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Uptown Magazine - Winnipeg's Online Source for Arts, Entertainment & News

April 15, 2010


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2010-04-15

Shed a little light on the subject

Glorious! ostensibly tells the story of American ‘soprano’ Florence Foster Jenkins — but it doesn’t offer much insight into who she was

GLORIOUS!
Until April 25, Prairie Theatre Exchange

American soprano (to use the term loosely) Florence Foster Jenkins is an intriguing character on whom to base a play, but playwright Peter Quilter seems almost oblivious to this fact in Glorious!

Supposedly chronicling the relationship between Jenkins (played with comic aplomb by Shelley Thompson) and her pianist, Cosme McMoon (played with static bewilderment by Patrick Burwell, who only seems comfortable playing the piano), Glorious! gives us very little into that relationship — or the story of Jenkins itself.

A rich New York socialite who died at age 76 in 1944, Jenkins had a steadfast dream to sing — and the cash to back up that dream. She also had a terrible voice. It’s a fascinating story that culminates in Jenkins performing at Carnegie Hall to a sold-out crowd.

It seems Glorious! is supposed to be about the transformative power of Jenkins’ passion. The cynical McMoon takes a job as her accompanist for the money, but ends up believing in the power of this woman who has the guts to follow her dream. Or something like that. Honestly, it’s hard to say why anyone does anything in this play, because the characters feel as flimsy as the petals of the flowers Jenkins so dearly loved.

Why does McMoon stay with Jenkins, aside from the money? Who knows? Why does Jenkins inspire the blindly devoted friendship of the sweetly dotty Dorothy (Terri Cherniack)? Your guess is as good as mine. And why, oh why, does Jenkins have a ridiculous Mexican maid who is a walking caricature? Goodness help us.

The whole work has the sustainability of a piano note snatched from the air. Jenkins, as written by Quilter, isn’t particularly likable, so it’s baffling as to why anyone would be wrapped up in her dream. She’s a rich, selfish socialite who has the money to do what she wants. It’s not exactly pulling yourself up by the bootstraps to pursue your dream of curing cancer.

Following your passion should be an inspiration but, in this setting (albeit a beautiful one designed by Brian Perchaluk), Jenkins seems more foolish than inspiring, hanging onto notes from Cole Porter as proof of her talent.

Thompson tries her best in the role, and her final scene as Jenkins, performing at Carnegie Hall in wildly over-the-top angel’s wings is a comic treat, but the writing does her no favours. Bad double entendres about Cole Porter loving pansies are simply antiquated and wince-worthy. If we have to sit through Thompson’s screeching à la Jenkins, there should be a payoff of some sort, not just a couple of laughs at the terrible singing.

Since Jenkins’ legacy remains, she must have been more than a joke. But Glorious! does little to shed light on who she really was or why we should care about her now.
— Barb Stewart

Close, but not quite

North Main Gothic has plenty of potential, but it’s never quite realized

NORTH MAIN GOTHIC
Theatre Projects Manitoba
Until April 18, Canwest Centre for Theatre & Film

For the final production of its 20th season, Theatre Projects Manitoba stays very close to home with Winnipeg actor/playwright Carolyn Gray’s North Main Gothic. Chronicling the intertwining lives of some desperate and, seemingly, disparate Winnipeggers, North Main Gothic aims high and achieves mixed results.

With A+ casting and design, this tale of the scourge of VLTs on the poor side of this city stacks the deck with talent. And while the script is overflowing with the potential for big payoffs, its attempts to tell too many stories at once sometimes breaks the bank.

When the play opens, we find smarmy businessman Ian Trelkovsky (Eric Blais) talking on his Blackberry while driving — you can guess the result. While lying barely conscious after crashing, Ian is robbed of all of his valuable possessions, including his precious Blackberry, by the street-smart VLT addict Stella Dupree (Monique Marcker).

Their paths cross again later at Ian’s Provincial Power workplace, where Stella is begging the white-masked Lisa P. (Alicia Johnston) not to cut off her power. When Stella becomes belligerent against the faceless powers-that-be who want to know every intimate detail of her life (and who stay safely masked to protect their own identities), Ian, as the boss, is called in for help. Stella flees, only to be attacked by a mysterious robed monk figure (Rob Beilfuss) outside the building. And that is just the beginning.

Ian, obsessed with payback, wants to find Stella and exact his revenge. This leads him into the bowels of North Main and literally, Winnipeg itself, with Janice Brook (Krista Jackson) a pseudo-documentarian/prostitute/provincial employee as his guide.

Along the way, we also meet the good-hearted schizophrenic Joe Strong (Graham Ashmore), a friend of Stella’s whose simple request to place a memorial wreath for his murdered friend is denied by another faceless bureaucrat (this one suitably attired in a black veil) since too much time has passed since the murder.

These stories of the haves and have-nots of our city are deeply felt by playwright Gray. Stella’s life has been destroyed by her addiction but she is still a caring friend who keeps an eye on Joe. The gainfully employed Ian and Lisa, the ones with “successful” lives, are just as screwed up as the downtrodden street people. But the power of these stories is distilled because too much other plot is being amassed.

There’s Janice, who’s necessary to lead Ian into the underbelly of the city, but whose motivations remain muddied and muddled until the end. And there’s the Robe, a clever character in theory, whose unmasking is clumsy and almost lost amongst the other stories.

There are many fabulous features of North Main Gothic: its jaw-droppingly inventive set, thanks to designer Hugh Conacher, its dark humour (including a hilarious VLT emblazoned with a portrait of Burton Cummings), the huge heart of the script, and the wonderful performances by all of the actors. But in the end, one is left feeling like North Main Gothic’s potential has not yet been fulfilled. A gamble has been taken, but too many chips are left on the table.
— Barb Stewart

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