Reviews 2006
Reviews 2006
✭✭✭✩✩
by Ronald Weihs, directed by Mooly Thom
Beggarly Theatre/Artword Theatre/Alianak Theatre Productions/John Karastamatis/Ginger Cat Productions, Artword Theatre, Toronto
January 27-February 19, 2006
Ronald Weihs’s new adaptation of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1867 novel The Gambler is the last production to play at the much-loved Artword Theatre before it is torn down. Weihs weaves the story of Dostoevsky’s dictating the novel to his stenographer with the semi-autobiographical events of the novel itself. Rather than illuminating each other, the combination turns both into mere plot outlines.
The novel centres on the compulsive gambler Alexei (David Ferry), who becomes involved in the complex romantic relationships of five people. The production complicates matters by having Brett Christopher and Irene Poole play multiple roles. Poole may change her accent and don a shawl to play Polina, whom Alexei loves, versus Mlle Blanche, with whom he has an affair, but background information is telegraphed so quickly it’s easy to forget who’s who. One wishes Weihs had simply omitted the uninvolving account of Fyodor and the steno in order to clarify the novel’s story and flesh out its characters.
Ferry is excellent at conveying the gambler’s self-delusion that salvation lies in one more bet. Poole frighteningly conveys Polina’s psychological instability and Blanche’s nihilism. Yet, Jennifer Phipps steals the show in an uproarious turn as the The Grandmother, who, to everyone’s dismay, gleefully squanders her children’s inheritance at the roulette table.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in Eye Weekly 2006-02-09.
Photo: Irene Poole and David Ferry.
2006-02-09
The Gambler