{"id":109011,"date":"2024-10-30T10:53:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:53:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=109011"},"modified":"2024-10-30T10:53:31","modified_gmt":"2024-10-30T14:53:31","slug":"scrutiny-theatre-francais-de-torontos-feu-monsieur-feydeau-clever-ultimately-uneven-effort","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2024\/10\/30\/scrutiny-theatre-francais-de-torontos-feu-monsieur-feydeau-clever-ultimately-uneven-effort\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto\u2019s Feu Monsieur Feydeau! Is Clever, But Ultimately Uneven Effort"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Scene
Scene in Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto\u2019s Feu Monsieur Feydeau! (Photo: Mathieu Taillardas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto (TfT) \/ Feu Monsieur Feydeau!, written and directed by S\u00e9bastien Bertrand, Berkeley Street Theatre Upstairs, closes Nov. 3. Tickets here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

You have to give brownie points to ambitious playwright S\u00e9bastien Bertrand<\/strong> for taking on the French classics in his own unique way.<\/p>\n

Last season, Toronto French Theatre mounted Bertrand\u2019s very successful Les Filles du roi, which incorporated text pirated from the plays of Moli\u00e8re to illustrate the life stories of the young women on their way to New France. The focus of Bertrand\u2019s latest original production for TfT, Feu Monsieur Feydeau!, is the great farceur, Georges Feydeau (1862-1921).<\/p>\n

Alas, Feu Monsieur Feydeau! doesn\u2019t quite know what it wants to because it\u2019s trying to keep so many balls in the air. In fact, the play\u2019s personality is decidedly split. Aspiring, yes, even clever, yes, but the sum of its parts doesn\u2019t quite equal the whole.<\/p>\n

In Les Filles du roi, Bertrand succeeded in capturing the spirit of Moli\u00e8re\u2019s biting comedies, so in Feu Monsieur Feydeau! we are expecting farce, and the play does delivers the tropes of vaudeville (as the French call it), such as mistaken identities and physical comedy rooted in satire.<\/p>\n

The problem is, the farcical elements are at odds with the storyline, which is decidedly dark.<\/p>\n

\"Fran\u00e7ois
Fran\u00e7ois Macdonald as the Doctor, Adam Paolozzo as M. Jean, and Mathieu Bourassa as Feydeau in Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto\u2019s Feu Monsieur Feydeau! (Photo: Mathieu Taillardas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Story<\/h3>\n

Bertrand has set the play in the last year of Feydeau\u2019s life when he was suffering from dementia caused by tertiary siphyllis (or the French disease as the play politely terms it), and is confined to the sanitarium at Rueil-Malmaison.<\/p>\n

There Feydeau (Mathieu Bourassa<\/strong>) is surrounded by eccentric characters such as fellow patient M. Jean (Adam Paolozza<\/strong>) who has chronic amnesia, and believe it or not, the martini-swilling, Nobel-prize winning scientist Marie Curie (Patricia Marceau), who claims to be on a rest cure. Then there is the Doctor (Fran\u00e7ois Macdonald<\/strong>) who is having a homosexual relationship with the handyman Lucien (Micka\u00ebl Girouard<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

Into this chaotic milieu comes Feydeau\u2019s estranged and cash-starved wife, Marie-Anne (St\u00e9phanie Broschart<\/strong>), who has been mistakenly told that the playwright is dead. Although divorced in 1916, she comes rushing to the sanitarium in the hopes of finding a will which grants her an inheritance.<\/p>\n

Bertrand has also provided opportunities for Feydeau to spout his cynical philosophy about the pitfalls of marriage, which are at the heart of his farces, while Mme. Curie gets to rhapsodize about her beloved dead husband Pierre, and her thoughts on the afterlife.<\/p>\n

\"Mathieu
Mathieu Bourassa as Feydeau and Patricia Marceau as Mme Curie in Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto\u2019s Feu Monsieur Feydeau! (Photo: Mathieu Taillardas)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Result<\/h3>\n

The result is the silly mixed with the serious, and the two just don\u2019t gel together. Mme. Feydeau becoming engaged to M. Jean because she thinks he\u2019s a rich doctor, and Lucien thinking that his lover the doctor is engaged to Mme. Feydeau, skip along the surface, interrupted by very serious moments. As a result, the various bouts of physical comedy seem forced, even gerrymandered into the play.<\/p>\n

I do understand Bertrand\u2019s daring approach \u2014 make Feydeau a character in his own farce. It\u2019s a very original idea, but setting the play in the last year of the playwright\u2019s life is not particularly funny. It leaves a bitter taste, compounded by Mme. Curie\u2019s sad contribution. Pratfalls definitely seem out of place.<\/p>\n

On a more positive note, the production looks good thanks to Glenn Davidson<\/strong>\u2019s lighting, sets and props. The pretty room he created could be right at home in a posh sanitarium. Michelle Tracey\u2019<\/strong>s costumes, particularly her gorgeous 1920s pink outfit for Mme. Feydeau, really sets period, as does the Keith Thomas<\/strong>\u2019 tuneful Jazz Age score.<\/p>\n

Final Thoughts<\/h3>\n

One certainly can\u2019t fault Bertrand\u2019s fast-paced direction, and the talented cast gives their all in terms of character.<\/p>\n

Sometimes, however, an audacious idea fails to take flight.<\/p>\n

Are you looking to promote an event<\/u><\/span><\/a>? Have a\u00a0news tip<\/u><\/a>? Need to know the best\u00a0events<\/u><\/a>\u00a0happening this weekend? Send us a\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>note<\/u>.<\/em><\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

#LUDWIGVAN<\/b><\/em><\/h3>\n

Get the daily arts news straight to your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n

Sign up for the Ludwig Van Toronto e-Blast! \u2014 local classical music and opera news straight to your inbox <\/em>HERE<\/a>.<\/h3>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The focus of Bertrand\u2019s latest original production for Th\u00e9\u00e2tre fran\u00e7ais de Toronto, Feu Monsieur Feydeau!, is the great farceur, Georges Feydeau.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":109014,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40967,52,62,63],"tags":[41538,28527],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2024\/10\/Copy-of-REVIEW-94.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-smf","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/73"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=109011"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":109017,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/109011\/revisions\/109017"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/109014"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=109011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=109011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=109011"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=109011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}