The Shaw Festival Theatre Review: Talk Is Free Theatre’s The Frogs at the Shaw
By Ross
After a quick call to patriotic duty, the cast of ever-so-game creatives circle around for a plastic trumpet brigade fanfare, filling me with joy while also reminding me of the more formal trumpeting that occurs at the Stratford Festival to announce that the play is about to begin. And I must admit, I was thrilled; wholeheartedly. The entire moment felt like a blessed by some musical theatre god – most fittingly (given the source material), especially when it became clear that I would be (dog sitting) in Niagara-on-the-Lake over the very same weekend when Talk Is Free Theatre was presenting their lovingly spirited production of Stephen Sondheim’s The Frogs in the Shaw Festival‘s Spiegeltent.
And that blessing would include a seat for me for that banquet of good tidings, neatly inside that antique tent on a hot and humid Sunday afternoon. All for a Sondheim show that I hadn’t seen since the Lincoln Center Theater produced the piece back in 2004. Then titled The Frogs: A New Broadway Musical, the revival, labeled as “even more freely adapted” by Nathan Lane, found its funny bone at the Vivian Beaumont Theater on Broadway, with Lane and Roger Bart as the two central characters; Dionysos and his slave (“I prefer intern“) Xanthias. And it was a blast. Not a perfect show, but it truly is a great comic platform for pros to play and have the best of times. Much like the show I saw at the Shaw Festival.
Once the music starts to float in, it didn’t take long for the unique sounds of Stephen Sondheim to fill the tent’s air with familiar sounds and echos, somehow taking us through the Sondheim catalogue with care as the inventive and creative production “elbow ups” its perfect musical framing of The Frogs, “freely adapted” by Burt Shevelove (and even more freely adapted by Lane). Pulled out from the Ancient Greek comedy waters of the same name by Aristophanes, the musical is a complete crowd pleaser, from its engaging meta-beginning to its fabulously fun end, that urges us all to shake off the lethargy of our time and place and to take some sort of action to resolve the earthly problems that plague our times. These are the “Final Instructions to the Audience“, and with that, the Talk is Free Theatre‘s mission is made complete, in the best of all possible ways.
The Frogs start their musical boat motors on the insistence and assistance of the minimized, but magnificent chorus, once they decide to not go with “the one about the man who kills his father and sleeps with his mother.” The other, we are told, is not in the mood for that depressive tragedy, especially with these politically fraught days floating all around us, when people are the most in need of a strong dose of hope and frivolity. And we know exactly what (and who) he is pointing his finger at when he adds, “Have you listened to our leaders?“
“Words fail them,” he reminds us all, and the framing fits, so very rightly, so they, the crew of ever-so-talented team players, decide to perform a comedy. But first, before they begin, they make an invocation, dedicating the performance to the same theatre god that brought me into that tent that very afternoon. But that’s not all. They also sing, “Bless our play,” launching into the Sondheim sound that we have all gathered specifically for (at least that’s why I find myself there enduring that heat!), while also instructing us all on the rules and manners to behave while in the tent. It’s a tall order, not just for the audience and their behavior, but for the whole darn thing. But after seeing numerous Talk is Free Theatre productions over the past year or so, I had no worry for the “tall order” they have set out before them. Because if there is anyone who can find their way through to Hades and deliver on their promise, it’s the inventive and determined Talk Is Free Theatre.
“It Is Time We Start Our Journey,” they tell us, as this fascinating and endlessly hilarious musical embarks on a journey, led by the Greek God of wine and drama, Dionysos, embodied delightfully by the very talented John-Michael Scapin (CBC’s “Triple Sensation“), with his deliciously engaging slave, Xanthias, delightfully and hilariously portrayed by Taylor Garwood (Thousand Island Playhouse’s Mamma Mia!), by his side. They set out on an epic journey down the River Styx to the Underworld – to Hades, to find the renowned critic and playwright, George Bernard Shaw, and bring him back from the dead and up into our world to save us from our own sense of dread and despair. It’s impossible not to see how the Shaw Festival is the perfect landscape for this madcap musical adventure, especially as we listen to all the reasons playwright Shaw is the initial choice of Dionysos for the ideal playwright who can find the “words, words, words” to “enlighten the easily misled and coerced masses of Earth“.
“I Love to Travel” is the theme, for the shared journey that Dionysus and Xanthias set out to make, where they roll their luggage around the smart and inventive simplicity of the set and costumes designed with care by Varvara Eychuk (TIFT’s Madame Minister), enhanced by the lighting by Nic Vincent (Guthrie’s Skeleton Crew), and sound design by Erik Richards (Coal Mine’s People, Places, and Things). The flow of this musical river carries the piece forward with festive ease, finding such pleasure in the musical tones that constantly remind us of Sondheim’s wit. “All Aboard” as the two saunter and float their way through the path before them inside clever banter and song, engaging with the many numerous characters of Aristophanes along the way, from a helpful “Dress Big” Herakles (Kyle Brown); severely depressive ferryman, Charon and his twin, Aeakos (Dean Deffett); a camp, but welcoming Pluto (Brown), a seductive sexy Charisma (Crystal Casera), to meeting Shaw (Richard Lam) himself.
On their way, traveling, they must disguise themselves back and forth, thanks to a never-ending series of complications that add more and more flavor to the festivities. More importantly, and obviously, the daring duo of half god and slave have to deal with a herd of rambunctious frogs in the River Styx, determined to hold back the idea of change and progress as the two (plus a hilariously whimsical boat captain who can’t help himself making at least one more hellacious joke after another) make their way towards the gates of Hades. Change, the thing the frogs fear most, is what is required, but it’s also the most frightening of things. It makes them, and the world, feel scary and vulnerable. Yet, that’s exactly what the world needs right now, and embodied by the small but extraordinarily game and talented ensemble: Kyle Brown (TIFT’s Jesus Christ Superstar) as Herakles/Pluto; Crystal Casera (Grand’s The Sound of Music) as Charisma; Sydney Cochrane (TIFT’s Into the Woods) as Ariadne; Dean Deffett (Magnus’ We Will Rock You) as Charon/Aeakos; Richard Lam (Shaw’s The Apple Cart) as Shaw; Nolan Moberly (TIFT’s Tales of an Urban Indian) as Shakespeare; the journey towards salvation through words and poetry is as joyful and musically delightful as the desired outcome, and we soon forget the heat and the humidity of that Sunday afternoon, and float along with this pair of perfect companions, as they swimmingly seek out Shaw and the revitalization of our civilization.
But the journey’s end isn’t quite what they imagined it would be, as Shaw ends up being somewhat of a disappointment to Dionysus, who decides that Shaw must battle it out with the more poetic William Shakespeare (Nolan Moberly) to see who would actually be the best playwright to help the world move out of the darkness and hopelessness that it finds itself stuck within. On a clever side note, it’s a twistedly fun parallel to the competitive Festival world in Ontario, Canada, with the titans of the Stratford Festival (formally referred to as the Stratford Shakespeare Festival) always feeling somewhat competitive (in the most polite Canadian kinda way) with the equally grand Shaw Festival, where this tale musically unfolds.
It’s “funny, we always get the leaders we deserve,” says one to the other as they contemplate the state of the world. And we know to whom he is orange-ly referring to in this exact moment of world history. But here, in the Shaw Festival‘s Spiegeltent, as directed most playfully and inventively by Griffin Hewitt (TIFT’s Written in Blood), with clever in the round choreography by Julio Fuentes (Mayfield Theatre’s Footloose), and strong musical direction by an equally funny intermission host, Ben Page (Buddies’ The Man That Got Away), this entertaining production of The Frogs strides strongly and confidently forward, overflowing with astute silliness and witty solidness as they travel with a lightness of foot alongside the sharpest of deliveries.
The battle of the words wraps this piece up within the wondrous, witty unwrapping of Shakespeare and Shaw’s greatest hits, held out before in volumes. There couldn’t be a better time or place in history, nor a better venue for this crowd-pleasing show to find its delicious swim stroke and festive voice than in this tent on a hot, humid summer’s day, and I wish I had been able to journey up the River 400 to see it in the fields of Barrie where TIFT had staged it prior to its far too short stint at the Shaw. As thunderstorms threaten the sky, as if the Gods are as angry with the world as we are, throwing a tantrum at us, hoping to wake us up and get us to take action. “It’s Only a Play,” that is true, and a silly one at that, but overflowing with festive Sondheim fun and wit, this is one event I feel the blessings of the gods within me, as I took in the hot, humid wonder, and embraced its meandering meaning and thoughtful regard to the power of poetry and art in a crumbling dark world. Oh, the bardolatry of it all, I do declare, would piss Shaw off, at the Shaw Festival, last weekend.
