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Culture Theatre

Boston Marriage

BOSTON MARRIAGE by David Mamet, directed by Ted Dykstra (Le Salon Secret). At a secret location revealed when tickets are purchased online. To Saturday (January 29) at 8 pm. $25. lesalonsecret.com. See listing. Rating: NNN

According to an often-repeated story, Queen Victoria refused to sign a bill making lesbianism illegal in Britain. “Women,” she said, “do not do such things.”

It’s clear the ruler never met Anna (Rebecca Northan) and Claire (Daniela Vlaskalic), the central figures in David Mamet’s Boston Marriage, set in a Victorian drawing room. The long-term lovers brim over with sensuality and passion, Claire especially, but couch most of their desires in the most proper and formal language.

Mamet fills his play with wit and wicked innuendo. Some of the nastiest and funniest is launched at Anna’s poor parlour maid, Catherine (Julie Orton). The servant does her best to be heard but is regularly put down by her disdainful employer, who’s unable to get either her name or country of origin correct.

Northan and Vlaskalic generate strong chemistry under Ted Dykstra’s direction, though in the first few scenes the rhythms of this drawing-room comedy aren’t as tight as they might be. The Wildean turns of phrase have to be delivered with lightness and glitter, but it’s only about a third of the way into the production that the dialogue begins to sparkle.

Even earlier, though, a nice dramatic tension between the pair has been established. Anna has taken a male “protector” to ensure that she and Claire will be financially well off, while Claire has become infatuated with a young woman. Jealous, neither is happy about what the other’s done.

The best part of the show is the bitchy repartee, a blend of Biblical allusions, modern curses and withering put-downs.

Orton holds her own as the practical but occasionally histrionic young maid, who proves surprisingly useful to the two women even though they make her life a vitriolic hell. Her compassionate character also helps move the script’s tone toward an unexpected tenderness.

jonkap@nowtoronto.com

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