Village Squire, 1979-08, Page 21come at the expense of the super -serious,
super -rational, super -organized Kerry
played by Peter Snell. At one point he tells
his wife Dolly (Seana McKenna) that they
have every year of their lives planned and
in his plans there is no place for a family.
At another he talks about the glories of
being "free" of the kinds of entanglements
a family brings. She reminds him that one
of the enjoyments of being free was that
they were supposed to travel but all he ever
wants to do is to stay home and read books.
Through him the "swinging" life is.
stripped away and shown to be shallow and
lonely.
Nichol's sympathy goes instead to Dolly
and to Peter and Celia the couple who have
lost their child, a child that brought such
enjoyment to their lives. Nichol's language
is often poetic as when Celia tells Dolly
what she can expect when the child grows
within her or when she tells Peter that she
came to life with the birth of their son, not
the other way around.
The cast is uniformly strong. Kate
Trotter as Celia ranges through the
emotions required as the bereaved mother
but always gives her character a kind' of
beauty that comes from within. Sam
Malkin as Peter switches from sardonic
humour to vicious accusations to guilt
ridden grief effortlessly. It's perhaps the
most powerful performance of the evening.
Seana McKenna as the neighbour who
wants to keep her baby turns in a
heart-warming performance filled with
innocence and simplicity yet a strength all
the other characters could yearn for. Peter
Snell as her self-centred husband showed
that even when he switches from his usual
comic roles to a tragic one here he still gets
most of the laughs. When the couple is
forced to spend the night on the fold -out
couch at Peter and Celia's house, Kerry
spends considerable time precisely folding
his clothes, even hanging his socks up
carefully. Yet the laughter is at him, not
with him and he comes off as a character
more pitied than hated.
The set and costumes by Tony Abrams
and Patsy Lang are simple and clean.
They. and John C. Hughes' lighting are
unobtrusive letting the actors and the
writing make the points.
It's a solid production that director
James Roy has put together as his final
project as artistic director at Blyth. His
final two'plays, This Foreign Land and
Child both have something important to
say to today's audience but both tell their
story in a pleasing way. The season is
balanced out with the laughs and screams
of Peter Colley's comedy thriller I'll Be
Back For You Before Midnight and the
simple fun of McGillicuddy's Lost
Weekend to provide a season that is well
balanced and is proving to be the most
successful yet for the Festival. It seems a
good note to say goodbye on for the man
who has done so much for Canadian
theatre here in Western Ontario.
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August 1979, Village Squire 19'