Tag: NAC English theatre 2011

And Slowly Beauty, a most original tribute to the artist and a performance that captures the depths of the artistic sensibility

And Slowly Beauty, a most original tribute to the artist and a performance that captures the depths of the artistic sensibility

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This singular interweaving of  high art, in the form of Chekhov’s theatre,  with  the everyday life of a simple human being, is given a most exquisite  stage  treatment by director Michael Shamata in this coproduction by the Belfry Theatre and the English Theatre company of the National Arts Centre. Michel Nadeau’s  dreamlike experience, And Slowly Beauty,  translated by Maureen Labonté ,  takes us on a journey of flowing  transformation.  Mr. Mann – the Man –  (Denis Fitzgerald), a well-established employee of a downtown  company  leads the empty  life of a bureaucrat. The empty chatter of the office employees, the even emptier  chatter of his wife are compounded by his helplessness in front of his children whose lives don’t bring him any satisfaction.

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And Slowly Beauty: a homage to the transformative power of theatre that does not invite involvement.

And Slowly Beauty: a homage to the transformative power of theatre that does not invite involvement.

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The very amusing opening scene, the brilliant set and the beautifully choreographed movements indicate that And Slowly Beauty…is to be a special piece of theatre. And there is much to enjoy about the English-language premiere of Michael Nadeau’s stylized drama, written in collaboration with a French collective in 2003 and now translated by Maureen Labonté.

But the early charm wears a little thin long before the conclusion two hours later — there is no intermission — and the saga of middle-aged crisis interspersed with excerpts from Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters is a little too much in love with itself for too much of the time.

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NAC revival of Salt Water Moon is too often acting at it most self-conscious.

NAC revival of Salt Water Moon is too often acting at it most self-conscious.

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The National Arts Centre’s revival of David French’s Salt Water Moon certainly offers a display of “acting” — but too often it is acting at its most self-conscious and studied.

That flushes away spontaneity and wreaks havoc with the emotional truth which should drive this play.

Set in a Newfoundland outport in 1926, Salt Water Moon was French’s enchanting prequel to Leaving Home and Of The Fields, Lately — the two plays he had earlier written about the troubled fortunes and shattered dreams of an expatriate Newfoundland family, the Mercers, in contemporary Toronto.

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NAC English Theatre’s fulfilling production of David French’s play Salt Water Moon about reunited sweethearts in Newfoundland.

NAC English Theatre’s fulfilling production of David French’s play Salt Water Moon about reunited sweethearts in Newfoundland.

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Ottawa Ctizen, October 24, 2011

Jacob Mercer and Mary Snow, when first we meet them in the NAC English Theatre’s fulfilling production of David French’s romantic comedy Salt-Water Moon, look small, almost lost on what seems an enormous set.

Not only do they look small, they sound that way too, their voices audible but initially distant, as though battling the vastness of the sea that laps at the shores of Coley’s Point, the Newfoundland outport where they’ve been raised and where the play takes place.

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