>>REVIEW
TEMPTING PROVIDENCE
Runs until April 1
Alberta Theatre Projects
Martha Cohen Theatre (Epcor Centre)
Surely, deep in the heart of every theatre artist, there is a childhood spent with towels turned into costumes and furniture abused as ersatz set pieces. What other kind of person would endure student loans, grant applications and the distinct possibility of stinging reviews, all to play pretend in front of complete strangers?
With its four actors creating the isolated community of Daniel’s Harbour using only four chairs, a table and a tablecloth, Tempting Providence is elementary, compelling theatre loaded with the same joyful energy of original make-believe. Currently running at the Martha Cohen Theatre, this production’s elegance and gentle humour prove why it has been a touring success for Theatre Newfoundland since its premiere in 2002.
Written by Newfoundland playwright Robert Chafe, Tempting Providence is the true story of Myra Bennet (Deidre Gillard Rowlings), a nurse whose two-year medical contract for an isolated stretch of northern Newfoundland coast eventually made her a British expatriate. Outlining her first years on the island, through the eyes of her eventual husband, Angus (Darryl Hopkins) and the coast’s various characters, played by Robert Wyatt Thorne and Melanie Caines, Bennett is revealed as a woman of severe character and unwavering strength. From the necessary introductions to the town’s skeptical inhabitants to the play’s climactic late night rescue, Bennet’s gradual but uneasy integration into her adoptive home might seem standard fare were it not for the production’s undeniable charm.
Originally designed to tour local seniors’ homes, requiring a portable set and only the most basic lighting cues, the entire production fits on a square, beige mat that complements the equal monochrome scheme of the play’s costumes. With all four actors on stage at all times, retreating to the mat’s far corners when not in play and a lighting design that calls only for its lights to go up or down, director Jillian Keiley’s staging is both a wonderfully appropriate application of Beckett-like practicality and a strikingly beautiful image.
The same ingenuity that makes a white sheet into a ball of dough or a set of stacked chairs into a porch railing often provides as delightful a trick as it does an understated example of economy. On opening night, a tablecloth binding a pair of chairs together to create a working cradle, rocking between the chairs’ legs, was enough to make the audience coo, proving that people willing to suspend their disbelief are exactly the kind who like to see a magic trick every now and then.
In a production of such striking minimalism, Tempting Providence is gifted by the strength of its actors, carrying the full weight of their invisible world. From the quiet resolve of Rowlings’s Bennet to Hopkins’s measured narration and the rapidly changing characters of Thorne and Caine, the cast’s exceptional ability to render Chafe’s world is as striking as Keiley’s elegant production design.
Theatre is a kind of elementary magic – its sleeves hang wide open. The audience agrees to accept that the stage is fair Verona and that a play’s actors are truly reacting to a world taking shape around them. Though it may lack the full, thundering emotional range of its ATP predecessor, Tempting Providence is certainly one of the most striking shows to be staged in the Martha Cohen Theatre since Meg Roe’s stunning performance in 2005’s The Syringa Tree, and perhaps the strongest production of this 2006-07 season. Returning to the basics of theatre’s appeal, Tempting Providence is make-believe for grownups. |
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