The Citizen, 2016-08-11, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2016. PAGE 19.
Garratt gets creative in 'Last Donnelly Standing'
Donnelly. He is funny, vengeful,
angry, thoughtful and defiant over
the course of the play, all while
incorporating plenty of music into
the show — including a guitar, a
violin, a banjo and an accordion. He
visits different stops in his life over
the course of the show; running a
coach line, getting married, the
Donnelly family massacre, spending
time in jail, moving away from
Lucan and then being drawn back,
living on the village's main street.
The show is fast -paced and
engaging and it keeps audience
members on their toes for a number
of reasons.
While The Last Donnelly Standing
has been billed by the Festival as the
"ultimate fiery epilogue" to the
Donnelly story, I'd suggest it's
closer to a sitcom -style spin-off (in
style, not in subject matter).
Donnelly, much like Garratt's
portrayal of the man himself, stands
alone with a story worth telling —
Last man standing
Blyth Festival Artistic Director Gil Garratt put his acting chops to work last Friday at the
premiere of The Last Donnelly Standing at Memorial Hall. The one-man show, directed by Paul
Thompson, is the final production of the Festival season. (Terry Manzo photo)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
Those sitting in The Last Donnelly
Standing audience looking for a
comprehensive and sensical
epilogue to the Donnelly saga have
come to the wrong place. As have
those unwilling to exercise their
imaginations to their farthest
reaches.
Those aren't my words — they're
Robert Donnelly's. Well, they're Gil
Garratt's really, as he portrays
Donnelly on the Memorial Hall
stage.
Garratt is the Blyth Festival's
artistic director and the star of the
one-man show that is the Festival's
final of the season. And this is the
first revisitation to the Donnelly tale
since the Festival's wildly popular
The Outdoor Donnellys, which
graced the Festival stage in 2001,
2002 and 2004.
I say the Festival stage, but really,
the play touched the four corners of
Blyth and everywhere in between, as
the Paul Thompson -directed outdoor
production was easily the biggest in
Festival history.
Thompson and Garratt, who acted
in Thompson's Outdoor Donnellys
are back together again for The Last
Donnelly Standing, along with co -
creator Beth Kates, whose projection
work plays a crucial role in the
play's on-stage storytelling.
In interviews with both Garratt
and Thompson ahead of the
production, the pair made it clear the
show would have no script and its
narrative is fluid, in that one night's
show could differ greatly from
another over the course of the
season.
This is a fashion in which both
creators thrive. Thompson, over the
course of his illustrious Canadian
theatre career, has made it clear that
the power of the moment and
improvisation are what excite him
on stage. He has also made it clear
that in order to do something on
stage, it helps to excel at it off-stage
as well.
In the weeks leading up to the
world premiere of The Last Donnelly
Standing, Garratt learned to ride a
horse, worked with a blacksmith
forge and physically visited sites that
would be depicted in the play.
The type of theatre the pair bring
to audiences requires boots on the
ground and fingers in the dirt rather
than Google research.
Garratt's eccentric and physical
style of acting is made for the unique
setting of the one-man show. He is
larger than life as Robert Donnelly
and anyone else he encounters over
the course of The Last Donnelly
Standing.
The mere suggestion of a fourth
wall between Garratt and his
audience is dashed immediately as
he bounds out from backstage and
immediately addressess the
audience. This interaction sets the
tone for the next two hours, during
which anything can, may and will
happen.
Thompson plays polar opposite
roles as a director. In the weeks
3,wctlicwning ✓Vicvvuage
Don and Marleen Hill
of Blyth
are pleased to announce the
marriage of their son
Bradley Gordon
to
Veronica Lonna
daughter of
Rick and Marilyn Tyndall
of Clinton
The wedding will take place
Saturday, September 3, 2016
at three o'clock
at the Hessenland Country Inn
Zurich, Ontario
preparing for the play, he encourages
his actors to get their hands dirty.
Whether it's loading bales of hay as
he did in The Farm Show or working
in a blacksmith shop as he did with
Garratt, Thompson pushes his actors
all the time to dig deeper.
On stage, however, once that
foundation is built, he encourages
actors to go with the moment and
explore their improvisational side.
Thompson's reaction to The
Outdoor Donnellys opening night
years back tells you all you need to
know about his appetite for the
unexpected. Garratt often tells the
story of a massive temperature drop
and a huge thunderstorm moving the
opening night production indoors. A
thunderstorm on an outdoor show
would devastate most directors,
Garratt said, but Thompson was
inspired and thrilled by the chaos, he
said.
Back to The Last Donnelly
Standing, Garratt runs the gamut as
44.
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whether you saw The Outdoor
Donnellys or not.
The Last Donnelly Standing is on
the Memorial Hall stage until Sept.
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