In this week's Talk Is Free Theatre's production of Spanish playwright Alejandro Casona's, Trees Die Standing Tall, we are challenged to appreciate the strength of trees while we are encouraged to look up and believe.
The six-member TIFT cast brings the four-act play to North America this Wednesday through Saturday at Barrie's Downtown Theatre, with a message from an earlier time, yet one that resounds in our hearts and in our dreams. While the playwright fled totalitarian Spain for Argentina in 1936, he comments not on the political drama just before the Second World War, nor on the economic challenges of Europe as it recovered from the Great Depression; instead, Casona creates a cast of characters - very real people with hopes and dreams, including a senior couple whose love provides twists in this tale.
The play has been popular for years in Europe, and its popularity spread once it was translated into German. In the English-speaking world, Casona and the play are relatively unknown, and TIFT artistic producer Arkady Spivak commissioned its translation into English.
The translation went beyond words. It crossed cultural barriers, although remaining true to the characters who became British, rather than Spanish, and their far-off, New World reference point was Canada, not Argentina.
Spivak delivered as he promised an "accessible and inspiring" interlude in the coldest and darkest winter days. The play showcases the local theatre company's talent, from acting through costume and stage design.
Although each of the six cast members brought his/her own magic to the play, perhaps Jennifer Phipps's TIFT debut was the most touching, the most tender and the most insightful. With more than 40 productions for the Shaw Festival, she's received many awards for mentoring and acting, as well as the Queen's Silver Jubliee award.
Filled with wit and insight, she plays a grandmother we all wish we had - and whom our female lead Martha wishes she had. It is that longing, and others like it, that shapes the story and shapes our own.
Also shining was Jane Johanson, another Shaw Festival veteran. She inspired Spivak to explore the theatrical archives for a play for her, so he could bring her to Barrie.
Main character Martha is brought to life by another TIFT debut actor Melissa Good, with the support of costume designer Christine Barrett, who translated the era to today in a way that excites us that spring will soon be here.
TIFT's cast and creative team indeed filled the small 130-seat downtown theatre with drama from another time and offered hope for tomorrow.
And really, that's what we need here in Canada, after seemingly endless months of cold, a hope that warmer and better times are not far away. Until then, we look up and see the trees against the very cold, but very blue, winter sky.
