Fly me to the moon

>> Lunar metaphors spell success for Centaur and the Saidye

by AMY BARRATT

Lunar metaphors are all the rage this month, indeed this season, on the anglo theatre scene. Eugene O’Neill’s American classic A Moon for the Misbegotten is playing at Centaur, while there’s Blood on the Moon at the Saidye, a follow-up to their acclaimed Salt-Water Moon.
Confused? It hardly matters. Get yourself to either venue this weekend and you’ll see theatre that makes you believe in theatre again. Unlike so many modern plays that seem to be written with the film treatment already in mind, these two pieces, in their own ways, truly belong on the stage and nowhere else. Also, between the two of them, these productions boast two of the finest performances you’ll see in this or any other season.

Pierre Brault both wrote and performs Blood on the Moon, subtitled The Trial for the Murder of D’Arcy McGee. The convention Brault uses is that ever since being hanged for the murder, Patrick James Whelan’s spirit has been doomed to wander the earth re-enacting his trial. The theatre audience represents both the jury and the crowd of 10,000 who reportedly came out to witness the last public hanging in Canada.

Alone on stage with a single chair, Brault portrays all of the characters in the courtroom drama: judge, attorneys, and witnesses alike. The story is told with the invaluable support of Martin Conboy’s lighting design (a rectangle of light represents Whelan’s 3 x 9 foot cell, the illusion of light from a high arched window represents the courtroom). Although fully aware that most of us in the audience are as ignorant of our own country’s history as he was before beginning his research, Brault manages to give us the information we need without ever condescending or lecturing. His performance is a true tour-de-force.

I’ve saved the best for last. Jane Spidell makes her Montreal debut in a role originated on Broadway by Colleen Dewhurst, Josie Hogan in Misbegotten. If Spidell is never seen again in this city (but I hope she is) she has made her mark. A big-boned, sharp-tongued farm girl, Josie is the beating heart of this play and the kind of role actors dream of through years of movie walk-ons and commercials.

In this performance you watch a character who first appears to be comic relief, reveal layer upon layer of humanity until she seems more real than the person in the seat next to you. This being O’Neill, the sole female character in a cast of five contains all of the stereotypes: virgin, mother and whore. But Josie also, in Spidell’s performance and under the direction of Molly Smith (artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington), transcends those stereotypes.
Montreal actor Alain Goulem was due for the kind of opportunity he’s been given here, to sink his teeth into the language of O’Neill, in the role of James Tyrone Jr., the character representing O’Neill’s older, alcoholic brother. It is no small thing to say that he holds his own opposite Spidell in the long, absolutely riveting scene at the centre of this play. John Dinning’s farmhouse set, realistic yet transparent, is perfect. Do not miss this production. :

Blood on the Moon, at the Saidye to March 17, 739-7944. A Moon for the Misbegotten, at Centaur to March 31, 288-3161