To hell and back
Mississippi meets Hades in Orpheus Descending
JANE WALKER
Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending is the modern rendering of the myth of Orpheus, who descended into hell in an attempt to rescue his wife Eurydice by singing and playing his lyre. The Manitoba Theatre Centre is currently presenting Williams’ lesser-known, symbolism-packed play under the skillful direction of Miles Potter.
In Williams’ telling, hell is a small Mississippi town festering with pretense, gossip and racism. Eurydice is renamed Lady Torrance (Seana McKenna), a middle-aged Italian immigrant trapped by both the town and a loveless marriage to her dying husband. McKenna’s portrayal of Lady displayed an instinctual sense of comic timing, at the same time revealing a woman whose state of mind borders on madness.
Orpheus (Jonathan Goad) is the handsome drifter Valentine Xavier, who stumbles into Lady’s shop looking for a job after his car breaks down outside of town. He is a guitar-playing hustler in a snakeskin jacket, who has just turned 30 and has decided to settle down and turn his life around.
Unfortunately, Goad was unable to match McKenna’s level of performance. While McKenna finds a pitch-perfect fusion of humor and pain, Goad’s performance tends to be one note. Goad effectively conveyed Valentine’s brooding detachment, but rarely produced anything else. Although aloofness is part of his character, Goad lacked the sexual tension and anxiety crucial to making the scenes with McKenna work. His laid-back approach made it impossible to believe Lady Torrance when she quips, “Everything you do is suggestive!” It made it even harder to believe that Val was ever the wild rebel he claimed to be.
The most powerful performance of the night came from Dana Green, whose passionate portrayal of Carol Cutrere, the spiritual outcast of the town, was heartbreaking. Green burst onto the stage as the bare-footed Cutrere, ensuring all eyes were on her, at the same time subtly conveying shame for having done so. She was at once enchanting and repulsive, and her stripped-down performance allowed the audience access to the primal emotions of an untamed spirit longing to break away from social restrictions.
The chorus of Williams’ play, the ensemble cast, brought the town to life by depicting the passions and jealousies that Val’s arrival provokes. Particularly effective was Catherine Fitch as Vee Talbot, the religious zealot of the town. Blinded by her visions of Jesus’ burning eyes, Fitch is fiery and fanatical, but never over-the-top in her portrayal.
Director Miles Potter uses his talented cast to his advantage in this impressive staging. Characters moved naturally throughout the space, effectively accenting key moments in the play without seeming symbolically placed or heavily choreographed.
What also brings this small Mississippi town to life is the lighting design. Kevin Fraser’s lighting vividly creates what Potter describes as “a world of light and shadow.” In one beautifully understated moment, Lady and Valentine slip behind a red curtain, the shadow of Lady discarding her robe subtly implying that the two are about to make love.
The sound design was not as subtle. Guitar music annoyingly underscored all the key moments in the play, signifying (Full House-style) that something important was happening. The melodramatic placement of train whistles and claps of thunder did not match the realism the production seemed to be going for.
The sound, however, was a merely petty annoyance. The production as a whole offered many fine performances, a beautiful setting and, ultimately, a moving experience.
