Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✭✭✩
by Don Druick, directed by Brian Quirt
Nightswimming, Factory Studio Theatre, Toronto
May 6-June 6, 2004
Don Druick’s Through the Eyes starring Richard McMillan was such a hit for Factory Theatre last year it has received a much-deserved remount this year. The increasing problems of our truth-impaired neighbour to the south have only given Druick’s meditation on the influence of power on the perception of reality even greater relevance.
An unnamed Courtier recounts the events in 1665 when the great Italian sculptor Gianlorenzo Bernini came to the court of Louis XIV seeking greater appreciation in France than in Italy. As a test piece, Louis commissions a portrait bust of himself in marble but refuses Bernini the number of sittings the sculptor demands. The real test, however, is whether the great artist will bend his will to that of Louis, since abject submission is the only quality the “Sun King” values. The more realistic, the less idealized the portrait becomes, the more subversive Bernini and the Courtier, his translator, are seen to be.
From its very first moments Druick conjures up the poisonous atmosphere of a world ruled by fear and rumour where truth is merely the whim of an absolute monarch. McMillan, one of Canada’s finest actors, immaculately plays twelve characters including Louis, Bernini, Molière and three women. With a shrug of the shoulders, a turn of the head, a change in balance, McMillan effects an instant physical and vocal transformation from role to role. Director Brian Quirt has minutely choreographed the action in the round where McMillan like the Courtier can hide from no one’s eyes.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-05-20.
Photo: Richard McMillan. ©2004 Brian Quirt.
2004-05-20
Through the Eyes