Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
✭✭✩✩✩
by Frank Vosper, directed by Micheline Chevrier
Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
September 21-November 25, 2001
"An Unthrilling Thriller"
Over the years the Royal George Theatre has become home to popular theatre at the Shaw, the mysteries and the musicals. This season only the lunchtime musical, Noel Coward's delicious "Shadow Play", has been an artistic success. To the full-length musical "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" director Dennis Garnhum gave artistic pretensions that this insubstantial work cannot support. For the mystery "Laura" director Neil Munro made a simple story incomprehensible by omitting the last two pages of the script. Now the late opener "Love from a Stranger" joins the list not because of directorial meddling but because the work itself is poorly conceived.
Frank Vosper (1899-1937) was a British actor and director who adapted the Agatha Christie short story "Philomel Cottage" as a star vehicle for himself. In London in 1936 it ran for 149 performances and in New York the same year for only 31. Plays of intellectual merit often do poorly on their first appearance, but when a play geared to a popular audience is unpopular, one has to wonder if in fact it is just not very good. Even mystery writer H.R.F. Keating's long note in the programme cannot avoid pointing out the play's inferiority to its source.
In brief, Cecily Harrington, who has always longed for adventure, has just won £20,000 in a lottery and plans to rent out her flat and see the world. Instead, she instantly falls in love with the American Bruce Lovell, who comes by as a potential renter. By the end of Act 1 she has agreed to marry him. By Act 2 they have already moved into an isolated cottage and postponed for a few months their travel plans. Bruce becomes ill. The local crime-loving doctor notes that serial killers often become ill from nervous tension until it is released through murder. But no one, except the audience it seems, is able to put two and two together. Visits from Cecily's London friends, her former fiancé, the gardener, the maid and the doctor are what delay the killer's action. Otherwise, they do little but increase Cecily's doubts about her husband.
Chistie's adaptations of her own work, like "The Hollow" (1951) seen at the Shaw in 1996, show her willingness radically to alter her novel in order to improve its effectiveness on the stage. Vosper's adaptation feels like a short story dragged out to a three-hour length. The main flaw, however, is that he gives anyone familiar with the genre (i.e. most of the audience) so strong a clue at the end of Act 1 as to the villain's identity, that the two-hour wait until he actually does something is less tense than tedious. Meanwhile, Vosper, unaware that he has already given away the identity of the serial killer, continues to pile up clues through Acts 2 and 3 that are not surprising since they only confirm our initial impression. I for one assumed that since everything is so obviously laid out there must be some plot twist to contradict our assumptions. But no, our first impression is repeated proved right and the single twist at the end has more to do with our heroine than the killer.
As with "Drood" we have another case at the Shaw where the quality of the performances outstrips the material performed. Lisa Norton copes as best she can in an attempt to make Cecily Harrington's general optimism seem the source of her singular obtuseness regarding negative facts about her husband. Considering the material it's amazing she succeeds as well as she does. The role of the suspicious husband, Bruce Lovell, give Mike Shara a change to break out from the string nice young guy parts he has played recently. He can summon up hidden menace and suppressed anger that would be quite chilling if the script did not make them so obvious.
Vosper provides a group of "normal" characters to serve as a foil to the increasingly abnormal relationship of the central couple. Chief among these is Cecily's Auntie Loo-Loo played by Jennifer Phipps. Her performance as a kind but addled woman who speaks in a sort of stream-of-consciousness no matter what the situation is the main pleasure of the show. It's too bad Vosper couldn't think of a way to integrate her more into the plot. Laurie Paton is excellent as Cecily's best friend Mavis, finding various ways to make what is otherwise a stock character interesting and vital. Hodgson, the gardener at the Lovells' country house, and Ethel, his daughter who becomes the Lovells' maid are purely comic roles played with gentle humour and expert timing by Richard Farrell and Helen Taylor. Lorne Kennedy, too, finds an understated humour in the crime-loving Dr. Gribble. Only Leo Vernik as Cecily's long-time fiancé Nigel disappoints. Admittedly it's difficult to make a bland character interesting, but Vernik doesn't have the command to make his love or anger believable.
The leisurely pace director Micheline Chevrier gives the piece undermines what little tension there is. In the closing tableau she tries for a sense of irony, but it is only confusing since she has failed to prepare it. Brian Perchaluk creates a great contrast between the stark, grey apartment set of Act 1 and the cozy country house of Acts 2 and 3, but his 1930s outfits especially for Paton and Norton look more peculiar than attractive. Ereca Hassell's lighting successfully captures just the right mood for each scene.
There are those to go to the Shaw solely for the mysteries and the musicals. With none of the three this year turning out well, I hope that some have looked beyond the Royal George to some of the great offerings this year at the Festival Theatre and the Court House. Personally, I wish the Shaw could somehow manage to wean the Royal George patrons of their mysteries since these plays, though popular, seldom provide roles interesting enough for a troupe of the Shaw's calibre, a fact painfully obvious this year. If the Shaw must programme mysteries, let's hope that next year they find a good one.
Photo: Lisa Norton and Mike Shara. ©2001 Shaw Festival.
2001-10-30
Love from a Stranger