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Non-MX Articles: Tom McCamus (3/09 Three Sisters)

Excerpt from Torontoist 3/5/09: Tom McCamus

Tom Patterson Theatre

The Tom Patterson's intimate thrust-stage is no longer the festival's smallest theatre, but it does have a season of slightly less-obvious fare. Chekhov classic Three Sisters has a strong cast, including Irene Poole, Kelli Fox, and Tom McCamus. And Bartholomew Fair is a rarely performed work by Shakespeare contemporary Ben Johnson, which might be fun. Ever Yours, Oscar is another Wilde-themed piece starring Brian Bedford, but this time it's as the famous aesthete himself as he reads Wilde's real-life letters. Potentially for h-core Oscar-heads only. And finally, there's a new adaptation of Racine's Phèdre (itself an adaptation of the Greek tragedy) starring the wonderful Seana McKenna. Probably worth catching if you enjoyed her Medea.

© Torontoist

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Playbill 5/8/09: Tom McCamus

Three Sisters, With Peacock, Poole and Badr, Begins at Ontario's Stratford Fest
By Kenneth Jones
08 May 2009

The Stratford Shakespeare Festival's Tom Patterson Theatre opens for the season in Stratford, Ontario, May 9 with the first preview of Susan Coyne's adaptation of Anton Chekhov's Three Sisters.

Coyne is the respected actress and writer who played an administrative assistant on TV's "Slings and Arrows," but is also known for many classical modern roles in Canadian theatre.

Stratford veteran actress-director Martha Henry directs the 1901 Russian play. "The play tells the story of a family seeking meaning and purpose when traditions shift in an increasingly modern world," according to Stratford.

The production features seasoned Festival actors Lucy Peacock as Masha and Irene Poole as Olga, as well as Dalal Badr, a member of the Festival's Birmingham Conservatory for Classical Theatre, as Irina.

James Blendick plays Chebutykin, the doctor who has been the girls' surrogate father since before their mother died, and Tom McCamus (one of Henry's "sons" from Long Day's Journey Into Night on stage and film) as Vershinin, the married officer who falls in love with everyone he meets. The company also includes Juan Chioran, Sean Arbuckle, Gordon Miller, Robert King, Joyce Campion and Kelli Fox (as Natasha, "the local girl who eventually usurps the household").

The creative team includes designer John Pennoyer, lighting designer Leigh Ann Vardy, composer Marc Desormeaux, sound designer Todd Charlton, stage manager Ann Stuart and production stage manager Janine Ralph.

Three Sisters runs until Oct. 3. Opening night is June 3.

For tickets, call the box office at (800) 567-1600 or visit www.stratfordshakespearefestival.com.

© Playbill

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Excerpt from The Toronto Star 6/4/09: Tom McCamus

One sister makes up for the rest

Three Sisters, Anton Chekhov's immense dramatic poem about the pain that can fill the human heart when the gap between what it wants and what it gets becomes too great, opened at the Tom Patterson Theatre last night in a production that reaches the heights at tantalizing but infrequent moments.

This tragicomic saga of three siblings who live in the dual damning shadows of past glories and future dreams is one of the most delicate balancing acts in the world of theatre. Play the drama too heavily and everything becomes sodden; tip the scales too far towards laughter and the emotion doesn't resonate.

The frustrating thing about Martha Henry's direction of the work is that it gets some relationships so right and others so wrong.

To cut to the heart of the matter, if everyone in the evening were as wonderful as Lucy Peacock's Masha and Tom McCamus's Vershinin, things would be glorious.

These two deliver performances that are breathtaking in scope and heart-wrenching in depth. At first, Peacock seems like a bored housewife and McCamus a callow philanderer. But as their affair progresses, we are drawn deeper into their passion; their farewell scene, especially from Peacock, is unforgettable.

Alas, nothing else works quite so well. Irene Poole's Olga is too kempt and controlled, while Dalal Badr's Irina bores quickly with her monotonous vocal delivery.

Gordon S. Miller makes a bold stab at the lost brother, Andrei, but settles in on one note, while Kelli Fox's Natasha is amusingly strident but never really develops far enough.

There's touching work from Peter Hutt as the cuckolded Kulygin, Sean Arbuckle as the haunted Baron Tuzenbach and Juan Chioran as the death-obsessed Solyony, but too many of the others play perilously close to caricature.

Director Henry has staged the play's first two naturalistic acts well, but the fire scene is far too cramped and the final open-air sequence lacks any real focus, with matters not helped in the latter two cases by John Pennoyer's set.

There's much missed in this Three Sisters, but one is tempted to recommend it for the sheer, unforgettable passion of Peacock and McCamus. Acting of this superb intensity doesn't come along very often.

© The Star