Fine acting, questionable casting

>> Orphan Muses's dysfunctional family doesn't give us enough emotion

by AMY BARRATT

Before I start to nit-pick, I should state for the record that The Orphan Muses is a wonderful play and the current production at Centaur is well worth seeing. The play, by Michel Marc Bouchard--in a virtually flawless translation by Linda Gaboriau--is set in Saint-Ludger de Milot, Lac Saint-Jean, in 1965. The action takes place in the Tanguay family home, where the eldest sister, Catherine, and the youngest, Isabelle, still live. Brother Luc and middle sister Martine have returned this Easter weekend from Montreal and Germany, respectively.

Maman is either dead or in Spain, depending on which of the siblings you talk to. Either way, she has been gone for 20 years. Catherine, 35, having had to take on the role of mother to the younger ones, seems old before her time, burdened with guilt and responsibility. Isabelle, at 27, remains in a childish state. Luc, the sensitive artist type, also seems unable to grow up, clinging to his mother's memory by dressing up in her old clothes. Martine is the "butch soldier" who has moved as far away as possible from her past.

Conscious of the emotional range required by the script, director Jackie Maxwell says she "put the cast together slowly, to really build a family." In spite or perhaps because of that focus, she made some odd casting decisions.

Take Ben Bass as Luc. I'm not saying this character has to be wispy and effeminate, but a soupçon of those qualities wouldn't hurt. The macho Bass, dressed in a floor-length white gown, with black chest hair peeking over his decolletage, definitely has impact, but I'm not sure he's what the playwright had in mind. Luc's stated purpose in dressing up as a woman is to exact revenge on the small-minded villagers of Saint-Ludger on his mother's behalf. The possibility that he likes wearing drag for its own sake isn't even entertained in this production. Similarly, tall, blonde and gorgeous Fiona Highet as Martine is about as butch as Meg Ryan was in Courage Under Fire. This is, I admit, a tricky area. Had either of these characters been taken too far in the opposite direction, there'd have been a chorus of protest about stereotypes.

My problem with Isabelle, played by Waneta Storms, is one of the director's interpretation of the role. Storms has clearly been directed to play the character as physically uncoordinated and at least slightly mentally retarded. Although she is referred to throughout the play as "dummy" and much worse, there's room to argue that her "retardation" is emotional or social, resulting from her sheltered life, rather than mental. Because if Isabelle is really handicapped, how is it that she transforms near the end into someone quite poised and articulate?

Although I appreciate Maxwell wanting to keep this emotional rollercoaster of a play on track so it didn't become "just a bunch of people screaming at each other," there's something slightly too restrained about the whole production. That could have been partly opening night jitters though. I liked The Orphan Muses enough to consider going back later in the run to see how it has grown.

At the Centaur Theatre until Nov. 30