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Winnipeg Free Press
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
How do you climate-proof promenade-style theatre?
The only pollutant Waiting for Godot's Pozzo, played by Tom Keenan, is scripted to inhale is whatever substance he's used to pack his pipe. But as historic wildfires ravaged northern Manitoba this spring and summer, the outdoor company Shakespeare in the Ruins — whose productions are always shaped by the tendencies of the weather — had its repertory season of Waiting for Godot and Macbeth forged by the smoky climate. Scheduled to open June 5, the play director Emma Welham calls 'Mackers' did little to contradict its cursed reputation: hours before the promenade production at the Trappist monastery ruins was to begin, the company cancelled the Scottish play owing to provincewide air-quality advisories. Leif Norman photo Lindsay Nance (left) as Lady Macbeth and Darren Martens as Macbeth in the Scottish play After a two-day hiatus, Macbeth, which shared three actors with Godot, received clearance to go on. Then came a lightning storm that washed out two more performances. Of the 40 performances the company had scheduled this season, which wrapped up Sunday, 14 were either cancelled or heavily modified owing to injury or health concerns, with actors' conditions, especially lost voices, exacerbated by the heavy smoke in the air. On back-to-back days, the directors of both shows were thrust into the action as replacements, with Welham subbing for Keenan's three roles in Macbeth and Rodrigo Beilfuss taking the actor's place as the brutal charlatan Pozzo. For a stretch, the planned promenade of Macbeth became stationary to accommodate Darren Martens, who powered through his final five performances as Macbeth while nursing an inflamed lumbar disc. Beilfuss says in a given year between one and four performances are cancelled or postponed owing to rain and other weather phenomena. But this season, which still managed, to the artistic director's delight, to set company attendance records, re-enforced the twinned destinies of great outdoor theatre and the great outdoors, period. 'Human beings have kind of divorced ourselves from nature and that's not natural or normal. We are animals that need to be in contact with nature and because we aren't, that's why things are collapsing,' says Beilfuss, the AD since 2019. 'The great gift to me as the leader of SiR is that we bring people back into nature. It's a really peaceful place to be and I hope we can keep doing theatre out there, you know?' Beilfuss is by no means signalling an abandonment of the ruins, where the company's ever-shifting brand of classical summer theatre has lived since 1994. But he says the organization can't pretend climate-change events are anomalies. So in advance of next season, Beilfuss says he's exploring revised environmental contingencies to address climate effects on production locale. Programming one production at the ruins and another at an indoor space in the city? Producing only one play as opposed to the standard two? Those are options Beilfuss is floating. (Rainbow Stage, which has performed since 1954 in Kildonan Park, produced its first off-site indoor musical, Afterlight, in 2023.) 'I have all of these models I could run, but the truth is, people really want the shows at the ruins because it has become a summer event. They want to come out to be at the park and they want to promenade because it's only us that do that,' Beilfuss says. 'In the long-term, it would be lovely to build a semi-permanent structure on site that's sealed so that in case of weather, we can just move into it.' But the artistic director readily admits there's nothing that can top nimbly produced theatre that responds to the possibilities of shifting winds. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. That was made especially clear during the Canada Day performance of Godot when right before intermission, Didi (Arne MacPherson) and Gogo (Cory Wojcik) consider parting company. 'Didi says, 'Well, shall we go again?' Huge thunderclap. And then Gogo says, 'Yes, let's go.' It was just so beautifully synced,'' says Beilfuss. 'It's those moments you cannot have in any (indoor) theatre on the planet. I'll remember for the rest of my life when (Gogo) says to look at the little cloud, which is in the script, and everybody in the audience looks up.' With outdoor theatre, to paraphrase Pozzo, one absorbs the air in spite of one's precautions. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
Winnipeg Free Press
14-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Local cast delivers bleak, brilliant Beckett classic
A recurring line that runs like a leitmotiv through Samuel Beckett's absurdist masterpiece Waiting for Godot is: 'What do we do now?' Well, in this case, not much of anything, other than ponder existential questions regarding happiness, love, loneliness and God, not to mention the frailties of the hopelessly mortal, fallible human condition itself. Shakespeare in the Ruins launched its second show of its summer season Friday night, with a rare local live production of Waiting for Godot, performed al fresco among the ruins at Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Vladimir (Arne MacPherson, left) and Estragon (Cory Wojcik) bicker and commiserate while waiting for Godot. The intimate 150-minute show (including intermission), ably directed by SIR artistic director Rodrigo Beilfuss, is performed in repertory with the company's ongoing mainstage show, Macbeth. Godot has puzzled and perplexed audiences ever since its 1953 première with its simple story about two seemingly homeless men waiting endlessly for the mysterious title character. Beckett's enigmatic narrative teems with non-sequiturs and mundane observations, in turn punctuated by snappy wordplay and the occasional, heartbreaking zinger that pierces the tragicomedy's lighter moments like a rapier. It's also not exactly a plot-driven drama, relying instead on strongly forged characters and their fleshed-out relationships as they form and then fall apart. Local thespians Arne MacPherson as Vladimir (Didi) and Cory Wojcik as his long-suffering pal Estragon (Gogo) prove a well-matched team, dressed in costume designer Anika Binding's ragtag suits and bowler hats, as they spar and bicker, bare their souls and ultimately cling to each other. Set/props designer Lovissa Wiens creates a barren landscape, including a deliciously industrial 'tree' wrapped in chicken wire and brambles, with cast-off shoes and junkyard garbage bags — even a broken TV set — strewn about the edges of the monastery, creating a desolate playground of decay. MacPherson — a founding member of SiR who dazzled as the title character during last year's production of Iago Speaks — compels as the duo's 'thinker,' although his matter-of-fact, often more rapid-fire vocal style, especially during his repeated references to Godot, invariably dilutes the absurdity of his portrayal. While it all boils down to personal taste, Godot — a mysterious, Oz-like figure — should be addressed with more solemnity and even reverence to create greater subtext, as well as a more pronounced schism between stark reality and dreamy imagination, the gap between what is and what can be in a world of bleakness. Despite this artistic choice, however, one of his final, blink-and-you-miss it lines, 'Tell (Godot) that you saw me, and that you saw me,' packs an existential punch of self-identity and validation; it's one of the play's most resonant themes — if not the very point of it all. For his part, Wojcik crafts a stumbling, carrot-loving tramp with the heart of a poet who gnaws on chicken bones and frets about such physical needs as sleep and comfortable boots. His razor-sharp timing and agile inflection help him toss off such salient lines as 'We are all born mad; some remain so,' as well as ruing 'Nothing to be done,' a key sentiment. Tom Keenan (King Duncan, witch and porter in Macbeth) crafts a powder-keg Pozzo, ready to blow, ferociously cracking his riding whip when he burst onto the stage with his battered, tethered slave, Lucky (Liam Dutiaume, marking his professional debut) midway through Act I. His compelling, volatile portrayal immediately pumps the show with larger-than-life theatricality, his declaration, 'I am Pozzo,' thundering across the ruins as he stands atop a large Tyndall stone block. CHRISTINE LESLIE PHOTO Cory Wojcik as the bootless Estragon A special bravo to Dutiaume for a brilliant, less-is-more rendering of his ironically named, white-wigged zombie, his sunken eyes transfixed as he dutifully obeys Pozzo's barked commands. The actor, also appearing as Malcolm and Witch in Macbeth, nails Lucky's big speech (following his shuffling dance), proving to Vladimir and Estragon his ability to 'think' by delivering a staccato word salad of nonsensical imagery, pithy bon mots and guttural utterances. Beilfuss's thoughtful blocking (which at times is overly static, as when Pozzo is seated on his stool for far too long) adds texture to his overall delivery, seeing Lucky climb onto the stone block to spew out words directly to the audience. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. His pacing might have been quicker — a tall order, to be sure — to convey Lucky's rising desperation, although kudos are owed to the actor for fearlessly attacking Beckett's knotty text. The show highlights the first joint professional stage appearance by Wojcik and his actor son Mackenzie (Witch in Macbeth). The latter makes every moment count as the goat-herder 'Boy,' delivering messages from Godot, his spot-on conviction and guileless innocence proving the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. The play itself ends not with a bang, but a whimper. There is no resolution; Godot never arrives. While some pundits surmise that Beckett's play is about inertia, with a chaser of pre-supposed meaningless of life, Estragon's potent Act II question to Vladimir — 'Do you think God sees me?' — refutes the perennial argument that Godot is fundamentally a secular play. In the end, this cryptic conundrum will never be answered, and will continue, as it has for the last 73 years, to elicit a prism of interpretation by all those who see it. But that's probably just how its stable of all-too-human, flawed characters, as they grit their teeth and grapple with 'life,' would have liked it.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
The Bard's tragic tale delivered with passion, bit of levity
As every true-crime fan knows, there's something deeply fascinating about outwardly respectable people who dare to plan and carry out murder. Shakespeare's Macbeth still has the power to enthral audiences with its tale of a too-ambitious general who kills the Scottish king, usurps the throne and descends into increasingly depraved murders as his tormented mind fills up with 'scorpions' of guilt. Essential to the story are the three witches' prophecies about Macbeth and his honourable friend Banquo, and the eternal question of whether we control our own destinies. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth and Darren Martens in the title role of Shakespeare in the Ruins's promenade production of Macbeth. In great productions, 'the Scottish play' is a horrifying tragedy. Its relevance to the current reign of the amoral, arrogant King Trump is striking. Shakespeare in the Ruins' Macbeth opened at the Trappist Monastery ruins in St. Norbert on Friday night, after its planned Thursday opening was cancelled because of wildfire smoke. Helmed by Emma Welham in her professional directing debut, the production doesn't attain the dark intimacy or intensity to truly shock or chill. This Macbeth, which runs 2 1/2 hours including intermission, also doesn't equal the overall polished professionalism of some past SiR shows. Macbeth The only music is the ominous pounding of a drum. Anika Binding's costumes and Lovissa Wiens' minimal sets have the scrounged-up look usually seen at the fringe festival. Men wear what look like polyester pants along with vaguely medieval-styled sashes, cloaks and hoods of synthetic fabric. The props include a plastic plant pot for the weird sisters' cauldron. Still, it's compelling to watch the plucky cast of just seven actors throw everything they've got into a fiercely physical outdoor performance. The action includes scaling and jumping over walls, violent killings via stabbing, slashing and neck-cracking, and expertly choreographed sword fighting. The ruins' weathered brick and stone walls make a wonderfully evocative backdrop for an era of candlelit castles. The audience, which is issued lawn chairs, is led to five locations — perhaps one chair schlep too many — in and around the picturesque ruins and grounds. Bits of levity arise from characters running in at full tilt to report the latest news, and from the witches popping up to tell the audience in rhyme that it's time to change locations. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) deal with the aftermath of their deadly ambition. The actors refrain from spewing rapid torrents of text, carefully pacing their delivery so most of the lines can be understood. Darren Martens as Macbeth and Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth make a picture-perfect couple, but lack dramatic ferocity as they proceed from entitled self-assurance to anguish and madness. Each has some strong moments, as well as too-guarded moments that don't get at the guts of their roles. Ideally, Macbeth should be so riveting that the audience can't look away. Martens could make his voice and presence much bigger. He isn't helped when the director places him too far from the audience. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Nance's Lady Macbeth tends to be contained when we expect her to be furiously worked up, especially when she calls on the spirits to masculinize her, then taunts her husband into murder. It's unfortunate that Nance also has to play soldiers and other minor roles, which aren't well differentiated. Three actors display the mature technique to command the outdoor spaces. Ray Strachan is thrillingly passionate as Macduff. Tracy Penner superbly embodies both the female Banquo (as well as her ghost) and Lady Macduff, holding nothing back emotionally. The latter's screams of agony upon seeing her innocent son murdered are wrenching. Tom Keenan creates multiple distinct characters, including King Duncan, a witch and the porter (gatekeeper) who likens the castle doors to the gates of Hell. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens (left) as Macbeth and Lindsay Nance as Lady Macbeth make a picture-perfect couple in SiR's promenade production. In a funny respite from the play's 'bloody business,' Keenan's porter is a Scottish standup comic who teasingly interacts with audience members. More crowd participation ensues when folks are recruited to fill seats at the ghost-plagued banquet, but it distracts from — here's that word again — the intensity of the scene. The three witches, played by the male actors Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik, are effectively conceived as shrieking, cawing, birdlike creatures in cloaks of white rags that suggest feathers. When they exploit Macbeth's ego by delivering their second set of riddle-like prophecies, they become grotesquely clownlike. The famous 'By the pricking of my thumbs, Something wicked this way comes' is broadly played for laughs. While many productions of this masterwork bring out the hags' comic dimensions, there's something to be said for a more classical approach of letting the supernatural scenes be darkly frightening. This show may be a summer outing, but it could use more creepy chill. arts@
Winnipeg Free Press
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Macbeth opening night cancelled owing to poor air quality
Shakespeare in the Ruins has cancelled its opening-night performance of Macbeth owing to poor air quality. The outdoor promenade performance was to have taken place at the Trappist Monastery Provincial Heritage Park in St. Norbert. Ticket holders for tonight's show, directed by Emma Welham, will be contacted by the company. Macbeth's run continues to July 15. The company will present Waiting for Godot starting June 13.
Winnipeg Free Press
05-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Winnipeg Free Press
Wait no more
On a sweltering May afternoon, with an apocalyptic smokescreen descending upon the ruins of a burned-down monastery in St. Norbert, director Rodrigo Beilfuss leads rehearsals for a play that's frustrated him every day since preparation began in April. 'It's killing me in a beautiful way,' the artistic director of Shakespeare in the Ruins says with a smile. The work he's discussing is Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot, a play that since its première has confounded, confused, delighted and enlightened audiences the world over. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Macbeth (Darren Martens, left) and Lady Macbeth (Lindsay Nance) are the sensual heart of Shakespeare's classic murder mystery. Called an 'acrid cartoon of the story of mankind' in 1956 by New York Times reviewer Brooks Atkinson, Godot opens on June 13 in St. Norbert, with an estimable cast led by Arne MacPherson's Vladimir, Cory Wojcik's Estragon and Tom Keenan's Pozzo. This season at the Ruins, the company is producing Godot in repertory with Macbeth, which opens tonight, directed by Emma Welham. Last produced by SiR as an award-winning feature film in 2020 as a pandemic pivot project, the Scottish-based play features Darren Martens in the titular role, alongside Lindsay Nance (Lady Macbeth), Tracy Penner (Banquo), Ray Strachan (Macduff) and three actors — Keenan, Liam Dutiaume and Mackenzie Wojcik (Cory Wojcik's son) — who will straddle the worlds of Beckett and Shakespeare by appearing in both productions. Welham, making her professional directing debut, says that like Godot, Macbeth is a challenging, layered piece of theatre that demands consideration of tragic structure, the presence of the supernatural and the masks its characters wear to cover their private selves. In complementary ways, both directors agree, the works wrestle with human nature, trust and the fallibility of the universe. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Emma Welham takes on the challenge of directing Macbeth. 'Throughout the course of the play — spoiler alert — Macbeth becomes a tyrannical ruler, and this show really asks the question of how we're willing to stand up to it. What are we willing to do to stand up against injustice? It asks the question of who we put our trust in and why,' says Welham, who just finished her first year at the National Theatre School's directing program in Montreal. 'The central image of the show I return to is when Lady Macbeth says, 'Look like the innocent flower / but be the serpent under't.'' Nothing is exactly as it seems, and as in Godot, the work calls into question what is ever knowable about the characters we watch onstage or meet in day-to-day life. At the rehearsal for Godot, the cast and crew are working their way through the particularities of the movement and dialogue in Beckett's two-act tragicomedy, so clearly described in the script that each time the slavish Lucky (Dutiaume) moves a muscle, it must perfectly follow — or blatantly ignore — the orders of Keenan's prim Pozzo. 'It's relentlessly specific,' Beilfuss says, again smiling. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Director Emma Welham (right) works with Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance prior to the opening of Macbeth. 'Can you propose a rhythm for us?' MacPherson asks the director after his Vladimir and Wojcik's Estragon ran through a playful tête à tête. Moments later, Keenan tests his character's coachmen's whip, and soon, Pozzo is smoking a pipe and discarding the bones from a bucket of freshly consumed St. Norbert fried chicken. Sundays Kevin Rollason's Sunday newsletter honouring and remembering lives well-lived in Manitoba. Nearby, Mackenzie Wojcik, his father and Dutiaume kick around a hacky sack in the shade of a monastery wall. After about an hour, stage managers decide it's time for a break, suggesting the cast drink water and take respite from the sun. 'I don't know where a logical place to break is,' Keenan says. JOHN WOODS / FREE PRESS Darren Martens and Lindsay Nance get up to a bit of mayhem and murder in Macbeth. 'That's the problem with this play,' says Beilfuss, laughing. Ben WaldmanReporter Ben Waldman is a National Newspaper Award-nominated reporter on the Arts & Life desk at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg, Ben completed three internships with the Free Press while earning his degree at Ryerson University's (now Toronto Metropolitan University's) School of Journalism before joining the newsroom full-time in 2019. Read more about Ben. Every piece of reporting Ben produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press's tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press's history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates. Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber. Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.
