Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✭✭✩
by Carole Fréchette, translated by John Murrell,
directed by Eda Holmes
Tarragon Theatre, Tarragon Theatre Extra Space, Toronto
November 16-December 12, 2004
Eda Holmes’s immaculate production of Helen’s Necklace, a hit for the Tarragon last year, makes a welcome return. Susan Coyne returns as Helen, a Canadian woman searching for a symbolic necklace, really a part of herself, lost during her stay in a war-ravaged Middle Eastern city. Replacing Sanjay Talwar, Raoul Bhaneja plays all the people Helen encounters. Coyne’s performance has deepened. Helen now seems more troubled, more complex. Bhaneja finds more humour and anger in his characters than Talwar, but not quite the numbing sense of tragedy in the key figure of the Muslim woman on a search of her own. In a mere 65 minutes Fréchette brings out the poetic, political, cultural and existential aspects of Helen’s quest to provide abundant food for thought. The play’s refrain, “We cannot go on living like this,” has only gained in urgency. If you missed it last year, don’t miss it this time.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-11-25.
Photo: Susan Coyne and Raoul Bhaneja. ©2004.
2004-11-25
Helen’s Necklace