pointed out that he's a misogynist but really he doesn't like anybody very much.
Ross's tale about an imaginary visit by Strindberg's theatre company to a well-to-do Winnipeg home of dilettante theatre producers was charmingly quirky. Gord Tanner was a very convincing Strindberg, managing to make the paranoid misanthrope almost endearing. Supported by a fine cast of Winnipeg stalwarts including Carolyn Gray and Sharon Bajer, it was a most enjoyable romp.
The cast of AFTER MISS JULIE over at the TOM HENDRY was uniformly great and the whole servant-master, dom-sub gamesmanship of the piece was mostly quite effective. There was real sexual and emotional tension onstage and all of the relationships were believable. The third act of the play doesn't really work as a piece of writing. No amount of hard work on the part of the actors, director and designers can make biting the head off a bird really playable in a drama in 2011. John Cleese could have pulled this off in FAWLTY TOWERS but it's just so overwrought here it bordered on the ridiculous. CLOSER is a much better script from Mr. Marber, but kudos to the cast for a game take on a tough script and a mostly fine night of theatre.
My final day of the festival was spent at the WJT watching THE FATHER. In the aftermath of the tragic loss of one of their children, a couple becomes embroiled in a blame game leading to an act of brinkmanship that takes down their marriage and completely destroys the father of the title.
The great cast of Graham Ashmore, Jennifer Lyon, Miriam Smith and Arne MacPherson was very well directed by Mariam Bernstein. I particularly liked her use of family photos projected in the background as a constant visual reinforcement of what had been lost and what was at stake. Mr. MacPherson in particular gave a galvanizing and completely affecting performance as a man driven to madness by the idea that he's going to lose the only child he's got left. It was a great afternoon of theatre.
Now unlike our friend Robb who had seen EVERYTHING the festival had to offer, this was all I managed to get to. However, fine as these offering were, they were for the most part, well, grim. May I gentle readers, and gentle festival programmers, make a suggestion? I'm all for serious theatre. Hell I write the stuff myself. But people, it's January in Winnipeg! It's -29 without the windchill. I got my M/C card bill from Christmas this month and coupled with my Fringe debt, it's not pretty.
I need cheering up. Can we have someone - a little more lighthearted? Cheerful? Romantic? Funny, even? Just for one year? There's a recession on and we've been at war for 9 years and we're stuck with a dead-locked minority parliament and that's before we get to the international news. Three weeks of tragedy is over. Please Mr. Schipper, a comedy tonight?
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