After a trip to the Shaw Festival. . .

Welcome to Julia Hedge's Laces - I hope you find something of interest here. What's likely to turn up is outlined on the righthand side. In turn, I hope to find a community of readers who are as passionate about Woolf, the times she lived in, and the books written during and about that period, as I am.

It's always hard to know exactly where to begin (with anything, not just blogs), but perhaps for this particular endeavour, there's no better place than to tip my hat to the Shaw Festival. Their mandate of putting on plays written (and more recently, set in) the period of Shaw's life makes it one of the most unique theatre companies in the world and of course inspired the thinking behind what my fantasy bookstore would stock. Shaw's long life (1856-1950) includes of course the whole of Virginia Woolf's (1882-1941) and the theatre of late 19th and first half of the 20th century, so a trip out to Niagara-on-the-Lake is always a must for me each summer. The Shaw is particularly good at remounting lost and forgotten plays from this era. Terence Rattigan's After the Dance which I saw last weekend, is a perfect example of what they do best.

This play first opened in June, 1939 and is set in the last years of the 1930s. The characters are a group of friends - the Bright Young Things of the 1920s, too young to have fought in WWI and suffering from survivor guilt, alcoholism, and a sense of the futility and waste of their lives that has come from years of partying and enjoying themselves. David Scott-Fowler is an author trying to write his big book but knowing in his heart that it isn't very good. He's also been recently told that he will die if he doesn't stop drinking. He falls in love with Helen, an earnest, young woman who believes she can save him. His wife Joan, also an alcoholic and madly in love with her husband although she can't bring herself to admit it to him, takes the news badly. When tragedy strikes, all the characters have to "grow up" and face the consequences of their actions, or rather in-actions. This is a suspenseful, poignant play that hooked me right from the beginning. Patrick Galligan, who plays David, has just become my favourite actor at the Shaw (he also gave a marvellous performance as Osborne in Journey's End a few seasons ago). His David is quietly romantic, troubled, guilty and tragic. The supporting cast is also terrific particularly Deborah Hay as Joan and Neil Barclay as David's wise-cracking friend John. Highly recommended if you have a chance to go and see it.
Another rediscovery being mounted this season is Githa Sowerby's The Stepmother. I haven't seen it as it keeps conflicting with another plays that I have tickets for, but I did buy a copy of the play, published by Women's Press. It was written and is set in 1924; you can read more about it here. I often bemoan the fact that people don't read more plays - in many ways I think they are the perfect literary form. The entire work can (usually) be read in a few hours and then hopefully, if one is lucky enough to see a production or multiple productions, can expand infinitely in the imagination. Plays are expensive which is why many bookstores don't stock huge sections. We're fortunate in Toronto to have Theatre Books which is a regular haunt of mine. I also never go to London without making a stop in the National Theatre Bookshop.

So many great playwrights from this period. Kudos to the Shaw Festival for keeping their work alive.