QUONTA Festival 2014 # 3: Perplexity Staged Large

First of all, for those not in the know, QUONTA is the regional association of community theatres in Northern Ontario.  Every year the regional body co-sponsors a community theatre festival in conjunction with one of its member groups.  I was involved for years as member of two different member groups from Elliot Lake, and as an elected member of the QUONTA Board.  I love attending the annual Festivals to see what my old friends in the north are up to, theatrically speaking.


This is the third of 4 write-ups of the 4 plays produced this year.


Agnes of God by John Pielmeier
Directed by Murray Tilson
Presented by Take Two Theatre of Timmins


This play is 3 decades old  but has lots little if any of its power to engross and enthral an audience.  The production by Take Two Theatre certainly kept me fully involved from start to finish.


In keeping with the author's suggestion, the director has wisely kept the setting minimal -- two simple chairs of a familiar stacking type, and old-fashioned ashtray stand, a small table.  A clearly defined acting area on the partial thrust stage was delineated with lights, and a cyclorama wall at rear opened the space somewhat with coloured wash lighting.


On surface, the play consists of a battle between 2 women for the soul of a third -- that is, if you accept the viewpoint expressed by Reverend Mother Miriam Ruth.  At this level the performance succeeded admirably.  The fights between Miriam and Dr. Martha Livingstone (played, respectively, by Michelle Goulet and Jeannette McCreight) were tightly rehearsed, with overlapping lines that still flew clearly out to the audience. 


Both these fine actors are still quite young, and I was troubled by that for the first half of the play.  It's not just a question of chronological age, nor solely of makeup.  Since both are revealed to have been through lives of considerable stress and loss, the body language needs to be fine-tuned to reflect their histories more accurately (but certainly not in any overt, in-your-face kind of way).  Both these women carry considerable emotional baggage which has to be felt by the audience more consistently, especially when they are not describing their pasts.


Much is made in the text of the beauty and angelic sound of the voice of the young nun, Agnes, and Victoria LeFort in that role certainly had that essential vocal quality.  Her voice took on its most arresting and celestial quality when we first heard it, coming from offstage left, and I would have welcomed more chances to hear it at that distance when it seemed to me most effective.  LeFort also presented very clearly her complex character, compounded of extreme naivete with terror-stricken fears in equal measures.


Michelle Goulet presented for me, very clearly, the protective wall that Mother Miriam Ruth builds around her precious surrogate daughter, Agnes (who is in fact her niece).  She would have been helped in this by having a floor-length habit, more old-fashioned and more in keeping with the convent she leads, which she herself describes as a retired order, rather than a teaching order.


Jeannette McCreight as Dr. Livingston carries the entire play as she must, since she is most on stage and has to frequently address the audience directly in soliloquy.  These soliloquies were always delivered downstage centre at the front of the thrust stage.  I would have welcomed variations of location, and even the possibility that she might step outside the clearly delineated area of her office to one side or the other when addressing the audience.  Her performance was strong and centred at all times, and her bewilderment at the change that has come over her was clear as a bell in her final speech.


Stage pictures generally were a bit static, with Mother Miriam Ruth and Dr. Livingstone spending much time sitting in the 2 chairs.  Having one or the other up and shifting position from time to time could be advantageously used at more key moments to underline the emotional or psychological subtext behind the words they speak.


None of this must be allowed to detract from the overall involvement this company created with their audience throughout the performance.


It is no mean achievement when you realise that in this one day they had their one and only tech run, dress rehearsal, and (so far) their one and only performance of the show.  Since I have had that unenviable experience of presenting a show before its first audience at a competition, I am even more filled with admiration for this solid, tight, clean performance which brought out so much of the hidden lives of three very complex characters.