|
With Johnny Belinda, its second production of the season, Orpheus Musical Theatre Society has bitten into a fairly substantial challenge. A musical that centres around a deaf-mute is no smooth task, and is made no easier by the additional topics of rape and small-town small-mindedness. This is no mere love story with bright costumes and hats. Based on a true story, the play takes place in the late 1800s in the tiny fishing and farming community of Souris, P.E.I. A teenager, Belinda McDonald, has been deaf and mute since she was a year old, and all the townspeople call her The Dummy; even her father has difficulty recalling her given name. The arrival of a new doctor - Jack Davidson - reveals Belinda's innate intelligence and curiosity, and he soon has her signing. An ugly wrench is tossed into the works, however, when a young and irresponsible ne'er-do-well, Locky, rapes belinda, and the villagers later take too meddlesome an interest in the well-being of the resulting, apparently fatherless, child, Johnny. Despite its raw subject matter, Mavor Moore's musical version of Elmer Harris' original play (ultimately best-known for Jane Wyman's Oscar-winning performance in the 1948 film version) is long on hope and triumph, and actress Minna Koch does a wonderful job, chiefly through sign and dance, of expressing Belinda's joys and fear. Directed by Laura Duncan and featuring Nancy Solman's evocative sets, Johnny Belinda takes a while to find its legs, though; most of the hour-long first act, until Belinda's deflowering just prior to the intermission, is static and introductory. As well, John Fenwick's compositions, nicely conjuring that ancient mariner feeling, are peppered a little too liberally throughout; there are more than two dozen songs here, and they occasionally bring an abrupt halt to the flow of the story. But the acting among the primary characters is fine, although Moore might have better drawn them with a shade or two of grey, rather than the polar black and white presented here. Terry Duncan is wholly likable and convincing as the miracle-working doctor, while Lawrence Evenchick ably provides the villainous foil, Locky, with nary a drop of remorse or doubt. Belinda's father, played by Bob Lackey, is the only character who seems to possess the ability to evolve, as his early pejorative view of his simpleton daughter gives way to more paternal feelings, but even that seems sudden and sharp. Many of the holes, though, are filled in nicely by a strong supporting cast, particularly by Joyce Landry as Belinda's aunt Maggie, and Jim Robertson as Jimmy Dingwell, the village's careless butcher. Johnny Belinda continues at Centrepointe Theatre until March 6. For ticket information, call 580-2700. |