A Rose-y Start

There are two interesting, and very different, portraits of history that are now gracing Toronto stages.

The first, Stuff Happens, opened Tuesday night at the Berkeley, and details the drama leading up to the 2003 Iraq war. David Hare's main players are major world figures, and the sizeable cast, with minimal set and corporate costumes, does a good job of bringing to life the intransigence and absurdity that lead to one of the most tragic events in recent memory.

By contrast, Rose, the inaugural production by the newly-formed Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company, features one unknown woman, alone, on a simply-designed and lit stage, detailing her life through the most tumultuous and dramatic events of the 20th century. She says she "stinks" of the last century, in fact, and, at the end of her life, is reflecting on her experiences in tones sometimes angry, sometimes sentimental, but never trite or maudlin. Martin Sherman has crafted a character who is by turns wise, witty, forgetful, loving, brave, scared, and unflinchingly human.

Rose is brilliantly, lovingly brought to life by the inimitable Lally Cadeau, a woman who has built a solid reputation for delivering memorable female characters on stage as well as television. Here she renders the memories and reminiscences of a frail, shtetl-born, Holocaust-survived, American-emigre Jewish woman as a palette of varying emotions and reactions. She uses these memories like brush strokes on a ready canvas: with great subtlety, wit, and restraint to colour in a human life.

And what a life it is. While such a piece could easily become a litany of boring chronological details played with overwrought emotion and predictable emoting, Cadeau shows herself to be a capable storyteller, while at the same time, never falling into the trap of sentimentality. When she talks about losing her first husband and child, we feel it; when she speaks about the trials of being aboard the Exodus, we believe her, and when she finally reveals the reason she is sitting shiva, we understand entirely.

Diana LeBlanc's subtle, classy direction embellishes Cadeau's performance in the best way: by letting her sole cast member's star shine brightly. There are no tricks or attempts to manipulate. Soft sound effects and beautiful warm lighting add the right touches, at the right times.

By the end of Rose, you feel that you've not only had a great history lesson through the eyes of a true survivor, but a close embrace that hits at both epic and intimate levels. This is a wonderful start for the Harold Green Jewish Theatre Company. Here's to more great stories, big and small.

Rose runs at the Jane Mallett Theatre at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts through March 29th.

For more information, go to www.hgjewishtheatre.com.