Dear Editor:
Last Saturday in downtown Fergus my wife and I attended the theatre wanting to experience good old fashioned deep-seated psychological drama – Cat On A Hot Tin Roof did not disappoint.
Brick the main character has lost his self esteem. He has a football injury which is masquerading as something that allows him to have given up on life. The pain is deeper and more complex than a busted ankle. Indeed, the young husband is in a downward spiral. His crutch is booze. It has robbed him of his sex drive, his ambition and his marriage is floundering.
Afterwards, I went to the front of the theatre to commend the principals. I should have taken more time to commend some of the other actors but I was in the spell of the performance. Sometimes theatre becomes absolutely real and that is its magic.
Kaitlyn Chapman and Anthony Deciantis are very special. Right down to the eye movement through an emotion—in each and every microsecond they were authentic. Their faces held emotional relevance. Everything emanates from the character. This is the beauty of it.
I certainly recommend acting as therapy. I had a short stage career. I enjoyed coming to rehearsal as myself and transitioning into the roles I played. It was something transformational.
I got to hang up my life-assigned costume, and put on different clothes, and bonus-bonus—invent a different way of breathing and walking. Indeed, a different architecture of affectation. A different head-scape full of my character’s thoughts. A vacation from my own.
So, anyone who wants a little disentanglement from their own twisted lives can find themselves in theatre. It is interesting to note that the women are treated abysmally in the play. Has that much changed?
Everybody did a great job and there were stellar performances within performances.
Still, to watch two characters emanate on stage – every breath in character – is mesmerizing. So exact it is profound. In my mind, these two principals are theatre royalty. And the theatre was almost empty.
These actors could appear seamlessly on Broadway and here they are in little old Fergus; how special to be present and how informed I am leaving the theatre. How humanizing.
Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. Art lives.
David Courtney,
Belwood