Mrs Squeers stood at
one of the desks, presiding over an immense basin of brimstone and treacle, of
which delicious compound she administered a large instalment to each boy in
succession: using for the purpose a common wooden spoon, which might have been
originally manufactured for some gigantic top, and which widened every young
gentleman's mouth considerably: they being all obliged, under heavy corporal
penalties, to take in the whole of the bowl at a gasp.
Chapter 8 from
Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens
My granddaughter Lauren Stewart, 11, and I attended the opening performance this Wednesday 13th of the Art Club’s
production (directed by Bill Millerd) of Mary Poppins at the Stanley Industrial
Alliance Stage. Thirty minutes before the show began she asked me to repeat after her a very long word. “Papi can you
say supercalifragilisticexpialidocious ?” To me this was a complete non sequitur.
I saw no connection with us being comfortably seated in the busy lobby. Unable to respond adequately I said, “Lauren, Mississippi
is a very long word, can you spell it?”
 |
| Sara-Jean Hosie |
The above has this one explanation. The
closest I ever got to see the film Mary Poppins was my occasional viewing in
1961 of a few Dick Van Dyke shows on TV while I was studying in Austin, Texas.
In fact three weeks ago when I had planned attending Mary Poppins I asked my
wife Rosemary if Christopher Plummer had been in the original film. She
corrected me and told me that was The Sound of Music, another film I have never
seen.
I believe, then that I might have been the
only person at Wednesday’s performance of Mary Poppins who knew nothing of it
or of its connections to Lauren’s repetition of the nonsense word. I asked
Lauren if Mary Poppins had elephants, cows or camels. She said that only
horses. I asked her if Mary Poppins had a boy friend. Her answer was that it
was impossible as she lived on a cloud and could fly. My statement that her
boyfriend could also live on a cloud and know how to fly was ignored.
And so the two of us spent a most pleasant
evening in which a big chunk of that pleasure came from my watching Lauren’s
delight.
Since most of you who might be reading here
at this point know more about Mary Poppins than this blogger, I will not waste time explaining the
plot. I will not spend time praising the superb acting, the wonderful music
played by the orchestra headed by Bruce Kellet or even mention Millerd’s just
right direction.
But as a total neophyte to the books by
P.L.Travers, the 1964 and or the Broadway musical I did notice a few things that especially
caught my eye.
Contemporary films with perfect special
effects can only be topped by even “more perfect” special effects which are so seamless
that most children take them all for granted and instantly become bored. Not so
with the special effects of this Mary Poppins. The wires are there to be seen
and yet we all gasped somewhere towards the end when Mary Poppins (played by
Sara-Jeanne Hosie and more of her later!) flies from the stage to the very back
of the theatre. In the collapsing kitchen scene the chaos that is instantly
corrected by Mary Poppins snapping her fingers is another delight and kudos to
Chris Stolz who is listed in the program as Magic Consultant. Mary Poppins’s
bottomless carpet bag is another pleasure. Everything except white rabbits
seemed to be trapped inside.
All in all Mary Poppins at the Stanley is a perfect
holiday play that should be full of delighted children.
And yet there is much more there for an
adult with watchful eyes.
The first scene at the bank has a dance
number that features some women wearing very tight (as in very tight) white
shirts with black ties, that made me wonder what exactly was worn by women in
Edwardian times (here around 1910). While Millerd intelligently axed the idea
that Winifred Banks (Caitriona Murphy) being a suffragette, this dance number
choreographed by Valerie Easton had me anticipating the sudden removal of tight
shirts and the burning (perhaps?) of whatever exotic Edwardian underpinnings
lay beneath. That other wonderful dance number, Step in Time almost convinced
me that I should like tap dancing!
It is here that I must come clean and
explain that after a 45 year marriage to my Rosemary it is clear to her that
should an opening suddenly appear in which I could conceivably have an affair
with Charlotte Rampling or Molly Parker I would leave her on the spot. Rosemary
knows this. Statistically this is unlikely. I must now add another woman to
that short list. And this woman is Sara-Jeanne Hosie. I wrote about her here
and here. Her performance as Mary Poppins cemented this awareness. Perhaps it
is all because of my recent viewing of Venus in Fur (Arts Club – Granville Stage)
with Lindsey Angell. Suddenly Hosie showing off her shoes in that delightful
song (dropped from the original movie) Practically Perfect, and noticing her
business-like outfit with a “well fitting” blouse it seemed like Millerd and company have
seen fit to give us a Mary Poppins to delight not only the children in the
audience but adults, too!
When I found out that Sara-Jeanne Hosie had
moved to Toronto
I moped for weeks. It is nice to see her back if only for a while. We are lucky
for it.
One last thing: Scott Walters as Bert was
perfect and his accent was perfect, too. Van Dyke would agree.