Shaw Festival Spiegeltent
Background
The lovely historic Spiegeltent was brought over from Belgium so that the Shaw Festival could mount small cabaret productions of all different kinds. It added a whole new layer of programming to the festival — informal, inventive, and intimate. And alas, this is its last year, but artistic director Tim Carroll has hinted that the Shaw Festival may build its own version of the Spiegeltent in the future.
These performances have proved quite popular — and varied — offering something entirely different from the Festival’s mainstage fare.
La Vie en Rose, directed by Jay Turvey, music direction by Paul Sportelli, closes Sept. 25.
La Vie en Rose, billed as An Evening In Paris, turned out to be one of my favourite shows of the Shaw season.
As the title would suggest, it was a potpourri of beloved French songs — the ones we all know — but it also featured several lesser-known gems which made the evening feel fresh and exploratory.
Directed by Jay Turvey, with musical direction by the ever-reliable Paul Sportelli (Shaw’s man of music) – I assume the men conceived the show—the songs were delivered by a charming quartet of singers, accompanied by a jazz trio of piano, bass, and drums.
But what truly elevated this production — what made it more than just a pleasant cabaret evening — was the presence of four male dancers. Their movement, choreographed with verve and surprise by Matt Alfano, gave the whole experience a special touch.
Hats, props, clever partnering — the dancers weaved in and out of the singers, filling the tent with elegance and flair. It was unexpected and delightful, and for me, it lifted La Vie en Rose to one of the standout highlights of the season. Full marks to Turvey, Alfano, and Sportelli for bringing it all together
May I have the pleasure? created by Alexis Milligan, closes Sept. 26.
May I Have the Pleasure? was created by Alexis Milligan, and the only advance description in the program was the cryptic line: “Once we all used to dance, and now we don’t.” The Festival guide hinted that the evening would deal with “the precious and nearly lost art of social dancing”. The goal, apparently, was to get audiences moving again — but exactly how that would play out was a mystery.
It turned out to be a participatory event, with the audience learning two dances: one a traditional country dance, and the other a modern one. In fact, each performance of May I Have the Pleasure? featured different dances, and the final performance promised to include all the country and modern dances taught during the run to be shown in one big blowout dance extravaganza.
I would say at least 80 to 90 percent of the audience took part — cleary people came ready to have fun. The event was supported by four Shaw performers, all drawn from the musical theatre side, who helped lead the room and keep the atmosphere festive.
On the evening I attended, the historic dance was the Roger de Coverley, and the modern number was The Hustle. Did I enjoy watching people learn dances? Perhaps I would have had more fun if I had joined in — or if there had been a costumed demonstration to go with it. Still, if the measure was communal joy, May I Have the Pleasure? delivered.
Talk Is Free Theatre/The Frogs by Aristophanes (405 BC), freely adapted by Burt Shevelove, even more freely adapted by Nathan Lane, music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, choreographed by Julio Fuentes, music direction by Ben Page, directed by Griffin Hewitt, July 11-13.
This final July offering in the Spiegeltent was a little tuck-in — a short three-day run in the middle of the month presented by Talk Is Free Theatre, the very enterprising company out of Barrie under the leadership of Arkady Spivak.
It was a production of The Frogs, one of Stephen Sondheim’s early and more obscure works, originally staged in 1974 and later revised (notably by Nathan Lane) in 2004.
Based on the ancient Greek comedy by Aristophanes, the show follows Dionysus, who disillusioned with the state of the arts, journeys to Hades in search of a great playwright who can restore meaning and moral clarity to the world. He initially sets out to retrieve George Bernard Shaw, but a debate in the underworld between Shaw and Shakespeare ends with Shakespeare triumphing — a choice that suggests lyrical poetry might prevail over razor-sharp wit and critique.
The cast was strong: John-Michael Scapin as Dionysus, Taylor Garwood as his slave Xanthias, Richard Lam as Shaw, and Nolan Moberly as Shakespeare. But the journey to the underworld itself was tedious. The chorus of frogs, the rivers to cross, the overlong transitions — this was Sondheim being too clever by half. I often feel he’s a composer in love with himself, and after the first fifteen minutes, I found myself just waiting for the underworld scenes to begin.
Directed by Griffin Hewitt, the production was ultimately more interesting for its rarity than its impact. As a field study of an early Sondheim experiment, it may have its place — but for me, it didn’t register. I found neither the text nor the songs clever or amusing and in truth, The Frogswas rather a bore.