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by James Reaney, directed by Jeff Culbert

Ausable Theatre, McManus Theatre, London

November 21-30, 2002

"Life from Both Sides"

This season Ausable Theatre of London takes a break from its survey of the works of Robertson Davies to look at another author, much read but less often produced, London's own James Reaney.  Artistic Director Jeff Culbert in association with Reaney himself has developed a highly entertaining double-bill presented under the collective title "Reaney Days".  The two one-acters, written more than 30 years apart, presenting both the more playful and the more poetic sides of Reaney make for a very satisfying evening.

First up is "The Story of the Gentle Rain Food Co-op" written in 1997 and broadcast as a radio play on CBC in 1998.  The Ausable production is the première of its stage version.  The play is inspired by the still thriving London Food Co-op, of which Reaney is a member.  The play is a gentle satire on the worlds of academia and of co-operative, both with an impostor in their midst and both so idealistic they can't initially recognize the impostors for what they are.  The central character Mr. Jones moves between both worlds.  In the course of the action he discovers the assailant of a man known only as Mr. X and raises the alarm about the mysterious Mr. Mulliver, who, playing on the members' middle-class guilt, is voted the Co-op's first paid manager. 

Reaney is adept at exposing the petty rivalries that fracture even the most idealistic communities--the vegans versus the vegetarians versus the organic meat-eaters, people more obsessed with the origins of vanilla beans or the number of grains in their bread than the nature of the man the vote in as manager. 

The play succeeds on stage better than many other adaptations of radio dramas because of the non-naturalistic approach of director Jeff Culbert.  The stage is bare except for a vestigial staircase to mark entrances and a few party decorations to create atmosphere.  Otherwise, everything is conjured up through mime and the clever use of minimal props.  Bicycles handlebars and steering wheels are synecdoches for whole vehicles, puppets represent two twin babies and a man with a box on his head is a radio.  The inventiveness of the production and performances are a perfect match for the playfulness of the text. 

The play is well cast.  Tyler Parr is excellent as the central character, Mr. Jones, who both narrates and acts in the story.  He's an ordinary guy who slowly comes realize that a conspiracy may underlie the strange doings at the university and the Co-op.  Jake Levesque and Laura O'Connor both play numerous small parts and both have a great gift for comedy.  Levesque got a well-deserved round for his role as a radio (and various stations on it) and is duly pompous as the evasive Professor Skimwater while O'Connor has a knack for vocal characterizations whether human or feline.

Serge Saika-Voivod maintains an air of ambiguity about Mr. Mulliver's motives. Carol Robinson-Todd has mastered pedantic chairmanlike tone for Dr. Clipperton.  And Don Fleckser is suitable loony as Mr. X.

 

The second half of the bill is "One-Man Masque", a solo play Reaney himself first performed in 1960.  It is made up of fragments of poetry, autobiography and fantasy illustrating the various stages of life and death.  The first half is very like an extended Canadianized version of Jacques' famous "Seven Ages of Man" speech from "As You Like It", except that the materials are so disparate that we have the impression of looking at each "age" from a different perspective as well in a different genre.  This being Reaney, it is no surprise that this view of "life" should also encompass the various "ages" of death finally to come full-circle in the segment called "The Lost Boy" as a soul seeks rebirth. 

Jeff Culbert himself is the narrator/actor and director.  He is very much like a gentle self-effacing version of the Stage-Manager in Wilder's "Our Town" guiding us through the realm we know and the one we may fear.  He is able to capture the precise tone and mood instantly, whether it is a shy St. Hilda's girl, the angry symbol of death Granny Crack.  He makes the last stage of death, the Dwarf, an image of chaos perhaps based on the character in Per Lagerkvist's novel, truly frightening.  

Morag Lesarge's set makes our narrator's journey look, in a homey way, like a tour of the jumble in a symbolic attic presided over by a stick-figure man and woman as ur-parents. Nancy van Dongen's costumes bring out the humour in the first piece.   In both plays Andrew Mawdsley's lighting and Dean Harrison's soundscape are always effective

The pairing of a multi-character versus a one-man play, of the real world mired in specifics versus the world itself seen from the point of view of eternity, not only shows Reaney's range as a playwright but also creates an evening as thoughtful as it is humorous.  Thanks are due to Ausable Theatre for bringing Reaney's words so strikingly to life.

©Christopher Hoile

Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.

Photo: Jeff Culbert. ©2009 Joe Samuels.