Reviews 2004
Reviews 2004
✭✭✭✭✩
by Howard Barker, directed by Christopher Brauer
Equity Showcase Theatre, Toronto
May 20-June 5, 2004
You might think the Equity Showcase Theatre were undergoing major renovations. The auditorium is surrounded with plastic sheeting and the floor is strewn with piles of rubble and discarded furniture. This war zone is Marian Wihak’s ingenious set. In Howard Barker’s The Power of the Dog, the 1984 play only now receiving its Canadian premiere, it represents the Soviet Union during World War II. Thematically, as director Christopher Brauer’s excellent production makes clear, it shows the power of history, the “dog” of the title, to destroy the individual,
In Power Barker foregrounds political debate and backgrounds the story. As in Brecht, characters will speak in aphorisms or in poetry and analyze their own actions as they perform them so that the play virtually deconstructs itself as it progresses. Amid discussions about the inability of language and art to capture the horrors of war, we gradually learn the story of a fashion model Ilona (Danielle Wilson), who has had herself photographed at scenes of atrocities all over Europe until she happens upon the body of her sister and stops to investigate her death.
Despite their varied abilities, Brauer has drawn focussed performances from the entire cast. Wilson brings passionate commitment to her complex character who survives the vagaries of history through moral compromise. The versatile Gregory Thomas plays not only Ilona’s increasingly distressed photographer but also the vaudeville Scottish clown who serves as Stalin’s Fool. Other fine performances come from Laura Latreille as German soldier and from Richard Harte playing both a fussy aide to Stalin and a war-maddened Soviet soldier.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2004-05-27.
Photo: Cast of The Power of the Dog. ©2004 Equity Showcase Theatre.
2004-05-27
The Power of the Dog