I don't know if it is because my friend Wendy is a high school English teacher or the fact that we like quirky plays but we always seem to see a small production of something 'different' when we go on our annual outing to Stratford. Generally there is a bit of nudity and some language some might find offensive. Always there is an amazing play, well acted and with a story that has you thinking about what you saw and heard for some time.
The new play we saw last night, Bunny, by up and coming Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch, was no exception.
Now before I go too far I should talk about dinner.
We went to a restaurant I had never been to before - Keystone Alley. For three decades The Keystone, as locals fondly refer to it, has been one of Stratford’s more popular restaurants. A café by day and fine dining experience by night, The Keystone is casual yet sophisticated, offering cuisine from around the world with dishes prepared with only the freshest seasonal produce and top quality ingredients. The fact that it has been around for the better part of 30 years does make one wonder why last night was my first visit there!
We started off with Gazpacho - the classic soup made with tomato and cucumber. This was served with a parsley pesto which on the peppery side. For some this soup would have been too 'spicy' but I thought it was perfect.
The keystone is known for their pork special. Every night they feature a different dish with three 'types' of pork preparations. Last night it was pork belly, fresh ham with onion gravy, and cumin spiced pork croquettes. I hemmed and hawed a bit as there was so much to select from but in the end ordered the pork special.
The pork belly was served with a spicy/sweet BBQ sauce and sauteed zucchini. The fresh ham had onion gravy and was served with a mustardy potato salad. The pork croquettes were served with ratatouille. A big slice of corn bread accompanied the plate.
The servings were HUGE. I would have been happy with half of the serving, and in fact, left food behind on my plate (how rare an event is that?).
I thought I'd order some ice cream for dessert. I really only wanted one scoop - they were featuring nectarine sorbet, salted caramel, and blueberry lemon - of course it was the salted caramel I wanted. The server advised that you'd receive three small scoops of each.
SMALL???
Anyway, it was all yummy.
It was a shame the restaurant was located so close to the studio theatre - I could have used a huge walk after all of that food. Alas, it was about 100 steps . . . no way I was working any of that amazing meal off.
As always Wendy had perfect seats for us, although to be honest, I doubt there is a bad seat in the theatre. It only seats about 250 patrons and no one is more than 25 feet from the stage.
Hannah Moscovitch has established herself as perhaps Canada’s hottest young playwright for more than a decade now, with such acclaimed works as East of Berlin, The Russian Play and This Is War. This season, the Stratford Festival is hosting the world premiere of Moscovitch’s latest play, Bunny, for a two-month run at the Studio Theatre.
Starring Maev Beaty and Tim Campbell and directed by Sarah Garton Stanley, Bunny is a drama about a woman named Sorrel, who has difficulty truly connecting to other people in spite of her natural allure and attractiveness to others. Among Moscovitch’s past laurels include a Dora Award for her 2008 play In This World and the Trillium Book Award.
Bunny had an interesting story arc - starting and finishing at the same point. The part in between essentially told the story of how Sorrel arrived at that point. It was a bit offputting at first to have Maev Beaty talk about her self in the first person (Sorrel this and Sorrel that) but as a device it worked because she would step in and out of character to provide some background as to what the character was thinking or experiencing.
The story was very much a post-feminist view of female sexuality and what happens when women push the boundaries of sexual desire. Highlighted through the retelling of three relationships Sorrel has had, and one I think she never actually had but was left as a 'potential', you see how she evolves overtime in how she perceives sexual relationships.
The play was quick, 90 minutes, no intermission. When the last line was uttered and the lights went down I was shocked . . . the play moved quickly and I was left wanting more . . . always a fine sign.
What a great write up! A small update, would be appreciated. Bunny was directed by Sarah Garton Stanley. (That's me and I am very proud of it!) Vanessa Porteous had to withdraw for family reasons last spring. Thanks!
Posted by: sarah stanley | August 30, 2016 at 08:06 PM