Toronto Review: 'Marjorie Prime' at Coal Mine Theatre
Dave Rabjohn, Associate Toronto Critic
Award winning American playwright, Jordan Harrison, has created an imaginative and compelling story in ‘Marjorie Prime’ now playing at the Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto. It takes some time to recognize that this is a futuristic story surrounding the love and tragedy of a deeply committed family and the themes of loss and memory. The story slowly unfolds with surprise after surprise until we are thoroughly immersed in a future of artificial intelligence. Uniquely structured with audience on two sides looking through the set at each other, it is easy to be distracted by a silly hat, or someone’s penchant for a can of Rickards Red. This sparkling cast, however, makes those distractions disappear.
The story and the dialogue demand experienced acting, and Coal Mine Theatre has gathered some of the best. The 85 year old mother, moving towards alzheimers , is played with distinction by one of Canada’s most prolific and beloved actors – Martha Henry. Her daughter and son in law have chosen to hire a pixel generating company named Prime who creates robotic holograms of former loved ones programmed with artificial intelligence. They choose a younger version of Marjorie’s dead husband to keep her company and to learn and reiterate memories of the past for Marjorie to enjoy. A series of tragic memories turn the family story negatively inward fixing on suicides and the death of a beloved dog. Upon her death, Marjorie becomes a “prime” herself, revealing more secrets. The daughter Tess doesn’t trust the programmed robots. Ironically, she too becomes a prime and the final scene with three primes reminiscing is both moving and transfixing.
Sarah Dodd, like Ms. Henry, is a fixture from the Stratford Festival and she becomes the heart of this band of distinctive actors. Playing the daughter Tess, Ms. Dodd careens through the spectrum of emotions, her character absorbing the greatest lot of tragedy. Her “bible” speech is poignant. She is human through and through – laughing, crying, surviving. After a horrifying suicide, she too becomes a prime which demands a fulsome change in acting – a sudden quiet and composed tone with sterile expressions and plasticized smile. Gordon Hecht plays the Walter prime with similar robotic acting requirements. He is too well groomed, pants too well pressed, with the fixed grin of a commodities salesman. Mr. Hecht’s genius is in the consistency of his character as he gathers the other primes around. As mentioned, the final scene, populated only with primes, is both stirring and creepy as the actors’ chimerical tone understates the themes of memory and its role in the family.
Beau Dixon, playing the son in law Jon, has an equally diverse and lengthy resume as his fellow actors. Jon’s role is to be the glue of the family. As an actor, he must reach out to all parties and implore honesty and some pragmatism. Jon’s mask of calm neutrality belies seething resentment of caustic family memories. The only one not a prime, Mr. Dixon contrasts the perfunctory acting of the others with his own humanity.
What was intriguing about Stewart Arnott’s direction and Gillian Gallow’s design work was the effort made to not make this look like a science fiction piece. This underscores the futuristic story with even more integrity. The condo is modern and antiseptic contrasting with Marjorie’s crocheted throw. It is Harrison’s nuanced writing and the actors’ skills that march us into the future. Bram Gielen’s sound design is not the clanging of a Jetson’s episode, but a sophisticated undercurrent of soft wonder.
But it is the cast that elevates this production. They work through the intricacies of a play that invokes both a Tennessee Williams memory play and a Stepford Wives haunting. The audience benefits from an entertaining story and a resonating exploration of love and memory. The final lines understate this with simplicity – “How nice that we could love somebody.”
Marjorie Prime by Jordan Harrison. Produced by Coal Mine Theatre
Cast: Martha Henry – Marjorie ; Sarah Dodd – Tess ; Beau Dixon – Jon ; Gordon Hecht – Walter
Production team: Stewart Arnott – Director ; Bram Gielen- composer ; Gillian Gallow- Set and costume design ; Nick Blais – lighting design.
Play runs at Coal Mine Theatre in Toronto through February 23, 2020.
Tickets at coalminetheatre.com
Beau Dixon as Jon ; Sarah Dodd as Tess Photo: Dahlia Katz