Opening the Season

The 2007 - 2008 theatre and concert season opened with a bang, literally. Theatre Calgary's production of The Wars was astonishingly good on virtually every level.

I approached this work with much trepidation. It is sheer delight to live in a city where the major and new companies nurture and produce new work. But after the disaster of last season's Frobisher from Calgary Opera, I had many questions about how this novel which uses World War I as a driver of the stories about how governmental and societal violent insanity impacts ordinary humans could be shrunk to the space of a stage. It turns out the answer was that one does not shrink it, but uses multi-media and brilliant stage design to suggest the full scope of the time and place.

I salute the playwright. Timothy Findlay's voice was ardently clear throughout.

There is not enough good that can be said about the cast. The work requires a true ensemble effort around a central character who is on stage virtually every minute of the production. They succeeded magnificently.

Findlay's strength is to engage one both intellectually and emotionally at the same time. This work succeeds in achieving this same magic. I shall not soon forget the final scene. Two words tie the final knot in the tapestry that has been woven through the evening. I was shaken to the core.