Lewis & Tolkien

Postcard Review by Caroline Russell-King

Show – Lewis & Tolkien

Playwright – Dean Batali

Production Company/Theatre space – Co production Hit and Myth Productions, Fire Exit Theatre, Engineered Air Theatre, Arts Commons.

Length – One act, 90 minutes, no intermission.

Genre/s – Fantasy drama

Premise – Tolkin’s religion made him feel he had to reject his best friend when Lewis married a divorced woman and (after not supporting him when she dies) decides to hash it all out at the pub some years later.

Why this play? Why now? – A play that examines how two towering literary giants allow two different types of Christianity to clash fits the mandate of Fire Exit.

Curiosities – I wondered if I was going to see a talking head play and I did.

Notable Moment – Ubiquitous loss.

Notable writing – The characters each throw literary barbs about each other’s writing, but it takes a while to get the heart of the matter. The chances that the audience are familiar with the literary works of these men (either by books or movies) is high. This enables us to feel we understand the battle of rings and wardrobes before getting down to the central issues of jealousy, grief, and broken friendship. There are some internal logic issues, but these are glossed over with the novelty of eavesdropping on another’s conversation at the pub.

Notable performances – These titans of literature are played by Calgary legends of acting - Duval Lang and Joel Cochrane. This is a chewy script with a lot of conviviality and remember-whens; in lesser hands could have been disastrous. The central issue of, “I had no choice but to rebuke you when you married”, isn’t a dilemma I would wish on many actors – but Lang makes it work. Cochrane, while not the protagonist, has our empathy as the bereaved author abandoned in his hours of need. It was pleasure to see them at work. The foil to all of the professorial banter is barmaid Mackenzie Sutton. Sutton nudges the play along with several “tell me more” moments and comic Educating Rita moments.

Notable design/Production – Dale Marushy’s set design is appropriately a warm British pub with cracking fire. Melissa Mitchell Boychuk’s costumes were dead on.

Notable direction – For two men who were supposed to be having a drink in a pub they barely sat together for any length of time. There was a lot of unnecessary toing and froing, and up and down. With actors of his caliber he should have trusted them that stillness doesn’t equate boredom.

One reason to see this show – A chance to hear two famous authors on fiction, fantasy and faith.