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life with more cowbell

Categorizing this post as “Stuff” since I wanted to mention two movies and a play I saw recently: Jane Eyre, Water for Elephants and The Cosmonaut’s Last Message to the Woman He Once Loved in the Former Soviet Union.

The two films are period piece stories of main characters facing some serious tragedies, and struggling through further trials and tribulations in their quest for love. Jane Eyre is the most recent film adaptation of the famous Charlotte Bronte novel, featuring Mia Wasikowska as Jane and Michael Fassbender as Rochester; it also features Judi Dench as Mrs. Fairfax, Sally Hawkins as Mrs. Reed and Jamie Bell as St. John Rivers (Bell was Billy Elliot in the movie version). Water for Elephants is also based on a novel, by Canadian Sara Gruen, and stars Robert Pattinson, Reese Witherspoon, Christoph Waltz and Hal Holbrook (he and Pattinson play the same character in different times). Nice adaptations both – and I’ve always been a sucker for hardship and struggles in the search for true love. And, even more so, the role that chance and fate seemingly play in the characters’ journeys.

The most mind-blowing case of synchronicity and simpatico in the search for connection (and love), though, is Can Stage’s production of Cosmonaut, by Scottish playwright David Greig and directed by Jennifer Tarver – now onstage at the Bluma Appel Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre. Characters, relationships, even bits of dialogue and objects, cross over time and space. A very fine cast featuring Fiona Byrne and David Jansen – I’m a particular fan of Byrne – and a relatively minimalist but clever, and magical, set. Two cosmonauts lost and forgotten in space grapple with each other while trying to communicate with Earth, where a husband and wife struggle to connect in a disintegrating marriage – all told in 42 very short scenes.

Added bonus the night I saw it (they’re doing pre-show chats with production folks before all Friday night performances, I believe): an introduction to the play from assistant director Birgit Schreyer Duarte, hosted by Joanne Williams (who works at Can Stage and is also a member of Alumnae Theatre).

Also, check out the interview with actor Fiona Byrne by NOW Magazine: http://www.nowtoronto.com/stage/story.cfm?content=180126

2 responses to “Synchronicity, simpatico & love”

Tina

April 26, 2011

Re: “Cosmonaut” – any interesting tidbits you can share from the pre-show chat? I saw the play on April 21, and quite enjoyed it – didn’t have a problem following the plot despite double-casting, weird place/time shifts, multiple accents, etc. Although judging from conversations overheard on the subway afterwards, other audience members were quite confused and way off-base in their assumptions! Totally opposite reviews in Toronto Star (hated it) and Globe & Mail (loved it) will divide the audience even further…

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1. life with more cowbell
  
  April 26, 2011
  
  Birgit also provided dramaturgical support for the production, researching earlier productions with an eye on staging, particularly the cosmonauts’ appearance of weightlessness. I’m guessing she didn’t want to give too much away, but tasked us with watching out for bits of dialogue and objects that come up throughout the play. She left it up to us to work out the relationships and message – esp. the titular message, which the cosmonaut attempts – sometimes comically, but always poignantly – and finally delivers toward the end of the play (a very moving moment).
  
  I noticed the very different reviews. I don’t generally put much stock in reviews in general – but I can understand that this play is not for everyone (folks who like straightforward, linear story-telling), and looks like The Star critic was one of those. I enjoyed this play a lot.
  
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I’m Cate (she/her)

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Thanks for stopping by life with more cowbell. This blog is about living my best life through the arts. I’ll be sharing short fiction & creative non-fiction, art & other stuff. The arts are for everyone & you can choose to share your art or make it just for you – have fun exploring & creating!