Last Sunday night at the Helen Gardiner Phelan Playhouse (the performance space of the UC Drama program), some of the best performers of the local theatre scene put on a Women’s Cabaret variety show to celebrate the 120th anniversary of women at U of T.
Rightly called “There’s a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in” (from the Leonard Cohen song “Anthem”), the show highlighted some extraordinary talent. Djanet Sears, award-winning playwright (The Adventures of a Black Girl in Search of God, which is being serialized on CBC Radio in two parts, March 7 and 14) and U of T professor, directed the show. She said the concept behind the performance lay in its subtitle: “A celebration of women: challenge and change.” She went on say that the best way to celebrate women is “to unveil their diversity and differences by filling it with different kinds of women.”
The program reflected her vision with a wide range of performances-from an American jazz singer (Sandra Caldwell) to a Canadian performance poet (Lillian Allen).These and all the other performers filled the hall with their stage presence and storytelling abilities and fit right in with the ambiance of a theatre completely transformed into what felt like an authentic 1930s cabaret hall.
The night began with actor Kate Lynch (whose intermittent introductions tied the evening together) reading a letter of rejection from a female applicant to U of T from the late 1800s. Not surprising, as this performance was actually part of a larger series of events all around campus marking the March 6, 1884 date that three women started attending classes at University College. In contrast, today the UC playhouse not only played host to this special evening of performance celebrating women, but also employs an array of talented female Drama professors.
The opening number blew the audience away. Carmen Maja Antoni of the Berliner Ensemble (the late Bertolt Brecht’s theatre company) performed “Barbarasong” with such poise that most people in the audience didn’t care that it was in German. Her body language, vocal intonation, and timing with the music showed the audience that the Germans invented cabaret and they still do it best.
Following her a bit later in the show, African-Canadian Sharon Forrester (who also happens to be an alumna of the UC Drama program) of the Canadian Stage Company performed an excerpt from the play “Bag Babies”. Dressed head to toe in gaudy garb, she explained to the great amusement of the audience, “Beauty like this don’t come cheap…I’m plucked clean as a chicken.” Forester’s segment was a hilarious performance that hit all the right notes.
One of the most interesting pieces of the night was entitled “You’re wrong, Lysistrata!” and was performed by noted local film actress Arsine Khanjian (Ararat). She appealed to the audience as if they were a group of women withholding sex from their partners to prevent war. She countered their logic saying that men are more likely to go to war without sex: “All they want with either place is to conquer.” She argued instead that it’s the role of women to distract men in hopes of peace.
Among the most popular performers of the night was comedienne Sandra Shamus, performing from her beloved one-woman show Wit’s End. The monologue was so natural and funny, one would never have thought it was scripted. For example, about My Fair Lady, she commented that it was “the story of a man who goes to the gutter (where all females are)… and turns her into a woman, and then with an added challenge, a lady-oooooh!”
Local actor Krista Sutton (another UC Drama grad who currently stars in Global’s reality drama Train 48), who performed a scene from the Vagina Monologues, said following the show that it was an honour to work with such talented performers. Prof. Sears agreed, and commented that there’s no doubt about the progress that women have made in light of such a stellar lineup of female performers, as well as every day around U of T. Compared to 1882, she said, it’s “as if we’re actually on different planets.”
