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by Benjamin Britten, directed by Joel Ivany

Against the Grain Theatre, Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse, Toronto

May 24-27, 2012

“Malo, Malo, Malo”

Against the Grain Theatre is part of a new movement both here and in Europe to demystify opera by taking it outside the opera house to perform it in unconventional places.  In 2011 AtG produced Puccini’s La Bohème in a pub, a production that proved so popular AtG remounted it later that year.  Other productions have been performed in a furniture store and in an art gallery.  AtG’s current production of Benjamin Britten’s The Turn of the Screw is probably its most conventional so far, in that it is staged in a theatre and uses sets and costumes.  What is unusual is the intimacy of the venue.  Ordinarily, the theatre has a seating capacity of at most 112.  Giving the alley staging that AtG uses that number has been reduced to approximately 90.  To witness an opera in such physical proximity to the singers is exciting in itself.  To see an opera when the cast is giving outstanding performances, as it does here, is beyond thrilling.

Britten’s 1954 chamber opera based on Henry James’s enigmatic ghost story from 1898 benefits in every way from such an intimate presentation.  James’s novella and Britten’s opera are based on deductions the characters make based on minute analyses of what they see or think they see.  On a large stage these reactions have to be overplayed.  In an intimate setting they are completely natural and we come to feel like voyeurs of a woman’s personal nightmare. 

Director Joel Ivany and set designer Camellia Koo have cleverly used the alley staging to place us in the same predicament as a reader of James’s novella – both involved in it and outside of it.  In banks of three rows we face each other across the narrow playing area.  At each end is a a doorway – one with steps behind it, one without.  Thus, the staging presents two sets of mirrors – one of the audience looking at itself, the other of a space where ghosts enter from the door with stairs while the “real” people tend to enter from the other door or death mirroring life.  The plaster alleyway itself is cracking apart at the edges, the pieces mingling with fallen leaves.  The central character, the Governess (Miriam Khalil) speaks of Bly, where she has been sent as a “labyrinth”.  Ivany and Koo have set it up at the meeting place of two worlds – of the living and the dead – and of an inescapable third world – that of the theatre.

Khalil has a rich soprano voice and is a fine actor.  She masterfully regulates the colour in her voice to signify the Governess’s level of fear as she confronts the evil inherent at Bly.  Khalil brings something out in her character I’ve never seen in previous productions – her fantasy of a romantic involvement with a man she’s never seen, the uncle of the two children she’s meant to look after.  The rush of feeling she shows whenever she mentions him shows she feels like a surrogate wife and mother and thus parallels her with the two ghosts who have the same, though perverted, longings. 

Tenor Michael Barrett is outstanding as the ghost of the valet, Peter Quint, both in the mastery of his singing but in the uncanny felinity of his movement.  He injects a real eeriness into his tone and his high pianissimi are both beautiful and unearthly at once.  His urging “Take it, take it” to the young boy Miles (Sebastian Gayowsky) to steal the letter she’s has written about the ghosts is terrifying.  Unlike many directors, Ivany does not shy away from the disturbing implications of the story.  I’ve never seen Quint’s paedophilic lust for Miles more clearly presented than in Barrett’s sinister gaze and cruel smile.

As the second ghost, Mrs. Jessel, the present Governess’s predecessor, soprano Betty Allison makes a strong impression especially in the early scenes where Ivany has her drag herself across the floor as if weighed down by sin.  It is part of Ivany’s conception that she gradually gains in strength to finally stand upright, but the meaning behind this is unclear.

Mezzo-soprano Megan Latham is a welcome presence as the housekeeper Mrs. Grose, the only touchstone for reality in the opera.  Her soothing, velvety voice is a source of calm in the increasingly disturbing world of the opera.  The blend she and Khalil achieve when they sing in harmony is heavenly.  One confusing aspect of Ivany’s direction is to have Mrs. Grose and Mrs. Jessel enter holding hands.  It is likely supposed to show that the ghost is engineering Mrs. Grose’s departure, but it comes off as if the two were somehow in league which goes contrary to all that has gone before.

Johane Ansell and Sebastian Gayowsky play the two children Flora and Miles, to whom Quint and Jessel are so perversely attracted.  Ansell’s acting suggests the actions of an older girl on the verge of becoming a young woman, but her voice sounds distinctly mature and Ansell is not encouraged to make it sound smaller.  Gayowsky has a lovely treble voice and his performance of the “Malo” song is truly chilling.  “Malo” is a Latin mnemonic to distinguish the three meanings of the word – “I want”, “evil” and “apple”.  Librettist Myfanwy Piper cleverly inserted this song, knowing that all three meanings can be related to the biblical fall of mankind.  This is Gayowsky’s first major role and while he sang beautifully, his face remained expressionless.  Doubtless this will change as he becomes more comfortable on stage. 

Christopher Mokrzewski does a heroic job of playing the entire score on an upright piano.  As is usual in piano reductions, the key musical themes and the work’s musical structure become more clearly perceptible.  Piano accompaniment is part of what AtG does, but I must say that the presence of a stringed instrument and perhaps a wind instrument would help greatly in recreating the subtle atmosphere of Britten’s score which on piano alone often sounded too percussive.

A major contribution to creating an otherworldly mood on stage is the lighting of Jason Hand.  The light level is generally dim except for the few moments of untainted happiness in the opera.  In a brilliant move, when the Governess first sees Quint, Hand backlights Barrett so that all we see is a long shadow stretching across the floor without seeing Barrett himself.  Frequently, Hand silhouettes the ghosts against lights in a swirl of stage fog, while the “real” characters are often placed in neat squares of light on the alleyway.  His expressionistic manipulation of shadows, besides its innate theatricality, enhances the meaning of every scene.

The Turn of the Screw is quite an achievement for such a young company and will please opera-goers and theatre-lovers alike because the production has the effect less of grand opera than of a beautifully sung and acted play.  I eagerly look forward to Again the Grain’s next project.                                

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Michael Barrett (standing) with Sebastian Gayowski and Johane Ansell. ©2012 Daryl Block.

For tickets, visit http://againstthegraintheatre.com.