Review: (Toronto / Theatre) Of Human Bondage

Jeff Lillico, Gregory Prest (photo by Cylla von Tiedemann)

From Page to Stage (and Screen?)
by Greg Bunker

It is a curious thing that the classic British novel, Of Human Bondage, written by W. Somerset Maugham in 1915, has not been adapted to stage until now. Maugham was a playwright as well; his novel is considered one of the best ever written; and there are three film adaptations of it – the first of these launched Bette Davis’s career in the 1930s. Adapted by award-winning playwright Vern Thiessen, and brought to life by director Albert Shultz and an impeccable Soulpepper cast at the Young Centre for the Performing Arts, this world premiere offers up some big artistic risks that for the most part are exquisite and rewarding. The story, though, is a tad belaboured in the beginning, and come intermission, I was nervous about where it was all going.

Review: (Toronto) The Way of All Fish / Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet

Nonnie Griffin (photo by Shy)

Women of a Certain Age
by Gregory Bunker

Kourage Theatre’s double bill of Elaine May’s The Way of All Fish and Alan Bennett’s Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet showcases the wily wisdom of older women. Both of the 45-minute plays are dialogue-driven with little need for props or effects. Three women carry us through: Elva Mai Hoover and Tracy Rankin in The Way of All Fish and a solo performance by Nonnie Griffin in Miss Fozzard Finds Her Feet. There are no clichés here: plot fixtures include push-up competitions and foot-derived orgasms.

Review: (Toronto) The Whipping Man

Thomas Olajide, Sterling Jarvis and Brett Donahue (photo credit: Keith Barker)

Spinning Slavery

HGJT and Obsidian tackle little known history

by Gregory Bunker

Written by Matthew Lopez and first produced in 2006, The Whipping Man is an excellent production that puts a deeply ironic spin on slavery in America. The play is co-produced by the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company and Obsidian Theatre, and draws special attention to the paradox of Jewish slave-owning in America. It explores the notion that a religion with the history and pride of escaping slavery could be kosher with imposing such chains on others. And it is the gobsmacking awkwardness of reconciling this irony in the newly emancipated South that makes for great theatre at the Toronto Centre for the Arts. 

Review: (Toronto) Post Eden (Next Stage)

Lindsey Clark
(photo by Jacklyn Atlas)

To Multimedia Fantasia or Not to Multimedia Fantasia
by Greg Bunker

Written and directed by Jordan Tannahill, Post Eden is a contemporary play peculiar because of its “live film” approach: it is a sort of dialogue between on-stage narrators/actors and their silent celluloid selves. The meandering plot follows a suburban family of estranged parents, their teenage daughter, and a weird neighbour boy over the course of a day. What ties them together is the dead family dog, Eden. She occasionally haunts Susan, the mother, and Ashley, the daughter, from her backyard grave. Ashley has come to believe Eden’s burial in the backyard has cursed the family. The neighbour boy, Jacob, convinces the daughter to rebury Eden in a nearby field where her soul will be freed and the curse will be lifted.