ROSEBUD'S CHARIOTS OF FIRE AN ENGAGING WINNER
There is an increasingly popular trend to turn films into stage plays, putting quite an onus on the directors who take up the gauntlet.
Fortunately for Rosebud Theatre's production of the 1981 Oscar-winning drama Chariots of Fire, director Morris Ertman is more than up for the challenge.
British playwright Mike Bartlett, who adapted the screenplay, shifts the focus in his Chariots of Fire from the physical endurance of training and competing to the emotional and psychological duress of the story's two heroes.
Harold Abrahams (Aaron Krogman) was the son of a Lithuanian Jew who was conscious of the antisemitism at Cambridge, not just from some of his fellow students, but from the professors and administrators. He was determined to make his mark as a runner, hopefully earning their respect and acceptance as an Englishman.
Eric Liddell (Joe Perry) was the son of a Scottish Christian missionary in China who, believing God had given him this gift of speed, was determined to use it to glorify the Almighty. Ironically, Eric's greatest opposition came from his sister Jennie (Irene Poole) who felt competitive running was innately degrading.
Ertman has Krogman and Perry show how physically demanding competitive running is, which they manage to do quite realistically, but he also asks them to show the inner turmoil each man faces. The anger Abrahams feels is evident in Krogman's body language. You can almost feel his muscles tensing at certain remarks, and those emotions register on his face. Perry shows how hard Liddell works to suppress his anger, but his soft smiles are strained.
Off the track, Abrahams and Liddell are not real adversaries which minimizes the tension in their relationship. When they both get to the Paris Olympics, Liddell refuses to run in the 100-metre race because it is held on a Sunday. The scene in which Abrahams confronts him is one of the most powerful in the play. Abrahams says if he and Liddell don't compete, he will never know if he can beat him, which is what spurred him on in his training. You can almost see Perry reconsidering because he understands and respects that kind of motivation. It's a great moment for both Krogman and Perry.
Abrahams strikes up a relationship with Sybil Evers (Emily Howard), a singer with the famed D'oyly Carte Opera Company. Howard shows how difficult it is to share him with running, his real mistress. In Paris, Liddell meets Florence (Hailey Foss) a young Canadian girl, and their relationship is played for levity more than romance or drama.
Ertman fills out the cast with some exceptional character actors, and it's their performances which add so much of the colour, drama and humour to the production. A great deal of work has gone into the creation of all the secondary characters.
There's Austin Halarewich as the upper-class Lord Andrew Lindsay, Christian Krushel as Aubrey Montague, Abrahams' first, and most steadfast friend at Cambridge, and Griffin Cork as Liddell's bagpipe-playing childhood friend. Mike Thiessen brings genuine pathos to Sam Mussabini, who becomes Abrahams' trainer, and Declan O'reilly is a standout in all the roles he plays.
The running sequences are extremely well executed, and Ertman's set, though simple, is highly functional and visually impressive.
Luke Ertman's original score captures the emotional shifts in the play, and his use of songs from Gilbert and Sullivan operettas is an excellent touch.
Chariots of Fire runs at Rosebud until May 25.
It's a rewarding evening of theatre, not just in its storytelling but in its design, direction and acting.