The Citizen, 2016-08-11, Page 18PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016.
`If Truth Be Told' tells an even-handed story
From all angles
The Blyth Festival's third play of the season, If Truth Be Told, tells the story of books being
removed from classroom curriculums in the late 1970s through several different viewpoints.
The books, including real-life examples The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger, Of Mice and
Men by John Steinbeck and Margaret Laurence's The Diviners are joined by a book crafted by
fictional author Peg Dunlop, played by Catherine Fitch, shown at right. The entire process of
removing the books from the classrooms started when a student, Jennifer Pigot, shown
seated and played by Meghan Chalmers brings home one of the books and her mother
Maysie, shown above being portrayed by Rebecca Auerbach, finds the content disturbing. (terry
Manzo photo)
By Denny Scott
The Citizen
If Truth Be Told, the third of the
four offerings from the Blyth
Festival's 2016 summer season, is
not the play that I expected it to be.
The play is good, interesting and
shines a light on something that
happened close to home in the late
1970s, however the star of the show
isn't necessarily the person you
might expect it to be.
As a matter of fact, in a cast of
five, each member could be
considered the star at one point or
another and the characters that I
wanted to see more of were not the
ones that I expected them to be.
The play has an interesting take on
the situation, that being certain
books facing removal from the
required reading list in high school
classrooms in the late 1970s. It
presents the issue as a balanced
debate between individuals
interested in expanding the
experiences of the students and those
looking to make sure the beliefs they
hold at home are respected by the
teachers at school.
As a matter of fact, of all the
people arguing the matter; a teacher,
a church elder and trustee of the
school board, a student and her
mother, and, of course, Peg Dunlop,
the hometown author of one of the
books set to be removed from the
classrooms, I found myself least
drawn to Dunlop, the play's
protagonist.
What I expected to be a tale of
Dunlop, brought to life by Blyth
Festival mainstay Catherine Fitch,
citing the great works of the past to
defend her works was decidedly not
that.
Don't go to this play looking for
the rebellious tale of an author
defending her works because this is
not that sort of play. Go to see a fair
view of something that happened,
presented through various
viewpoints that make the story make
sense and accessible by audiences of
today.
Both the director Miles Potter and
the playwright Beverley Cooper
foretold of this situation; that it
wouldn't be an uphill fight or a play
focused on an "issue", but instead
one showing both sides of an
interesting subject matter and both
seemed to have hit the mark.
The play features J.D. Nicholsen
as Harry Briggs, the church
elder/school board trustee and, while
Briggs could easily have been a
villain, he ends up coming off as
someone reasonable and, above all,
likable. He doesn't blindside people
and tried his hardest to stop the
process of banning books from
becoming a personal one against his
fellow townsperson.
That said, there are villainous
moments in Briggs' crusade against
the books that show he is willing to
do what he needs to for the good of
his children.
Rebecca Auerbach plays Maysie
Pigot, a caretaker to Dunlop's
mother and mother herself to
Jennifer Pigot, a member of the class
that is set to read Dunlop's book.
Jennifer, brought to life by Meghan
Chalmers ended up being one of the
most interesting characters in the
play for me. At the intermission, I
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found myself wanting to know more
of her story and less about those of
the others. I wanted to know how the
proposed book ban would affect her
and, fortunately, in the second half
of the play, a good deal of time was
spent on her character.
Anita La Selva plays English
teacher Carmella Thorpe who
champions the cause of keeping
Dunlop's book, as well as The
Diviners, The Catcher in the Rye and
Of Mice and Men in classrooms.
Thorpe, an immigrant who
married a missionary from the area
and recently started teaching English
at the local high school, brought
Dunlop's book to the forefront of the
issue by assigning it as reading for
her class. She also brought Dunlop
into the classroom in an attempt to
enkindle a passion for the text in her
students.
Interestingly enough, of all the
characters, I found Dunlop's to be
the least engaging.
It wasn't due to acting ability, but
due to the fact that the character,
until very late in the play, seems to
be immature.
She treats criticisms of her work as
attacks on herself and says as much
in the first half of the play. Those
who create would quickly grow to
understand that not all works are
appreciated by all people and, the
fact that she has been admired the
world over should have been enough
for her to not feel personally
attacked by the moves in the play. I
understand the desire to fight back,
to allow the students to read the
books, but to come out and plainly
state that an attack on her work is an
attack on her seems immature.
She also seems to see the world in
black and white. She can't grasp the
fact that no one is suggesting that her
book should be burned, just removed
from this school board's particular
reading list. Her likening of the
situation to an Orwellian nightmare
when it's a much smaller issue than
that makes it difficult to feel for her
position.
Dunlop doesn't return home to
take up the mantle in this fight, in
fact the fight occurs after she comes
home to take care of her ailing
mother, whom she treats, like many
other people, as an adversary.
The other characters have their
virtues and their flaws making them
believable, while Dunlop,
throughout, sees a binary world.
Again, that isn't a fault on
anyone's part in the play — it's how
the character was written. It just
makes it difficult to feel for someone
in her position.
While the play was great and
definitely worth seeing, there were
some tweaks that would have made
the experience a more enveloping
one.
While much of the sound designs
are fantastic (the music in particular
was great) some of the other choices
distracted from the play, piping in
the sound of children snickering or
asking questions among them.
The fact that the mother Dunlop
came home to care for is treated as
an accessory was also somewhat
distracting and left me wondering
who is this mystery woman at the
top of the stairs.
All things considered, however,
the play is one definitely worth
taking in and a strong addition to the
premieres hosted at the Blyth
Festival this year.
If Truth Be Told runs at the
Blyth Festival until Sept. 3.
For more information, visit
www.blythfestival.com or call
1-877-862-5984
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