Old Stock and Urban Tales give new twists to traditional tales

The latest production of the Segal Centre’s 2018-2019 season gives a fresh, interesting perspective to the story of the immigrant/refugee experience to Canada at the turn of the 20^th century, and it’s done in the form of “Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story”, which is playing an extended run at the Segal Centre until December 19.

Part gypsy caravan, part travelling show and part old-time vaudeville show, “Old Stock” was originally produced by the Halifax based 2b Theatre Company, and has played to great success at the Halifax and Edinburgh Fringe Festivals, as well as across Canada and the U.K. Housed in a sturdy metal shipping container, it acts as a tableau to this representative story of what it was like for Jews to flee the anti-Semitism, oppression and violence of their Eastern European homeland during the early 1900s. It focuses on two Jewish refugees: Chaim (Dani Oore) and Chaya (Mary Fay Coady), who first meet as fellow immigrants when they land at Pier 21 in Halifax, and then make their way to Montreal to make a new life for themselves, and the hardships that they have to endure in their new home, whether it be assimilation, prejudice, the struggle to make a living, and raising a family at a time when infant mortality rates were quite high.

This historical narrative is strongly complemented with a live four-piece band (which includes the two actors who portray Chaim and Chaya) that vividly recalls the folk and traditional music of that era. And it is all held together with so much force by Ben Caplan, who portrays The Wanderer, who is its narrator, anchor and in a sense, its conscience. With manic energy, a raging talent as a musician, singer and dancer, and an amazing ability as a storyteller, Caplan is almost like Tevye on steroids, as he guides the audience through the story of Chaim and Chaya with so much flair that he knows how to wear the comedy mask (especially when he rattles off so many offbeat expressions and synonyms for the phrase “sexual intercourse”) and the tragedy mask (when he graphically describes what a pogrom in a Jewish Eastern European village was all about) to such great effect, that The Wanderer plays an integral part in this narrative of this historical tableau.

So whether you’re a first or fifth generation to immigrants to this country, “Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story” is a theatrical experience that you will not only be highly entertained by, but will strongly identify with.

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For the 12^th time, the Centaur Theatre offers the perfect antithesis to all that upbeat Christmas holiday season cheer with “Urban Tales”, which continues until December 15.

“Urban Tales” is a theatrical anthology of six stories about Christmas time (but in a dark, twisted manner) that are told by a solo performer (and accompanied by the guitar strumming courtesy of the multi-talented Harry Standjofski, who is also the creative force behind “Urban Tales”). This year’s theme is “Feathers”, and each tale has that avian material prevalent in each story, whether they play a major or minor role in the development of each narrative.

Standjofski begins the night – and sets the theme and the tone quite well – with the spiritually urban story “Exterminating Angel”; Danette MacKay’s story “The Woman’s Christmas” starts off with an exhibitionist neighbour and ends as a rather empowering story; “Motherless Milk” has Alarey Alsip relate the story of an aspiring ballerina and a rather deadly eggnog concoction; and Laurent Pitre proves that he is a rising star on the Montreal Theatre scene, as he performs two stories: “A Christmas Caroler”, a terrific piece of dark comedy about a high strung young man and a persistent, homeless man-turned-Christmas caroler, and “Douai”, a Canadian Armed Forces veteran’s Christmas story told after he is killed in Kandahar. And “Urban Tales” is wonderfully capped off with Standjofski’s manic story of a man and his dysfunctional family called “seven last words’.

And finally, a note about Standjofski’s talent as a guitar player, and his ability to create such layered musical pieces with his stringed instrument and his network of pedals that so effectively creates the tone for each story. One day, he should consider just doing a solo, non-theatrical show that would showcase his ability with the guitar and what wonders he can do with it.

So if you like to celebrate the holiday season with a dark twist to it, make “Urban Tales” part of your Christmas list … and it doesn’t matter at all of you’re naughty or nice!

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To purchase tickets for “Old Stock”, go to www.segalcentre.org. To purchase tickets for “Urban Tales”, go to www.centaurtheatre.com.

A Doll’s House, Part 2 works as a theatrical sequel

There are not many sequels of classic dramatic plays that surface nearly 140 years after the original’s stage debut, especially after its original author is long deceased before they can even commit a sequel to paper.

Lucas Hnath somehow had the audacity to walk in the shoes of 19^th century Norwegian playwright Henrik Ibsen, and wrote a follow up to his iconic 1879 drama “A Doll’s House” called, appropriately enough “A Doll’s House, Part 2”, which is now playing at the Segal Centre until December 9.

The play takes place in the year 1894, exactly 15 years after its ahead-of-its-time protagonist, the unhappy, suppressed housewife Nora Helmer (Sarah Constible), slams the door and leaves her husband Torvald (Oliver Becker), and the stifling marriage that went along with it. During that time, she has done well for herself, building a successful career as a writer of books that are geared towards women, and that promote ideas about marriage that are seen as radical.

What prompts Nora’s return to the home of her former husband is to clear a certain issue regarding their divorce, or she faces certain public exposure by the judge that can be ruinous – and criminal – to Nora. As she tries to air out the tensions between her and Torvald, her mother-in-law Anne Marie (Victoria Barkoff) and their grown up daughter Emmy (Ellie Moon), Nora discovers that this legal impasse was due to a simple reason: Torvald failed to officially file for the divorce in court, which makes their separation illegal. This puts a wrench in what Nora hoped would be a cathartic visit to the place where she went through a rather loveless marriage.

Although it feels like a play that is literally 140 years in the making, “A Doll’s House, Part 2” is not awash in 19^th century thinking, as it deals with domestic issues that still resonate today. As well, the dialogue is not of the stiff, stuffy nature that was common with drawing room dramas of that period; it is written with a clearer, comprehensive slant to it that contemporary audiences will better understand the situations and dilemmas of Nora and Torvald (and complete with some modern colorful language, too). However, to fully appreciate this play, it’s best to familiarize one’s self with Ibsen’s original work so that you don’t have to go into this production rather blindly (and thanks to the Segal Centre, they provide a concise summary of it in the programme book).

And kudos to set designer Pierre-Etienne Locas for his simple, understated set, which combines late 19^th century parlour décor with a minimal, neo-expressionist air to it.

“A Doll’s House, Part 2” is a compelling play of how a strong, female character who strikes a blow for women’s rights at a time when they really didn’t have any to speak of, tries to find a sense of personal closure and still has to smash through more glass ceilings before she reaches that closure. It achieves that rare accomplishment in theatre of a sequel to a classic piece of drama that actually works, so that a difficult situation can go full circle and reach its hopefully logical conclusion.