The community of theatre is unlike any other, a close-knit group of people sharing experiences and sensibilities, often under duress. Palm Beach Dramaworks stages Ronald Harwood’s homage to the world of theatre with a heartrending and compelling reprise of ‘The Dresser’ to celebrate PBD’s 25th anniversary. Although written more than forty years ago, it has an eerie relevancy to today’s sense of things coming apart at the seams, the very ethos of civilization hanging by a thread.
It takes place during the chaos and constantly threatening carnage of WW II where the tatterdemalion British Shakespeare Company is touring the provinces of England, its productions deteriorating, worn down by time and the loss of cast members due to the war. Its aging and mentally and physically ailing actor/manager, “Sir” is propped up by his long suffering but dedicated dresser of sixteen years, Norman. It is a symbiotic relationship, Sir, unable to function without his man servant and gatekeeper, and Norman finding purpose to living in that role when in fact he has no friends, is a closet gay man, who gets through the day with a frequent nip of brandy, slowly leading him into drunkenness.
Colin McPhillamy, William Hayes
They are not putting on just any Shakespearean play, but King Lear requiring all the energy Sir can muster with the help of Norman. Backstage is Sir’s kingdom, where he expects adoration and obedience, those qualities hardly ever reciprocated.
But while Lear is tragedy on a grand scale, ‘The Dresser’ is a microcosm of human tragedy within the terrarium of the actor’s backstage world. Its themes though mirror those of King Lear’s, aging and vulnerability, and loyalty and betrayal.
Sir is played by larger than life Colin McPhillamy inhabiting the character he is preparing to play while unwittingly living out his own version of the tragedy. As in Lear, Sir is bewildered and fearful that he is losing his mind, the strength of his long gone youth, and erosion of authority; yet he is still capable of bursting into sieges of rage. He occasionally thinks of the audience as “swine” although their approbation is imperative to him. McPhillamy agonizingly vacillates between those highs and lows.
Dennis Creaghan, William Hayes, Denise Cormier, David
Hyland, Kelly Gibson, Collin McPhillamy
We feel his fear of failure and then his vast courage of going out on stage for this his 227th performance of Lear, while having to deal with bombs of the blitz and facing the challenges of the blank page of his intended memoir at the same time. He is at his wit’s end, even needing prompting by Norman of lines he has delivered over and over again. It is a virtuoso performance, McPhillamy especially enjoying the high melodramatic moments, with bombastic outbursts combined with hilarity in delivering lines such as: What have I come to? I’ve never had a company like this one. I’m reduced to old men, cripples and nancyboys. Herr Hitler has made it very difficult for Shakespearean companies.
Sir has a loyal entourage propping him up. Foremost is Norman, who, while Sir plays a central role, is the driving force in the play. His emotional journey is emblematic of a line from the play, little people have big tragedies. Sir argues with Norman, saying even Kings abdicate. Norman however, has even more of an investment in “the play must go on” and it is that compulsion and their conflict that are the play’s central narrative.
William Hayes, PBD’s Producing Artistic Director, reprises that role which he played some 20 years earlier. Known more as a director, he is an actor at heart, fully realizing a role demanding cynicism, humor while mixing unrelenting devotion with regret. The part has a high level of difficulty as there are a number of lengthy monologues which Hayes easily clears.
Norman’s clever yet cutting remarks reveal the emotional toll of his devotion, Hayes playing him as both a comic foil and a tragic figure—a subtle echo of the Fool in King Lear. Sir’s inability to acknowledge Norman’s loyalty echoes Kent’s suffering in King Lear as Lear descends into madness.
William Hayes
Hayes’ portrayal of Norman’s deterioration from sober to nearly downright drunk by the conclusion of the play is dazzling. His resignation to the truth that he did not matter is delivered with such pathos. Norman’s last words in the play is a plaintive little song sung by the Fool in Shakespeare's play, ‘Twelfth Night,’ He that has and a little tiny wit, With hey, ho, the wind and the rain, movingly marks the tragedy of his life.
William Hayes and Colin McPhillamy
Sir and Norman make quite a twosome, trading affection and then barbs almost interchangeably, McPhillamy and Hayes frequently playing up the humor. But it is Norman who delivers one of the central themes, directed at Sir who is making a case for not performing that night: Well, you’re a fine one, I must say, you of all people, you disappoint me, if you don’t mind my saying so. You, who always say self-pity is the most unattractive quality on stage or off….Struggle and survival you say, that’s all that matters, you say, struggle and survival. Well, we all bloody struggle, don’t we? I struggle, you think it’s easy for me, well, I’ll tell you something for nothing it isn’t easy, not one little bit, neither the struggle nor the bloody survival. The whole world’s struggling for bloody survival, so why can’t you? Hayes’ performance is haunting, bringing out the nuances of his character’s tragic life while handling a Yorkshire accent mixed with tipsy slurred speech.
Kelly Gibson, Colin McPhillamy, Denise Cormier
Denise Cormier portrays her Ladyship as Sir’s long suffering wife and leading lady with dappled shades of love and regret. Her appearances brighten up the stage, whether in her street clothes or in various stages of costuming, you know you are watching a consummate actor. She puts up with Sir’s histrionics on the one hand, but telling it like it is on the other: For God’s sake, you’re a third-rate actor-manager on a tatty tour of the provinces, not some Colossus bestriding the narrow world.
Norman and her Ladyship are not the only morale boosters to Sir. Elizabeth Dimon, who has performed numerous times on the PBD stage to great acclaim, plays his dedicated spinster stage manager who has silently been in love with Sir for over 20 years. She successfully hides her feelings about Sir while going about her no nonsense job as stage manager.
Another long-time PBD actor, Dennis Creaghan, gives a skillful performance as Geoffrey Thornton, one of the fill-ins for actors demanded by the war effort, recruited to play the part of the Fool in King Lear. His portrayal is droll and his oversized hand me down costume is one of the comic highlights.
Kelly Gibson plays Irene, the ambitious young ingénue who will use her feminine wiles to advance, efforts Sir will use to flirt with her. It gives Norman the opportunity to confront her as Sir’s protector and Hayes’ demonic and threatening demeanor is unforgettable, a side to his character which was not that apparent before.
One of the few replacements in his company that alarm Sir is Mr. Oxenby, a would be playwright who limps from a war injury and is amusingly played by Gary Cadwallader, who in spite of his insistence of the division of labor rises to the occasion of creating the sound effects for the King Lear storm scene.
Rounding out the cast are all PBD veterans, David A. Hyland (Kent), Cliff Goulet (Gloucester), and John Campagnuolo (Knight), each in non-speaking roles, but effectively fleshing out the back stage business.
J. Barry Lewis directs with his usual attention to detail and faithfulness to the script. One can sense his enthusiasm for presenting this backstage depiction not generally privy to the audience and he mines every opportunity to present that world from makeup application and removal to observing the various stages that actors go through in getting into dress. It helps that Lewis has worked with all these actors for a long time, and as they are all PBD veterans, this ensures their flawless interaction.
Lewis cleverly laid out the dimensions for space on the stage, more than half devoted to the dressing room itself and then an invisible wall the audience quickly fills in with the rest of stage left signifying the backstage area. Under his direction the production is part tragedy while expressing the existential angst of Theatre of the Absurd.
The scenic design by Anne Mundell incorporates that vision into the chaotic setting of the play, depicting how that space might have looked during WW II, right down to the detail of things worn down, a catch-all of props left behind, windows blacked out because of air raids, and the brick walls of backstage. It is a masterpiece of stage design.
Kirk Bookman’s lighting had multiple challenges, basically lighting two distinct areas, the dressing room and backstage and then the stage off stage, where King Lear is being performed with light flooding from that area when the play was underway. And, when blitz bombs are bursting, with windows painted black, lighting surges and dims as (presumably) outside transformers are affected. Lighting added to the verisimilitude of the setting.
Costume design by Brian O’Keefe brilliantly captures the two time periods, costumes from Shakespeare’s time to the everyday dress of the 1940’s. And in the case of Her Ladyship, her transition from street clothes into her Cordelia costumes is nothing short of breathtaking. Sir’s costume conversion from street clothes, to worn underwear, to King Lear, wig and beard alike, is created with care by O’Keefe. Some of the performers’ costumes are intentionally ill-fitting, as would have been the case given the era and the need to recycle everything.
Sound design by Roger Arnold captures the devices that would have been used at the time for sound effects to mount a production of King Lear, kettle drum, wind and thunder machines, as well as the sound of bursting bombs outside.
Special mention of the work of dialect coach Ben Furey helping the performers with British accents which were clear to this American audience, and in particular his work with William Hayes on his Yorkshire accent, reflecting Norman’s working class role. And finally to PBD’s resident Stage Manager, Suzanne Clement Jones for overseeing a very complicated production.
If you love Shakespeare, history, and very fine playwriting and staging, PBD’s production of ‘The Dresser” is an extraordinary event.
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| Colin McPhillamy |
My lords, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for the manner in which you have received the greatest tragedy in our language. We live in dangerous times. Our civilization is under threat from the forces of darkness, and we, humble actors, do all in our power to fight as soldiers on the side of right in the great battle. Our most cherished ambition is to keep the best alive of our greatest poet-dramatist who has ever lived, and we are animated by nothing else than to educate the nation in his works by taking his plays to every corner of our beloved island…..Sir to the audience after acting King Lear
Photographs of actors by Curtis Brown Photography
