Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✭✭✩
written and directed by Peter Hinton
Stratford Festival, Studio Theatre, Stratford
September 3-28, 2003
"The Swanne Takes Off"
The second part of Peter Hinton's ambitious but enervating "Swanne" trilogy, "Princess Charlotte (The Acts of Venus)", proves to be far superior to its predecessor "George III (The Death of Cupid)". The construction is less cluttered and the plot lines and themes are clearer. People put off by the murkiness of Part 1 may have their faith restored in Part 2 that beneath all the excess verbiage Hinton may actually have a story worth telling.
The main problem with Part 2 is that much of its three hours is spent filling in the background of the actions of Part 1. Part 1 covered a period from 1819, the year of Queen Victoria's birth, to 1837, the year of her accession, when we were led to believe she is writing the plays we are seeing. In Part 2 it turns out that Victoria is writing the plays in 1833--rather hard to credit since she would be describing events whose outcome she doesn't yet know. Otherwise, most of the action is set in 1817 to show how Princess Charlotte bore a child fathered by the Prince Regent's black equerry at the same time that the lowborn Jaquenetta bears a child to the villainous and already married St. John Voranguish and how the two babies were switched at birth to protect Charlotte's reputation.
In Part 1 we met the two boys at age 16, Jeremy the white boy, and William the black boy. We saw how the two attempted to escape from the orphanage where they were imprisoned, Jeremy dying in the attempt, William succeeding. Rather than the 18 year time span of Part 1, Part 2 progresses only to the point of William's escape from the brothel that the actress named "The Scarecrow" told him of in Part 1. He then begins a search for his mother with one of the prostitutes. Thus, Part 2, like an enormous flashback, barely advances the action at all. The goddess Venus, who throughout the action searches for her son Cupid, discovers with surprise at the end of Part 2 that her son is dead--something we already knew in Part 1 (note the subtitle).
Nevertheless, Part 2 answers many questions that arose in Part 1. One of my main objections in Part 1 was that it was internally inconsistent by minutely outlining a line of succession and yet stating that an illegitimate black boy is the heir to the throne. Part 2 begins with Victoria addressing that very issue. Her play, written as a gift to Leopold, Charlotte's husband, is a fantasy. She knows that the black boy is not the legitimate heir to the throne, but wants to speculate on the question of what kind of person ought to rule in England.
Second, the themes that seemed so disparate in Part 1 are now more closely tied together. The brothel, the theatre and the church are all said to be different versions of the same thing. Hinton sets scenes of the first two in close proximity, though he switches from the church to politics for the third for unknown reasons. Prostitution becomes the uniting metaphor. Why to the inhabitants of Mother Needham's brothel prostitute themselves? Why do actors do the same? Charlotte intentionally draws a parallel between her taking a lover and that of Jaquenetta's assignation with Voranguish. Jaquenetta's former lover, Fred Dobing, feels he's prostituted his talents in the world of the theatre and seeks "reality" in the world of action, of politics, only to find more disillusionment.
In contrast with the series of overblown performances that helped make Part 1 so tiresome, in Part 2 Hinton as director has toned down the acting levels and drawn fine, committed ensemble work from nearly the whole cast. The most memorable is Jane Spidell as Jaquenetta. She maintains a fierce intensity as the unhappy woman, first in her love for the actor Fred Dobing, then in allowing herself to fall into a relationship with Voranguish. Spidell suggests a background of pain even in Jaquenetta's happiest moments.
Julia Donovan shows Charlotte as a woman suffused with bitterness who takes a black lover in self-destructive spite. Dion Johnstone as Charlotte's lover Mr. Stowe (and, seemingly, Cupid as he was in Part 1) communicates both nobility and fervor. Sean Arbuckle proves to be a rather good Lieder singer in his main role as Charlotte's husband, the emotionally preoccupied Leopold. (Hinton has decided Leopold is homosexual despite history's record of his intense love for Charlotte, resulting in three children and inconsolable grief at her death.) As Jaquenetta's lover Voranguish, Scott Wentworth accomplishes the difficult task of making us believe this otherwise villainous character's love is real.
Among the brothel inhabitants Maria Vacratsis manages to make the clichéd figure of the madam, Mother Needham, a crusty and cynical outside hiding a kind heart, into a well-rounded portrait. Steve Cumyn in his main role as Queer Rue is excellent in showing how this male prostitute's armour of cynicism is shattered when he learns one of his clients is truly in love with him. Randi Helmers has a fine comic turn as the vociferous Button Undone Betty. Shrouded in foggy writing, Karen Robinson can't make the helpful prostitute Mary Robinson distinctive nor can Sara Topham make Dot Peabody's motivation in undermining Mother Needham clear.
John Dolan makes Fred Dobing interesting neither as actor or politician. Diane D'Aquila is richly funny as the domineering actor-manager Mrs. Cox, but after the accident that turns her into "The Scarecrow", she can't seem to communicate the woman's devastation without nibbling at the scenery. Margot Dionne plays Venus with such spooky, affected tones you'd think she was the goddess of histrionics not love.
The most prominent part of Eo Sharp's set design is a large, handsome, circular portrait of Venus set in the Studio Theatre stage. Carolyn M. Smith's costumes remain within the Georgian period but move from the realistic (Charlotte and the court) to the satiric (the brothel inmates) to the fantastic (Venus). Robert Thomson's lighting remains set to dim and dimmer.
The prime advantage Part 2 has over Part 1 is that is does actually make one to curious to find out what happens next. On the other hand, there is the frustration of having spent three hours moving backwards in the story instead of forwards. I assume that Hinton is following convention of epic poetry by beginning in media res before explaining how the central conflict came about. But what works in epic poetry does not necessarily work on stage. Brecht's epic theatre, after all, tells narratives in chronological order through compact significant scenes. Hinton's continual time shifts are needlessly complex and his scenes self-indulgently bloated. In Part 1 "The Swanne", rather more like an overfed duck, produced lots of flapping but no lift. In Part 2 "The Swanne" finally takes off. Only Part 3 can answer where it is going or if it can stay aloft.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Margot Dionne as Venus. ©2003 Richard Bain.
2003-09-28
The Swanne, Part 2: Princess Charlotte (The Acts of Venus)