Recent play brings back memories
I took in a recent performance of Marat/Sade at the CBU Boardmore Playhouse and remembered the first time I had seen this play.
It was 40 years ago at the Sydney Academy gymnasium and the director was Harry Boardmore, a man who was introducing a new wave of drama and theater to Cape Breton at the time.
As a Xavier College student and an active member of the college paper, I was assigned to write a review. I picked the opening night to view this controversial and complex play.
It was a night at the theater I will never forget.
When I walked into the auditorium, I noticed there was no conventional stage area, no proscenium arch to divide the actors from the audience. And when the lights dimmed to begin the play, you were transported to another time, another place and you strangely felt part of the action. The energy exuded that night throughout that confined space was palpable. It ebbed and flowed in differing degrees of intensity.
But it was all reined in by the expert direction of Boardmore, and the commanding performance of Gary Walsh as the Marquis de Sade ¬ a noteworthy debut performance, for sure.
I wrote the review for the college paper as honestly and accurately as I could, and went into hiding for three days as the reviews of my review surfaced. Some were harsh. Harry himself congratulated me on the review. He said it was very good. He seemed surprised.
Sadly, the Marat/Sade directed by Walsh I saw on Jan. 26 lacked the overall intensity of the original. But then again, I’m much older now, and the play may have lost some of its freshness.
I was so pleased to see and feel the ensemble acting of the cast, everyone in sync with their timing and engrossed in their characters.
Marat, played by Mike McPhee, was exceptional. I could see the magnitude, the concern and the weariness in his eyes. This is difficult to do, but done well by McPhee.
The Herald, played by Carol Anne Gillis, was delightful. She controlled the narrative, smoothed out the pace of the play and centered the focus of the actions. She did this all with that mischievous smile. Well done.
I had a problem with the Marquis de Sade, played by Robert Lewandowski. He saw de Sade differently than I did. Yet Lewandowski played him well and convincingly if not as commanding as I would have liked.
And I had problems with the set, which I think put up limitations causing blocking nightmares inhibiting the flow and focus of the activity in the play.
That being said, I thoroughly enjoyed the evening performance. It was a treat to see this monumental play done again after all these years. I have always considered Marat/Sade directed by Harry Boardmore to be the defining dramatic performance that changed and invigorated the theater culture in Cape Breton.
The performance Friday evening was an apt thank you to Harry and Liz Boardmore. Bernard MacKinnon Dominion