And Slowly Beauty: a script to make the audience ponder the meaning of their own lives. Haunting and inspiring.

Photo of Michael Shamata.

As much a love letter to the power of theatre as an exploration of life’s passing, sometimes mundane and often heartbreaking beauty, director Michael Shamata’s And Slowly Beauty…spins a story at once incredibly complex and devastatingly simple.

The play, originally a collaboration between writer Michel Nadeau and his Quebec collective, Théâtre Niveau Parking, is currently showing as a co-production of Ottawa’s National Arts Centre and the Belfry Theatre in Victoria, B.C. and is emotionally rich and intense. It is the story of the average middle-aged Mr. Mann, played by the brilliantly talented Dennis Fitzgerald, who wins tickets at a work draw to see Anton Chekhov’s The Three Sisters. The play, about sisters living in a provincial Russian town and longing to return to Moscow, is also a story of unfulfilled dreams, the fruitlessness of continually chasing something, and the beauty which is sometimes lost in everyday life. Mr. Mann attends alone and in the process finds himself shaken to his core and suddenly awoken to the dreariness and emotional isolation of his own situation. Cekhov’s play is henceforth intertwined throughout the events happening to Mr. Mann.

Fitzgerald is spectacularly cast as Mr. Mann. He plays the character with his whole body and with great attention to detail, portraying a man jaded, confused, loving, and almost childlike at times. Fitzgerald responds to events so naturally that he evokes a closeness with the audience, who feels for and goes on the journey with him, from his laughter to his tears. The supporting cast upholds the beautifully turbulent, dream-like quality of the play in portraying various characters in Mr. Mann’s life. Christian Murray is particularly strong and manages to make a slew of characters (from a mentally challenged young man to the office joker) believable. The show’s success is a credit to both the talented actors and Shamata’s masterful direction. There is a great use of silence throughout and, indeed, the scenes in which the least is said often speak the loudest, a testament to the cast’s strength.

The production is rounded out by Brooke Maxwell’s score. Melodic and evocative, it follows the script’s ebbs and flows and develops a language of its own, highlighting the important moments as it goes. The set, a modern, simple construction, lends itself well to the constantly changing scenes and Michael Walton’s lighting design is a production in and of itself, brimming with additional emotion that complements the action on stage.

And Slowly Beauty…is not a play that provides simple answers or straightforward morals. It yields just enough to make the audience ponder the meaning of their own lives, much like the characters in The Three Sisters. In its exploration of modern life, it condemns our need to constantly keep busy at the expense of ourselves and our relationships. Yet, its hope that we can find meaning and happiness in the everyday of our lives is so evident that one can’t help but walk out with a smile. Although its influence, Chekhov’s The Three Sisters, dates back more than a century, a more pertinent play for the here and now could not have been created. That, along with the amazing production, is what really draws us into the play. Living in times when nothing seems stable any more, from jobs to the markets, and where working three people’s jobs is becoming the norm, it is absolutely breathtaking and agonizing to see a play that understands our position so well, yet still manages to show the optimism in life. It gets under your skin and stays with you, its faith haunting and inspiring.

Ottawa, Maja Stevanovska

November 12, 2011

And Slowly Beauty

at the National Arts Centre English Theatre

By: Michel Nadeau (in collaboration with Marie-Josée Bastien, Lorraine Côté, Hugues Frenette, Pierre-François Legendre, Véronika Makdissi-Warren and Jack Robitaille)

Translated by: Maureen Labonté

An NAC English Theatre/Belfry Theatre (Victoria, B.C.) production

Director: Michael Shamata

Designer: John Ferguson

Lighting designer: Michael Walton

Composer: Brooke Maxwell

Associate designer: Tamara Marie Kucheran

Stage manager (NAC): Jane Vanstone Osborn

Stage manager (Belfry): Kim Charleen Smith

Cast:

Anita: Mary-Colin Chisholm

Mr. Mann: Dennis Fitzgerald

Claudette: Caroline Gillis

Sylvain: Christian Murray

Quentin: Thomas Olajide

Nadine: Celine Stubel