The annual Theatre Ontario Festival brings together four outstanding productions selected from the four regional community theatre festivals. Days at the Festival are occupied with various workshops, play readings, and other activities, and a different play is presented on each of the four nights, Wednesday through Saturday. Awards are presented at a brunch on Sunday morning. I'll be reviewing all four performances, and also presenting a complete list of award winners on Sunday.
***** ***** *****
Tempting Providence
by Robert Chafe
Representing QUONTA (Northeastern Ontario)
Presented by ELATE -- Elliot Lake Amateur Theatre Ensemble
Directed by Murray Finn
This third evening of the festival brought a beautiful, tender, funny, touching Canadian script about the real life story of a remarkable woman who remains very little known outside the province of Newfoundland. I truly hope that this play will serve to make her better known across the country, as she most certainly should be.
I've seen this play staged previously in March, at the QUONTA Drama Region Festival in Elliot Lake. Here's the link to the review I posted of that performance: A Tempting Evening of Theatre
This review, then, will focus on changes in the show and changes or additions in my reactions to it at second viewing.
A key change and improvement came right at the outset where the musician, Ponto Paparo, entered the stage carrying a lantern, discovered the space for a few moments, and then moved around to the location of his keyboard and took his place there (previously he was simply sitting there as the show opened).
The arrival of the new nurse was more effective too, with Myra (played by Kim Arnold) entering down the long, sloping aisle of the auditorium rather as if she were coming down the gangplank of the mailboat. The much shorter aisles of the Elliot Lake auditorium had made that entrance far less effective in establishing her arrival into the community of the play. Of course, this detail is necessarily lost on the audience in the front rows!
David Black and Fran Perkins really upped the stakes as the Man and Woman respectively, so-called because each of them must portray multiple different people through the course of the play. Black's portrayal of the young boy who wasn't supposed to offer help to the nurse was a real comic delight. Perkins unfailingly drew big laughs from the audience with her singularly graceless nose-wiping shtick. Perkins also struck an even deeper note of truth and pain in her portrayal of the woman who has just lost a sister to TB, and plainly is herself suffering from the disease.
One of the greatest challenges of the play is found in the role of Myra, much of which is given in the form of excerpts from her diaries and letters. These have, at times, a very pompous, officious tone, but Arnold exceeded even her own previous fine performance in maintaining the humanity of a character who could too easily seem completely stuck up if those excerpts weren't handled with great care and thought.
Jim Graham again brought much warmth and humour to his portrayal of Angus, the local man Myra marries. His performance of the kitchen party scene gained more depth and truth, as did the final road-building scene.
The company as a whole remained on-point with the numerous smoothly-executed quick scene changes, all of which highlighted the value of keeping everyone on the stage in neutral space when they are not actually participating in a scene.
I was much more struck this time by the utter absence of props. Everything from a medical bag to a garden hoe, from a boat's rudder to a horse's reins, all were so effectively mimed that no physical props were needed at all.
Kudos again to pianist/composer Ponto Paparo, whose original score was so responsively integrated into the play that he became, in effect, a fifth character on stage.
The lighting problems of the previous performance were totally solved, and the various lighting shifts and changes handled with care, allowing us to see all that we needed to see at any moment.
The problem of the "false ending" was solved too, since Myra was plainly moving into the playing space for her next scene as the Man and Woman finished reciting the list of her distinctions, awards, and honorary degrees.
Murray Finn's sensitive direction and the dedication of the company have together resulted in a well-crafted evening of theatre, no less than a well-deserved tribute to a remarkable human being.
And speaking of well-deserved tribute, last night's standing ovation wasn't the typical "I guess we're expected to stand and applaud." It was definitely and clearly a tribute to the work of Kim Arnold in the role of Myra. To borrow a phrase used by one British journalist, "The audience rose to her."
This review, then, will focus on changes in the show and changes or additions in my reactions to it at second viewing.
A key change and improvement came right at the outset where the musician, Ponto Paparo, entered the stage carrying a lantern, discovered the space for a few moments, and then moved around to the location of his keyboard and took his place there (previously he was simply sitting there as the show opened).
The arrival of the new nurse was more effective too, with Myra (played by Kim Arnold) entering down the long, sloping aisle of the auditorium rather as if she were coming down the gangplank of the mailboat. The much shorter aisles of the Elliot Lake auditorium had made that entrance far less effective in establishing her arrival into the community of the play. Of course, this detail is necessarily lost on the audience in the front rows!
David Black and Fran Perkins really upped the stakes as the Man and Woman respectively, so-called because each of them must portray multiple different people through the course of the play. Black's portrayal of the young boy who wasn't supposed to offer help to the nurse was a real comic delight. Perkins unfailingly drew big laughs from the audience with her singularly graceless nose-wiping shtick. Perkins also struck an even deeper note of truth and pain in her portrayal of the woman who has just lost a sister to TB, and plainly is herself suffering from the disease.
One of the greatest challenges of the play is found in the role of Myra, much of which is given in the form of excerpts from her diaries and letters. These have, at times, a very pompous, officious tone, but Arnold exceeded even her own previous fine performance in maintaining the humanity of a character who could too easily seem completely stuck up if those excerpts weren't handled with great care and thought.
Jim Graham again brought much warmth and humour to his portrayal of Angus, the local man Myra marries. His performance of the kitchen party scene gained more depth and truth, as did the final road-building scene.
The company as a whole remained on-point with the numerous smoothly-executed quick scene changes, all of which highlighted the value of keeping everyone on the stage in neutral space when they are not actually participating in a scene.
I was much more struck this time by the utter absence of props. Everything from a medical bag to a garden hoe, from a boat's rudder to a horse's reins, all were so effectively mimed that no physical props were needed at all.
Kudos again to pianist/composer Ponto Paparo, whose original score was so responsively integrated into the play that he became, in effect, a fifth character on stage.
The lighting problems of the previous performance were totally solved, and the various lighting shifts and changes handled with care, allowing us to see all that we needed to see at any moment.
The problem of the "false ending" was solved too, since Myra was plainly moving into the playing space for her next scene as the Man and Woman finished reciting the list of her distinctions, awards, and honorary degrees.
Murray Finn's sensitive direction and the dedication of the company have together resulted in a well-crafted evening of theatre, no less than a well-deserved tribute to a remarkable human being.
And speaking of well-deserved tribute, last night's standing ovation wasn't the typical "I guess we're expected to stand and applaud." It was definitely and clearly a tribute to the work of Kim Arnold in the role of Myra. To borrow a phrase used by one British journalist, "The audience rose to her."
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