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Speak Is Free Theatre/La Bête, written by David Hirson, directed by Dylan Trowbridge, Harbourfront Centre Theatre, to Mar. 16. Tickets right here.
Sensible, good, good.
David Hirson’s boisterous play La Bête (1991) is simply at Harbourfront for one week, so purchase your tickets as quickly as you may, as a result of when phrase will get out about this dazzling manufacturing, they are going to be as uncommon as hen’s enamel.
Speak Is Free Theatre, underneath inventive director Arkady Spivak, resides in Barrie. Sometimes, as they are saying in this system notes, they arrive down the 400, to south of the 401, bearing items, like La Bête.
On one hand, the play is downright hilarious, crammed as it’s with slap-stick humour. Now I’m not often one for low forehead shenanigans, however I used to be completely beguiled by director Dylan Trowbridge’s go-for-the-jugular, very intelligent physicality.
Alternatively, the play could be very provocative due to what it has to say in regards to the position of theatre normally and the playwright particularly. Is theatre artwork for artwork’s sake, or is it artwork for leisure?
One other show-stopper aspect about La Bête is that it’s written solely in rhyming couplets. I assumed they had been alexandrines, however I discovered references to iambic pentameter, so who is aware of for certain. Extra to the purpose, that La Bête is an initially written play is astonishing, since you would suppose it’s a intelligent translation of Molière.
Set in France in 1654, we meet Elomire (Cyrus Lane), a playwright who runs a theatre troupe, and Bejart (Richard Lam), one in every of his actors. The corporate was once poverty-stricken itinerant gamers till a Princess (Amelia Sargisson) grew to become their patron, they usually had been capable of transfer completely to court docket.
Sadly for Elomire, the Princess has turn into enthralled with a road clown (Mike Nadajewski) whom she noticed carry out in a public sq., and she or he desires this Valere to turn into a member of Elomire’s firm. (Elomire is an anagram of Molière.)
Elomire and Bejart have left a cocktail party arrange by the Princess so Elomire and firm may meet Valere. Bejart begs Elomire to compromise, however the latter (who has been known as the New Corneille) is adamant. The silly, idiotic Valere won’t ever be a part of his theatre. And so we at the moment are arrange for the battle between so-called excessive and low artwork.
Then Valere comes in the hunt for them, and all hell breaks free. By that, I imply, Elomire and Bejart are compelled to hearken to a mind-boggling, 25-minute monologue by Valere that could be a pure genius torrent of phrases that could be a wild mixture of shallow stupidity, wrapped in delusional egoism, interpolated by totally ridiculous life observations, and if Nadajewski will not be nominated for a Dora for this efficiency, it will likely be freeway theft.
I don’t wish to give something away, however suffice it to say that within the second act, the Princess arrives, and we see a efficiency of Valere’s play, The Parable of the Two Boys From Cadiz. At Elomire’s insistence, his gamers be a part of Valere on stage, and they need to be cited for his or her spirited performing — Justan Myers, Amy Keating, Courtenay Stevens and Madelyn Kriese.
There may be one other character within the play, the maid Dorine (Katarina Fiallos), and the schtick right here is that the 17-year-old goes by an adolescent section. She’s going to solely say phrases that rhyme with blue, so everybody has to guess what message she brings, by her monosyllabic vocabulary and the miming charades that go along with it. It’s a recreation that’s fairly amusing, and provides to the hilarity of the play.
What Nadajewski does along with his voice and physique defies description. His antics are merely astonishing, and he offers an unforgettable efficiency. In distinction, Lane’s spectacular Elomire is imperially majestic and dignified, whereas Lam, however, presents a totally sensible human being in relation to the opposite two. There may be one puzzling aspect, nonetheless. Bejart is meant to be a hunchback, however his costume doesn’t present that.
Sargisson’s Princess is attention-grabbing, as a result of within the authentic play, the half was written for a person. The 2010 West Finish revival transposed the position to a girl, which this La Bête copies. At first you suppose the Princess is a simpering dilettante, however she later reveals each fireplace and command. The girl is a strong metal magnolia certainly.
Joe Pagnan’s set is gorgeous, with its backdrop of swagged velvet drapes, augmented by interval furnishings, whereas Laura Delchiaro’s interval costumes are drop-dead attractive. Every thing about this manufacturing is a category act.
As for Trowbridge’s marvellously detailed course, nothing is left to probability. Nadajewski could also be working amok, however it’s all the time with a goal. Whereas Valere was in his flood of phrases throughout his monologue, I might sometimes look at Elomire and Bejart, and director Trowbridge, has made certain that they’re listening and reacting. Nobody on this manufacturing ever tunes out.
Earlier than we depart, somewhat historical past in regards to the play is value a point out. As unimaginable as it’s to imagine, the excellent La Bête, (one of many producers being Andrew Lloyd Webber), didn’t simply flop on Broadway in 1991, it additionally flopped in a revival in 2010. But it had a wild success in London, after the primary Broadway fiasco, successful the 1992 Olivier Award for Finest Comedy. As effectively, previous to coming to Broadway in 2010, it had one other hit run within the West Finish. So, London 2, New York 0.
Frank Wealthy, theatre critic for The New York Occasions, was so scathing in his 1991 evaluate of La Bête that 28 notable theatre artists, together with Hal Prince, Jerome Robbins, Kevin Kline, and sure, the nice Katharine Hepburn herself, wrote a letter to the paper in protest. The excellent news is that La Bête has discovered a shelf life in faculties and regional theatres — and fortunately, on this Speak Is Free manufacturing.
Right here’s one other tidbit: in 2000, Hirson wrote a second play, Incorrect Mountain, which was a response to the savaging of La Bête, and the truth that mediocrity triumphs over excellence. To all intents and functions, Incorrect Mountain is a satiric send-up of latest theatre, and it flopped on Broadway as effectively.
In an enormous shock, after the opening night time efficiency, Trowbridge introduced that playwright Hirson was within the viewers, and he was given a thunderous ovation. Hirson, in flip, made a shifting speech. What an ending to a wonderful night of theatre.
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Paula Citron is a Toronto-based freelance arts journalist and broadcaster who hosts her personal web site, paulacitron.ca. For over 25 years, she was senior dance author for The Globe and Mail, affiliate editor of Opera Canada journal, arts reviewer for Classical 96.3 FM, and dance previews contributor to Toronto Life journal. She has been a visitor lecturer for varied cultural teams and universities, notably on the position of the critic/reviewer, and has been a panellist on COC podcasts. Earlier than assuming a full-time journalism profession, Ms. Citron was a member of the drama division of the Claude Watson Faculty for the Arts.
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