Reviews 2001
Reviews 2001
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by Pierre Carlet de Marivaux, translated and directed by John Van Burek
Pleiades Theatre, Artword Theatre, Toronto
May 10-27, 2001
“The Triumph of Marivaux”
As the Marivaux revival continues apace in Europe, John Van Burek continues his effort to make the 18th-century playwright better known in Canada. Last year his company, Pleiades Theatre, brought us Marivaux’s most famous play “The Game of Love and Chance” (1730). This year they bring us “The Triumph of Love” (1732) again translated and directed by Van Burek. This production is more successful in a number of ways and shows why Marivaux’s plays--written in elegant prose, aware of their own artifice, focussing on the psychology of the characters--should appeal more to an audience today than they did in their own time.
“The Triumph of Love” (“Le Triomphe de l’amour”) plays like a cross between Shakespeare’s “Love’s Labours Lost” and “Twelfth Night”. The work is set in the garden of the philosopher Hermocrate and his sister Léontine, who have foresworn the passionate world to devote themselves to reason and to raising Agis, in their care since rescued from prison where a usurping tyrant had confined his parents. Into the scene step Léonide, the current ruler of Sparta and niece of the now-dead tyrant, and her servant Corine. They have both disguised themselves as men to gain access to the philosopher’s retreat and to Agis, with whom Léonide has been in love since first she saw him. In order not to be immediately ejected from the retreat, Léonide woos first Léontine in her male disguise as Phocion and then her brother in her female persona Aspasie. At the same time, she cannot reveal her real identity to Agis because she is afraid he will hate her because of her uncle’s evil deeds. Léonide seems to sink ever deeper in a sea of lies as brother, sister and Agis announce their intention to marry her.
The retreat into philosophy from “Love’s Labours Lost” thus replaces the posturing of Orsino and Olivia in “Twelfth Night”. As Van Burek points out, Marivaux skewers the belief in his own time, especially as expounded by Voltaire, that the “logic of the mind” is more beautiful than “the chaos of the heart”. At the same time, the play is proto-feminist fairy tale where it is the princess who braves the two dragons to rescue the captive prince and restore order. One is left amazed that such a marvelous play has not gained wider currency.
The central role of Léonide/Phocion/Aspasie is by far the longest and the most varied. Unfortunately, Amy Price-Francis is not quite up to its many demands. Initially, she carefully differentiates her roles as ruler, false female lover of Hermocrate, false male lover of Léontine and true female lover of Agis. But as the play progresses, these distinctions, so necessary to the part and to the comedy, dissolve and Price-Francis falls back on an all-purpose breathless delivery to signify emotional agitation regardless of context.
That the play succeeds despite this is due in large part to the assured performances of the rest of the cast. Philippa Domville is superb as a haughty woman who crumbles as she tries vainly to resist the belief that someone may actually desire her. Domville plays the role with such psychological subtlety her Léontine seems like a cousin of Racine’s Phèdre. Ross Manson plays her brother’s similar dilemma of principles versus feeling in a more broadly comic style. While Domville makes us feel uneasy that her character is so deceived, Manson makes us smile to see a philosophical charlatan exposed.
Allan Hawco, only a year out of the National Theatre School, shows great promise as Agis. He is expert at playing conflicting emotions as when, having just proclaimed his hatred of women, he realizes that his new-found best friend is really a girl or later when he shows Agis’s pain at being rejected mingling with his anger at Léonide’s multiple deceptions.
Among the various servants, Helen Taylor makes a positive impression although the plucky Corine, even as the male Hermidas, has little to do. Paul Fauteux as Hermocrate’s valet Harlequin uses an acting style completely unlike the others, his poses and hand gestures constantly recalling this figure’s commedia dell’arte ancestry. Despite this directorial decision, Fauteux allows quirky individuality to shine through this generic exterior. A degree lower than the house servants is Damis the gardener, given an hilarious performance by Michael Spencer-Davis. Van Burek has translated the dialect of the original into colloquial Canadian speech, so that Damis’s phrases like “No big deal” provoke laughter merely by their incongruity. Spencer-Davis’s dead-pan delivery and hang-dog look as he schleps about the stage make his performance along with Domville's the most memorable of the evening.
Van Burek has given us a clear, modern translation of this masterpiece, preserving the elegance of Marivaux’s extended sentences. It is therefore all the more puzzling that as director he should choose to give the play too rapid a pace. He allows Price-Francis to barrel through her lines in the second half as if speed of elocution were more important than sense. Léontine, Hermocrate and Agis all face dilemmas that completely unravel their previous views of themselves. They deserve more breathing space to ponder, and we to relish, their strange predicaments.
Andjelija Djuric’s set and costumes ingeniously blend or juxtapose 18th- with 21st-century styles. Two Louis XV chairs stand in a grove of thin-trunked trees, but the stage legs are of translucent plastic with stylized branches behind which loom two inner borders, the second one mirrored and reflecting the audience. This visually reinforces both the conscious artifice of the play and its modernity. Léonide’s costume--an 18th-century frock coat covering a sexy red velvet bodystocking--reveals her as a modern woman acting within antiquated strictures. For Agis and his guardians, three characters in conflict with themselves, Djuric blends both styles. One seldom sees designs like these that so intelligently use a contrast of periods as a mode of interpretation.
Justin Haynes attempts to do the same in his music, with minuets drifting into jazz fusion and vice versa. Paul Mathiesen’s lighting subtly controls mood except for abrupt shifts to a spotlight for the characters’ asides.
Despite imperfections, this is a lively production, well worth seeing for anyone with a love for classic theatre, French or otherwise. As with Pleiades Theatre’s offering last year, this production makes it clear that Marivaux's delightful plays should not be rarities but standard repertoire.
©Christopher Hoile
Photo: Alan Hawco and Amy Price-Francis. ©2001 Andjelija Djuric.
2001-05-25
The Triumph of Love