THE OTHER PLACE by Sharr White, directed by Daniel Brooks, with Tamsin Kelsey, Jim Mezon, Haley McGee and Joe Cobden. Presented by Canadian Stage at the Bluma Appel Theatre (27 Front East). Opens Thursday (January 22) and runs to February 8, Tuesday-Thursday and Saturday 8 pm, Friday 7 pm, matinees Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday 1 pm. $30-$99. 416-368-3110, canadianstage.com.
Juliana, the central character in Sharr Whites The Other Place, feels her world is falling apart.
That makes her a challenging figure to play, but Tamsin Kelsey is up for it. We havent seen Kelsey onstage since Pieta (SummerWorks 2012), but her memorable performance in that solo show copped her the festivals Spotlight Award.
Juliana is a bright, successful neurologist who isnt quite sure whats happening to her, but she knows that her husbands filing for divorce and shes still coping with the fact that her daughter ran off years ago with an older man.
Sometime you meet a character whos smarter than you are, and thats the case with Juliana, certainly in her scientific expertise, admits Kelsey, who heads the drama program at Rosedale Heights School of the Arts. Shes sharper, faster, definitely more cynical than I am. Shes a creature of fast repartee and deeply rooted skepticism.
Juliana has a lot to say, both to the other characters and the audience, and because the play jumps around in time the safety net of where we are in the story isnt always accessible.
The element of cynicism is the way Kelsey and director Daniel Brooks started building Juliana for the Canadian Stage production.
She faced a tragedy and had a number of choices in how to proceed with her life, explains the actor. Juliana ends up believing in a kind of nihilism, both in her work and her relationships with others. Formerly a medical researcher, she becomes a pharmaceutical huckster, and the selling out in her private life is just as drastic, for shes created a shell, an armour, that keeps her isolated.
Her husband is the sort of person who offers her unconditional support, but eventually even he has to admit defeat. Ironically, the small kindness offered by a stranger ameliorates Julianas enormous loss.
Over a decade ago, Kelsey created memorable characters in such works as Insomnia, The Gwendolyn Poems and The Good Life. Teachings taken up much of her time since then, and shes happy to be in the classroom.
I love working with young people, opening up their ideas of what the arts and especially theatre can be. I make a point of taking them to see shows that arent traditional my students dont get the Stratford or Shaw experience but rather are exposed to works like Pamela Sinhas Crash or an unusual German play like The Ugly One. Over the past 10 years or more, I must have exposed thousands of adolescent theatre-goers to shows that push the envelope.
Working with director Brooks is the best way to return to the stage, she thinks.
We have a history together, and I know hes caring, generous, meticulous and demanding.
During rehearsals, I find him continually taking away something I think is great, Kelsey smiles. Ill do a turn, express some emotion through my body, and he tells me to simplify everything, to just say the line.
At the base of our work together is my implicit trust that his big picture is better than mine. Weve known each other since 1991, and he understands exactly when to provoke me or indulge me, when to give me a note thats difficult, when to laugh at me and when he shouldnt.