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| Patrick Doyle, The Ottawa Citizen / Matthew Romantini, Sierra Percy-Beauregard and Robin Guy in the Ottawa Little Theatre's The Miracle Worker. |
Directed at a fine production in general, the bulk of the applause fell on the shoulders of the play's two principals, Sierra Percy-Beauregard and Robin Guy. The pair earned every handclap, as each put in a seamless performance for the nearly three-hour evening.
The play, written in 1959 by William Gibson, centres around the very early days between Helen Keller, the celebrated American memoirist and inspirational icon who, due to disease at 19 months of age, lost her sight and hearing, and Anne Sullivan who, at the age of 20, became Keller's teacher, eventually helping her learn to speak.
The play focuses on Sullivan's arrival from Boston, in 1886, at the Keller homestead in Tuscumbia, Alabama. After jarring the house with her presence and brash un-Southern style, she is given two weeks to show some kind of result with young Keller. (In real life, Keller was six at the time. In the OLT production, she is eight.)
And while I'm loath to give too much of the ending away, keep in mind that this is meant to be an uplifting play; Sullivan is not sent packing back to Beantown after a fortnight.
Keller was played Monday by nine-year old Percy-Beauregard. She will be alternating nights with 11-year old Steffi T. DiDomenicantonio, as director Sarah Hearn decided that the role might prove too strenuous for one girl.
For a role that demands only one word to be spoken -- and crudely uttered at that -- the job of portraying Keller is an incredibly demanding one, and Percy-Beauregard handled it admirably. She was convincing in the blind-deaf-nearly mute role, relying on facial gestures, physical movements and grunts, screams and yells to display emotion.
Guy's portrayal of Sullivan was inspiring not just for the character she played, but for the way she did it.
Her acting was as natural as one is likely to find in a non-paying gig, and a reminder of how too many performers forget to remain human onstage.
It was also rather refreshing to see a miracle worker portrayed as other than entirely selfless, altruistic and courageous; Guy's Sullivan had moxy, character and a brashness that wasn't always directed toward the cause. "Strangers aren't so strange to me," she said as she headed to the South, "I've known them all my life."
The best scene of the show was a 10-minute breakfast-time battle between Guy and Percy-Beauregard. All in pantomime, save the odd grunt and yell, the struggle between the two forces was brilliant. Neither will be wanting to miss too many meals if they want to keep their strength up for that scene. It was tiring just to watch.
The rest of the cast also puts on a good performance. Michael Kennedy's portrayal of Captain Keller, Helen's father, could probably have the southern accent turned down a notch or two, and Matthew Romantini takes fecklessness a bit over the top as Keller's half-brother, James, but these are minor quibbles, and both, with Heather Archibald as Keller's mother, Kate, offer strong support.
The play's only glaring weakness is its use of a silhouette-projection to represent Sullivan's guilt-ridden memory of her brother, crippled and left behind in an asylum. It's a bit of a high-drama conscience that this play doesn't need.
Robin Riddihough's set design deserves attention for using minimal sleights and additions to turn what is essentially a single set into a two-storey home, a train station, a garden shed and an outdoor water-pump. Water. ... Mmmm.
The Miracle Worker runs until May 12 at The Ottawa Little Theatre, 400 King Edward Ave. Admission is $12, and tickets are available at the box office. For more information, call 233-8948.