If you missed the first day’s coverage, click here. For day two, click here.
The Stratford Festival has become somewhat of an annual tradition for my older family members. After years of being offered the opportunity to join them (who really likes theatre when they are young and dumb?), I finally decided that 2009 would be the year I pop my Stratfordian cherry.
I decided that I would like to review (yes I know Hearwax does not normally cover theatre, but that is why this is a “special report”) all four plays (over three days) that I was attending. The last day has finished, and here is my last review for this year’s festival:
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum
Our itinerary saved the funniest and lightest play till the end, and after seeing this year’s A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, it was the best last play we could have chosen.
Our venture followed a pattern to end up here; Day one had the serious musical West Side Story and sad Cyrano de Bergerac, day two featured the witty The Importance of Being Earnest, and the last day was a true parallel to day one – a musical comedy. There were a slew of actors from the previous plays we had seen – a delightful way to see most of them have fun on stage.
Instead of being a clever comedy like Earnest, A Funny Thing Happened was more slapstick than anything. There was no shortage of jokes. In fact, every line that was supposed to be funny was just that, and any line that was semi-serious only preluded physical comedy from one of the characters. The band complimented the style with little touches here and there that were always right on queue, and there were plenty of props (lots of which came from unexpected places) to help out the actors. Additionally, the main protagonist, Hysterium (played by the excellent understudy Stephen Ouimette), addressed the audience as such, which surprisingly didn’t hinder the credibility of the performance.
Much like the other plays this year (other than West Side Story), reading the plot beforehand was confusing. The cast was able to clearly explain the situation in a comedic manor, and made it seem a lot simpler than we thought it was going to be. Even the fast-paced scene near the end was easy to understand. Finally, the actual conclusion was brilliantly pulled off in writing and acting, and led to the most laughs of the night.
If there was a high note to end the venture on, it was A Funny Thing Happened. Not only was it the funniest play I have ever seen, but it was one of the funniest performances of any medium I have witnessed.
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