Anyone who’s ever questioned the magic of theatre obviously never saw a Linda Griffiths performance. The writer and actor passed away this morning after a long struggle with cancer.
Griffiths had some sort of mythopoetic quality about her that made you feel you were watching not some mere mortal, but a goddess. There was her husky voice. That warm, genuine smile. The sharp wit and ability to change emotion swiftly. An ageless presence.
I interviewed her a couple of times and always remember feeling starstruck. If she were in the audience for an opening night at Theatre Passe Muraille, where she premiered most of her shows, or in the lineup for a Fringe show, or giving advice to younger artists in a lobby, you could always sense people around you thinking: Linda Griffiths is here!
Whatever you want to call it: glamour, charisma, a zest for life. Griffiths had it.
She was a larger than life figure, so it’s no surprise that in her writing and performance she gravitated towards similar real-life characters: Pierre Trudeau and his wife Maggie, in her solo breakthrough play, 1980’s Maggie And Pierre, which helped define Canadian theatre, going on to a cross-country tour and off-Broadway run Mrs. Wallis Simpson, a woman so magnetic she got a king to abdicate in The Duchess poet Gwendolyn MacEwen, in Alien Creature, which won her one of four best new play Dora Mavor Moore Awards and two Chalmers Awards. The list goes on.
Griffiths, who also made lots of TV and film (most famously in John Sayles’s lesbian drama, Lianna), was a fierce explorer of social issues. In 2003’s Chronic, she examined the idea of chronic fatigue syndrome and all that that implied. In 2007’s Age Of Arousal, she took us to England in the 1880s to look at the economic and social status of women.
Theatre people knew she was ill when Passe Muraille had to postpone a production of her Heaven Above Heaven Below, a sequel to her famous play The Darling Family, during the 2012/2013 season. The play, starring Griffiths and Layne Coleman, went up in November 2013. Given its themes of what-ifs and never-weres, it was suitably poignant, but also terribly funny.
During the time of the postponement, Griffiths sent out a statement about why it was being put on hold. She was living with cancer.
“Cancer is both an ordinary and an extraordinary thing to have,” she wrote in the release. “Lots of people have been through this and now it’s me. No tragedy so far.”
Open, honest, clear and grounded. Yes, that was Linda Griffiths.
UPDATED: Her Night, a memorial for Griffiths, will be held at Theatre Passe Muraille Monday (September 29), 7 pm (arrival), 7:30 pm (start). All are welcome. passemuraille.ca/home/linda-griffiths
