Volume 24 Issue 2 - October 2018

Beat by Beat | Music Theatre
Diving Into Some
Groundbreaking
Theatre
JENNIFER PARR
The 2018/19 season has started off with a bang with an exciting
mix of risk-taking experimental music theatre alongside the
traditional musicals continuing on many stages large and small.
Over the course of just one week in September I saw three world
premieres in a row that were entirely different from each other;
unique in atmosphere and style, yet alike in a desire to explore and
push the boundaries of what music theatre is capable of.
Opera Briefs: The first of these, Tapestry Opera’s Opera Briefs:
Tasting Shorts is always one of my favourite fall shows, the chance
to see a smorgasbord of bite-sized brand new operas created in
Tapestry’s annual summer composer librettist laboratory, the
Liblab. This year’s edition of sophisticated operatic speeddating
was no exception, with 11 mini-operas on a variety of
themes. One of the necessities of successful bare-bones staging
is good direction - this time by artistic director Michael Mori
assisted by Jessica Derventzis. Another is having a company
of singers who are equally good as actors, able to intuitively
convey complexities of character and story as well as
to master new and widely varied music scores very quickly.
Anchored by the veteran brilliance of tenor Keith Klassen and
baritone Peter McGillivray (who were joined by newcomers
soprano Teiya Kasahara and mezzo Stephanie Tritchew) this
company shone throughout the evening with each “brief” a
tiny complete world of its own, set apart by story and music
style. Jennifer Tung’s music direction and playing was also
subtle and effective throughout. As always there were strong
“real life” musical stories most notably the funny but heartbreaking
The Farewell Poo by Rene Orth and Daniel Solon, and
the more stylized and politically apposite Bring Me the Head
of Our President by August Murphy-King and Colleen Murphy.
Taking the program even beyond this usual excellence was a new
experiment: writing for Virtual Reality settings. Of the Sea created the
VR experience of meeting African slaves thrown overboard on their
way to the new world who have made new lives below the ocean, and
was surprisingly powerful although fantastical. Even more experimental
was sci-fi thriller Hydrophis Expedition designed as a purely
aural experience. Eerie and fascinating, as we listened with our eyes
closed, the sung music as well as the underwater soundscape made
it easier to succumb to the experience and believe in the underwater
world and its lurking dangers.
Dr. Silver: In contrast to the multiple worlds of Tapestry’s Briefs, the
latest creation of the uber-talented Stratford-born and raised sisters
Anika and Britta Johnson: Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life is a fully
realized, intensely cohesive, almost claustrophobic, single immersive
world.
At Toronto’s historic Heliconian Hall in the heart of Yorkville the
audience arrives at the door to be greeted by young members of the
“congregation” welcoming us to the funeral of Dr. Silver who – we find
out quite soon – was the leader of a cult. As the congregation we sit
around three sides of the room with an altar and multimedia screen
at one end, and with space in the middle for the cult’s youth chorus
(the incredibly polished Edge of the Sky Young Company) to sing
and perform.
Once the show begins we are completely immersed in the funeral
and music, and then the history of the family at the centre of the cult.
It is this mix of family history and the formal dynamics of the funeral
ritual that gives interest and depth to what might otherwise be just a
clever concept. As idiosyncratic moments occur (as at any real funeral)
they sometimes trigger flashbacks and we get to know the various
members of the family (mother, two daughters, estranged son, and
son’s friend/devoted acolyte): suffice it to say, all is not as perfect as
one might think from surface appearances.
The excellent cast (Donna Garner, Bruce Dow, Kira Guloien, Rielle
Braid, Peter Deiwick) sing and act so well and truthfully that we don’t
just watch, we come to really care about them and what is going to
happen. The sung-through nature of most of the show seems natural,
particularly because the cult worships music as divine (a clever
concept). The direction by Mitchell Cushman is seamless and the
choreography by Barbara Johnston for the young chorus is dramatic
and effective. The use of character quirks and comedic moments in
the writing lightens the tension and darker side of the material and
the electro-pop music works for all the characters (though I found
myself wishing for a bit more musical variety). Currently a co-production
between Outside the March and The Musical Stage Company this
show will likely continue to develop and be seen again. Please see my
upcoming interview with the Johnson sisters on our online blog at
thewholenote.com for a much more in-depth look at the show and its
creation.
Dr. Silver: A Celebration of Life, with Edge of the Sky Young Company.
I Call myself Princess: Now, from the multiple individual worlds
of Tapestry’s Briefs and the immersive single world of Dr. Silver, to
Jani Lauzon’s I Call myself Princess where two worlds 100 years apart
not only exist side by side but intersect and influence each other.
Excitingly ambitious in scope Lauzon’s “play with opera” is rich in
rediscovered historical fact and imaginative in how it combines this
history with present-day reality. From the beginning, the two worlds
seem to be overlapping, with Indigenous singing like a magical chant
opening the doors between the two. Music interweaves the 2018
world of young gay Métis opera student Will with the world, 100
years earlier; which gave rise to the classically oriented “Indianist”
music of Charles Wakefield Cadman. Cadman was a composer of
many songs but also of the first opera with an Indigenous story to
be performed at the Metropolitan Opera: Tsanewis or The Robin
Woman. When Will is given an aria from this opera to learn he
becomes obsessed with learning more about its creation. As he does,
the walls between the worlds become increasingly thin, allowing him
to meet and even interact with the woman who inspired Tsanewis –
Tsianina Redfeather, a classically trained Creek Cherokee singer who,
as Will eventually realizes, is experiencing many of the same trials
that he himself is facing as a lone Indigenous artist trying to navigate
a primarily non-Indigenous world. The power of the play comes
from this intersection and interaction, as both characters find comfort
DAHLIA KATZ
40 | October 2018 thewholenote.com