[in the interim]
Feb. 3rd, 2025 09:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tellitslantAmong the rest of Life, two theatre experiences last week.
Come From Away, Royal Alexandra Theatre
I had been meaning to see CFA for absolute ages - whensoupytwist was going to come visit in 2020, I was going to take them, but then of course 2020 happened and CFA got cancelled and only recently returned to town. Anyway, they had a sale on for the 1000th performance in Toronto, so I got a great seat for an incredibly good price.
"Come From Away" is a musical about the true story of Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11; despite being a tiny town in a sparsely-populated part of the country, it has a large airport that used to be the last refuelling stop for planes crossing the Atlantic, and was thus one of the places where planes were diverted when US airspace closed. Some seven thousand passengers descended on the town and very nearly doubled its population. It's a series of vignettes more than a narrative but the very smallness of the stories makes them beautiful. It has a medium-sized cast all of whom play multiple roles, which also does a really lovely job of underscoring the message of universality it's trying to send. And as well as being deliberate about that message, it's also really, unequivocally Canadian, which was a delight. It was originally developed in Toronto by a program we work with a bit, so I'm glad I saw it there.
It was certainly an interesting time to watch this show. I got home on Wednesday night and almost immediatelygabolange messaged me about the plane crash at National, which was a bit of a mindfuck. And then Trudeau referencing 9/11 in his anti-tariffs speech was also resonant. A good week to be reminded of Canadian creative excellence, anyway.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with Paul Gross and Martha Burns
So I booked tickets to this - interestingly the second time I have seen Gross and Burns, who are married in real life, play a married couple - without knowing more than the very basics of what the play is about. I'd never read it, I'd never seen the film. I knew it was about a married couple who fight and that was about it. So I went in ready to be amazed, ha.
The conceit of the show was that the couples were both being played by real-life couples, but apparently the younger man had to be replaced shortly before opening. I'm not sure that would've made a difference! What did endlessly amaze me was Martha Burns playing Martha - every time Gross shouted her name I had this moment of thinking I hope you don't really talk to her like that in the back of my head.
I read a review that said this was two-thirds of a great production but that the third act wasn't distinct enough and I think I agree with that - it needed to have a bit more emotional differentiation from the previous two. I also found the set a little try-hard. Having worked slightly with the director last year, I am not surprised to have found some of the choices conventional and safe, let's put it that way.
Gross and Burns were almost uniformly excellent. The younger cast didn't quite measure up but were very good. The costumes were great. But just, god, the language. It was so brilliant and so brilliantly delivered, by all the actors. I wanted to have a script with me to follow along, and I will have to read it just to revel in the text. The only other Albee I've seen is "Three Tall Women" and I don't remember being so taken aback by its language (even though it was being delivered by no less than Glenda Jackson). I got the sense that everyone was just loving having the words in their mouths.
That's quite a show to do with your significant other for a month, though. Plus over a month's rehearsal (I ran into Gross in the CanStage lobby in early December). How do you leave it at the office?!?
Icon used with great glee and irony.
Come From Away, Royal Alexandra Theatre
I had been meaning to see CFA for absolute ages - when
soupytwist was going to come visit in 2020, I was going to take them, but then of course 2020 happened and CFA got cancelled and only recently returned to town. Anyway, they had a sale on for the 1000th performance in Toronto, so I got a great seat for an incredibly good price. "Come From Away" is a musical about the true story of Gander, Newfoundland on 9/11; despite being a tiny town in a sparsely-populated part of the country, it has a large airport that used to be the last refuelling stop for planes crossing the Atlantic, and was thus one of the places where planes were diverted when US airspace closed. Some seven thousand passengers descended on the town and very nearly doubled its population. It's a series of vignettes more than a narrative but the very smallness of the stories makes them beautiful. It has a medium-sized cast all of whom play multiple roles, which also does a really lovely job of underscoring the message of universality it's trying to send. And as well as being deliberate about that message, it's also really, unequivocally Canadian, which was a delight. It was originally developed in Toronto by a program we work with a bit, so I'm glad I saw it there.
It was certainly an interesting time to watch this show. I got home on Wednesday night and almost immediately
gabolange messaged me about the plane crash at National, which was a bit of a mindfuck. And then Trudeau referencing 9/11 in his anti-tariffs speech was also resonant. A good week to be reminded of Canadian creative excellence, anyway.Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf with Paul Gross and Martha Burns
So I booked tickets to this - interestingly the second time I have seen Gross and Burns, who are married in real life, play a married couple - without knowing more than the very basics of what the play is about. I'd never read it, I'd never seen the film. I knew it was about a married couple who fight and that was about it. So I went in ready to be amazed, ha.
The conceit of the show was that the couples were both being played by real-life couples, but apparently the younger man had to be replaced shortly before opening. I'm not sure that would've made a difference! What did endlessly amaze me was Martha Burns playing Martha - every time Gross shouted her name I had this moment of thinking I hope you don't really talk to her like that in the back of my head.
I read a review that said this was two-thirds of a great production but that the third act wasn't distinct enough and I think I agree with that - it needed to have a bit more emotional differentiation from the previous two. I also found the set a little try-hard. Having worked slightly with the director last year, I am not surprised to have found some of the choices conventional and safe, let's put it that way.
Gross and Burns were almost uniformly excellent. The younger cast didn't quite measure up but were very good. The costumes were great. But just, god, the language. It was so brilliant and so brilliantly delivered, by all the actors. I wanted to have a script with me to follow along, and I will have to read it just to revel in the text. The only other Albee I've seen is "Three Tall Women" and I don't remember being so taken aback by its language (even though it was being delivered by no less than Glenda Jackson). I got the sense that everyone was just loving having the words in their mouths.
That's quite a show to do with your significant other for a month, though. Plus over a month's rehearsal (I ran into Gross in the CanStage lobby in early December). How do you leave it at the office?!?
Icon used with great glee and irony.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-05 03:35 pm (UTC)For what it's worth: I have also not seen Come From Away, which is really very unfortunate and something I should rectify soon. As of this summer I will have seen TWO productions of Tell Tale Harbour (as a much smaller, less flashy Atlantic Canadian musical) and haven't seen Come From Away at all.
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-06 03:47 am (UTC)Re not having seen the play - I try not to deliberately search out classics, honestly. I figure it's nice to know I still have glorious surprises out there (so many classic films still to discover) rather than rushing through them all and then not having them to look forward to! I figure they'll come to me in their time. And this one did!
(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-16 04:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-02-13 09:50 pm (UTC)