"Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother 40 whacks. When the job was nicely done, she gave her father 41."
That little chant has kept alive the legend of the 1892 murders of Lizzie Borden's stepmother and father in Fall River, Mass. The Shaw Festival at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, is also reliving the event in Sharon Pollock's most successful play, "Blood Relations," written in 1980.
We are fascinated by murder mysteries, their trials and aftermaths. The O.J. Simpson case is one example. The Lizzie Borden trial caused a sensation. It lasted 14 days and Lizzie was acquitted, but public opinion was divided. She had strong support from feminists and animal rights advocates.
Pollock's play is a feminist tract, never naming the murderer or exonerating Lizzie. Set in the Borden home in Fall River, "Blood Relations" takes place 10 years after the crimes. Lizzie (Jane Perry) and her sister, Emma (Sharry Flett), still live there. Visiting Lizzie is her close friend, the Actress (Laurie Paton). When the Actress questions her, Lizzie suggests they act out the events, with the Actress taking her part, while she assumes the part of Bridget, their maid at the time.
There is much to be learned from their playacting. The girls' father (Michael Ball) is a stern man, slapping the unconventional Lizzie at least twice. When he chops the heads off Lizzie's pet pigeons with an axe, his days are numbered. Lizzie has a disagreeable stepmother (Nora McLellan). She is afraid that her stepmother will get everything when her father dies.
The acting is excellent, with Lizzie equally well played by the two lead actresses. Shaw veteran Michael Ball, capable of commanding any stage he appears on, portrays Lizzie's father as a quiet, easygoing man, except where Lizzie is concerned. Direction by Eda Holmes is right on the mark. Sets and costumes by William Schmuck and lighting by Andrea Lundy work together to make a single statement. Lighting and costumes are dark with brown tones, reminiscent of an old sepia photograph. The single set is a parlor with a dining room behind it.
"Blood Relations" is an entertaining mystery and much more. It plays in repertory until Nov. 30 at the Shaw Festival's Royal George Theatre.
A new version by Canadian actor and writer Susan Coyne of Anton Chekhov's "Three Sisters" is playing at the Festival Theatre. Beautifully directed by Jackie Maxwell, "Three Sisters" completes a Chekhov cycle at the Shaw. It is the fourth of his plays presented at the festival: "The Cherry Orchard" was presented in 1980, followed by "The Seagull" in 1997 and "Uncle Vanya" in 1999.
"Three Sisters" opens in the Prozorov house, located in a provincial town in Russia, where General Prozorov's daughters, Olga (Kelli Fox) and Irina (Caroline Cave), live with their brother, Andrei (Ben Carlson). The third sister is Masha (Tara Rosling), who is married. It has been a year since their father's death. They have lived in this isolated garrison town for 11 years, but the sisters' thoughts are always on Moscow. They hope that Andrei will become a college professor there and take them with him. Andrei does not live up to their expectations. He loses at gambling and marries a shrewish woman. The household bustles with activity, due to a group of soldiers from a nearby military outpost. "Life has choked us like weeds," says one of the sisters. "We need to work," another says. Then the battalion leaves town. The sisters are left to lead very lonely existences without the soldiers.
"Three Sisters" remains onstage until Aug. 2.
Cicely Hamilton's 1908 "Diana of Dobson's" is at the Court House Theatre. Cicely Hamilton (1872-1952), best known for her book "Marriage as a Trade" (1909), was a journalist, actress and suffragette. All this is apparent in "Diana," which tells the story of a shopgirl for Dobson's Drapery Emporium in London. The play opens in the company's bleak employee dormitory, where the girls are preparing for bed after a grueling 14-hour day. Chief among them is Diana Massingberd (Severn Thompson), who was forced to work at Dobson's after the death of her father, a poor country doctor. She works in the hosiery department and hates every minute it. An outspoken individualist, she is forever being fined for "unprofessional behavior." The only escape for Diana is marriage. One evening she learns she has received a small inheritance from a cousin. The other girls urge her to save it, but she blows the entire sum on a trip to Switzerland, thinking that at least she will have memories to sustain her horrid existence.
Diana whisks off to Paris to buy the proper clothes, and those she meets in Switzerland think she is a wealthy widow. She receives two proposals and turns both down. She returns to London and a life on the streets, but Hamilton doesn't let it end there. Her ending is delightful.
"Diana of Dobson's" is light and fun, a romantic comedy packed with social commentary. The acting is excellent and Diana's suitors are wonderful -- Evan Buliung as Captain Bretherton, and especially Peter Hutt as Sir Jabez Grinley. The audience actually applauded as Hutt left the stage after his initial appearance. He plays the recently knighted Grinley with studied wit and sarcasm. "Diana of Dobson's" plays in repertory until Oct. 4.
Tickets to Shaw Festival productions are available by calling 1-800-511-7429 or through the Web site at www.shawfest.com.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | July 22 2003 |