{"id":61782,"date":"2019-08-02T16:54:50","date_gmt":"2019-08-02T20:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/?p=61782"},"modified":"2019-08-02T16:54:50","modified_gmt":"2019-08-02T20:54:50","slug":"scrutiny-mae-wests-sex-makes-a-strong-feminist-statement-at-the-shaw-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2019\/08\/02\/scrutiny-mae-wests-sex-makes-a-strong-feminist-statement-at-the-shaw-festival\/","title":{"rendered":"SCRUTINY | Mae West\u2019s ‘Sex’ Makes A Strong Feminist Statement At The Shaw Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Sex,
Diana Donnelly as Margy LaMont in Sex. (Photo: David Cooper.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Shaw Festival 2019\/\u00a0Sex by Mae West, directed by Peter Hinton-Davis, Jackie Maxwell Studio Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake, July 5 to Oct. 13. Tickets available at shawfest.com<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Sex <\/em>(1926), Mae West\u2019s first full-length play, is a curiosity. While the writing contains hints of the salacious, tongue-in-cheek double entendres that would become the hallmark of West\u2019s Hollywood movies, the dialogue of Sex <\/em>is serious business. The play\u2019s first two acts are clumsily written, but West found her playwriting chops by the last two acts to create real drama. Should Sex <\/em>as a theatrical vehicle be dusted off for the stage? That is the question, and I\u2019m siding with the yes vote. A play that examines and exposes the plight of women certainly deserves an airing.<\/p>\n

West\u2019s focus is on the underbelly of society, but by bringing the mean street denizens into the light, she is saying that these marginalized people have worth. Her main character, Margy LaMont (Diana Donnelly), is a Montreal prostitute. During American prohibition, people came north of the border to \u201csin city\u201d to have a fling, including a wealthy society matron, Clara \u201cSmith\u201d (Fiona Byrne). Clara hooks up with West\u2019s pimp, Rocky Waldron (Kristopher Bowman), who drugs and robs her. Without giving too much of the plot away, Margy saves Clara\u2019s life, only to be accused by her of theft. Margy gets a chance at revenge against Clara later in the play, when Clara\u2019s son Jimmy Stanton (Julia Course) falls in love with Margy in Trinidad, where Margy is following the fleet. He doesn\u2019t know her seedy background, and brings her home to meet the parents. Margy sees Jimmy as her chance at respectability.<\/p>\n

\"Sex,
Diana Donnelly as Margy LaMont and Andr\u00e9 Sills as Lieutenant Gregg in Sex. (Photo: David Cooper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A great truth emerges from the confrontation dialogue between Margy and Clara that is at the crux of the play. West\u2019s harsh view of circumstance sees a poor woman forced to live on the streets, and a rich one able to have fun-time adventures. When Clara reminds Margy that she is a prostitute, Margy counters by saying the Clara could \u201cafford to give it away\u201d, a telling line if ever there was. Throughout the play, Margy is a hard as nails survivor, but she is also a loyal friend and a fun companion, admired by her many male customers. In fact, the naval lieutenant Gregg (Andr\u00e9 Sills) wants to marry Margy and take her away to a start-over life in Australia. Donnelly and Byrne are two of Shaw\u2019s top female actors, and their very presence gives Sex <\/em>integrity. Both give marvellous performances. Donnelly is world-weary and wise, Byrne is upper class clipped and correct, but they are very human below the surface.<\/p>\n

To shepherd Sex <\/em>to the stage, the Shaw fest chose Canada\u2019s go-to man for difficult projects, director Peter Hinton-Davis. He has opted for theatre in the round, and mountains of suitcases as his chief symbol. The first act Montreal scene is littered with them, but by the time we get to the Stanton\u2019s Connecticut mansion, the suitcases are gone and the space is open and free. There are also what looks to be posts at either end of the stage that measure height, like those used in the high jump event. Is Hinton-Davis making statements about mobility and the wish to change circumstance?<\/p>\n

Hinton-Davis has also gender-bent. For example, Jimmy is played by a woman (Course) while Margy\u2019s best friend and fellow prostitute Agnes (Jonathan Tan) is a male actor. There are also other gender-bending roles in the play as actors switch between men and women. Is the director saying that men are also victims of circumstance? Both Course and Tan are terrific in their roles, with Course adding a real sense of innocent vulnerability to Jimmy. The entr\u2019actes feature old-fashioned news radio shows, and even a documentary on Trinidad. What makes Hinton-Davis such a fascinating director are his choices in casting and staging. You may argue with his theatricalities, but he is always interesting.<\/p>\n

\"Sex,
Allegra Fulton as Condez and Cameron Grant as Carmentina in Sex. (Photo: David Cooper.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Designer Eo Sharp\u2019s period costumes are brilliantly character-driven. For example, Margy dresses in black in her prostitute days, and switches to a glamorous white look when she is concealing her past. Bonnie Beecher\u2019s lighting, especially around the suitcases, is precision at its best, while Ryan deSouza has crafted a score of torch songs and Latin-themed dance music that perfectly suits watering holes, both high and low. The actors even form an on-stage band.<\/p>\n

When it comes to oddity plays like Sex<\/em>, if the big theatre festivals don\u2019t stage them, then who will? The play gels in its third and fourth acts. It gives us hard-hitting dialogue about men who continually take advantage of women, be they pimps or police. It gives us a heroine in Margy who may be down and out, but who has her own integral sense of self-worth. Sex<\/em> makes a strong feminist statement. I say this kind of play is worth doing.<\/p>\n

LUDWIG VAN TORONTO<\/i>
\n<\/b><\/h3>\n

Want more updates on classical music and opera news and reviews? Follow us on\u00a0<\/i>Facebook<\/span>,<\/i><\/a>\u00a0Instagram<\/a><\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0<\/i>Twitter<\/i><\/a><\/span>\u00a0for all the latest.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mae West’s ‘Sex’ gives us a heroine who may be down and out, but who has her own integral sense of self-worth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":73,"featured_media":61785,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[25164,52,59,62],"tags":[30535,21492],"yst_prominent_words":[21266,20292,21710,30529,30532,30531,30409,30534,30533,30523,30530,30520,30528,30521,16792,21709,11181,30522,10535,30524],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2019\/08\/SHAW-FESTIVAL-SEX-2019-2.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-g4u","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61782"}],"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=61782"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61782\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61792,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61782\/revisions\/61792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61782"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61782"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61782"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=61782"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}