March 2001 - Nr. 3
Views and Reviews
by Alidë Kohlhaas
There is no Canadian tradition in the use of clay. Hence, it surprised Europeans on visits to the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 2000 that we have highly trained artists, who use clay in ways that Europeans with a long tradition in its use have not thought of. Ontario artist Harlan House, one of 20 artists chosen for the show (the only such display among 160 exhibitors at the Expo) from across the country had a chance to meet some of the German and other European clay artists. Their excited response to seeing the many styles and the different manner in which our artists employ this material gave him great pleasure.
House
explained this at the opening of "Earth Works" at the place where
it all started, the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art in Toronto. Sue Jeffries,
curator for contemporary ceramics at the Gardiner, assembled the exhibit for
Expo 2000 at the request of Heritage Canada. The ministry wanted to
highlight the country’s culture through this medium at the Canadian
Pavilion.
The diversity of art work and the location of some of the artists add to the excitement of viewing this show. Even Canadians, used to seeing Inuit prints and carvings, will be surprised by two pieces that come from Nunavut, and one from the North West Territory, although the latter piece is not by an Inuit artist. Earth Works is on view at the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art until March 25, 2001.
If you want to see an exceptionally beautiful play, try and see "Wit", which runs to March 10 at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts. Its subject is not the usual kind one finds in a play. Besides wit, it contains paradox and irony, but there are no love interests, except those for poetry. There is no mystery except of the medical kind which asks: what makes a cancer grow until it consumes its victim? Yes, ovarian cancer, a painful and generally lethal type of cancer, is the subject; the heroine is the patient, the hero is 17th century John Donne’s poetry, his wit and that of the author of the play, American Margaret Edson. She won the Pulitzer Prize for it in 1999.
If you have read Ernest Hemingway’s For Whom the Bell tolls, you will have met John Donne. The introduction to the novel quotes the full poem that ends with the words: ". . . And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee."
Some say Donne exceeds William Shakespeare in poetic form, and he counts among my favourite poets. He tells us in the poem I mention at the top that "No man is an Iland(sic), intire(sic) of itself; _ . . . " The play makes this very clear.
While I love his poems, I could not have envisage that it could play a major part in one of the most outstanding, most uplifting, funny and heartbreaking plays written in recent history. As today’s youth would say: "It blows you away!"
Seana McKenna plays Vivian Bearing, Ph.D., a professor, who specializes in Donne’s poetry. She has sacrificed everything for the love of the poet’s work, which she teaches with great intensity to students, one of whom she will eventually encounter as one of the doctors who treat her for her illness. McKenna has taken on a tough role. Not only is she on stage for 1 hour and 45 minutes without a break, but she has shaved her hair to show in stark reality what happens when a patient is subjected to high dosages of radiation and cancer-killing drugs. She is dressed only in her hospital gowns and a red baseball cap. Yet, she makes us forget this stark image with her breathtaking performance that is a tour de force of an extraordinary kind.
All of the actors, who move around her as nurses, doctors, students, teacher, are only incidental, although without them the play would not work, for it is not a monologue. Slowly, but inevitably, McKenna takes us on the final journey that can only have one end, death, painful and without pity. But, in the process we are taken also on a spiritual journey through Donne’s poems. The play is really a "must" to see.
Novelist J.B. Priestley also wrote a number of well-received plays. One of those was "An Inspector Calls". This mystery, infused with a lot of humour, was written at the end of W.W.II, but is now undergoing a revival on Broadway and in London’s West End. Here, Theatre Aquarius chose it for this season.
It is not only a highly entertaining play, but also one that invites reflection. The play, set in 1912 England, opens with an upper crust family from the industrial heartland sitting around a dinner table in celebration of the daughter’s engagement. Although the dinner ends, the action never leaves the dining room. Then the doorbell rings, and the maid announces a police inspector. From then on, the family’s life changes forever.
Was a crime committed, and who did it? As each member of the family—father, mother, son, daughter, and her fiancé—are interrogated separately by the inspector, an unusual story unravels. But something else happens. A lesson is being taught that some learn and not others.
A good mystery has to be intriguing, misleading, and has to point in more than one direction, with a twist in the plot. Priestly was a master at this, and the Theatre Aquarius production exploited it to the fullest. The company showed again that it has what it takes to entertain royally.
The cast included Sharry Flett as Mrs. Birling, Roger Rowland as her husband, and Claire Jullien, who will once again be at Stratford in 2001, as the daughter. All gave fine performances. Darren Hynes had one of the most difficult parts as young Eric Birling. He created an excellent portrait of a dissipated youth, who drinks too much, idles too much, yet who learned the lesson.
Alexander Pushkin’s epic lyric poem, Eugene Onegin, was turned into an outstandingly lyrical opera by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky in 1879. It is the most famous of the three operas he wrote, just as his Symphony No. 6, better know as Pathétique, became the most famous of his symphonic works.
This Russian opera, although filled with drama and poetry—in words and music—is still infrequently performed in North America, but Opera Hamilton undertook the task with outstanding success.
Welsh
baritone Jason Howard sang the title role. Young Lensky was sung by
Bulgarian tenor Bojidar Nikolov. Soprano Lisa Houben sang Tatyana. All three
leads sang their roles with fine perception, but Nikolov’s Lensky shone
most strongly.
Comments to: alide@echoworld.com
