A Poe Cabaret: A Dream Within A Dream
Directed by Lorenzo Savoini
Ran June 8-10 @ Buddies in Bad Times Theatre
By Kerry Freek
We’re greeted by our host, Mike Ross, standing on a chair with a big red mark on his face and looking like he’s only missing a noose. His macabre introduction — half sung, half spoken — includes plucking a fresh-faced Patricia O’Callaghan from the audience and lulling her into a sweetly innocent, entranced song. When she leaves us, we’re worried for her.
The cabaret launches brilliantly. Our first treat, the Canadian premiere of librettist Mark Campbell and composer Lance Horne’s opera The Tell-Tale Heart featuring Sean Clark, tenor, and Horne on piano, fresh from its debut in New York. Clark tempers the nervous protagonist’s madness and subsequent overwhelming guilt with flair, leading the audience down a murderer’s path of “reasoning.” For me, the turning point between “this is good” to “this is fantastic” is Clark’s facial expression just before admits to the audience his actions on the old man with the “vulture eye.” His evil grin realizes a creepy, cold-blooded pleasure, and, as he whispers “I stood still,” the piece’s success was solidified. I give props to Clark for the skillful mastery of a part that could very easily have gotten away from or been overdone by many good actors.
CBC’s Tom Allen’s telling of The Raven is unfortunately sub-par (sorry, not many people can top Homer Simpson’s famed performance). His beats at first match those of a child’s learning to read rhyming poetry. Thankfully, perhaps bolstered by harpist Lori Gemmell and the Penderecki String Quartet’s climactic strings, Allen’s reading gets better as he wraps up. Gemmell and the Quartet continue to perform beautifully with French composer André Caplet’s take on The Masque of the Red Death.
When “Annie” (O’Callaghan) returns, she and Ross perform a duet that ends in her death — our host harbours ulterior motives. But the tables are soon turned. Annie returns as a temptress, dressed to the gills in a corset, tiny tutu, and full-thigh stockings. She puts the host in his place and we’re pleased yet disturbed. Our host closes the show, and the lights are lifted. It’s been a wavery caberet, dark and dreary, with a good portion of dirty.
