Not too long ago I was chilling with my brother and a baseball game is his wonderful (read: air conditioned) place when my cell rang. I know the title of this post gives it away but at the time I was sitting there staring at the displaying thinking, “I know that number. Usually I’m the one calling them.” It was, indeed, Stratford calling.

Is this Jenn? We’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for spending 800 million dollars here on your birthday weekend, joining the PlayOn program, and signing up for every newsletter and mailing we have. Oh, and we’d like to ask your opinion on the shows.”

I don’t entirely mean to poke fun at them. The lady on the phone, along with every other person I have spoken with in relation to the festival, was a joy to talk to. She lived and breathed the theatre and we wound up having a super long discussion on the shows I had already seen, upcoming stuff (much much much more affordable shows I’m seeing in the future thanks to PlayOn!), and theatre ’round Canada. I was starting to feel guilty wondering if I was keeping this poor woman from doing her job but I am often starved for people that enjoy these kinds of conversations. Fellow actors are sometimes really prissy when it comes to seeing other people’s shows. Those of you that have been around a while know that this is similar to how OpenAlpha started!* I had no one willing to put up with my endless gaming and tech ramblings so I put a video out on the internet to find more like-minded souls. One of the best snap decisions I ever made ^_^

Anyway, now that I have told them how I feel about the shows, I can tell you! Check out below the cut for production clips and rambling.

 
Macbeth

As you can see, this is a modernized version. I had reservations about the modern dress off the top but eager to check it out nonetheless. I’m not saying that all modernizations are bad! I get called an improv purist a lot and I’m sure people would be quick to ascribe that title to me when it comes to Shakespeare but it’s not entirely true. I think they made some smart choices and a lot of really horrible ones. I love Colm Feore but there were too many moments that took me right out of the play because I was internally laughing at the ridiculousness of it all. Before I get to specifics I definitely want to praise the fantastic work of Ross, the porter, Banquo, and Duncan. They all managed to rise above the din of gunfire and make the world come alive. This production chose to cut a scene with Hecate and change the porter’s speech. I re-read Macbeth before the play so that I’d be able to pay attention to details such as these and I’m glad I did. The porter’s new speech was perfect and delivered fabulously! The very drunk porter hears the door a’knockin’ and pretends he’s minding the gates of hell, pretending at each knock that he is letting in a different person to be judged. Originally it was a farmer, equivocator, & English tailor (mind that this is The Scottish Play). This time around the porter was condemning a stock broker, priest, and I think the other one was a politician. It was truly funny and possibly the greatest moment in the play. Then there was the rest of it.

I felt horrible dragging my mom to this even though it was, literally, on my birthday (July 31st). My parents shelled out too much money for front row balcony seats and she extremely bored. So bored, in fact, that I was worried she was going to start making intricate paper planes with program pages. She’s really good at planes. She likes Colm Feore, too, but was convinced that he was seriously ill. I tried to explain that nobody-and-I-mean-nobody looks good when lit from directly above but she wasn’t buying it. The text just felt lost in all the trappings and only one of the video screens was used to good effect with the witches. It acted as their cauldron and the timing was excellent for showing ripples when ingredients were dropped in it. In a Q&A session with some of the actors afterwards some actors confessed to wearing earplugs to muffle the sound of the explosions and gunfire. I was way up high and it was loud so I can’t imagine what it’d be like right next to them for several shows a week!! Somebody beat me to my question about how the actors felt about the modernization and phrased it much kinder than I was planning on. This was likely for the best. Yanna McIntosh (Lady Macbeth) fielded that question and said that the modernization helps audiences today connect to a play that they’d otherwise feel distant from were it done traditionally in classical dress. I truly believe that sells the audience short. I found that response implied that audiences today aren’t sophisticated enough to find meaning in the play on their own and require some hand-holding. I realize that this is a negative interpretation of her words but I will not apologize for it.

To cap it off the final fight between Macbeth and Macduff was downright embarrassing. It started with guns and, predictably, Macbeth was initially armed with a gun but became afflicted with Stormtrooper syndrome and couldn’t hit the broadside of a barn. He took one of Macduff’s two machetes and proceeded to have the worst sword duel that I have ever seen. Many high school productions have better choreography. “Oh it was supposed to honestly reflect the way a fight to the death with machetes would go”. Ok, fine. I can buy that. But did it have to be so boring? I KNOW Colm Feore can fight and that’s probably why I was so disappointed. Eventually he got strangled and they tossed him into the jeep they drove onstage and then beheaded him with several thwacks of a shovel spiked down on his neck. They brought out his head later by just showing a bucket filled with blood. I tried not to laugh since it was the same kind of bucket my parents get when they buy chemicals for their pool. It just struck me as funny since I was so distanced from the play. The lovely lady on the phone admitted that a lot of patrons were equally unhappy with the fight and more annoyed than me at the modernization. She promised that I was going to like Cyrano much better and I’m pretty sure that’s a given ;)

There are no clips available for Three Sisters so here’s a glimpse of Cyrano instead. I don’t have a ticket for this yet but I plant to get up there for it.

 
Three Sisters was excellent. I don’t know what to say about it since I had a wonderful time, it didn’t feel like 2+ hours, and everything down to the set was fabulous. If you like Chekhov or if you would like to be introduced to his work, go see this production of Three Sisters. Susan Coyne‘s version is excellent. The fact that I can’t wait to read Kingfisher Days (and this other surprising confession) has nothing to do with said comment :)

Ever Yours, Oscar also lacks a video but I cannot recommend it enough!! Brian Bedford alone on a stage reading letters from Oscar Wilde both before and after his imprisonment was far more powerful than all the explosions and trappings of Macbeth. Fortuitously seeing them both on the same weekend provided a glaring contrast between the dangers of overproduction against simple, honest theatre. I’d gladly see this again. Perhaps I’d try and get the super affordable cushion seats on the stage next time. There’s not much time left as it closes on the 29th :(

There was no shortage of cool stuff to see on my first visit to the fabled Stratford Theatre Festival. The waterside has many musical acts at different times and we stumbled into a performance of Sax-O-Matic. I kinda snickered at the idea of this act when I was reading it in the program at the hotel but I was completely wrong. They’re awesome and funny and talented and I’d see them again in a heartbeat. It’s too bad that their comedic bits aren’t posted. That’s where they really shine.

*I will not be starting a theatre video show. It’d be a very bad idea for me. I’m way too close to the scene here and I’d never want to be in a position to publicly judge my friends. Besides, I’d rather be in the shows than talk about them!! My day will come again…