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by Alan Bennett, directed by Morris Panych

CanStage, Bluma Appel Theatre, Toronto

October 13-November 5, 2005

Habeas Corpus is written by a famous playwright, features an absolutely top-notch cast and is directed by someone with a known flair for comedy.  Yet, it is a dreary mess.  What happened?  First, this 1973 British farce has dated badly.  It’s a drooling pre-internet era comedy where the glimpse of a brassiere-clad breast is repeatedly thrust forward as the peak of titillation.  Second, Morris Panych has directed it not as a comedy with a throughline but as a series of semi-related skits played directly to the audience.  This dissipates any sense that the actors are creating characters and any interest in following the story.  Pointless, interpolated dance numbers exacerbate the stop-and-go pacing.

The actor who comes out best is Joseph Ziegler as Dr. Arthur Wicksteed, who has a habit of examining female patients with more than his hands.  Ziegler makes Wicksteed’s mixture of attraction and repulsion to the human body the play’s most interesting feature.  Sheila McCarthy also shines as the Wicksteeds’ maid Mrs. Swabb, who also serves as chorus and Fate.  Otherwise, the rest of the cast, including such favourites as Fiona Reid as Mrs. Wicksteed and David Storch as Canon Throbbing, try so hard to be funny they have the opposite effect.  Playwright Alan Bennett has moved on to subtler and more complex plays like The Madness of George III and The History Boys.  So should CanStage.                                 

©Christopher Hoile

Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2005-10-20.

Photo: Fiona Reid, Joseph Ziegler and Sheila McCarthy.