HOME
PAGE
SEARCH CurtainUp
TKTS
Letters to Editor
REVIEWS
FEATURES
ADDRESS
BOOKS
Broadway
Off-Broadway
DC
NEWS
(Etcetera)
BOOKS
and CDs
(with Amazon search)
OTHER
PLACES
Berkshires
DC (Washington)
London
Los Angeles
QUOTES
FILM
LINKS
MISCELLANEOUS
Free Updates
Masthead
Type too small?
NYC Weather
|
A CurtainUp
Review from the Shaw Festival
The Doctor's Dilemma
The first Shaw play of the Festival and only one of two this season
by the playwright for whom the Festival is named is a fascinating if
not totally satisfying Doctor's Dilemma, directed by head
honcho Christopher Newton, now in his twenty-first season in
Niagara-on-the-Lake. In this third ever mounting of the play by the
Festival (the master's plays move into the public domain this year),
Mr. Newton has chosen a framing device that attempts to bring its now
outdated arguments into a contemporay modality. With the help of
choreographer Jane Johanson, Newton intersperses the four acts of the
play with the imaginative visual metaphor of the Mexican tradition of the Day of the Dead. Minor characters as well as the six physicians,
all wearing skull masks, open the production and then, in the
entr'actes, manipulate props and set pieces to the macabre music of
Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona and Mexican composer Arturo
Marquez.
While Mr. Newton's framing technique works superbly for the first
three acts, it tends to wear thin as the play gathers momentum
leading to the final act and the death of Dubedat, the young artist
whose dying life cannot compete with that of the infirm but worthy
Dr. Blenkinsop. The difficulty with the use of an over-arching
metaphoric device organically detached from the fabric of the piece
rests in its inability to carry through to the end. This is in no
way to discredit the almost Julie Taymor brilliance of the concept.
But, like Ms. Taymor's Lion King, now selling out in Toronto,
the opening images are so powerful that they are almost impossible to
top. (Our NY review of The Lion King).
Mr. Newton has a strong company to work with. Leading the list is
Jim Mezon's wonderfully blustering Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bennington
and Bernard Behrens' wizened and droll Sir Patrick Cullen. They are
well supported by Jennifer Phipps' bossy Emmy and Lorne Kennedy's
ever-cutting surgeon Cutler Walpole. Less successful, though more
than adequate, is Blair Williams in the pivotal but, in contrast to
his fellow doctors, colorless Sir Colenso Ridgeon. Louis Dubedat,
played by Mike Shara, and Jennifer Dubedat, played by Severn
Thompson, provide the contrast needed for the play's central argument
(whether to save the unscrupulous artist or the well-intentioned
doctor), but they fail to reach the color or dynamism of the gaggle
of doctors, perhaps more the fault of the play than the actors. It
is after all the doctors' dilemma.
Sue LePage's costumes swing effectively between the "reality" of
the text and the Day of the Dead entr'actes. Her unit set, with
pieces moved in and about by the auto de fey characters, works well
enough on the large Festival Theatre stage. Kevin Lamotte's lighting
plays well in both worlds of this exciting production.
THE DOCTOR'S DILEMMA
By Bernard Shaw
Directed by Christopher Newton
Cast (in order of appearance): Redpenny - Duncan Stewart; Emmy -
Jennifer Phipps; Sir Colenso Ridgeon - Blair Williams; Dr. Leo
Schutzmacher - Neil Barclay; Sir Patrick Cullen - Bernard Behrens;
Mr. Cutter Walpole - Lorne Kennedy; Sir Ralph Bloomfield Bonington -
Jim Mezon; Dr. Blenkinsop - Guy Bannerman; Jennifer Dubedat - Severn
Thompson; Louis Dubedat - Mike Shara
Designed by Sue LePage
Lighting Designed by Kevin Lamotte
Entr'actes staged by Jane Johanson
Festival Theatre at the Shaw Festival, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
Festival Website - http://www.shawfest.sympatico.ca
Running: May 4 to October 29, 2000
Running Time: 2 hours, 50 minutes including one intermission
Review based on June 23, 2000 matinee performance
|
|
