Voilà la musique de « mon pays » explique Claude Naubert alors que la scène s’allume et les interprètes investissent le petit espace du Théâtre de l’ile devant la salle de 119 places plein à craquer. Rendre hommage à Félix Leclerc, la voix exquise de la chanson populaire québécoise, n’est pas une mince affaire et l’équipe de Sylvie Dufour  y a presque réussi.

Bien sûr, il n’était pas question d’imiter le chanteur . Il n’était pas non plus question d’en  faire une grande production bien léchée, bien au-delà des moyens du Théâtre de l’île.  Il s’agissait surtout de cerner l’ambiance intime, parfois poétique ce cette musique qui chante Le petit  bonheur, la vie de tous les jours des petits gens de « chez nous », ceux qui inspiraient  la vie créatrice de Leclerc qui allait des années 1950 jusqu’à la fin des années 1970.

La soirée s’est divisée en deux mouvements, dont chacun avait une orientation très différente.

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Photo: Wayne Cuddington, Ottawa, Citizen. Paul Rainville, Michael Mancini, Kate Hurman.

At one point in the play someone asks: “Is it possible for a stroke to change a whole personality?” The question seems naïve for anyone who has dealt with the situation first hand! For playwright Rick Chafe however, the answer becomes the premise which propels his play as the author sets up his encounter between Ernie (Paul Rainville) the absent father who has suffered a seriously debilitating stroke, and his angry, stressed out son George (Michael Mancini) who hasn’t seen his father for 40 years and who needs some answers . George only comes into Ernie’s life due to the insistence of the speech therapist Mae (Kate Hurman), a warm optimistic and ever smiling person who works with Ernie, who keeps telling him how wonderful he is and how much progress he is making. She is the intermediary who opens the dialogue, who keeps the communication between the two men flowing, who brings warmth and generosity into Ernie’s life, of which we know almost nothing. At least at the beginning. The play sets about to fill in the gaps.

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Richard Gélinas (Jake), Zach Counsil (Charlie). Photo: Andrew Alexander

The award winning Stones in His Pockets by Belfast-based playwright Sarah Marie Jones is set in County Kerry looking over Blasket Sound towards the beautiful Blasket Islands. Artist Merike Olo, has painted them on a flowing canvass, stretched out on a long mural along the back of an otherwise near empty stage. The romantic attraction of those islands is what brings in the Hollywood film crew. Local Irish “extras” with real accents, have been contracted as purely decorative elements, to give another “romantic” touch of authenticity to a passionate irish love story which rings false because all the principals are Americans, trying to master the local speak.

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The novel by Chaim Potok deals with a question of Jewish philosophy and would seem to be a subject better suited to prose than to the theatre. Aaron Posner’s adaptation, heavy with explanations and literary language, tries to clarify the conflict within the young Asher Lev . There is the religious tradition in which he was raised: Hasidic Judaism, an ultra-orthodox form of Judaism which is also linked to the mystical tradition of the Kabbalah and fundamental belief in the laws as set out in the Torah. He however, wants to live in the world of the imagination: he wants to be an artist.

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Jason Lehner in Oleanna.  When Oleanna appeared in 1992, audiences were perplexed. Whether it was the David Mamet’s powerful   film scenario, or the stage production which we also saw at the NAC around that period, audiences could not quite figure out what Mamet’s position was.  Was this an angry backlash against a dogmatic feminist movement which is portrayed as a form of Fascist inquisition through the actions of a vindictive student trying to get back at her prof?  Or is this professor getting what he deserves?

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First of all let’s be clear. As it stands, this production by Odyssey Theatre has very little to do with Marivaux . The characters have the same names but they are essentially types inspired by the commedia dell’arte that one could find in much theatre of the 17^th and 18^th Centuries. The plot dealing with servants and masters who switch identities is also a theatrical convention that can be found in Moliere, in Marivaux, In Goldoni, in Beaumarchais .

It is true that at each period, the social significance of the switching changes and that is something this adaptation has confused rather badly ..but no matter. Marivaux ‘s theatre is essentially characterized by a certain style of performance (which has nothing to do with this show) and a style of language called Marivaudage (which has even less to do with this show)

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Photo: Quincy Armorer  (Othello) and Lana Sugarman (Desdemona). Set in the period of the war of 1812,  this brooding, production of the tragic events leading to the murder of Desdemona at the hands of her beloved general, manipulated most heinously by the hateful Iago brings out all the melodrama of the situation.  There is the  raging father (Brabantio) who can’t believe that his innocent daughter Desdemona (Lana Sugarman) has actually married this Moor of her own free will. A sneering, ironic Iago,  raging with jealousy and hate who narrates the story, telling how he has meticulously set the stage for the downfall of Othello (Quincy Armorer) and the death of the lovers.

The individual performances were rather good in as much as each actor dominated his role, articulated his text beautifully and made the drama so completely clear.   I especially liked Shane Carty as the viciously revengeful Iago who inspired utter loathing.

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