>>REVIEW
THY NEIGHBOUR’S WIFE
Runs until May 26
Urban Curvz Theatre
Joyce Doolittle Theatre (Pumphouse Theatres)
Jennie Hawkes has just committed the "only unselfish act of her life," angrily murdering Mrs. Stoley. This solves the problem of Rosella Stoley’s flagrant affair with Jennie’s husband, but with the sordid romance over, one woman is dead, another is standing trial, and both are legally considered property.
Rosella is grave-silent, and Jennie is not allowed to defend herself in a man’s courtroom. Jennie’s maid Aisling , however, has voice aplenty to spare. The chipper Irish lass – 25 and straight from a transatlantic voyage – begins to dance with time and spin the tale for us.
Of course, this being an Urban Curvz production, the story becomes more than a simple tale of the virgin scorned and the dead whore. The theatre company, whose mandate is to celebrate the excellence of female theatre practitioners, has once again picked a production with solid, dimensional female characters.
Time, of course, is one of the dimensions that matters here. Aisling is quick to point out that it is 1915. That must seem like a long time ago to the audience, but was exciting and modern for her. In fact, Aisling and other characters – including a marvellous fiddler providing not only the soundtrack, but stamping out gunshots and tap dancing out scenes – appear to be ghostly, free to move through time and space. Sometimes they notice each other, and sometimes they don’t. There are even scenes where two times occur simultaneously, and begin to bleed into each other.
All this sounds like it could be messy and confusing, but it isn’t. Valerie Planche’s direction and the cast’s acting are smooth and completely comfortable with the script’s shifting times and places. The audience is often let into that circle of understanding with metatheatrical asides that are often humorous to boot: when Rosella snipes at her for talking all the time, Aisling quips, "Well, I am kind of the narrator, you know."
Thy Neighbour’s Wife is an inventively staged telling of the first woman sentenced to hang in Alberta. It also tells the important tale of an all-woman backlash against that sentence, as the murderess had no legal right to defend herself.
Jamie Konchak does a magnificent job of playing the beleaguered Jennie Hawkes. Although the character’s depth is apparent in the writing, in less skilled hands, Jennie runs the danger of becoming a cold-fish society woman, instead of a woman who is acting the way she does because she doesn’t know what to do.
The other actors (including fiddler Allison Lynch) navigate this deft script with remarkable aplomb. Simone Saunder’s portrayal of Rosella Stoley not only makes you agitated enough to shoot the damned woman yourself, you also regret such cold-blooded thoughts later when Rosella’s facade begins to crack. Her paramour and Jennie’s husband, Wilfred, is played by Len Harvey with charismatic creepiness. As the only male, Wilfred’s job is to provoke conflicts and situations, and to stand in for the whole of patriarchal evil in 1915 Alberta. He’s almost not human – except for his love of sweets, especially his mother’s butter tarts. Everything is candy for this man, with the exception of his own wife.
What really gives the play life and verve, however, is playwright Tara Beagan’s role as narrator Aisling Corrigan. The housemaid is a plucky, devout woman who knows when to curb the bursting torrent of words inside her – most of the time. She does have her own share of troubles, being separated from her family and alone in the new world. Aisling is always the person of the lowest social standing in the room. Bur Beagan, who has already provided the sparkling script, gives her narrator a life and vitality that invigorates an already perfectly written character.
As an audience, we are less equipped than Aisling to encounter the sexual and legal politics of a young, First World War-era Alberta. If she is bewildered at what she finds in her new home and the lives of its women, she is determined to make it through. Following her, not only do we have no problems understanding the tale, but we easily connect to it and enjoy its depth. |
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