Theatre Review by Christina Manolescu</MARQUEE>
The Sins of the Father
Brash, penniless, all-but-washed-up yet loaded with 'psycho-baggage' America, in the guise of Mathias Gold (Chip Chuipka), arrives one day on the banks of the River Seine. Unwittingly he gate-crashes his way into the sedate, 'oldie-worldie' demesne of a daunting Parisian mother-and-daughter combo: 90-something Mathilde Giffard (Béatrice Picard) and 50-something Chloé Giffard (Marthe Turgeon), literally speaking, a formidable united 'pièce de résistance.'Besides, who wouldn't pine with nostalgia, given the sumptuous setting — oak paneling, upholstery, wall mirrors and chandeliers — marvelously conjured up by stage and props designers, John C. Dinning and Norman Blais, evoking the fin-de-siècle elegance of Old Europe's architecture and design. Romantic musical interludes (Rob Denton, sound designer) from the 'twenties complete this re-creation of a world 'in the passing.' Even the Parisian skyline appears through an opaque screen by means of a complex simulacrum of rooftops and greystone buildings. Whenever the 'windows' are opened, in filters the roar of traffic, nature, the sound of the street.
Instead, she presides over this coveted dwelling-place as custodian of her own long and secret history that in some strange fashion concerns himself, and which she divulges at times — at other times, dissembles — as the occasion seems to require.
It dredges up allusions to 'individual' versus 'national' guilt, tossing in scornful allusions to France under the 'Vichy' régime, acts of treachery, betrayal, unholy alliances, ruptures and marriages of convenience, coupled with the morality or immorality of such. The stage transforms itself into a comic, as well as vengeful battleground of rights and wrongs. Mathilde's defensively pragmatic rationalization of past sins is hurled into the face of Mathias's juvenile naïveté.
The acting is unequivocally excellent on all sides. Both Quebec actresses of authentic French origin portray a cultural realism that is absolute. Chloé's diction and voice is particularly strong, hard-edged, autocratic, intimidating and precise. Mathilde's presence is milder, more generous and accommodating on the surface. Yet neither woman is prepared to concede a fraction of the power and status each holds. Erudite, worldly-wise Mathilde and her spiked lion-heart of a daughter, Chloé, are more than a match for the good-natured but weak-willed, self-deprecating Mathias who nevertheless, like his Biblical counterpart, takes it upon himself to 'record' their story as it happens, leaving only the final pages reversible or blank.
However, despite the 'Sins of the Father,' this mortgaged legacy offers the chance to restore and redeem a life. For, in the final outcome, all three persons are chastened and changed by their mutual encounter. Through a pragmatic irony of fate, Mathias has no choice but to accept and forgive the latter-day adversaries he'd never known existed. Apparently none are completely to blame, nor completely blameless. Only Time heals, reveals, reconciles, in the end buries and obliterates all.
Review by Christina Manolescu
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