How do you dramatize a court case
without ever showing a courtroom scene? Bit of a problem, eh? Well, that’s the
challenge playwright Terence Rattigan took on with his play, “The Winslow Boy,”
which premiered in 1946. Instead of courtroom dramatics (which were added in
the 1948 film of the play), Rattigan chose to focus on what might be called the
home front, that is, the drawing room of the Winslow family, a relatively
prosperous Edwardian family whose younger son, Ronnie, has just been expelled
from Osborn Naval College for supposedly stealing a five-shilling postal order
(think Western Union wire transfer). The father’s decision to press for justice
and vindication for his son, which will turn into a two-year ordeal, and the
impact this quest has on the Winslow family, is what is currently being boarded
at Square One Theatre Company in Stratford, and the result is, though at
moments interesting, less than gripping.
As directed by Tom Holehan, Square
One’s artistic director, the production often seems to be running on
low-wattage. This lack of sizzle may have several causes, the first being the
subject matter itself. The audience is many generations removed from this
family, and the social mores and strictures of Edwardian England it has to
confront are, if not totally alien, in need of greater explication than
Rattigan provides – one gets the feeling the dramatist assumed knowledge that,
seven decades later, is simply no longer there.
Thus, though Ronnie (Sam Noccioli)
has been shamed, the social gravity of this ignominy is not immediately
apparent, and its importance to the family’s honor and standing, which impels
his father, Arthur (Bruce Murray) to seek formal redress, seems slight. This
mountain-out-of-a-molehill concern is addressed by Arthur’s wife, Grace (Ann
Kinner), in one of the play’s most moving scenes, but it comes too late to
frame the primary action and provide dramatic tension.
Lucy Babbitt, Bruce Murray and Tess Brown
There are other elements whose
gravity and import suffer from the seven-decade remove: the somewhat idle
lifestyle of the family’s older son, Dickie (Ryan Hendrickson), a lackadaisical
Oxford student, the nascent feminism of the family’s daughter, Catherine (Tess
Brown), and the formal attitude of her suitor, John (Jim Buffone), concerned as
he is about “what people (especially his father) will say” about the family’s
challenge to the government, and the family’s relationship to their maid,
Violet (Lucy Babbitt).
The inherent drama in the play is
that this family is under a siege that is, to a certain extent, self-created,
but the stakes simply never seem that high or compelling. This is also, in
part, due to the energy projected by the cast. Although there are moments in
the play that command attention, as the lady who accompanied me pointed out
during intermission, the actors often seem to be holding back (save for
Babbitt), partly a function of a sound system that, at times, makes it
difficult to hear what’s being said, and partly due to the actors’ lack of
projection – seldom does anyone seem to be playing to the balcony, perhaps
because too much thought is being given by the actors to maintaining the
British accents that vary from stilted to all-to-plummy.
Bruce Murray, Ann Kinner and Ryan Hendrickson
This “I’m aware I’m playing someone
British” is most apparent in Joseph Maker’s take on Sir Robert Morton, the
renowned barrister who takes on Ronnie’s case. Although quite effective in the
“interrogation” scene (the closest the play comes to courtroom drama), he has a
bit of difficulty pulling off the “to the manner born” attitude inherent in his
character. Often, he just seems smug.
Perhaps these criticisms seem a bit
heavy-handed – after all, this is community theater – but Holehan and company
have, over the group’s 25-year history, shown themselves again and again to be
capable of producing enthralling theater -- high standards that, in this case,
are not met…and yet, you sense that if the actors had been urged to “go for
it,” the evening would have been quite a different experience. Murray ’s take on the father could have been
more intense, and over the evening one got the sense that Brown was eager to
give Catherine a more vivid presence.
Part of the tension that should
exist in this play is the human passions that boil beneath the façade of
Edwardian propriety. That passion gives meaning to Arthur’s decision to seek
redress, Grace’s devotion to her family, Catherine’s commitment to female
equality, and Morton’s devotion to seeking justice (and perhaps winning Catherine’s
hand). To be effective, however, said passions cannot be implied, they must be
dramatized, if not in words then in all of the other ways that actors have to
create and project emotion. Perhaps, a few simple words to the cast might
transform the production: “Yes, you’re British, but you’re also people.”
“The Winslow Boy” runs through May
30. For tickets, call Square One Theatre Company, 2422 Main Street , Stratford
No comments:
Post a Comment