Reviews 2003
Reviews 2003
✭✭✭✭✭
by Aleksander Fredro, directed by Sylwia Torsh
Teatr Rozmaitości, Premiere Dance Theatre, Toronto
April 10-13, 2003
"A Major Attraction"
One of the great virtues of the du Maurier World Stage Festival is not merely the chance to encounter new techniques of acting and staging but also to see repertoire seldom if ever performed in North America. The production of Aleksander Fredro's "Magnetism of the Heart" by Warsaw's Teatr Rozmaitości combines both. It is a delightful comedy given a deliriously imaginative production.
Aleksander Fredro (1793-1876), author of more than 40 comedies, is one of Poland's classic dramatic authors. If one of his masterpieces, "Maiden Vows or Magnetism of the Heart" (1833) is any indication, North American theatre companies could usefully consider adding his charming works to their mix. His sobriquet as "the Polish Molière" doesn't accurately reflect the nature of his plays that seem halfway between Marivaux and Chekhov. He is interested in psychological comedy and intricate plotting like the former but places them in country settings rife with ennui like the latter.
Cousins Klara and Aniela, disgusted by what they have seen of men in life and in the novels they read, have vowed never to marry. This throws a spanner in the plans of their neighbour Albin, who is hopeless in love with Klara, and of Radost, who hopes his ne'er-do-well nephew Gustaw will marry. The girls' vow wakes Gustaw out of his boredom as a kind of challenge. Throughout the rest of the play he engineers scene after scene with the goal of making the girls break their vow only to find himself falling in love in the process.
Director Sylwia Torsh's production begins unassumingly enough with Magdalena Maciejewska's deceptively simple set and costumes locating the action in the early 19th century. Naturalism is broken when characters step up to one of two spotlights downstage for their asides. Gradually as the action gears up the production changes. First the cousins' costumes then the others shift from the 1830s to the 1920s to the 1970s. Elements of the set also become more modern. The music becomes more heterogeneous shifting among Chopin, Polish pop songs and Philip Glass. We move from candles to electric light. Mirosław Poznański's stage lighting become increasingly intricate as characters and significant objects are highlighted in ever more rapid patterns. A similar pattern occurs in Piotr Domióski's sound design as sounds of weather, heartbeats and animals are added to the mix. The actors' movements which began as merely stylized becomes increasingly balletic until some scenes are more dance pieces than spoken drama. What evolves is theatrical showpiece of split-second timing as the interaction between the actors with each other and the light and sound cues becomes ever more rapid and intricate.
The cast is uniformly excellent and obviously adept at playing with utmost precision in multiple acting styles. Magdalena Cielecka gives the one cousin Klara the kind of disdain one is glad to be undermined. Maja Ostaszewska, lends the other cousin a delightful wistfulness. The scene where Gustaw tests her by dictating a love letter to her meant for Klara is delicious in its irony. The mesmerizing Redbad Klynstra manages the difficult task of making Gustaw's ennui both attractive and comic. Cezary Kosinski is hilarious as the desperately sincere sad sack Albin. Magdalena Kuta as Mrs. Dorójska, Mariusz Benoit as Radost and Mirosław Zbrojewicz as Jan all show that the older generation's upholding of standards of restraint only masks their still active desires.
Fredro's play masterfully skewers the pretensions of all seven characters. Torsh's direction expands the play's meaning by having the mise en scène recapitulate the gradually loosening of societal restrictions from the 1830s to the present. Simultaneously the production moves from being a language-based play to a performance piece where the interaction of word, movement, light and sound gradually dominates over the words themselves so that the final wordless tableau has the beauty of a surrealist art installation. This amazing theatrical tour de force is yet another must-see at this year's World Stage Festival.
Christopher Hoile
Note: A version of this review appeared in TheatreWorld (UK) 2003-04-18.
Photo: Magdalena Cielecka and Maja Ostaszewska. ©2003 Teatr Rozmaitości.
2003-04-18
Magnetism of the Heart