Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
✭✭✭✩✩ / ✭✭✭✭✩
by Eugène Ionesco, directed by Jim Warren and Chris Abraham
Soulpepper, du Maurier Theatre, Toronto
September 6-22, 2001
“Light and Dark Sides of Ionesco”
This season Soulpepper’s four main shows all lie within the Shaw Festival mandate with two shows the Shaw has done before-- “Present Laughter” and “Uncle Vanya”--and two of the kind, controversial in their own day, that the Shaw shies away from--“La Ronde” and now this Ionesco double-bill. If “La Ronde” was a major disappointment, this double-bill is a great success. It gives Toronto audiences a rare chance to see professional productions of two contrasting absurdist classics.
"The Bald Soprano" ("La Cantatrice chauve") was first performed in Paris in 1950, "The Lesson" ("La Leçon") in 1951. A double-bill of the two has been running continuously at the Théâtre de la Huchette in Paris since February 16, 1957, making it France’s answer to "The Mousetrap". The Huchette productions have proved that plays can be both intellectually intriguing and immensely popular.
Both plays take language itself as their subject. “The Bald Soprano" satirizes those who value conformism over independent thought by undermining the belief in the accuracy of language as an accurate means of communication and logic as a means of understanding the world. The proudly prudish, anti-intellectual Smiths are virtually interchangeable with their friends the Martins since the language they speak is entirely formulaic. Both couples are so certain they know the world they have stopped thinking and so have nothing to communicate. Logic cannot help the Smiths unravel who is who when discussing a family all of whose members are named Bobby Watson. Mr. Martin thinks he can use logic to determine if Mrs. Martin is, in fact, someone he knows. But even after he believes he has proven that he and Mrs. Martin are married, the Smiths’ maid reveals that Mr. Martin has only piled up an extraordinary set of coincidences. When both couples sit down to talk it is a disaster since no one can think of anything to say. The appearance of the Fire Chief and the bout of story-telling that ensues only delays the final chaos of random words and sounds into which the characters descend.
Director Jim Warren focusses primarily on the patterns of symmetry in the play. As in the text after the play “ends” it begins again with the Martins saying exactly the same lines as did the Smiths when the play began. To emphasize this idea of symmetry, the two works are played on a stage in the middle of the du Maurier Theatre with half the audience on each side. Glenn Davidson’s handsome set is framed by two identical sets of doors with a revolve in the centre used in the first play to move the actors into place, thus neatly underscoring the play’s circular structure.
What Warren misses is the sense of satire. Ionesco’s own notes quoted in the programme refer to the characters’ “absence of any inner life, the mechanical soullessness of daily routine”. Having established the characters’ interchangeability externally, Warren forgets that this will require a change in the style of acting. The source of the play’s humour is the contrast between the increasingly nonsensical statements the characters make and the totally deadpan, unemotional way in which they are said. Bizarrely, he allows the actors to create individual personalities for their characters although this runs counter to the play’s point and undermines its humour. I have seen the Huchette production twice in twenty and know that the play can be far more hilarious than Warren makes it.
The Soulpepper troupe is best known for its multilayered performances in emotionally complex plays. While they make a brave attempt, they come nowhere near the delicious moroseness of their French counterparts. Of the six players, Michael Hanrahan (Mr. Martin) comes closest to depicting an emotionless character for whom language has become an encumbrance. John Blackwood and Brenda Robins (Mr. and Mrs. Smith) tone down passion and anger as much as possible but do not quite reach the zero level the text requires. Martha Burns (Mrs. Martin) makes the mistake of seeking motivation for a character who is not supposed to think or feel anything. Kristen Thomson is a refreshing choice for the maid Mary, usually played by an extremely aged actress, though I could do without the magical powers Warren has pointlessly given her. William Webster is excellent as the Fire Chief and delivers his unbelievably complicated story “The Headcold” with aplomb.
“The Lesson” is the perfect companion piece to “The Bald Soprano” because it works in entirely the opposite way. Instead of achieving a kind of increasingly dizzying humour, “The Lesson” begins comically enough but soon delves into more serious questions of obsession and the abuse of power. Here language is used as a provoker and instrument of emotion even if it is objectively as dry as a textbook. The plot is simple enough. A young Pupil seeks the help of a Professor to bone up for her “total doctorate”. Their discussion begins with deference and politeness as the Professor quizzes her about her present knowledge. But when it becomes evident that she is able to perform addition but not subtraction (“integration” not “disintegration” as the Professor puts it), his ire is provoked despite warnings from his Maid not to continue. She also warns of the direst consequences should he begin on linguistics, but that is precisely the subject he takes up next.
While he seemed rational though ineffective when discussing arithmetic, the Professor launches into a fantastical tirade claiming that all languages are derived from "Neo-Spanish", including Latin, and are in fact exactly the same as "Neo-Spanish" except for imperceptible differences discernible only after years of study. He will not tolerate any interruption even when it is clear that the Pupil is in excruciating pain from a toothache and can no long pay attention. Tragedy ensues and when the Maid comforts the Professor by girding him with a Nazi armband (not used in the Huchette production), the allegory of the work is clear.
The same set is used, this time traversed by a long row of tables. Soulpepper is on firmer ground here with a text that requires communication a highly emotional subtext. Tony Nardi is outstanding as the Professor. He makes the extensive diatribe on linguistics one long crescendo of anger as his character gives vent to his obsession. The motive of teaching is supplanted by those of indoctrination and finally domination and murder. It’s a truly chilling performance. Liisa Repo-Martell is also exceptional especially since half of her lines are variations on the phrase “I have a toothache”. Just as Nardi finely gradates his anger, Repo-Martell finely gradates her expressions of pain in the most discomfortingly real manner. Kristen Thomson is again the Maid, this time costumed as a drudge, whose foreboding is in sharp contrast to Mary’s vivacity in the previous play.
Director Chris Abraham has carefully orchestrated the action making “The Lesson” tauter and much more powerful than Warren's “Soprano”. Victoria Wallace has designed the 1940s-influenced costumes for both shows, following Warren in overdifferentiating the characters in "Soprano". Bonnie Beecher’s lighting helps create the two contrasting moods, playful in the first show, threatening in the second.
Even if “The Bald Soprano” is not as deliriously funny as it can be, it is well worth seeing, particularly in conjunction with so powerful a production of “The Lesson”. This double-bill shows both sides, light and dark, of Ionesco and of the Absurdist movement that has influenced all succeeding drama from Beckett and Albee, Pinter and Stoppard, to the most recent plays of the younger generation. For anyone who wants to understand 20th-century drama, this double-bill is a must-see.
©Christopher Hoile
Photo: Martha Burns, William Webster,and Brenda Robins. ©2001 Soulpepper Theatre Company.
2001-09-19
The Bald Soprano / The Lesson