Book Reviews and More: A Wrinkle in Time Stratford Festival 2023 A Review

Wednesday, 25 September 2024

A Wrinkle in Time Stratford Festival 2023 A Review

A Wrinkle in Time

2023

Stratford Festival

Author: Madeleine L’Engle

Director Thomas Morgan Jones

Set Designer Teresa Przybylski

Costume Designer Robin Fisher

Lighting Designer Kimberly Purtell

Composer and Sound Designer Deanna H. Choi

Projection Designer jaymez*

Dramaturge Keith Barker

Producer David Auster

Casting Director Beth Russell

Creative Planning Director Jason Miller

A Wrinkle in Time Stratford Festival 2023 A Review

A Wrinkle in Time Stratford Festival 2023 A Review Stage Pre Show

First I must state that I never read Madeleine L’Engle as a child. I discovered her in my twenties and read over 30 of her works in a few short years. Reading a mix of her children’s fiction, young adult and adult fiction and her non-fiction and theology. I even had the opportunity to meet her at two conferences, one a religious conference and one for writers. I am a huge fan of her works.

Over the last few years my son, who is now 16, and I have attended a number of plays in Stratford at the festival. We eagerly await the announcements of the season’s shows and often debate what shows we want to attend and why and then we buy our tickets early in the winter. For the 2023 Season I did not get around to writing reviews during the season but wanted to still share my thoughts. And this production was just really intriguing. As a world premier adaptation we had nothing to consider before entering the theatre. It cannot be compared to either film adaptations, from 2003 or 2019. It was the penultimate of the five shows we saw in 2023, the others were: Frankenstein Revived, King Lear, Grand Magic, and Goblin Macbeth. But back to this production.

The cast in alphabetical order:

Aunt Beast, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person, Man With Red Eyes Servant - Jahlen Barnes

Charles Wallace Murry - Noah Beemer

Meg Murry - Celeste Catena

Man With Red Eyes, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person -Christine Desjardins

Mrs. Which, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover) - Kim Horsman

Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person, Man With Red Eyes Servant, Aunt Beast - Germaine Konji

Mother, Camazotz Mother, Camazotz Business Person, Voice Of Aunt Beast - Beck Lloyd

Mrs. Whatsit, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover) - Nestor Lozano Jr.

Father, Camazotz Business Person, Voice Of Man With Red Eyes - Jamie Mac

Calvin O’Keefe - Robert Markus

Happy Medium, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person, Man With Red Eyes

Servant, Aunt Beast - Erica Peck

Mrs. Who, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover) - Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah

Understudies:

Charles Wallace Murry - Jahlen Barnes

Father, Voice Of Man With Red Eyes, Camazotz Business Person - Aidan Desalaiz

Calvin O’keefe - Nick Dolan

Aunt Beast, Man With Red Eyes Servant, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person - Henry Firmston

Mrs. Who, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover), Happy Medium, Man With Red Eyes Servant, Aunt Beast, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person - Kelly Holiff

Man With Red Eyes, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Business Person - Evangelia Kambites

Meg Murry - Germaine Konji

Mrs. Whatsit, Man With Red Eyes Servant, Aunt Beast, Camazotz Child, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover), Camazotz Business Person - Masini Mcdermott

Mrs. Which, Camazotz Mother (Voiceover) - Erica Peck

Mother, Camazotz Mother, Camazotz Business Person, Voice Of Aunt Beast - Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah

We attended one of the last performances of the production. And my 12 year old daughter joined us for this outing as well. They had seen both film versions and have encountered some of the books. It was stunning production visually. And It had a bit of a Pink Floyd The Wall feel to it. In part we picked this show because we are big fans of Jamie Mac, and in part because it was the play geared for younger audiences and the three of us could enjoy it together. And for the most part we did. Noah Beemer does an excellent job playing Charles. And Celeste Catena is outstanding as Meg. Kim Horseman nails Mrs Witch. Khadijah Roberts-Abdullah also is near perfect as Mrs Who. And we loved Jamie mac as both Mr Murry and as the voice of the man with the red eyes. And that juxtaposition of his roles worked very well. And Erica Peck played the Happy Medium to perfection. However all three of us felt that Nestor Lozano Jr. played the role of Mrs. Whatsit so over the top that at times it detracted from the rest of the performance and the staging. To the extent that when the kids found out they were playing Tinkerbell they lost interest in the 2024 production of Wendy and Peter Pan.

When considering the story many are unaware it is part of a quintet, and that there are further books featuring Meg and Calvin and their children, including the oldest boy named after Charles because of how close he and Meg were. Almost all productions of this story leave out the twin brothers that are between Meg and Charles and I feel it is always a gap. It would be interesting to see if someone would put one of the other books in this series on stage, for as much as this is the best known, the series actually gets better as it goes. I cannot help but wonder how Stratford would do putting on A Wind at the Door, Many Waters, A Swiftly Titling Planet or An Acceptable Time?

This was a good in the 2023 season.