In the Wings by Nicky Guadagni
From the novel by Carole Corbeil
Directed by Layne Coleman
Theatre Passe Muraille, Nov. 8-Dec 8, 2002

Layne Coleman's production was a homage to his late wife, the brilliant arts critic Carole Corbeil, whose second and final novel is, among other things, a homage itself. It is the story of Allan O'Reilly, a brilliant young actor who is about to play Hamlet, and Alice Riverton, an actress who falls in love with him. Almost forty, Alice has returned from Los Angeles after her mother's funeral. Allan is in mourning for his melancholy father who, he learns later, committed suicide. Adding to Allan's anxiety is the challenge of playing Hamlet for Jimmy Tarken, the director who is trying to stave off time by turning to young women. Corbeil exploits parallels between the characters in Shakespeare's tragedy and those in her own story, and there are many riffs on the play within her story. In this way, the novel is a homage to Hamlet, a memorial to tragic characters who (like Ophelia) are riven by what they want and the betrayals or errors they commit themselves. But it is also a profound, though flawed, investigation of the metaphysics of loss.
In Hamlet, the Prince loses his father to fratricide, his mother to incest with his uncle, and Ophelia to the subterfuge of Polonius and Claudius. After the Ghost's first visitation, Hamlet becomes the mirror of his father, even to the point of being murdered by the same killer. In Corbeil's novel, Hamlet is represented as one whose thoughts are "like endless rehearsals, his actions like doppelganger impulses," and the fact that he becomes a mirror of his father shows that "it is easier to mirror something than it is to accept loss, easier to merge with the parent than it is to let go."
In her adaptation, Nicky Guadagni kept close to the novel, eliminating dTcor and Corbeil's perfunctory characters, turning interior monologue and narrative comment into dialogue (verbatim in most instances), and, with the resourceful help of her director, used a meta-theatrical form to express how the human heart could be restored to its flow of grace after rituals of bearing witness and of confession. Alice Riverton has to learn to let go of her dead mother, just as Allan has to deal with the loss of his beloved father. And Robert Pullwarden, the acidulous theatre critic, has to cope with his often bungling obsession with Louise, a young actress, during a painful separation from his wife and young son. Pullwarden needs to be released from his guilt for not having made a serious effort in his failed marriage. On stage, Michael Healey (who played him) captured his comic awkwardness but missed the terrible pain at the man's core.
Coleman's production (well acted for the most part, particularly by David Fox in a number of supporting roles and by Brooke Johnson as the complex Alice) used thrilling devices. Taped passages from Hamlet indicated how Shakespeare shadows Corbeil's story. The ghosts of dead parents came in the form of residual memories of the characters. Pullwarden's prie-dieu monologue and confession parodied Claudius at prayer. The Ophelia of the play-within-the-play spent much of her time in a bathtub. "To be or not to be" was rendered by the cast as a choral prayer. These expressive moments (and there were some with black comedy) compensated in part for the hole at the centerùJonathan Watton's performance as Allan. Admittedly, the character is not adequately developed to begin withùhe is described and commented upon, rather than incarnated with the resonant depths of a fully rounded personùbut he is supposed to be a thrilling actor. Watching him is supposed to be like "watching a body in a slow state of combustionàlike watching something exquisite melt." Watton couldn't rise to that description. But the production itself, framed with melancholy ballads (created especially for the play and sung by Deborah Hay as Louise), had variety, colour, and depth, and remained faithful to the spirit of the novel. All it lacked was a tighter shape and a compelling evocation of Allan.

Keith Garebian's new book is The Making of 'Guys and Dolls'.