Get That Hope At The Stratford Festival
Toronto’s Little Jamaica is coming apart – quite literally in Get That Hope, Andrea Scott’s earnest if somewhat shambolic play now receiving its world premiere at the Stratford Festival’s Studio Theatre.
As nearby gentrification-fueled demolition causes plaster to shower down from the ceiling of their flat, the Whyte family jostles and bickers and deals as best they can with a grab bag of problems.
Patriarch Richard (Conrad Coates), unemployed but ever hopeful that the lottery will rescue him, is in the early stages of dementia. Rachel (Celia Aloma), his daughter by his ex-wife, a striver who holds down two jobs and has saved a down payment for her own place, is resentful of the perceived sloth of other members of the family.
Richard’s second wife Margaret (Kim Roberts), to whom he is devoted, is not in the best of health and is often at loggerheads with her step-daughter. Simeon (Savion Roach), her son by Richard, is a veteran of Iraq whose PTSD leaves him incapable of holding a job or driving across a bridge.
Also part of the Whyte’s milieu is Millicent Flores (Jennifer Villaverde), a Filipina health care worker who lives upstairs and ministers to Margaret, encouraging her to get more exercise and lose some weight.
Apparently Get That Hope was inspired by a production of Long Day’s Journey Into Night that Scott saw at this very theatre. I never would have guessed had not the programme notes clued me in.
In retrospect, I suppose some parallels can be discerned, but Scott’s formulaic, almost soap operatic dramaturgy (she is now in Hollywood writing for Disney) is a far cry from O’Neill’s poetic realism.
Yes, as in Long Day’s Journey, each character has a speech in which their inner demons or hidden secrets are revealed, but for me at least it all added up to very little, until a deus ex smartphone brought the proceedings to a close.
André Sills, a fine Stratford Festival actor tackling his first directorial assignment, does what he can with Get That Hope and draws believable performances from his cast, two of whom are making their Festival debuts.
Set and costume designer Sarah Uwadiae has created a nicely cluttered home for the Whytes, but I found Steve Lucas’s lighting plot rather muddy, often leaving actors in shadow at key moments.
Kudos to the Festival for providing a showcase for emerging Black playwrights and for telling stories of Canadian communities with which its audience might not be familiar. Get That Hope, however, is not one of its successes.
Get That Hope continues at the Studio Theatre through September 28, 2024. For more information and to purchase tickets visit the Stratford Festival website.
For a complete index of reviews CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss another review or blog post! SUBSCRIBE HERE.
