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by J.M. Barrie, directed by Gina Wilkinson

Shaw Festival, Royal George Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake

July 10-October 9, 2010

“30 Minutes with Lasting Impact"

If you are anywhere near Niagara-on-the-Lake this summer, you really must see “Half an Hour”.  If you are already planning to attend the Shaw Festival, make sure it is on your list.  If you are not, do yourself a favour and take in this short lunchtime show (it really does last only half an hour) to get a taste for what the Festival has to offer.  J.M. Barrie may be best known for “Peter Pan”, but he was also a master of the one-act play.  “The Old Lady Shows Her Medals” (1917) staged in here 2002 proved the overwhelming impact he could give a short play.  “Half an Hour” (1913) proves this again with the story of a woman ready to cast aside her old life and start anew. 

The play opens with Richard Garson and his wife Lady Lilian in the midst of a terrible row.  Lady Lilian requests a divorce but Richard says that to avoid scandal he will never consent.  When Richard departs Lilian writes a letter of farewell, encloses her wedding ring and rushes off to the nearby flat of Hugh Paton, an adventurous young engineer, with whom Lilian has clearly been having an affair.  Hugh is off to Egypt tomorrow and Lilian vows to go with him.  To say any more would spoil the story.  The key point is that Lilian must eventually return home to host a dinner party set to start within half an hour of her row with Richard.  Will she or can she carry it off?

Director Gina Wilkinson has expanded this condensed story by having Michael Ball, who plays the Garsons’ butler Withers, also play a character called “A Gentleman”.  Because he speaks in a Scots accent and because he functions as a narrator, his narration drawn from Barrie’s stage directions, we can assume that Wilkinson intends him to represent Barrie, who sets the scenes we see enacted.  This is a clever ploy since the Gentleman’s wry comments and dour disposition serve to balance the melodramatic events he relates.

Wilkinson also emphasizes the element of time in the play by having the Gentleman always appear while winding a clock.  She creates a prologue to the action by having all the characters enter and exit through the two doors of Tyler Sainsbury’s handsome drawing room set and move about like the mechanized figures of a cuckoo clock.  This ploy is not so good since it suggests that the play to follow will be some kind of farce when, in fact, it is much more complex. 

The performances are all first rate.  Diana Donnelly conveys the surprisingly wide emotional arc Lady Lilian covers with great finesse and sympathy.  Peter Krantz establishes Richard’s brutish nature instantly and underlines it towards the end when he puts Lilian’s necklace around her neck almost as if her were about to strangle her.  Gord Rand is well cast as Hugh.  He is tanned, supple and expansive in contrast to Richard, who is pasty, stiff and repressive.  Hugh represents escape, excitement and the enjoyment of life, not to mention intense love--everything that Lilian longs for.              

Among the secondary characters is Dr. Brodie, the only person other than Lilian who knows of her relations with Hugh.  Peter Millard is superb at communicating the ambiguity of this character who is both compassionate and judgemental.  Norman Browning and Laurie Paton are excellent as Mr. and Mrs. Redding, the Garsons’ jolly dinner guests who remain blithely unaware of the strange tensions apparent in Lilian, Richard and Dr. Brodie.  Jennifer Dzialoszynski is a delightful presence as Susie, a girl who lives in Hugh’s building.  

Sainsbury has designed attractive period outfits for the cast, visually linking Lilian and Hugh with the same palette of cream and white.  His solution to the problem of the quick change to and from Hugh’s apartment is clever in using reams of parachute cloth hoisted from a trap to set the scene whence it subsequently disappears in a flash.

Given its short running time, the actors under Wilkinson’s direction, particularly Donnelly and Millard, create remarkably complex portrayals.  The play closes with Lilian and Dr. Brodie staring at each other with unusual intensity.  Millard allows any number of constructions, from benign to malign, to be made of his expression.  Donnelly, in turn, seems to be trying to fathom the doctor’s thoughts with a mixture of relief, embarrassment and fear.  It is a haunting conclusion and will stay with you for a very long time after the half hour of “Half an Hour” is over.  

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Diana Donnelly and Gord Rand. ©Emily Cooper.