Reviews 2017
Reviews 2017
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by Vern Thiessen, directed by Mieko Ouchi
Concrete Theatre & L’UniThéâtre, Young People’s Theatre, Toronto
October 11-20, 2017
“The Tale of the Orphan and the Old Woman in the Barn”
Albertan playwright Vern Thiessen is best known for his plays for adults such as Einstein’s Gift (2003), Vimy (2007) or Of Human Bondage (2014). Thiessen, however, has also written plays for children, the most recent being Bello which had its world premiere in Edmonton this year. It is a charming play that finds fairy-tale-like qualities in the real world and speaks to the benefits of overcoming fear and superstition. Currently the companies that co-produced it are presenting it in Toronto and anyone looking for a delightful 50-minute-long show for children aged 6 to 9 should not hesitate to see it.
Based on stories from the Mennonite Ukraine of the 1920s, Thiessen has set the action in the Canadian Prairies at the start of the last century “when there were no phones, no cars and no light bulbs” and, it might be mentioned, when ordinary people were more personally acquainted with death than they are today. We meet Bernhard (Gabriel Gagnon), called Little Bern, who is very close to his mother (Nicole St. Martin) and father (Morgan Yamada). Bern’s parents die and he is taken in by his aunt (Nicole St. Martin) and his uncle (Morgan Yamada) to join their ten children.
While Bern is grateful to have a home, he still misses his parents. His aunt and uncle are too busy to pay him much attention and he feels lost in the midst of their large brood. The only one of the ten old enough to go to school with Bern is his oldest cousin Peter (Morgan Yamada), who ceaselessly reminds Bern that he is adopted and constantly plays tricks on him. On their five-kilometre walk to and from school the two pass the same landmarks, one of which is an old burnt-out barn. Peter tells Bern that a witch lives in the barn who can be heard at odd times calling out “Bello! Peter says that if you stare into the witch’s eyes, you can never leave.
One day there is a terrible snowstorm and Peter and Bern get lost and separated. Bern remembers advice his father once told him about how to survive a storm and builds an ice cave around himself with a small hole on top. Soon he hears a voice crying “Bello” and realizes that he is near the burnt-out barn. Worse than that an old woman comes out of the barn and takes him inside!
As is the case in most such stories, we discover that a person who is an outsider to society is not really the frightful spirit that people think. The past is remembered, kindness wells up, bad behaviour is forgiven and the story has a happy ending.
Patrick Beagan’s décor is absolutely charming. While the fields are often compared to a quilt, the backdrop is actually conceived as a floor-to-ceiling sized cross-stitch sampler. The single entrance can become the door to the barn, the school or Bern’s aunt and uncle’s house simply by a change of the cloth across the opening. The sound effects for the show are performed live by the cast at a small table stage right where there is a chime tree and a small friction wind machine turned with a handle. Actors also use a spring drum thunder tube and a rainstick in full view of the audience to create the sounds of a storm. In this director Mieko Ouchi shows she understands children too. What for adults would be considered as alienation devices to make an audience view a play as a play for children are aspects of playing in its purest form itself and thus enhance the experience of the story.
Children have no trouble with Morgan Yamada and Nicole St. Martin’s doubling or quadrupling of characters. Yamada may be a woman one moment, an old man the next and a young boy after that. St. Martin may be a mother one moment, a school teacher the next and the “witch” after that. As in children’s play people are whoever they say they are and they change identities with a simple word. Yamada and St. Martin, of course, use changes of voice, posture and gesture to clearly indicate their transformations. Gabriel Gagnon meanwhile is very sympathetic and convincing as Little Bern.
This is a lovely play given a simple but highly inventive production that held the opening afternoon audience rapt in attention. The message that it is all too easy to demonize and create fables about someone you don’t know is all too relevant today. It’s wonderful that Thiessen has encapsulated this message for children, but it’s a message adults need to hear too.
If you already thought that the cast was more than talented, keep in mind that the same troupe also performs the play in French on October 10, 13 and 20.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Morgan Yamada, Gabriel Gagnon and Nicole St. Martin; Gabriel Gagnon, Nicole St. Martin and Morgan Yamada. ©2017 Ali Sultani.
For tickets, visit http://youngpeoplestheatre.ca.
2017-10-12
Bello