Shakespeare in Toronto, Summer 2003

Toronto is only an hour by car from Stratford Ontario, but Shakespeare productions in the two towns in the summer of 2003 were, with important exceptions, worlds apart. Stratford is expensive, flaunts theater as a commodity (its Festival Theatre literally empties into a large gift shop), and attracts tourists from across North America who arrive by private transport expecting technically proficient performances in climate-controlled auditoriums. Downtown Toronto productions of Shakespeare in 2003, meanwhile, were inexpensive, manifested civic ambitions, and attracted local audiences who could access public transit, and who valued the low-tech, ad hoc aura of outdoor theater subject to the vagaries of an uncontrollable climate. Still, most Toronto productions demonstrated the same ostensible deference to Shakespeare that the Festival shows him in their shared pursuit of, roughly, psychologically real characterizations and a loyalty to the spoken word. The differences that did exist between Shakespeare in Toronto and Stratford were brought into clear focus with Crow Theatre's production of Shakespeare's Gladiator Games at the fifteenth annual Toronto Fringe Festival (July 2-13). The play, co-adapted by Chris Cocoluzzi and Matt Toner, used the pretext of a day at the games in the Roman Coliseum--as broadcast by Upstart Crow Sports Network--to reframe and splice together with comically surreal abandon fragments of the Bard's Roman and Greek plays. Director Cocoluzzi intended Gladiator Games to unite audiences of diverse experience by intercutting the Shakespearean intertextuality with sustained references to popular culture. Although the device was handled cleverly, it had significant drawbacks, as those not entirely familiar with large and small screens must have been at a loss. At the same rime, the hectic pace at which much of the obscure material was delivered favored those well-versed in the less canonical dramas; at one point, the callow spectator behind me asked, So, these plays are, like, by Shakespeare, right? Similarly, by staging Gladiator Games in the round on a large University of Toronto sports field, Cocoluzzi invoked the bloody spectacles of the Coliseum but, more importantly, he refused to offer a privileged perspective on the action. This democratic spirit of localized communitas is central to the Fringe experience, yet the director had trouble maintaining a bond between audience and performers. Because the production occurred before nightfall, Cocoluzzi could not use artificial light to define playing areas within the enormous space. This use of space not only dissipated the thirty-five performers' energy during the show's many physically strenuous routines (typically sword play and mass choreography), but it also hindered clear vocalization, crucial in selling the verbal humor. By contrast, Canopy Theatre's modern-dress co-productions with Hart House Theatre of Coriolanus and Titus Andronicus (done in repertory July 23-August 9) demonstrated both a clear understanding of how to adapt found outdoor space for dramatic performance, and a more reverent approach to delivering Shakespeare's dialogue. Canopy's non-Equity shows were also performed on the University of Toronto campus, though they were not university productions. The audience sat in a grassy quadrangle bordered by neoclassical columns and tawny brick walls. A bank of concrete stairs that led to a platform overlooking the audience was sensibly used as a stage from which to deliver declamatory speeches. Entrances and exits made over the steps, which descended out of sight on the far side, were employed to considerable visual effect, while processions and scenes played in the center aisle bisecting the audience worked well to connect the spectators directly to the spectacle. Coriolanus exemplified the company's adherence to playing Shakespeare straight and its belief in the widespread view that Shakespeare's intentions are best rendered through a combination of careful verse-speaking and degrees of psychological realism. …

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