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<b>by Alvin Rakoff & John D. Rakoff, directed by Ron Ulrich
Theatre Aquarius, Dofacso Centre, Hamilton
September 25-October 10, 2015
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Philip Marlowe: “Dead men are heavier than broken hearts”
When a novel has been adapted into an iconic movie one might wonder why anyone would bother to adapt it for the stage. Theatre Aquarius has opened its 2015/16 season with <i>The Big Sleep</i>, a 2011 adaption of Raymond Chandler’s first Philip Marlowe novel of 1939. The novel was famously adapted for the screen in 1946 by William Faulkner, Leigh Brackett and Jules Fuhrman starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall and is not only one of the great American movies but, for many, it is <i>the</i> definitive <i>film noir</i>.
Yet, because of the Hayes Code of the time, the film version is much altered from Chandler’s novel. Issues of pornography and homosexuality had to be excluded. The love story between Marlowe and Vivian Sternwood had to be beefed up. And, lost in the shuffle, one of the many murders goes unexplained. The adaptation by Canadian director and British resident Alvin Rakoff and his son John is much closer to Chandler’s original novel and makes full use of theatrical means to tell the story. This smart adaptation is given an impressively sophisticated production directed Ron Ulrich and has found a perfect Philip Marlowe in Dan Chameroy.
The plot of <i>The Big Sleep</i> is notoriously complicated but the Rakoffs do fine work in making it followable. The show opens with Marlowe’s discovery of the body of antiquarian bookseller Arthur Geiger (Guy Bannerman) in the same room with the naked and heavily drugged Carmen Stockwood (Kate Ross). Marlowe takes Carmen back to her father’s house where she lives and, as narrator to the story, tells us we will see in flashback what happened to reach this point.
Marlowe, a Los Angeles private detective, is called to the home of the dying General Stockwood (also Bannerman), who wants Marlowe to stop a man named Jim Brody (Tim Funnell) from blackmailing his daughter Vivian (Andrea Runge) about her gambling debts. As he leaves Vivian stops him to ask him if her father has asked Marlowe to find her missing husband Rusty Regan. He hadn’t but her question makes Marlowe wonder why any man would walk out on a marriage with someone as beautiful and wealthy as Vivian.
Tracking down Jim Brody leads Marlowe Geiger’s bookshop which he discovers is really a lending library for pornographic books. Geiger would keep tabs on who checked out the books and then threaten to reveal their names. While staking out Geiger’s home, he sees Carmen enter, then hears gunshots and sees two cars speed off.
Now we’re back to where the action began. Marlowe’s finds that the bookstore’s inventory is being moved to Joe Brody’s apartment, and Vivian tells him that someone is blackmailing Carmen about the nude photos Geiger took of her. Meanwhile, Marlowe finds that Vivian’s gambling debts are owed to casino owner Eddie Mars (also Bannerman), who has criminal connections. Apparently, Rusty Regan ran off with Eddie’s wife Mona (Amanda Lisman). How all these pieces of the puzzle fit together and why both Sternwood sisters try to seduce him are questions Marlowe has to sort out as the murders pile up.
There’s no getting around the convoluted plot, but the Rakoffs make things easier on the audience by having Marlowe summarize where he is so far in the investigation to himself or to the Police Inspector Bernie Olds (Jonathan Whittaker). The Rakoffs even make fun of the the plot’s complexity by having Bernie remark, “If I have to remember any more names I’ll be a phone book”.
What makes the show so enjoyable is the Rakoffs’ witty adaptation, Chameroy’s superb performance, Patrick Clark’s clever design and Ulrich’s elegant direction. Chandler is known for his gift for colourful similes and snappy dialogue and the Rakoffs have preserved the very best of these. Marlowe to Vivian: “I don't mind if you don't like my manners, I don't like them myself. They are pretty bad. I grieve over them on long winter evenings”. Marlowe to Brody: “You’re the second guy I've met today that seems to think a gat in the hand means the world by the tail”. Marlowe to Carmen: “Get up angel, you look like a Pekingese”. The play is chock-full of Chandlerisms and it’s a joy to listen to.
One reason it’s such a joy is that Dan Chameroy has the the character down perfectly. Being single, underpaid and dealing with all the low-lifes of the city has given Marlowe a ironic view both of life and himself. Chameroy steps into the role with ease, makes no attempt to imitate Bogart and delivers Marlowe’s lines so naturally it seems he’s improvising them. As both narrator and principal character, Chameroy essentially carries the entire show, but this he does with flair and absolute assurance. In fact, he is so good in the role of a wise-cracking detective one wishes someone would write a television series for him.
The Rakoffs’ script presents real production challenges by containing so many short scenes that must almost cinematically dissolve into each other. To accomplish this Patrick Clark has fitted the stage in the Irving Zucker Auditorium with three stage trucks, as they’re called, sliding strips of the stage floor that can be loaded with scenery off stage, slid into place on stage and slid out again. With scenery loaded on three stage trucks shifts from location to location can be accomplished almost instantaneously. Besides this, there are four levels of screens that can be used to hide or reveal various scenes under Robert Thomson’s moody lighting while Greg Dougherty’s projections visually set the scene on the far back screen. This means that Ulrich can change from scene to scene with almost cinematic fluidity.
Of the eight cast members only three play only one character – Chameroy as Marlowe, Andrea Runge as Vivian Regan and Kate Ross as Carmen Stockwood. Vivian was played in the 1946 film by Lauren Bacall so Runge has a lot to live up to, except that Vivian’s role does not loom as large in the book or in the Rakoffs’ adaptation as in the film. Runge certainly looks the part, but she seems rather demure for a <i>femme fatale</i> and could stand to dial up the sultriness. Ross, on the other hand, projects Carmen’s unpredictable moods perfectly – seductive one moment, vindictive the next. Ross gives the thumb-sucking nymphomaniac a dangerous aura of mental instability.
The other five actor play from two to five different roles. Such doubling underscores the Rakoffs’ intention to highlight the theatricality of their adaptation. Of these Jonathan Whittaker plays roles with the widest range. He is the impeccably proper but wryly knowledgeable butler Norris, the hangdog Police Inspector Bernie Olds and the coolly sadistic hitman Lash Canino. Guy Bannerman also keeps his five roles completely distinct. Most notable are his kindly, wistful General Stockwell, his tough casino-owner Eddie Mars and goodhearted small-time crook Harry Jones.
Amanda Lisman uses very different voices for her two roles as the bitter porno librarian Agnes and as the ditzy but basically good Mona Mars. Of his five roles, Tim Funnell makes the strongest impression as the criminal Joe Brody, who wants to take over Geiger’s blackmail operation. Of his four roles, Jeremy Crittenden gives a non-clichéd portrait of Geiger’s verbally limited gay lover.
The famous film of <i>The Big Sleep</i> may be an iconic film noir but it does skew the plot and themes of Chandler’s original novel. The Rakoffs’ adaptation is a much truer representation of the novel with whole swaths of Chandler’s delicious dialogue taken straight from the source. The Rakoffs don’t shy away from the central theme of the novel – death is, after all, the “big sleep” – and include Marlowe’s sardonic meditation on the subject just as Chandler wrote it. The Rakoffs have reimagined the story for the theatre and one of many pleasures in watching their adaptation is how Theatre Aquarius rises to the challenge of using all the resources of the theatre in presenting the play complete with cars tailing cars and fierce shootouts. With a fine supporting cast and Dan Chameroy as an outstanding Philip Marlowe, this is a show you won’t want to miss.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a <i>Stage Door</i> exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Andrea Runge as Vivian and Dan Chameroy as Philip Marlowe; Tim Funnell as Joe Brody, Amanda Lisman as Agnes and Dan Chameroy as Philip Marlowe; Dan Chameroy as Philip Marlowe and Jonathan Whittaker as Bernie Olds. ©2015 Banko Media.
<b>2015-09-28</b>
<b>The Big Sleep</b>