33 Variations
Written by Moises Kaufman
Directed by Henri Canino
Presented by Theatre Sarnia
Representing WODL (Western Ontario Drama League)
With this performance, I am setting myself a near-impossible task. How in heaven's name am I supposed to come up with anything new to say about this show, which I have already seen twice and reviewed twice????
Links to previous reviews:
Sarnia performance, February 2016: Variations on the Theme of Life
WODL Festival performance, March 2016: WODL Festival 2016 # 5: Powerful Variations
Ah, well, try we must. Succeed we shall!
With each successive viewing I become more conscious of what a remarkable play this is. Unique in structure, unique in subject matter, and uniquely humane and gently honest in probing some very deep, murky, and challenging themes. While plainly dealing with the act of artistic and scholarly creation, and the fate of people trapped by illnesses which set a term to their creative lives, it also invites all of us to contemplate and think deeply and inwardly about our own mortality, about our own deep compulsions, about our own scales of value. The play charts the shifting dynamics of family relations and friendships, and in the end registers as a strong plea for more self-awareness as a prerequisite to more closeness with those around us.
In previous reviews I've gone far more into the nuts and bolts of the production. Here I need to add only a few observations about the performance I saw this week.
A casting note: pianist Dan Sonier, who played for the original run in Sarnia, was unable to take part in the WODL Festival performance in March. However, he appeared again in this performance. It was the first time I ever registered the way in which he maintained his stillness and impassivity even when one character or another plumped down on the piano bench right beside him. That's only one of several ways that this production plays fast and loose with conventional notions of time -- a breach of convention which itself becomes one of the most rewarding conventions of this show. His playing was as excellent as ever.
I still feel that the writing in the early scenes between Mike and Clara is the great weak link of the script, but Clare Ross and Darryl Heater came closer than ever before to making their characters believably human in those scenes.
Ross also gained notably in dimension and power in her later scenes in the second act. Consider her final moment, where she closed the book gently and then said, "And that's all." Somehow she touched a vein of deeper truth here than ever before, and she brought the tears to my eyes.
That was also true of Audrey Hummelen in the central role of Dr. Katherine Brandt. The scene of the x-ray scan in Act 1 ended with her sobbing in pain on the examining table. It was a powerful scene each time, but on this occasion she found an additional depth of desolation and loneliness that was truly heartbreaking.
While all of the cast were as fine as ever, Andrea Hughes Coleman went farther and deeper than on two previous occasions as Dr. Gertie Ladenburger, the archivist. I'd never been so aware that this woman, no less than Katherine or Clara, has to take a challenging emotional journey throughout the play. Her proud exit after Katherine called her a "kind acquaintance" was more intense, more devastated and devastating than ever before.
It's been a real privilege to be able to see this fine performance of a remarkable script on three different occasions. Thank you again to director Henri Canino and company for sharing this intense and thought-provoking experience with us.
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