[NEohioPAL] Review of "Lillies" at convergence-continuum

Bob Abelman r.abelman at adelphia.net
Sat Oct 19 12:59:54 PDT 2013


con-con's 'Lilies' is a tender rendering of revenge

 

Bob Abelman

News-Herald, Morning Journal, Chagrin Valley Times, Solon Times,

Geauga Times Courier

Member, International Association of Theatre Critics 

 

This review will appear in the News-Herald on 10/25/13

 

 

In its playbill for "Lilies, or the Revival of a Romantic Drama," convergence-continuum asks its patrons to "deposit conventional thinking at the door, and join us in renouncing the real in favor of living the imaginable."

 

This may be gilding the "Lilies" just a tad.  French Canadian Michel Marc Bouchard's play is certainly an interesting piece of theater, and it is getting a very fine production in its Ohio premiere, but nothing need be abandoned upon entering The Liminis Theatre except one's mainstream inhibitions.  

 

The play is set in 1952 in the chapel of a prison where Simon Doucet has spent the last four decades in wrongful imprisonment.   In recent years, he has been plotting revenge which entails drawing a confession from Bishop Bilodeau - a childhood friend - who was caught up in a love triangle and murder involving Simon and another classmate, Vallier De Tilly.  

 

The Bishop is held hostage in the prison and forced to watch a play enacted by the convicts that recount the lies, deceit, jealousy, and forbidden passion that occurred on the Québec countryside in 1912.

 

Taking a page from "Marat/Sade" - another play-within-a-play performed by inmates - Bouchard employs this mode of storytelling to offer insight and perspective on the narrow religious and moral values of the recent past.  

 

As "Lilies" unfolds, one can't help but sense that either the original play or Linda Gaboriau's English translation of it is weighed down by overwritten dialogue and overdramatized moments of homoeroticism.  Fortunately, this con-con production - under Tyson Douglas Rand's tender direction - overcomes these intrusions.  Rand evens out the melodrama by coaxing realistic performances from his cast and allowing each scene to smoothly transition from one to the next without hesitation or undue fanfare.  

 

In fact, the transition from Act I to intermission is so subtle that uncertain audience members remain seated and silent for most of the 15 minute break.  Some may be there still.

 

The excellent ensemble in this production includes Bobby Coyne and Michael Regnier as young and old Simon, Jack Matuszewski as Vallier de Tilly, Eric Sever and Dennis Sullivan as young and old Bilodeau, Robert Branch, Joe Dunn, Charles Hargrave, and Clyde Simon.  

 

Simon turns in a particularly moving performance as the fallen Countess de Tilly, who is gleefully lost in a dilution of affluence and privilege.  He alone taps the playbill's renouncement of the "real in favor of living the imaginable," and does so with astounding virtuosity.

 

The other two portrayals of women by men, turned in by Joe Dunn and Robert Branch, are wonderfully understated presentations that speak volumes about this production's affectionate approach to the material. 

 

The men in this play are prisoners with limited resources, so it is fitting that the costumes by sade wolfkitten - which are embellished prison uniforms - are make-shift and thread-bare, and that the set design by Jim Smith is simple and utilitarian.  Only the prisoners' access to technology that projects images of locations from outside the prison seems unrealistic and unnecessary.

 

Also striking a false cord is the production's employment of nudity or, more precisely, its selective nudity.  Having Matuszewski's Vallier fully exposed during a pivotal moment of intimacy with Simon makes sense, but it is odd for Coyne's Simon to be sporting modern-day jockeys and disingenuous to remain in them.

 

The lily appears in literature and mythology as a symbol of purity and innocence. Venus, it is said, saw the lily as she rose from the ocean and became jealous of its beauty.  Lilies are also associated with death, in that one regains lost innocence and purity when life is through.

 

Innocence, jealousy and death - these are pretty much the focal points in Bouchard's play and the fundamental elements that make this story so universally interesting. 

 

"Lilies, or the Revival of a Romantic Drama" runs through November 2 at convergence-continuum's The Liminis Theatre, 2438 Scranton Rd., in the historic Tremont neighborhood.  Tickets, which range from $10 to $15, can be purchased by calling 216-687-0074 or visiting www.convergence-continuum.org.

 
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