✭✭✭✭✩ / ✭✭✩✩✩

by Samuel Beckett, directed by Jennifer Tarver,

Theatre Extasis /

by Jennifer H. Capraru, Keira Loughran, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Stephanie Morgenstern, Camille Stubel & Severn Thompson, directed by Jennifer H. Capraru,

Theatre Asylum

The Theatre Centre, Toronto

December 19, 2004

“Beckett & Brecht” is the collective title for the double bill at the newly refurbished Theatre Centre.  Directed by Jennifer Tarver, the Beckett section called That Time consists of one masterpiece Not I (1972), the pantomimes Act Without Words I and II (1957, 1959) and two lesser works That Time (1976) and Catastrophe (1982).  Directed by Jennifer H. Capraru, the Brecht section called BéBé (a French pun on Brecht’s initials) is a would-be Brechtian morality play about four women in Brecht’s life written by an eleven-woman collective.  The two long sections would have been better presented separately.  The choice is not merely between authentic Beckett versus ersatz Brecht but between a well-planned, tightly directed and well-acted program and one that is unfocussed and poorly executed.

The highlights of the Beckett section are Barbara Gordon’s frightening and funny performance in Not I, a disembodied Mouth spewing forth words in an attempt to prove she exists, and both of the pantomimes, showing Beckett’s love of silent film, that amply display Paul Fauteux’s mastery of physical comedy.  In That Time David Jansen plays an old man who listens to three prerecorded memories, very well spoken, and and reacts only at the end with an enigmatic smile. Catastrophe is not written in Beckett’s usual minimalist style and is so overtly political--about a tyrannical director (Jansen) forcing his will on an actor (Fauteux)--that it seems more like early Ionesco than late Beckett.     

BéBé wants to blame Brecht for taking the credit for the work of his wife and three lovers.  Yet, we know Brecht stole the ideas of everyone he met, male or female, and the playwrights’ accusatory stance can’t explain why four pro-feminist women Brecht deceived so often all remain true to him till the end.  There’s more to these five complex lives than 85 minutes and the marginal singing and acting talents of the four actors can bring out.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-12-16.

Photo: Sarah Mennell, Ruth Madoc-Jones, Camille Stubel and Stephanie Morgenstern. ©2004 Theatre Asylum.