The infamous anarchist Emma Goldman is known to have once declared, “If I cannot dance, I want no part in your revolution,” which makes it too bad that the Graduate Centre for the Study of Drama wasn’t around in 1901-because she could have had both.
Their recent musical, Flora the Red Menace, an old Kander and Ebb classic, follows the fortunes of a young and idealistic fashion artist as she attempts to find love, political identity, and (most importantly) work in New York City during the Great Depression.
Smitten with Harry, a quirky, stuttering Communist, Flora naively joins The Party and blindly agrees to help them with their revolutionary activities. At the same time, through a stroke of good luck, Flora lands a sweet new job sketching dresses at an un-unionized clothing company. She comes face-to-face with a true ethical dilemma when her new “comrades” begin to pressure her into covertly sabotaging the business. Confused, indecisive, and in well over her head, the well-meaning Flora must dig deep within herself to find out who she really is, and to whom her true allegiances should lie.
Director Laura MacDonald did an excellent job of assembling a strong cast, and creating a humourous balance between the political and ethical themes of this musical. MacDonald’s stage, just like New York City, was never static. She skilfully ensured that some fitting symbolic (and often funny) business was always complementing the dialogue. This worked well to create an appropriately quick pace for the piece and ensured that the audience had no excuse to be bored or distracted.
The solid cast continuously demonstrated an air of professionalism in their performances by paying close attention to small details, like making sure the set changes were quick and controlled, and quickly and believably changing roles at the drop of a hat.
Although the whole ensemble deserves credit, standout performances were given by Tim Vant, who was hilarious as Kenny and the nasally-voiced Communist; and Daniel Krolik (a dead ringer for Albert Camus!) who did an excellent job of perfecting Harry’s stammer and exploring his character’s strange and awkward nature as he stands up against capitalism and unwanted sexual advances from his party leader. Extra credit to Lionel Tona, whose accent work for the character of Mr. Weiss was entertaining and nearly perfect.
The set and costumes were also of a surprisingly high calibre. The props all seemed to match the time period (right down to the newspapers and cool-looking Communist propaganda) and the costumes were of a consistent quality which, one suspects, implies that they weren’t just home-scores.
A fun, interesting, and excellent example of how good all campus theatre should (and could) be.
