It wouldn't be a tenth-year anniversary at Stratford without restagings of the two plays which opened the very first Stratford Festival way back in 1953. While I have seen several of the anniversary stagings of Richard III (including this year's outing), 2022 marks the first occasion I've seen its running mate, All's Well That Ends Well, in half a century -- since the 1972 Twentieth Anniversary Season in fact.
All's Well is an odd duck, theatrically speaking. The play has only half a romantic couple, and actually anticipates Bernard Shaw's favourite formula by having the drama revolve around the means by which Helen pursues and ties down Bertram, despite his best efforts to escape from her.
It's also odd, and more than odd, to try to figure out what she sees in him. He bluntly tells the King that he doesn't want her and won't marry her. He leaves France to avoid his fate when the King orders him to accept the marriage. He schemes and swears love to seduce a young Florentine girl, Diana, handing over his heirloom family ring to her with scarcely a murmur of protest. Brought back to France to face the music from his sleazy behaviour, he lies up and down to try to evade the consequences of his actions. Most modern women would tell Helen to run the other way, as fast as possible.
And yet, her behaviour is scarcely above reproach either, her clever stratagem exposing her (in modern terms) to a charge of sexual assault since she contrives to have sex with Bertram without his knowledge or consent. Also, as the programme note points out, there's more than a hint in her behaviour -- an uncomfortable hint -- of the contemporary obsessive stalker. The ending tries to follow the convention of "and they all lived happily ever after" but I'm sure I'm not the only person ready to put money on how soon this marriage will break down. Even by Shakespeare's standards, this is a play brimming over with awkward moral contradictions and conflicts that resist easy solutions.
In any case, let's look at how this year's production, in the new Tom Patterson Theatre, unfolded. Director Scott Wentworth has helmed a classic Stratford production, handsomely costumed in Victorian dress (not unlike Tyrone Guthrie's original 1953 production), and with minimal props and set pieces whisked on and off. There were few fancy staging effects. Designer Michelle Bohn's set consisted simply of a dozen elegant Victorian "lady's chairs," arranged in two facing rows along either side of the stage, creating an instant and effective keynote to the period.
The first character to speak is the widowed Countess of Rossillion, here portrayed by Seana McKenna. In this play, McKenna's ability to dominate the stage is abetted by the frequent reappearances of the Countess throughout the play. We're never long allowed to forget that the supposed romantic couple consist of her son, Bertram, now the Count of Rossillion, and her waiting gentlewoman Helen. These relationships, together with her recent widowed status (the play opens with a pantomime of her husband's funeral) give her an uncommonly strong position of influence over subsequent events.
Jessica B. Hill gave a strong, multi-faceted account of the role of Helen, lacking only the last degree of vocal clarity -- at times, her voice became simply too inward and intimate, especially in soliloquy. Her frequent and vivid changes of facial expression were a delight, especially in the intimate environment of the Tom Patterson where her face could be "read" easily from all over the house.
Jordin Hall presented a forthright, occasionally brutal, Bertram. His sudden falling into hesitant, devious verbal mannerisms in the final scene was thus made all the more notable. Hall especially excelled in conveying just a slight degree of verbal underlining in key moments, all that was needed to point up the man's hypocrisy and devious nature.
Wayne Best was at his best in the insightful Lord Lafew, making for a most believable account of the man who hears more and sees farther than others around him.
Ben Carlson gave a performance of nuance and power as the King of France. His sickbed scenes were notably edgy and unnerving, and his final judgement scene lacked for nothing in tempered but none the less intense and believable emotions.
Kim Horsman captured both similarity and difference to McKenna's Countess in her role as the Widow in Florence.
Allison Edwards-Crewe gave a finely-shaped, unexpectedly tart and sharp-tongued view of Diana, the Widow's daughter, whom Bertram attempts to seduce.
The production featured a delightful set of comic performances, in the clown roles which are such a joy of the Shakespearean repertoire. Lavatch may be the sexton in Rossillion, but Andre Sills all but brought the house down in this role with his overt sexual innuendos, both verbal and physical.
Irene Poole gave a scene-stealing portrayal of verbal and physical comedy in her role as the Florentine soldier who doubles as an interpreter.
And that brings us to Rylan Wilkie, in the showstopper role of Parolles, Bertram's companion, who is the biggest liar and braggart in sight (and in this play, that's saying something). Wilkie achieved splendid comic effect, both physical and vocal, in the scene where he's being "interrogated" by "enemy" soldiers. His subsequent deflation and fall from grace was then played with equal sincerity and insight, making for a treasurable account of a particularly wide-ranging character.
One of the reasons I like to sit along the sides of the Tom Patterson Theatre is the way that the stage pictures take on much more visual meaning when seen thus, on the long side of the narrow thrust stage. Director Wentworth achieved great variety in his staging, finding continually new ways to frame scenes and visually highlight the evolving relationships among his characters. His pacing of the production was equally strong and noteworthy.
All's Well That Ends Well may never be an easy play to like, but the company has produced a thoughtful production with many entertaining moments for this seventieth anniversary season, and made the play much more workable than theatrical experts of an earlier day would have thought possible. A rewarding afternoon of theatre.
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