Listen up!

Dana Ferguson and David Burrows read Ariel and Antonio

Roger Gibson (Adrian) smiles for the camera

Director Craig Pinder gives, well, direction

Veteran actor Mik Bancroft returns to the stage for The Tempest

Ensemble work

Gene Cage (Ferdinand) listens to the director

Running the auditions was our guest director Craig Pinder, a Bahamian actor whose career on London’s West End includes featured performances in Les Misérables and Mamma Mia! as well as numerous productions with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Craig’s co-directing the production of The Tempest along with Trini director Patti-Anne Ali, and in conjunction with Nicolette Bethel and Philip A. Burrows of Ringplay Productions and Shakespeare in Paradise. He’s also playing the part of Prospero in the production.

The auditions were held at The Hub, East Bay Street, and got a turnout of some 18 people, some of whom were trained actors, others who were raw talents, and we had some really happy surprises. The problem isn’t whether we have enough talent for The Tempest now — it’s how we can use the talent we have.

Check back for photographs of the auditions, taken by David Burrows!

Track Road Theatre (which goes by the initials TRT these days) is back on its game with this evening of two one-act plays by European writers from the first quarter of the twentieth century. It’s one of the few times TRT has ventured outside The Bahamas for its material, and certainly the first I can remember when it’s produced something from outside the Diaspora. The two plays are short and small, and both were adapted for a Bahamian audience by Matthew Kelly, who also directed the evening.

The first, The Open Door, is an intimate story of impossible love originally written by UK playwright Alfred Sutro and published in 1922. Kelly has kept the dramatic core, but has adapted the characters and some details to fit the local audience, and it works. It’s performed by Kelly and Selina Archer. Archer is competent as Glennis Heastie, but it is Kelly who shines in his role. I’ve seen him on stage in numerous parts, but in this character and in this style of acting he has found his home, and he is clearly at his best when he’s occupying intimate, subtle parts.

The second, The Bear, is another love story of sorts, this one by Anton Chekhov, the great Russian playwright and short story writer. It’s typical Chekhov, with Russian passion all over the place, and tension up the wazoo, and it stood in sharp and successful contrast to the smaller, tighter, subtler Sutro work. In this one, the definite star is Dion Johnson, whom audiences might recognize from Da Spot and who recently performed in Guyana at CARIFESTA X 2008. He takes over as the rough, uncultured title character. His work is complemented by Leslie Ellis-Tynes, who does a fair job of holding up her end of the bargain in what is her first major role.

The performance takes place in the Hub, and is performed in the seven-eighths round, and the intimacy of the space and the closeness of the action lend an energy to the performance that isn’t common in Bahamian works. The usual style of over-the-top acting which has its place on a big, remote stage, is unnecessary in this setting, and it’s this which allows Kelly in his quieter moments to shine.

If there is any flaw in this production, it’s in the fact that almost all of the performances take place on a single note. The intimacy of the space calls for the expression of subtle, inner tension, something which not all of the performers have mastered, and it also allows for a range of moods and moments that was not capitalized on. What would also have added to the experience would have been a more intimate connection with the audience. One of the great advantages of theatre in the round is that the so-called “fourth wall” of the stage is swept away. There is no barrier of distance, stage, or light between the audience and the action, and that closeness could have been played with far more fully. The other, slightly less obvious, challenge is that the transitions between the different registers in the language — between the Bahamianized elements and the original early twentieth-century passages — are sometimes rough.

But that aside, this evening is a bargain at $15 a head. Live performance doesn’t come this cheap or this good very often — and if you get your tickets in advance, your $12 will go a long, long way.

Love in Two Acts plays until Sunday March 1 at the Hub, Bay Street and Colebrook Lane. Don’t miss it!

Anyway, watch this space.

Listen to the commercial

Driving Miss Daisy is a 1987 play by Alfred Uhry about the relationship of an elderly Southern Jewish lady and her African-American chauffeur, Hoke Colburn, from 1948 to 1973. The original off-Broadway production starred Dana Ivey and Morgan Freeman. The first production took place at Playwrights Horizons Theatre on 42nd Street in New York. It later moved down the street to the John Houseman Theatre. Ivey’s performance garnered her an Obie Award as Best Actress. The play was the first in Uhry’s “Atlanta Trilogy” dealing with Jewish residents of that city in the early 20th century. The play was Uhry’s most successful, winning him the Pulitzer Prize for Drama. It was performed in London’s West End in 1988, with Dame Wendy Hiller as Miss Daisy Werthan.

In 1989, the play was adapted for a Warner Brothers film with Morgan Freeman reprising his role and Miss Daisy played by Jessica Tandy. The story defines Daisy and her point of view through a network of relationships and emotions by focusing on her home life, her synagogue, friends, family, fears, and concerns. Hoke is rarely seen out of Miss Daisy’s presence, although the title implies that the story is told from his perspective.

The film won the 1989 Academy Award for Best Picture. It is also, as of 2008, the last PG-rated film to win that title.

There will be THREE PERFORMANCES ONLY!
at The Dundas Centre for the Performing Arts:

Thursday, July 3rd – 8:30 p.m.
Friday, July 4th – 8:30 p.m.
Saturday July 5th – 8:00 p.m.

The play runs 90 minutes, without an intermission.

This production features, in order of their appearance:

Daisy Werthan – Jane Poveromo
Boolie Werthan – David Jonathan Burrows
Hoke Coleburn – Anthony “Skeebo” Roberts

The play is directed by Philip A. Burrows

Because there are only three performances, seats are limited for this production. Ticket sales information will be released to the general public in few days.

Advanced bookings are available to the readers of this blog, members on our Ringplay mailing list and subscribers to the Ringplay discussion board.

Tickets are $20 (Purchased by 4:00 p.m. on the day of the performance) or $25 if purchased at the door.

Ask about our group rates for groups of 20 or more.

There are no student discounts available for this production.

For further information, you can email us at onstage@ringplay.com or admin@artsbahamas.com.