“A personal standing ovation-worthy performance. This fine cast handles the delicate subject material with dignity, respect, and grace.”
That’s the second time at the Playhouse when I felt personally compelled to lead the standing ovation.
Last fall, it was for Mary’s Wedding.
This time, it’s for Dorothy Dittrich’s Governor General’s 2022 Literary Drama Award for The Piano Teacher.
A Canadian story (wise choice by The Playhouse, given what’s going on right now between us and the neighbours to the south), The Piano Teacher follows Erin (Elisa Moolecherry), a renowned classical pianist who has endured a personal family tragedy. Erin has become unable to play music or even touch a piano due to this devastating life change. While she strives to move forward through her trauma, she meets Elaine (Karin Randoja), a piano teacher (who also deals with personal challenges). Knowing Elaine’s unconventional teaching style, Erin asks for help to reconnect with playing the piano and find hope for her future.
While Erin struggles to return to playing the piano, she also recognizes that a change needs to take place in her home. She hires Tom (Brandon McGibbon) to start the renovation.
The grieving process is one that each of us has confronted, if not once, then many times. It’s a delicate situation because everyone is or will always be at different stages. While noted psychologist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross refers to specific terms of the grieving process, there is a programme note by Allison Hess that uses different terms instead: understanding, feeling, remembering, integrating and growing.
Director Evalyn Perry and this engaging cast make the Thousand Island production touching because playwright Dorothy Dittrich’s quietly hard-hitting script incorporates these five latter terms instead. Under Perry’s prudent and sage vision, the performers never resort to soppy or maudlin sentimentality. Instead, what follows for Erin, Elaine, and Tom is a series of lessons on loss, friendship, love, and the healing power of music. Elaine and Tom have been transformed simply by listening attentively and respectfully to Erin as she moves forward in her grief, beginning to live a changed life that is certainly not over.
For those who have experienced grief in their lives, its energy constantly changes and flows all around. Ambiently lit either with soft-focused or harsh lighting by Za Hughes, Jawon Kang immediately demonstrates in her sleek set design how objects, furniture, and props in the playing space are intentionally arranged to periodically allow grief’s kinetic energy and one’s personal response to grief to collide. While the three-room set (that functions both as Erin and Elaine’s home) may look ultra chic and inviting, grief may lurk in any corner of those rooms and rear its head at any moment.
Sound designer Richard Feren’s diverse musical underscorings are some of the performance’s highlights. From my seat in the theatre, it seemed as though both Randoja and Moolecherry were actually playing the piano. If they are, I’m very impressed. If they aren’t, then huge praise to the two women for creating a convincing illusion, thanks to Feren’s beautiful accompaniments that seamlessly blend in.
Karin Randoja, Elisa Moolecherry and Brandon McGibbon deliver fine performances grounded in truth, vulnerability, and hope. The ‘teacher-student’ moments at the piano between Randoja and Moolecherry serve as fitting reminders of a similar trust-building yet painstaking process between Annie Sullivan and Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker. A possible budding interest between McGibbon and Moolecherry makes us want to root for their Tom and Erin. Well, at least it did for me.
While this prime production of The Piano Teacher is handled with dignity, grace, class, and respect, there’s something else that has earned it a personal standing ovation of admiration.
When modern theatre explores Christian themes that remain just as relevant today, it truly resonates.
Near the end of the play, when Randoja (as Elaine) breaks the fourth wall and speaks to the audience, she expresses that she can’t envision a greater proof of God than music, given its ephemeral, miraculous, and invisible connection to all of us.
Neither can I.
Love it!
And I’d love it for you to grab tickets to see The Piano Teacher.
Running time: approximately one hour and 50 minutes with one interval/intermission.
The production runs until November 2 at the Firehall Theatre, 185 South Street, Gananoque. For tickets: 1000islandsplayhouse.com or call (613) 382-7020
THOUSAND ISLANDS PLAYHOUSE presents
The Piano Teacher by Dorothy Dittrich
(Recipient of the Governor General’s Literary Award for Drama in 2022)
Directed by Evalyn Perry
Set and Costume Designer: Jawon Kang
Lighting Designer: Za Hughes
Sound Designer: Richard Feren
Stage Manager: Emlyn vanBruinswaart
Performers: Karin Randoja as Elaine, Elisa Moolecherry as Erin, and Brandon McGibbon as Tom.
