REVIEW: Madame Minister is a star vehicle for actor Laura Condlln
iPhoto caption: Madame Minister production still by Dahlia Katz.
A new adaptation of a 1920s Serbian farce? Staged in a cramped hallway in residential Barrie, Ontario? Really?
You must be new here.
Based in Barrie for over 20 years, Talk Is Free Theatre has never shied away from inventive spaces and surprising programming choices. And Madame Minister, the scrumptiously silly romp through politics and class originally penned by Branislav Nusic and adapted for TIFT by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, is no exception.
When you arrive, you might think you have the wrong address, but no, Layne Coleman’s production does indeed take place inside a real home, nestled into the armpit of a quaint cul-de-sac. After a quick jaunt through the house’s kitchen, you’ll find a hallway flanked by living rooms, inside which are 40 or so chairs for the audience to peer into that liminal chasm between parlours.
The playing space, that little hallway, can’t be more than a few square metres. But under director Coleman, the foyer feels huge, a receiving room of endless possibilities. When we meet Živka (a starry Laura Condlln), she’s destitute and miserable, draping herself over furniture as she begs her aunt (Gabi Epstein) for a loan. Živka wants nothing more than to move up in the world — to be a member of the elite.
Thankfully, her husband soon gets vaulted to the title of minister, and lowly Živka becomes, yes, Madame Minister. But being rich and comfortable isn’t without its battles — Živka’s daughter Dara (Brittany Kay) is married to, ugh, an artist (Nolan Moberly), and it’s up to Živka to find her offspring a spouse worthy of her family’s new status.
A complicated subplot involving the maid (a playful Mariya Khomutova) soon emerges; meanwhile, Živka preoccupies herself with a steamy affair at the advice of a mysterious visitor (Cyrus Lane). After all — that’s what wealthy women do.
Condlln and Lane alone are worth the drive to Barrie, two comic whirlwinds with terrific chemistry and timing. Condlln’s eyebrows are at times a character all their own — it’s a treat to get to watch her act up close. Lane, no stranger to Talk Is Free, is in fine form here, seemingly given carte blanche to play up all the play’s quirks. (His mispronounced French non-sequiturs are very, very funny.)
Corbeil-Coleman’s adaptation leans into the Gogol-y chaos of Nusic’s play, and uses a fairly modern syntax to create dialogue that is easy to follow despite overlapping plotlines, relationships, and identities. The writing calls to mind Liisa Repo-Martell’s recent adaptations of Uncle Vanya and Hedda Gabler — placeless in diction and rhythm, but specific in emotion and psychology.
Where Madame Minister starts to wear out its welcome is in its conceit as a site-specific piece. It’s easy to see why Talk Is Free chose a residential home for this production — thematically, there might be no better stage for a show critiquing the bourgeoisie than a spacious casa close to cottage country — but suburban single-family houses weren’t built with audience sightlines in mind, and Madame Minister suffers for it. Coleman’s staging is efficient and boisterous, and his cast does all they can to play to both sides of the playing space, but your enjoyment of the show will vary greatly depending on where you sit. (Pro tip: Opt for a chair toward the middle of one of the archways.)
Tenuous sightlines aside, Madame Minister is 90 minutes of good fun. One gets the sense Živka might be a sign of what what’s to come from Condlln’s Miss Hannigan at the Stratford Festival next summer — in another life, Živka and Annie’s infamous orphanage matron are probably friends, knocking back bootleg whiskey and pining for the finer things in life.
Madame Minister might not be the most obvious programming choice for most theatres, but hey — Talk Is Free Theatre is no ordinary theatre company, and Condlln’s performance is well worth a craned neck.
Madame Minister runs at Talk Is Free Theatre through December 7. Tickets are available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's former senior editor and the theatre reporter for the Globe and Mail. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Adam Francis Proulx, Elm Reyes, Kay-Ann Ward in a Fringe promo photo by Joy Adeola.
REVIEWS: Toronto Fringe Festival 2025
This collection of Toronto Fringe Festival capsule reviews will be updated throughout the festival with writing from 20 different critics.
iPhoto caption: Masae Day, Landon Doak, and Michelle Fisk in 'The Wind Coming Over the Sea.' Photo by Lyon Smith.
REVIEW: A new Emma Donoghue musical takes root at the Blyth Festival
As a resident of southwestern Ontario, what struck me most is how deeply rooted in the region The Wind Coming Over the Sea feels. It's a lively reminder of the cultural inheritances that continue to shape the area today.
iPhoto caption: The cast of 'Major Barbara.' Photo by David Cooper.
REVIEW: Shaw Festival’s metatheatrical Major Barbara is sharp and subversive
Director Peter Hinton-Davis draws on a light smattering of Brechtian techniques — acknowledgements of artifice that enrich and vivify Major Barbara’s clash of morals.
iPhoto caption: The company of 'The Frogs.' Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Staged inches from the audience by director Griffin Hewitt, the show commendably captures the free-wheeling, anarchic spirit of the text. It’s a toad-ally great opportunity to see this rarity in the froggy flesh.
iPhoto caption: Jeff Lillico as Ralph with Yoshie Bancroft as Mitsue in 'Forgiveness.' Photo by David Hou.
REVIEW: Stratford Festival’s Forgiveness tells a deeply personal story on a sprawling scale
Presented in an increasingly tense political moment, Forgiveness resonates on a level that is part reflection, part warning.
iPhoto caption: Photo courtesy of Luminato Festival.
REVIEW: Is Tim Crouch’s An Oak Tree worth seeing twice at Luminato?
Crouch tests the limits of theatrical representation, improvisation, and authorship. While I’m usually a sucker for exactly those types of experiments, I ultimately found An Oak Tree a bit underwhelming.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Aisling Murphy.
In the darkest months of Yukon winter, it’s all about the Sun Room
I’m here for a week in January as a guest of Nakai Theatre, a hub for theatrical experimentation and outside-the-box programming in Canada’s westernmost territory.
Armchairs, tattoos, and an online theatre magazine
When I started at Intermission, my world was limited to the confines of an armchair. Arts journalism was a high it felt dangerously fruitless to chase. The life stretched ahead of me was amorphous and frightening, a chasm filled with hand sanitizer and immigration concerns. It was worth crying over a spilled kombucha and scrubbing at the stain.
iPhoto caption: Liz Appel headshot courtesy of Liz Appel.
Five questions with Wights playwright Liz Appel
Intermission spoke with Appel over email for a brief Q&A about Wights, now playing at Crow’s Theatre until February 9.
Call for applications: Publishing and editorial assistant
Intermission Magazine is seeking a dynamic and collaborative individual to join our team.
iPhoto caption: What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
Announcing What Writing Can Do: The 2025 Musical Theatre Critics Lab
What Writing Can Do is timed to coincide with the Grand and Theatre Aquarius’ co-production of Waitress, which will serve as a jumping-off point for discussions throughout the Lab.
iPhoto caption: A Christmas Story production still by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: A Christmas Story feels fresh at Theatre Aquarius
If you want to catch A Christmas Story before it closes, good luck — the show is close to sold out, and with the talent on that stage, it’s not hard to see why.
Comments