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by J.M. Barrie, directed by Todd Hammond

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

August 17-September 21, 2002

"A Masterpiece in One Act"

J. M. Barrie is forever identified with his most famous creation, "Peter Pan".  But he was the author of 20 other plays and known as a master of the one-act play.  "The Old Lady Shows Her Medals", currently running as the lunch-time show at the Shaw Festival, is acknowledged to be his masterpiece in this genre.  The Shaw's excellent production clearly shows why.  Barrie creates such a complete emotional bond with the audience that its 40 minutes have a depth and effect beyond many a full-length play.

The plot concerns a charwoman, Mrs. Dowey, toiling in the London of 1916.  She and three friends, also charwomen, meet regularly in Mrs. Dowey's flat for tea.  Since the three all have sons away fighting in the Great War, the constant topic of conversation are the battles and what news each has heard from her son.  Indeed, there is a lively competition about whose son has higher rank and is more heroic.  The view of the three is that no woman can understand the suffering of the war unless she has a husband, brother or son actively fighting in it.  Mrs. Dowey actively joins in these discussions  because she, too, she says, has a son in the war, in the Black Watch in fact.  To everyone's surprise it happens that Kenneth Dowey is back in London on leave and meeting Mrs. Dowey's friends, impresses them all.           

To discuss the play further I have to give away some information that potential attendees may prefer not to know.  So know that I give the production my highest recommendation, read no further and go to see it.

For others, I will reveal that once mother and son are alone, we discover they are no such thing.  To avoid shame, Mrs. Dowey picked out a young man she had read of in the newspapers who had the same last name.  She also sent him presents regularly under the name of a well-known socialite.  For his part, Kenneth, an orphan, visits to see what kind of woman it is who claims to be his mother.  Since he has nowhere else to go Kenneth stays with his "mother", but this stay lengthens to the whole period of his leave, and when he must go back to fight the two have in all but name become mother and son.

Barrie originally wrote the piece for amateur groups to raise money for victims of war.  Yet, Barrie's dramatic instincts take the play far beyond its original purpose.  While the period setting is important modern audiences will be intrigued by the interplay of fiction and reality and moved by Barrie's sensitive examination of human relations.

Director Todd Hammond has drawn committed, highly detailed performances from the whole cast.  Jennifer Phipps is wonderful as Mrs. Dowey.  She is expert at conveying complex mixtures of emotions such as the bewilderment, joy for the sake of her friends and fear for her own sake, on seeing her "son' for the first time.  The happiness she shows when her "son" treats her to nights on the town is always tinged with the knowledge that this pleasure is the exception not the rule in her life.  Phipps makes Mrs. Dowey's tattered belief that she is worth something despite years of loneliness and lovelessness the link that makes you care about her character and understand how Kenneth can come to love her.

Pete Treadwell is well cast as Private Dowey.  In his brief period on stage he charts this stranger's change in attitude from anger at a presumptuous old woman to pity for her to a real enjoyment in her happiness to filial love.  Treadwell is always aware that his character is not naturally communicative and can show his emotions only under the guise of brusqueness.  But Treadwell finely gradates his portrayal so we see how his mock-sternness with his "mother" at the end completely contrasts with his real indignation at the beginning.

Maria Vacratsis, Wendy Thatcher and Donna Belleville are all excellent as Mrs. Dowey's cronies.  They use their small period on stage to create vivid individual portraits of these working women.  Douglas E. Hughes is also excellent as the well-meaning minister who brings Private Dowey home to his "mother".

Designer Deeter Schurig's simple, realistic set and costumes are important in making ever-present the utter poverty that Mrs. Dowey and her friends live in.  This makes it all the more clear why these women should vicariously escape through their sons to the adventures of war.  Hammond has used Melinda Sutton's precise lighting to control audience response between the four "acts" that make up the piece and to reinforce the play's unspoken but powerful theme of loneliness.

This short play about two people who decide to take the risk of meaning something to each other will move you.  Teenagers as well and seniors, men as well as women had tears in their eyes even as they gave the performance a resounding ovation.  Make sure this show is part of your visit to Niagara-on-the Lake.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Jennifer Phipps. ©2012 Shaw Festival.