Far From the Madding Crowd: A woman ahead of her time
by KATHRYN GREENAWAY, THE GAZETTE OCTOBER 26, 2011
Léa Berry (left) plays Bathsheba Everdene with the fierce pride and vanity that the play requires. Photograph by: Peter McCabe, The Gazette
MONTREAL - A strong woman forges a successful life for herself without a husband. She loves to flirt and enjoys the attention of adoring men, but rejects the notion of becoming a man's possession.
A story about a modern-day feminist? Far from it.
In 1874, Thomas Hardy wrote Far from the Madding Crowd. It tells the tale of a fiercely independent woman, Bathsheba Everdene, and the three men who loved her.
Persephone Productions is presenting Mark Healy's stage adaptation at Victoria Hall in Westmount beginning Friday.
Co-directors Gabrielle Soskin and Christopher Moore have shaped an evening of theatre that is at once minimalist in approach and rich in delivery.
During a recent school performance at the Rialto Theatre (the play is booked at two venues due to scheduling conflicts), Soskin and Moore's staging was inspired and their use of lilting song and transitional chatter was ingenious.
Bathsheba, played with fierce pride and appropriate vanity by Léa Berry, is the driving force in almost every scene. You must believe fully and deeply in the potency of her charm for the tragedy to permeate as it should, and Berry delivers. Bathsheba's suitors strain against all reason to gain her favour and win her heart.
Confirmed bachelor and wealthy farm owner William Boldwood (Frayne McCarthy) succumbs to her charms as a result of a silly Valentine's prank. McCarthy expertly paced his character's humiliating and emotional disintegration.
Sergeant Francis Troy (Ian Geldart), a hound, a gambler and a soldier - in that order - lusts after Bathsheba on only the most superficial of levels. Geldart's charisma and confidence grew over the course of the performance, with a particularly poignant moment occurring when his character is confronted with the knowledge that his one true love, servant girl Fanny Robin (played by the lovely Lily MacLean), has died along with their newborn child.
But it is Bathsheba's stalwart friend and secret admirer Gabriel Oak (Jeremy Michael Segal) who steals your heart and, ultimately, hers.
Oak has carried a torch since the day, as a very young man, when he was impulsive enough to confess his love to Bathsheba and survive her thinly veiled scorn.
During the student performance, Segal delivered an understated but profoundly emotional performance, doing more with the subtle sag of a shoulder or shift of the head than any amount of histrionics could have accomplished.
The world of Bathsheba and her suitors is enhanced by an eloquent supporting cast, most of whom play multiple roles.
Costume designer Melanie Michaud dresses the cast in the simple, muted fabrics of country folk of yore, the look expertly situating us in late 19th-century rural Britain.
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Persephone Productions, is on at Victoria Hall, 4626 Sherbrooke St. W., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25, or $14 for students and members of the Quebec Drama Federation. For reservations, call 514-486-7423. For more information: www.persephoneproductions.org
kgreenaway@montrealgazette.com
Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
MONTREAL - A strong woman forges a successful life for herself without a husband. She loves to flirt and enjoys the attention of adoring men, but rejects the notion of becoming a man's possession.
A story about a modern-day feminist? Far from it.
In 1874, Thomas Hardy wrote Far from the Madding Crowd. It tells the tale of a fiercely independent woman, Bathsheba Everdene, and the three men who loved her.
Persephone Productions is presenting Mark Healy's stage adaptation at Victoria Hall in Westmount beginning Friday.
Co-directors Gabrielle Soskin and Christopher Moore have shaped an evening of theatre that is at once minimalist in approach and rich in delivery.
During a recent school performance at the Rialto Theatre (the play is booked at two venues due to scheduling conflicts), Soskin and Moore's staging was inspired and their use of lilting song and transitional chatter was ingenious.
Bathsheba, played with fierce pride and appropriate vanity by Léa Berry, is the driving force in almost every scene. You must believe fully and deeply in the potency of her charm for the tragedy to permeate as it should, and Berry delivers. Bathsheba's suitors strain against all reason to gain her favour and win her heart.
Confirmed bachelor and wealthy farm owner William Boldwood (Frayne McCarthy) succumbs to her charms as a result of a silly Valentine's prank. McCarthy expertly paced his character's humiliating and emotional disintegration.
Sergeant Francis Troy (Ian Geldart), a hound, a gambler and a soldier - in that order - lusts after Bathsheba on only the most superficial of levels. Geldart's charisma and confidence grew over the course of the performance, with a particularly poignant moment occurring when his character is confronted with the knowledge that his one true love, servant girl Fanny Robin (played by the lovely Lily MacLean), has died along with their newborn child.
But it is Bathsheba's stalwart friend and secret admirer Gabriel Oak (Jeremy Michael Segal) who steals your heart and, ultimately, hers.
Oak has carried a torch since the day, as a very young man, when he was impulsive enough to confess his love to Bathsheba and survive her thinly veiled scorn.
During the student performance, Segal delivered an understated but profoundly emotional performance, doing more with the subtle sag of a shoulder or shift of the head than any amount of histrionics could have accomplished.
The world of Bathsheba and her suitors is enhanced by an eloquent supporting cast, most of whom play multiple roles.
Costume designer Melanie Michaud dresses the cast in the simple, muted fabrics of country folk of yore, the look expertly situating us in late 19th-century rural Britain.
Far from the Madding Crowd, by Persephone Productions, is on at Victoria Hall, 4626 Sherbrooke St. W., Friday at 8 p.m., Saturday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 1:30 p.m. Tickets cost $25, or $14 for students and members of the Quebec Drama Federation. For reservations, call 514-486-7423. For more information: www.persephoneproductions.org
kgreenaway@montrealgazette.com
Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette
