THEATRE REVIEW: COMMUNION
4 Mar'10

'Communion' embodies spirit of sharing

JOHN COULBOURN - QMI Agency
Rating: 4.5 out of 5

TORONTO - Stripped of its religious connotations, communion is still a powerful word -- in sound and in concept a sibling to the word "community", both words informed by the self-same sense of sharing.

And it is definitely that sense of intimacy and sharing that is at the heart of Daniel MacIvor's latest stage play, fittingly titled COMMUNION, which had its world premiere Wednesday at the Tarragon Theatre, where MacIvor serves as writer in residence.
A work for three actors, COMMUNION is a carefully etched triptych (three scenes stretched over a single act in such a way that it almost feels like a three-act play) of shared thoughts and feelings, constructed in such a way as to encourage a deepening intimacy, not just between the playwright's three protagonists, but between them and their audience as well.

As characters go, however, these are not prototypical environs of the MacIvor canon, sprung as they are more from the sometimes troubled familial milieu of MARION BRIDGE than MONSTER or CUL-DE-SAC or even A SOLDIER DREAMS, where MacIvor chose to explore a seamier side of life.

At the centre of COMMUNION is Leda, beautifully played by long-time MacIvor collaborator and interpreter, Caroline Gillis. A middle-aged woman in the middle of a life crisis, Leda when we first meet her is in the process of trying to sort things out with the aid of her therapist, Carolyn, played by Sarah Dodd -- and things don't seem to be going too well, judging from the pain, confusion and rage that spills out onto the stage, most, but not all of it Leda's.

What it all boils down to finally, is Leda's troubled relationship with her all-but-estranged daughter Ann, played by Athena Lamarre -- an estrangement that has been a lifetime in the making, leaving little in the way of a lifetime to sort it out. In subsequent scenes, Leda is reunited with Ann and then almost inevitably, Ann and Carolyn come together, closing the circle on a touching and intimate community of searchers, each desperate to find answers to questions they have not yet had the courage to ask.

Directed by MacIvor and reviewed here in its final preview performance, COMMUNION could best be described as theatre of the heart and mind -- a work where Kimberly Purtell's sets and lighting, Shawn Kerwin's costumes and Verne Good's sound design all come together to underscore MacIvor's determination to wring maximum power from his own unique vision of theatrical minimalism. And particularly in the work of Gillis and Dodd, MacIvor proves conclusively that there is very little that is simple about achieving simplicity, for in these two wonderfully, if sparely drawn, performances, he captures not just the despair of the human condition, but the hope that fuels it as well. We love Gillis' Leda, despite her flaws, while Dodd turns Carolyn into a theatrical iceberg that tells us with every careful movement that we are only seeing the tip of her compassion and confusion.

Unfortunately, under MacIvor's otherwise constrained and thoughtful direction, Lamarre strays so far into cliches in her portrayal of religious zealotry that she threatens to overbalance the simple humanity of the second scene. Happily, however, she has Gillis and MacIvor to save the day and Communion emerges as a touching and thought-provoking work, small but never little, that deserves to be shared with those who love good theatre.
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