Taking aim at city’s violent past
REVIEW
Duel at Dawn OOO By Glenda MacFarlane. Directed by Ruth Madoc-Jones. Until Oct. 16 at St. James Cathedral, 65 Church St. 416-652-7672. You’d be hard- pressed to find a nicer place to see a play on a sunny autumn afternoon than St. James Park on King St. E., right next to the cathedral.
That’s where the Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People has launched its 40th anniversary season with an imaginative production of Duel at Dawn, which would definitely make a pleasant family outing sometime in the next two weeks. The script by Glenda MacFarlane begins with historical fact: the 1817 duel between Samuel Jarvis and John Ridout that ended with one of them dead. It’s usually cited as being the last formal duel fought in Toronto — although anyone who’s been living here for the past few months might question that claim.
Just like many of the fatal shootings currently terrifying our city, the Jarvis- Ridout affair was a matter of wounded pride, family history and sheer bloodymindedness. The actual facts were never known and conjecture over what caused the fatal argument still fascinates people nearly 200 years later.
MacFarlane offers a plausible scenario, rooted in the kind of antipathy that ran rampant in this city when it was still known as “ Muddy York.”
Jarvis is, of course, one of the family who would eventually have Jarvis St. named after them: people of substance and privilege. Ridout, on the other hand, came from more common stock and although only 18, was a veteran of the War of 1812. Add some romantic complications and a business deal gone wrong. The stage is set for a conflict that is destined to have a tragic denouement. But while MacFarlane’s basic plotting is satisfactory, her actual writing leaves a lot to be desired. The script often sounds like an extended version of a “ Heritage Minute.” To add that 19th century touch, she tosses in a handful of words like “dastard,” “zounds” and “ dunderheaded,” but they alternate with undigested pop psychological tidbits such as “ You’ve just got to let it go.” She also begins by telling us what a rough- and- tumble place the city was back in those days, but then confuses us by having her characters all act in a rather genteel fashion. But if the script stumbles, then the director and cast come to its rescue. Ruth Madoc- Jones has done an inventive job of staging the play all around the grounds of the park. Now on a hillside, next in a gazebo, then in front of the side entrance to the cathedral. She manages to keep it all moving nicely, without getting into the horribly artificial “ walking tour” mode that these site- specific productions can fall prey to. Only once does she miscalculate, when the climactic final duel is played against a vista of Adelaide St., a parking lot, and some dumpsters. She has a historical reason for picking that location (which I won’t give away), but it doesn’t make it any more visually appropriate. The cast captures the presentational mood of the piece nicely, led by Sean Dixon as an amiably scruffy narrator, while Eric Trask and Claire Calnan do good work in a variety of roles. Our focus ultimately lands with the two gentlemen who fought the duel. Christopher Sawchyn has just the right air of well-bred contempt as Jarvis, while Gray Powell captures the youthful hot- headedness of Ridout in a charming way.
All in all, Duel at Dawn makes for an amiable hour of entertainment with historical resonance. A grave marker commemorating the event is inside St. James Cathedral and it’s always good to think about the origins of the place we live in.
It would have been even better if it had found a way to tie our past and our present together more consistently. Even so, the isolated line like “ You get angry, so you pick up guns” still rings far too true.