Reviews 2005
Reviews 2005
✭✭✭✩✩
by Ann-Marie MacDonald, directed by Alisa Palmer
Shaw Festival, Court House Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake
July 16-October 7, 2005
"Gang Agley"
Ann-Marie MacDonald’s “Belle Moral: A Natural History” is a substantial rewrite of her play “The Arab’s Mouth” first produced by Factory Theatre in 1990. On the evidence of the Shaw Festival production the play is still in need of major revisions. MacDonald has so much to say about such a wide range of topics that she has neglected to develop a sound plot or well-rounded characters.
The action is set in a stone house called Belle Moral (a play on “Balmoral”, I presume) on coast of Scotland a few miles outside Edinburgh in the spring and summer of 1899. Pearl MacIsaac, a budding young amateur scientist with an interest in evolution, is left alone with her Aunt Flora after her father’s recent death. They await the return of Pearl’s aimless artistic brother Victor so that their father’s will can be read and the estate settled. Victor arrives but almost immediately attempts suicide. Meanwhile, the family doctor Seamus Reid and Flora furtively discuss what to do with the creature in the attic and when to tell Pearl about it.
“Belle Moral” is thus like a cross between a gothic novel and a modern play about science like Tom Stoppard’s “Arcadia” (1993), though without that work’s inventive alternation between time periods. MacDonald has set the play on the cusp of the twentieth century when everything is in the world is changing. The trouble is that she also wants to discuss everything in the world that is changing. Art versus science, paganism versus Christianity, impressionism versus realism, photography versus painting, objectivity versus subjectivity, human versus animal, madness versus reason, masculinity versus femininity are just some of the many themes MacDonald brings up in the course of the play. Unfortunately, she hasn’t thought of a structure that can express these themes dramatically.
The action, such as it is, depends on delay. Nothing can be revealed until Victor arrives. Then nothing can be revealed until Victor recovers. Then nothing can be revealed until Pearl decides if she will marry. This leaves the many themes to be explored simply as straightforward debates. They don’t move the action forward since there is none. The delays in revealing information are meant to create suspense but they are too artificial managed to do so.
As it turns out, how the family deals with the revelation of the secret being in the attic is actually the main point of the play. The result is that all the most dramatic action is crammed into the play’s last half hour requiring MacDonald to give Pearl a long summary speech that attempts rather desperately to tie all the varied themes of the play together. Her necessarily general conclusion is that we should celebrate the diversity of all life on earth and simultaneously feel our unity with it. It is an uplifting conclusion, but we arrive there not as in MacDonald’s hit “Goodnight Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet)” through the protagonist’s active exploration of different modes of behaviour but simply by waiting for MacDonald to reveal crucial information.
Even if the play itself still seems like a draft in need of editing and greater focus, it could hardly have a finer production. Judith Bowden’s design is fantastic. The painted back panels show both a view of craggy seascape and the painting Pearl’s mother is said to have made. The painted tree branches of the back panels extend onto the stage surface. Antlers protrude from all the furniture and from the heads of the actors changing scenes. Bowden thus captures the notion of a continuum of art and nature more elegantly than does MacDonald. Kevin Lamotte’s lighting creates some exquisitely mysterious scenes especially those involving the “Creature” in the attic. Paul Sportelli’s music enhances the sense of otherworldliness. It’s a pity then that as soon as the speaking begins this wonderfully ambiguous atmosphere vanishes.
Although MacDonald has given none of the characters a clear arc of development, the actors do their utmost to make their portraits convincing. Fiona Byrne makes Pearl a vital figure, initially so caught up in science she has no appreciation for art or subjectivity. She delivers Pearl’s final speech with such passion we forget MacDonald has given us no clue to what has caused Pearl’s view suddenly to become so inclusive. It seems that Dr. Seamus Reid is meant first to appear as kindly and only gradually to reveal a more sinister nature. This is how Peter Millard ably plays it even though MacDonald’s text veers back and forth in portraying his true nature even after we hear that he supports eugenics. Jeff Meadows accomplishes the difficult task of making Victor a sympathetic character even though MacDonald has made none of the motivations for his actions at all clear.
Donna Belleville is source of constant humour as Aunt Flora with her malapropisms and her readiness to believe in supernatural explanations for everyday occurrences. Bernard Behrens, made up to look about 150, is hilarious as the family servant called “Young Farleigh”. The single most moving part of the play is Behrens’s recitation of Robert Burns’s famous poem “To a Mouse” where Behrens’s phrasing and tone open depth’s of meaning behind its familiar words.
Jeff Madden makes a positive impression as Farleigh’s grandson “Wee Farleigh” with his, surprising predilection for French cuisine, and Graeme Somerville lends the bland lawyer Mr. Abbott a useful air of mystery. Jessica Lowry gives such a sympathetic performance in the nearly silent role of the Creature, one wishes MacDonald had given up the faux suspense and introduced her earlier so we could better follow her progress once Pearl learns of her existence.
Alisa Palmer’s smooth direction cannot cover up the play’s flaws. This is a potentially fascinating drama of ideas but without a clear focus or compelling story nothing gels in genre, mood or themes. Fans of MacDonald will not want to miss such a fine production, but even they will probably have to admit that “Belle Moral”, at least in its present form, is not one of her better works.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photo: Fiona Byrne. ©David Cooper.
2005-08-08
Belle Moral: A Natural History