Ethan Claymore : A heart-warming holiday play despite some uneven casting

Norm Foster’s play, Ethan Claymore, is the heartwarming story of Ethan, a young recluse widower living in a small Canadian farming community who, with the help of a doggedly determined, meddlesome neighbour and the ghost of his recently-deceased brother, finds a meaning to life and love just in time for the holiday season. Foster’s earnestly honest writing crafts a story with depth and feeling and keeps it away from the realm of cheesy or gimmicky. The play, under John P. Kelly’s direction for the Gladstone, is simple, sweet, and without pretense. The director manages to infuse the production with the charm and warmth found in small communities and that is central to the play. The atmosphere is sometimes thrown off by the uneven acting and some of the casting choices didn’t make all that much sense. However, other than that, this is a great, feel-good holiday piece that can be enjoyed by the entire family.

Ethan Claymore (played by Tim Oberholzer), an artist at heart who moved to the community years ago to live “the simple life” has been mourning his dead wife for five years. He secludes himself and buries his head and heart into his failing egg farming business. That is, until determined, curmudgeonly neighbour Douglas (Paul Rainville) takes matters into his own hands by setting Ethan up with the new schoolteacher, Teresa (Sarah Finn). Add to this a surprise visit form his very recently deceased brother, Martin (David Drisch) to resolve deep-seated family resentment, and we see Ethan slowly open himself up to the possibilities of life and love.

John P. Kelly manages to get the pacing of the show just right. It flows along and keeps the audience’s attention throughout. There’s also a sweetness and lack of pretention to it that makes the story and characters all that much more relatedly human. The set is functional and homey and the cast uses the stage well. Particularly good were moments when Martin’s ghost, only seen by Ethan, is in the room with others. The almost a dance-like preciseness of moments mimic the pace of the play.   

The thing that held back Ethan Claymore was the unevenness of the performances. As much as this is a simple, feel-good play, its protagonist is a complex character who carries a lot of pain and confusion, both from recent and distant events, when we first meet him. Ethan is timid and reserved, and for good reason. It is the actor’s job to bring this to the stage and show us his vulnerability and complexity. Tim Oberholzer’s played Ethan with a lot of nervous energy and a lot of nervous ticks – he was constantly running his hands through his hair, for instance. This took away from the character, as it was easy to focus on his acting than his character. “Show don’t tell” is a phrase often given to writers to ameliorate their work. Oberholzer did a lot of “telling,” making his performance tiring.

Paul Rainville as the nosy neighbour Douglas, on the other hand, is subtle and relaxed in his role. Sure, Douglas is annoying and a busy-body, but the enormous size of his heart is evident to the audience without Rainville having to say anything. It’s easy to forget that Rainville is acting because he immerses himself so much in Douglas. The same can be said for David Frisch as Martin Claymore. Most of his movements are small – he raises an eyebrow or slightly frowns, but that’s all that we need to understand the multitude of emotions raging inside him. Firsch plays Martin on a continuum of emotions, showing everything from his cruelty and angry resentment to his remorse and, ultimately, love.

Ethan Claymore is a holiday play that will make your heart smile. It is about redemption and the different forms of love in our lives, be it from, family, friends, or a lover. Although it has a bit of an uneven cast, it still manages to leave the audience feeling good and is a great choice for this time of year. It’s not elaborate and its message is not complex, but perhaps that’s what we need more of. Sometimes it’s only when we strip things down that we can show real human emotion and get at what’s truly important.  In this case, it’s the message that we none of us have to be alone as long as we give love a chance – even if that means needing a push by others at the beginning.

Ethan Claymore plays at the Gladstone until December 22.

A Production of Same Day Theatre

Directed by John P. Kelly

Set by roy Hansen-robitschek

Lighting by David Magladry

Sound design by Steven Lafond

Cast:

Paul Rainville — Douglas McLaren

Tim Oberholzer — Ethan Claymore

Nicholas Hutchison — Young Ethan

Draeven McGowan — Young Martin

Teresa Pike — Sarah Finn

Martin Claymore — David Frisch.