Review: Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells)
iPhoto caption: Vivien Endicott-Douglas and Sam Kalilieh in Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells). Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells)
Nightwood Theatre
Written by Rose Napoli. Directed by Andrea Donaldson. At Streetcar Crowsnest. Runs until November 11.
Playwright Rose Napoli has zeroed in on the incendiary topic of student-teacher relations in Lo (or Dear Mr. Wells).
Part of Nightwood Theatre’s Consent Event series, the play looks at the idea of “consent”—but you have to wonder, in this context, who is giving it? The work also contains predatory behaviour, but the source of that behaviour is not who you would readily consider.
Laura, Lo for short (Vivien Endicott-Douglas), is a troubled fifteen-year-old student in Mr. Wells’ (Sam Kalilieh) English class. He considers her a gifted writer and encourages her to practise her craft. Together they form a creative writing club, open to anyone, but Lo is the only participant.
It’s quickly obvious that Lo has a vivid imagination. When Mr. Wells reads The Great Gatsby to the class, Lo imagines he is reading just to her. Later, when she questions why he’s making the effort to encourage her to write, he says he cares about her. She takes his attention personally, though he is trying to be a caring teacher, nothing more.
Under Andrea Donaldson’s careful, detailed direction, Mr. Wells doesn’t look at Lo during any of the class readings, choosing instead to focus on the other unseen students. As a compassionate teacher, Kalilieh projects a professional demeanour and tries to keep matters proper with the eager, needy Lo, until his defences are lowered. Endicott-Douglas establishes a creeping sense of danger in her scenes with Kalilieh. Mr. Wells knows that behaviour is inappropriate. So does the audience. Lo pushes anyway.
The play takes place in two time periods: when Lo is a coy high school student, and then ten years later when she’s hardened and is seeking out Mr. Wells for one final bristling encounter.
With a simple lighting change, Donaldson effectively establishes the different time periods. Endicott-Douglas lowers her voice register for the scenes when Lo is older and brings a maturity and almost aggressive confidence to the character. As the younger Lo, Endicott-Douglas’s voice is lighter and she projects the assurance of an entitled young person. These subtle shifts in performance also help establish the time jumps.
Napoli is certainly an accomplished writer with a fine sense of situation and language as seen in her first play, Oregano, and her recent Fringe show, Ten Creative Ways to Dispose of Your Cremains. And it’s clear she has her finger on the racing pulse of our world today. But while her play is gripping and properly uncomfortable, I do have concerns.
Mr. Wells knows that his relationship with a fifteen-year-old student is inappropriate. But rather than vocalizing this awareness as he is succumbing to Lo’s charms, he only admits to his wrongdoings later. By not recognizing it in the moment—when common sense should have been there—he damages his stance as a professional in this student-teacher relationship. Mr. Wells becomes just another amoral man, and I don’t get the sense that is what Napoli intended.
On top of that, throughout the play, there are many passages of vivid, elegant writing. But the section where Lo and Mr. Wells are riffing on each other’s cleverness, showing off their talents to each other, goes on far too long. Editing is needed to keep sense of what is being said while revving up the pace.
Finally, it’s clear that Lo is determined to destroy Mr. Wells with all the information and proof she has of their relationship. But Napoli lets him off easy, which doesn’t feel like a satisfactory payoff for the build-up, not to mention that it seems disconnected from what would happen in the real world.
There are definite echoes of other plays dealing with the same subject: Oleanna, by David Mamet, is about a concerned teacher trying to help a failing student who misreads his concerns to the point of destroying him; Blackbird, by David Harrower, is about a young woman seeking out a past lover fifteen years after the affair ended—a consensual romance that began when she was twelve and he was thirty-two. These are troubling, uncomfortable plays that reflect our world. Napoli’s play, despite its flaws, is a welcome addition to the conversation.
For tickets or more information, click here.
Lynn Slotkin
Lynn is the former theatre critic for Intermission, and currently writes reviews on her blog The Slotkin Letter. She also does theatre reviews, interviews, and commentary for CIUT Friday Morning (89.5 FM). She was a theatre reviewer for CBC's Here and Now for ten years. On average, she sees 280 shows a year.
LEARN MORE
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
Soulpepper and Outside the March effectively drown Uncle Walt’s highly manicured public image in acetone, leaving the audience with a grotesque portrait that feels at once comically exaggerated and painfully accurate.
iPhoto caption: Video still courtesy of the Grand Theatre.
REVIEW: In One Step At A Time, Andrew Prashad unpacks disability through tap dance
Prashad’s play is undeniably impactful and advocates for the spina bifida community with great passion and joy.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Kate Dalton.
REVIEW: Women of the Fur Trade makes a heartthrob of Louis Riel
There’s a war going on out there somewhere, and Louis Riel isn’t here.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Roya DelSol.
This play is such a delight to watch, and I would definitely go again. I live for this quality of performance, and I’m looking forward to how this play will continue to inspire Black Canadian theatre to come.
iPhoto caption: Photo by Dahlia Katz.
REVIEW: Rose Napoli writes the world of Mad Madge with a glittery, fun-filled gel pen
Overall, Mad Madge is a hoot, a compelling story rendered accessible and charming by Napoli’s text and Donaldson’s realization of it.
REVIEW: Eldritch Theatre’s The House at Poe Corner delights and disturbs
Michael O’Brien and Eric Woolfe’s mashup of Edgar Allan Poe and Winnie the Pooh is Poe-sitively droll.
iPhoto caption: Marcel Stewart, Dan Mousseau, Christef Desir, Alex Bulmer, Shakura Dickson in The Story. Photo by Neil Silcox
It was frigid the night I saw the production, and when you are freezing and can’t feel your fingers or toes, time-wasting shenanigans wear thin.
iPhoto caption: Lena Maripuu, Graham Conway, and Peter Pan ensemble. Photo by Nicholas Porteous
Joy to the world—the most inventive, lively, whimsical production of Peter Pan has arrived for the holidays!
iPhoto caption: Robyn Stevan in The Mess. Photo by Dahlia Katz
Co-creators Mikaela Davies and Polly Phokeev have devised a short, complex, layered story of how the mess a person creates can affect those around them.
iPhoto caption: Company in the Grand Theatre's production of A Christmas Carol. Photo by Claus Andersen
Reviews: A Christmas Carol (x2)
Reviews of two productions of A Christmas Carol—Ross Petty Productions and the Grand Theatre, in London, Ont.—that couldn’t be more different.
iPhoto caption: David Schurmann and Carly Street in Heisenberg. Photo by Cylla von Tiedemann
Of the three productions I’ve seen of Heisenberg—on Broadway in New York, the West End in London, and here in Toronto—this one is the best.
Comments