I'm in Niagara-on-the-Lake for the Shaw Symposium. Today, Dorothy Hadfield, the President of the International Shaw Society, welcomed us, and then Pragna Desai, Director of Community Engagement & Outreach for the Shaw Festival, gave a keynote address.
The Shaw Festival has a mandate to perform plays from the lifetime of Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) and works in dialogue with those plays. The theatre is currently raising $150 million to replace the Royal George Theatre and to build two new campuses: an Artists' Village to house theatre professionals and a Center for Lifetime Creativity, which will serve the entire community.
During the keynote address, we also heard about another new initiative, Every Kid in Niagara, which has the goal of bringing all of the students in the Niagara region to see plays at the Shaw Festival at least twice over the course of their academic careers. In order to do this, the festival is partnering with local buses to ensure they have the vehicles (and drivers) necessary. The festival also plans to increase its programing for students.
After the keynote, we headed to the Niagara-on-the-Lake Museum, where Jennifer Buckley and Christopher Wixson led a discussion on Shaw's relationship to the play Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, and how that same play inspired contemporary dramatist Will Eno to write his adaptation, Gnit. Eno's Gnit premiered at Actors Theatre of Louisville in 2013 and is now receiving its Canadian premiere at the Shaw Festival. Sadly, the magical play that inspired Shaw had the life sucked out of it by Eno's adaptation.
I just got back from seeing Gnit, which reminded me of Donmar Warehouse's production of Ibsen's The Lady From the Sea in a new version by Elinor Cook. In that version, the supernatural overtones of the mysterious sailor were eliminated, seriously weakening the play. Peer Gynt doesn't just have supernatural overtones, though. It is a full-on supernatural fantasy complete with trolls, the devil, and other mystical figures appearing on stage. Like Cook, Eno rationalizes everything, leaving only the husk of a once great play.
Incidentally, the Hudson Classical Theater Company in New York is opening their own adaptation of The Lady From the Sea this month, penned by Executive Artistic Director Susane Lee. I have higher hopes for that production. Until I see it, I'll have to content myself with other plays the Shaw Festival has on offer: Shaw's Major Barbara and the two-hander Dear Liar which dramatizes the writer's correspondence with Pat Campbell.
Tomorrow, I'll be seeing both of those, and attending talks by noted Shavians as the Shaw Symposium continues!
