REVIEW: Four perfect characterizations make Quartet a summer winner

Century Church Theatre’s Quartet by Ronald Harwood is a must see pro­duction - a best buy ticket on the Ontario summer theatre circuit.

Quartet, directed by John Snow­don, is set in an English retirement home at a country house in Kent.

The residents, primarily opera singers, are for the most part charity cases. The play is a touching, bittersweet comedy about four of those residents, whose performances together in Verdi’s Rigoletto, many years earlier, marked a highlight in their careers.

Three of them - Reggie (tenor), Cissy (contralto), and Wilf (baritone) - share much of their time in the music room. Here, the only interruptions to the quiet of their existence are either the occasional outburst from Reggie, raging at a nurse who gives him apricot jam in­stead of marmalade at break­fast, or the infectious giggles of Cissy ogling the gardener’s muscles from her French window vantage point.

That relative quiet is shat­tered with the arrival of Jean (soprano), the quintes­sential diva with an attitude that has lost neither pride nor self-adulation. She was briefly married to Reggie several mar­ri­ages ago - an event which Reggie has been trying to erase from his conscious thought from the marriage’s end to the present.

To up the emotional ante, Jean’s arrival triggers a request from the entertainment com­mit­tee for the four to sing the Rigoletto quartet for the home’s annual Verdi birthday party.

At the risk of spoiling a single moment of enjoyment, more should not be said of how the story develops from that point forward - to a wonder­fully sweet conclusion.

Neville Worsnop’s portrayal of Reggie is at once eloquent in substance and meticulous in de­livery. His astute ability to de­liver the reserved, while hold­ing the emotional just un­der the surface, makes it all the more hilarious when he erupts in tirades over the marmalade and the more meaningful when exploding in a serious outburst.

Brenda Barr’s Cissy is absolutely delightful and the en­ergy she provides for all to draw upon - performers and audi­ence - is central to the strength of this production.

She creates an endearing performance, at times child-like in its enthusiasm, which delicately drifts between the lucid and confused moments of her char­acter in the early stages of de­mentia.

There is a seamless connec­tion between actor and charac­ter in Chris Worsnop’s perfor­mance of Wilf. His comic de­liv­ery, physically and verbally, is without fault and this he counter-balances with a gen­uine warmth when showing concern for each of the other char­acters at their assailable moments of weakness.

Pat Boothman offers such a believable diva that one is almost tempted to verbally silence her from the audience - but then she shows equally such vulnerability and under­lying fragility that the urge is quickly laid to rest.

John Snowdon’s direction has produced a tight, well pac­ed show. Quartet is an en­semble piece with four well-developed three-dimensional characters. A play that demands a convincing individual depth from each while an impeccable sensitivity to the whole.

Snow­don’s cast delivers and they do so with finesse,  cre­ating an evening of enter­tain­ment that will touch the heart, tickle the funny bone, and very often connect on a personal plane.

Quartet continues until July 19 with Thursday, Friday, Saturday performances at 8pm and Thursday and Sat­urday matinees at 2:30pm.

For tickets, call 519-855-4586.