The past few weeks in Toronto theatre featured a range of works that at their core all touched on similar themes despite their vast superficial differences. In tense, inflationary times, these four pieces examined how financial pressures can bring out the best and worst in all of us.
Most explicit on this topic was Dandelion Theatre and William Shakespeare & Friends Collective’s modern staging of Timon of Athens that played in the Theatre Centre’s intimate BMO Incubator. Artistic Producer/Director Max Ackerman is a big swing artist, a quality I really appreciate, and there are plenty of good ideas at work in this complicated interpretation of a lesser known Shakespeare text. With a mostly straightforward plot and hyper-focus on the title character, Timon is a text that invites edits so I was excited to see the work pared down to an hour forty five with only eight actors. Unfortunately, the production suffers from a lack of clarity with only a few performers nailing the delivery of the text with both emotional communication and digestible pace. On opening night, there were still quite a few bugs to work out (including many surprising “line” calls) and some of the larger thematic ideas of the interpretation got a little lost in the struggle to follow the action (the ambitious sound design also occasionally makes dialogue difficult to decipher). I love that Ackerman is drawn to the more obscure works in the canon but precision, crystal clear intention, and careful differentiation of time, place, and person is crucial to help guide the audience through unknown terrain.
The standout performer in Timon was Nicholas Eddie who played the painter and various other characters with complexity, humour, and impressive skill with the verse. It took me such an unforgivably long time to write about Timon that Eddie has moved on to open his second show in less than a month, in which he’s equally effective. Playing a very different role from last year, Eddie appears for the second time in Soup Can Theatre/Three Ships Collective’s annual Christmas Carol at Campbell House Museum. The production is an annual must-see that is literally impossible to write about before tickets sell out every year so I guess this is me telling you to keep an eye out for next year. I’ve already written extensively about the real star of the show- playwright/assistant director/co-producer Justin Haigh’s insightfully adapted script- and stalwart leading man Thomas Gough needs no introduction, but the cast does change and shift every year with new players joining the group and different characters pairing to create new tracks. The lovely Justine Christensen returns to great success as Belle while the vibrant Luke Marty’s role as Fezziwig has been expanded with bittersweet resonance to also include Fred. Among the new castmembers, Justin Hay stands out with a beautifully gentle Bob Cratchit, continuing the tradition of subtle reinvention as this classic returns year after year.
Similar stylistic notes are struck by Wren Theatre’s independent production of another oft-adapted classic- Little Women. Staged in Alumnae Theatre’s atmospheric attic studio space, the warmth of the March household envelopes the audience the moment they step into Natalia Morales’ beautifully designed set. Unfortunately the space isn’t soundproofed so the gentle production is at times punctuated by the score of Cabaret drifting up from the mainspace downstairs but a little focus and suspension of disbelief takes you a long way. Though focused in perspective, Little Women actually has a pretty large cast of characters so the still starting out Wren Theatre struggled a bit to fill out the full company with actors of a calibre to match their excellent (and notably smaller) 2023 production of Drowning Girls. Lizzie Moffatt’s sweet and sturdy Meg stands out alongside a very successful Jordan Imray whose John Brooke is dashing and utterly sincere but much of the rest of the cast left something to be desired. Scott Davidson’s adaptation of the novel doesn’t do much to illuminate the story and Tatum Lee’s direction surprised me in its simplicity. Little Women is such a beautiful story that it’s always welcome in any iteration but choosing to work with such a familiar text requires a little something extra to make a new version stand out and this production doesn’t quite accomplish that.
Finally, indie playwright Michael Ross Albert‘s debut with the very-not-indie Crow’s Theatre crystallizes with remarkable insight the demonizing effect of financial stress and the total brutality of Toronto’s real estate market. Among The Bidding War‘s sprawling cast of big name performers, Steven Sutcliffe brings particular nuance to the role of an ill-fated potential home buyer and the great Fiona Reid proves yet again that’s she’s a master of comedy/drama balance. Incredibly slow fights and stiff physical direction pull the production down, however, demonstrating, as is so often the case, the great risk of farce even when the dialogue zips. It’s a thrill to see Albert’s work get such a major production, complete with actual resources, promotion, and an A-list cast, but the direction doesn’t do enough to elevate the work.