First Stages - Duet for One

Producer/director Robert Latimer and First Stages Theater Company never cease to amaze me. Each time I go to a performance I think it can’t get any better than that. Well it does and it did last Sunday when David Gardner and Karen Sweet read Duet for One. It’s a play written by British actor and playwright Tom Kempinski. It has won accolades and awards everywhere and that is not at all surprising. It received the London Critic’s Award when it was first performed in 1980 and the following year it opened on Broadway with Anne Bancroft and Max von Sydow to rave reviews. It was made into a movie in 1986 and is now revived in London at the National Theatre. It’s not surprising that it keeps on and on being a huge hit: it is an amazing experience.

Stephanie Abrahams is a young woman violinist who has made her mark in the professional world of classical music and is married to a very successful composer. In the midst of her success she is stricken with Multiple Sclerosis and when we meet her is in a wheelchair. She no longer plays the violin. We meet her on her fist visit to a psychiatrist, Dr. Alfred Feldmann. They begin a doctor/patient relationship that is at times tender, at times funny, at times desperate and at times fraught with despair, anger, angst and the examination of her suicidal thoughts.

The two actors who play the roles are simply astonishing. We have now met David Gardner seven times in First Stages readings. He is 82 years old and an actor of enormous talent and presence. I cannot imagine anyone else playing Dr. Feldmann. We are so privileged to have him here again. It was an honour.

I last saw Karen Sweet in the Capitol theatre production of Educating Rita. I thought she was the best I’d ever seen play that role. Not surprising that her reading of Stephanie the violinist was inspired; in this, her first First Stages appearance, she was brilliant and the perfect partner for David.

The next First Stages play reading is on April 19^th at 3:00 pm at the Capitol. It’s Edward Albee’s Three Tall women of which The New York Times said “A play so good it can only exist on the stage. A perfect illustration of why theatre is an indispensible art.”

Please get your ticket now and pass this info on to your friends. Call the Capitol at 905.885.1071 for tickets and check the First Stages website for more details: www.firststagestheatre.com.

Selena Forsyth

Friends of Music – Stars of Tomorrow

Stars of Tomorrow, hosted by Iain Scott, is an annual operatic treat presented by Friends of Music. His unique and entertaining perspective on opera makes Iain one of Canada’s most popular opera educators. He has been a regular guest on CBC radio’s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera and the Met’s Opera Quiz from New York. He has a company called Opera–IS which gives opera ‘tours’ and opera courses. He is much in demand and has brought many new converts to the genre. Not surprising. At the concert on March 14th at St. Peters Church in Cobourg he had the audience and the three opera singers in the palm of his hand.

The way it works is three final-year students from the Opera Program at the University of Toronto Opera School are chosen to come to Cobourg each year. They are considered by the school to be opera’s Stars of Tomorrow. This year the Stars were soprano Andrea Cerswell, baritone Andrew Love and lyric tenor Patrick Jang. Accompanied by pianist Andrea Grant, a member of the University’s Opera Division staff, they performed works by Rossini, Donizetti, Massenet, Bizet, Mozart, Lehár, Britten and Gilbert & Sullivan.

Iain, in his inimitable and very funny fashion, introduced each piece, telling the story in modern lingo. The three singers, perhaps a little nervous in the first half, were obviously as entranced by Iain as was the audience. He also seemed to put them at their ease and by intermission they were in top form and it was obvious why they had been chosen.

The reception after the concert was also fun and an opportunity to find out from the students a little of who they are and the avenues they hope to pursue.

Iain will bring three more students next year, sometime in the Spring. Friends of Music never knows who or when until the last minute. That’s because they have to wait for the school to decide who the ‘Stars of Tomorrow’ will be and when they will be ready to perform. Whoever they are they will be a delight, just as they have been every year.