4th Line Theatre 2025/The Housekeeper by Ian McLachlan & Robert Winslow, directed by Robert Winslow, Barnyard Theatre, Winslow Farm, Millbrook ON, closes Jul. 19. Tickets here.
The Housekeeper is a play of moments.
There are episodes that are absolutely riveting and then there are those that make you wonder why are they in the play. It is also, sadly, a play with a been there, done that feel.
Background
The Housekeeper is the fourth of McLachan’s and Winslow’s Bernardo plays which has followed the up and down fortunes of Walter White and Billy Fiddler, who, torn from their impoverished life in London’s east end, were sent to Canada as Dr. Bernardo’s Children for a chance for a better life.
Oddly enough, in The Housekeeper, Walter (Jay Davis) is a secondary character, while Billy doesn’t appear at all.
Rather, the focus is on an alluring young woman called Eleanor (Julia Scaringi), whose own life has mirrored that of the Bernardo Children — a bad beginning, followed by facing difficult obstacles while trying to establish a home somewhere for themselves.
Coming to Millbrook
It is a chance meeting at Toronto’s Union Station that brings Eleanor to the small town of Millbrook.
A man called Grant (Matt Gilbert) strikes up a conversation with Eleanor, and when he finds out she is tired of waitressing, tired of Toronto, and has no specific plans, tells her of a housekeeper job available in Millbrook.
Of course, Grant has an ulterior motive.
When Eleanor arrives at the White farm, she doesn’t give Walter a chance to say no, but simply takes on the job. For modesty’s sake, she boards with Anthea (Hilary Wear), the town gossip.
Other Characters
Walter has two children, teenage son James (Darius Maliha-Evans), who lives at home, while daughter Ruth (Kiana Bromley) is a reporter at the Peterborough Examiner.
James has a boon companion Herman (Zach Newnham), while Daisy (Hanna Marie Toll) considers herself James’ girlfriend. Then there is the hired hand Hiram (Ian McGarrett), who is the local storyteller, and his longwinded ghost story is one of those ancillary “why is it there?” moments
Plot Tropes
When Eleanor gets fed up with Anthea’s complaining about her late nights carousing with Grant and spying on her in general, she creates a scandal by moving into the White farm, and more to the point, starting an affair with widower Walter.
A chance remark by a travelling salesman that he recognizes Eleanor, but under a different name, sends Anthea off on a quest in search of Eleanor’s past, and this is just one of the many contrived plot lines in the play.
Another trope is the alluring stranger who comes between father and son as teenage James falls hopelessly in love with Eleanor.
There is the town that turns against the beautiful, scandalous stranger.
As taken together, these well-known plot conventions are tried and true, and border on uninteresting.
Some Innovations
One against type the writers do include is Ruth’s support of Eleanor. This is the 1950s. Would a daughter be that forgiving of a young woman in her late mother’s bed? Ruth, however, is enchanted by the stories that Eleanor writes and wants to help her get them published.
Then there is Walter’s beautiful line about Eleanor.
“Don’t you see how precious she is?”
While his role is underwritten, giving Davis little to do, it is Walter, nonetheless, who understands Eleanor’s unique qualities, perhaps because he too was once out of time and out of place.
The Best
The strongest moments in the play are any scene with James — particularly his encounters with Eleanor and Walter. Maliha-Evans is a fantastic young actor and he should have a wonderful career ahead of him.
Scarangi’s performance as Eleanor is incandescent. She beautifully captures the free spirit of a young woman who is different, the nonconformist, the person who is living life according to her own rules. Her beautifully drawn character is one of the play’s great successes.
Once again the excellent Justin Hiscox has composed the atmospheric scene change music, as well as the music for the two original songs set to McLachlan’s haunting lyrics, and sung by Julia Scaringi like some fey flower-child in her own magic world.
The Direction
This being 4th Line Theatre means a huge cast of volunteer actors from six to 60 year’s old, but director Winslow has been quite uninspired in his stage picture. Perhaps The Housekeeps is a good example of the old adage that a writer should never direct his own work.
Finale
In short, in The Housekeeper, the writers have come up with a wonderful character in Eleanor, but have placed her in a very conventional treatment, with poor Walter White being almost totally eclipsed.
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