Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✭✩✩
by Robert Tsonos, directed by George Pothitos
Sometimes Y Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille Mainspace, Toronto
January 9-26, 2003
Like Karen Oliver's Swollen Tongues, Robert Tsonos' William and James attempts to reclaim past theatrical conventions, in this case Victorian melodrama, for a queer sensibility. Both revel in the artifice of their stories and period language. However, Tsonos' play, unlike Oliver's romp, asks to be taken seriously and therefore never quite avoids seeming precious.
It is about "the love that dare not speak its speak its name," not just in Lord Alfred Douglas's circumlocution, but literally. James, a wealthy aristocrat, picks up William, a young poseur, and brings him to his estate. After a sex-filled night James, knowing he will die in two years, proposes that William live with him until then and inherit the estate. James wants them to continue to have sex and to treat each other with respect, but no more. This last stipulation, the crux of the play, is the most difficult for us to accept. When William does fall in love with James, James berates him and their relations remain thus needlessly strained until near the end.
Central to the play's structure is James's tedious "game" of periodically reinterpreting a painting unseen by the audience. While this too obviously underscores the presumed multivalency of the play itself, it serves as an elusive touchstone for the characters' changing view of themselves. Designer David Wootten brilliantly reflects this in the multiple gilt frames, architectural and ornamental, that make up his extravagantly lush set.
Both Mark Caven (James) and Michael Schultz (William) give subtle, highly detailed performances, alive to the complex subtexts lurking in silences and pleasantries. Though we want to connect with them, Tsonos' deliberate artifice keeps us distant.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2003-01-16.
Photo: Michael Schultz and Mark Caven. ©2003 David Kinsman.
2003-01-16
William & James