Friday 12 June 2015

Shaw Festival 2015 # 1: The Stuff of Eternity

Few characters have been so thoroughly imprinted into the common consciousness of our society as Peter Pan, the boy who never grows old.  Through the original play and book versions of the story, through innumerable stage presentations, through a sizable list of film versions, the story of this character and his dark nemesis, the one-handed pirate Captain Hook, have become one of the cultural foundations of the fine art of growing up for most of us.

Also in common with many other characters in the common consciousness, Peter Pan has become thoroughly wrapped up in the ever-loving grasp of the Disney Corporation.  In 2004, a novel entitled Peter and the Starcatchers (written by Dave Barry and Ridley Pearson) was published by Hyperion Books, a subsidiary of Disney.  It led to a whole series of novels, all of which act as "prequels" to the original story created by Sir James Barrie.  The book was optioned for the stage by Disney Theatrical Group, and the stage version was created under the Disney aegis by Rick Elice.  It's on stage now at the Shaw Festival.

"Great" theatre this is not.  It's a gloriously funny, wildly imaginative romp, bursting through the space and time conventions of the theatre all over the map, right from the moment a group of actors walk onto the stage at the outset.  These actors mostly have set roles to play, but each one also takes turns stepping out of character to participate in the narration that carries the story rapidly forward.  In this way, the play covers a great deal of ground in a reasonable time frame.

With only three main exceptions, the characters in this story are all newly-created people with lives of their own.  The play manages to give us a fair bit of back story for many of these new characters.

Right at the outset, I need to comment on the one major problem I had with the show.  None of the adult actors ever succeeded in convincing me that they were children, for more than a few seconds at a time.  Voices, gestures, movements, all were too plainly adult actors playing at being children.  Never having seen the original Peter Pan staged, I can only speculate that the same problem might be encountered in that play.  But I have to also say that this problem certainly can be solved.  As an example, let me mention that I have seen more convincing children created by a group of forty- and fifty-something adults staging a performance of You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown.

Ironically, the two most childlike characters on the stage were actually supposed to be adults:  Jonathan Tan's Smee and Billy Lake's Fighting Prawn.

Aside from this major obstacle, the show is vastly funny.  Kate Besworth gives a spunky performance as Molly, the "Starcatcher" of the title.  She's well partnered by the Boy of Charlie Gallant, who of course acquires the names "Peter" and "Pan" during the course of the play.  Gallant's finest moment was at the opening of Act II when he realized that he was looking for the first time at the sun, and that he was at last free.  His two fellow boy slaves, James Daly as the sulky wannabe leader Prentiss and Andrew Broderick as the eternally ravenous Ted, were both very funny too.

Molly's father, Lord Aster, came across well as a combination of stern man of duty and loving father in Patrick Galligan's interpretation.

One key diversion from Barrie's original story was the substitution of a mythical tribe of people called the "Mollusks" in place of Barrie's "Indians".  As the chief or king of the Mollusks, named Fighting Prawn, Billy Lake had a great repertoire of facial expressions and split second comic timing as well.  His sudden production of a kitchen timer on the remote Mollusk Island was just one of the many bits of comic nuttiness that earned him some big laughs.

Jonathan Tan's Smee was all over the map, in a role that suited this actor's trademark off the wall faces and hyper-fast voice beautifully.

Jenny Wright had two wonderful roles.  As Molly's nanny, Mrs. Bumbrake, she morphed beautifully from prim, proper, starched British nanny to happy, open-hearted sailor's wife.  Her one scene as the mermaid, Teacher, was a memorable combination of brief but effective character development with graceful aerial acrobatics.

Now that I've covered all those characters, it's time to talk about the man who acted them all off the stage: Martin Happer as the pirate Black Stache.  It's a show-stealing part even by the previous standards of Captain Hooks who have stolen the show in virtually every staging and film of Peter Pan ever seen.  Barrie's original imagination of a pirate obsessed with manners and "good form" remains unique, and this play takes the concept and pushes it not just to the limit, but far beyond.  This is not a problem, though, as the entire show is off the wall when judged by conventional theatrical standards.

Happer musters a flexible voice, significant gestures, and a whole roster of facial expressions to create this most original and unusual pirate.  I won't disclose how it happens, but the scene at the climax of the play where he expects to find the treasure and instead loses his hand had the entire audience in an uproar.  Don't think an actor can find ten different ways in succession to say, "Oh, my God!"?  Think again.

Jackie Maxwell's direction of this wild and crazy piece takes it right to the places where it needs to go.  The staging of the crowd scenes is very effective, people moving to all sorts of interesting spots.  Timing throughout is magnificent, the silent moments beautifully balancing the raucous ones.  This company's use of such devices as the hand-held steering wheel and the blue water drapes is also imaginative.  Costuming defined characters very well.  The integration of music, singing, and dancing reached its hysterical climax in the mermaids' song which opens Act II.  I won't say any more -- this one you have to see for yourself to believe.  Most impressive is the clear delivery of the complex intercut recitations of narrative.  If those ever got muddied, the entire story would be lost, but under Maxwell's guiding hand the narrations were all crystal-clear.  And although this can certainly be expected at the Shaw Festival, kudos to the dialect and voice coaches for helping the actors find the nicely understated differences in accent that helped define character without triple-underlining it in bold-faced italic and red ink as some theatres are apt to do.

This brings me back at the end to the script, the place where all plays both start and finish.  This one is very much of our era, and full of throwaway topical references which will likely become dated very quickly.  How well will this piece stand the test of time?  That's an issue of copyright, as I see it.  If the copyright holders insist on strict adherence to the text in future, it's doomed to turn into a museum piece just as the Gilbert and Sullivan operettas did under the stultifying influence of the rigidly authentic D'Oyly Carte Opera Company.  Time will tell.

Meanwhile, though, Peter and the Starcatcher is a funny, glorious rampage of theatre gone wild, and should be a must see for anyone who loves to laugh -- as I always do.

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