THE 2007 THESPIS AWARDS

Toronto theatre lost two of its principal sponsors and supporters with the demises of Bluma Appel and Ed Mirvish, and Canadian theatre lost its greatest stage actor, William Hutt. So, the year ended on a gloomy note, but, as usual, there were gratifying highlights in the calendar year, with Soulpepper offering the highest number of top acting performances. The 2007 Thespis winners are:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Stuart Hughes (Left)
*Stuart Hughes (The Time of Your Life/Soulpepper): As bold, boozy Kit Carson, inveterate teller of tall tales, Hughes gave the production an effusively comic and uproarious madness, stealing virtually every scene he was in and easily turning the role into a career-highlight.

Edmund Bagnell (Sweeney Todd/Mirvish): Playing the tormented Tobias in Sondheim’s operatic musical about a blood-thirsty demon-barber in Victorian England (transformed into a lunatic asylum for this production), Bagnell was a compelling narrator/inmate with a pathological psyche—his frantic, screechy violin-playing in keeping with his innate despair.

Alon Nashman (Scorched/Tarragon): As Alphonse, a family lawyer, comically out of sorts with language yet nobly attempting to honour the memory of a maligned and misunderstood woman, Nashman was unforgettably comic and touching.

(Honourable mention: Oliver Dennis in Leaving Home (Soulpepper) and Oliver Becker in The Pillowman (CanStage))

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Kelli Fox holds the hand of Megan Follows
*Kelli Fox (Top Girls/Soulpepper): An actress of considerable force, Ms. Fox played three roles with three kinds of distinction: first, a colonial Scots explorer worn out by good causes; second, a dreary, weary woman from the English provinces; and third, a middle-class housewife in Thatcher’s England who pleads for a top job for her depressed, ailing husband.

Nicole Lipman (Scorched/Tarragon): Delivering a stunning final monologue in a momentously powerful production, Ms. Lipman achieved one of the most amazing crescendos in Canadian theatre, etching a portrait of unforgettable bitterness and pain.

Jane Spidell (Leaving Home/Soulpepper): A solid presence in almost every play she appears in, Ms. Spidell was particularly vivid as a lewd woman seeking a little revenge for a bitter disappointment in life.

(Honourable mention: Kate Hennig in White Christmas (Sony) and Patricia Zentilli in Little Shop of Horrors (CanStage))

BEST ACTOR
Tony Nardi
*Tony Nardi (Two Letters/Nardi production): In what was essentially a sequence of two monologues of volcanic heat, Tony Nardi delivered a stunningly powerful and valid indictment of Canadian theatre and culture, based on his own experiences. What could have been a dry exercise in epistolary reading (with no décor other than a laptop computer and podium) became splendidly vehement, provocative, engaging theatre, especially in the second letter, where Nardi demonstrated real commedia dell arte style in high speed and versatile mimicry. Nardi shook up preconceptions of what constitutes real theatre.

Daniel MacIvor (Monster/DaDa Kamera): As Adam, a twisted character with hypnotic charm, MacIvor morphed into the characters of his chillingly funny and horrifying 80-minute tale-within-a-tale: a teenager obsessed with crime; a bickering heterosexual couple; an ex-addict who dreams up a horror movie; debauched guests at a Hollywood party, et cetera. A performance of unforgettable virtuosity and intensity.

Kenneth Welsh (Leaving Home/Soulpepper): Making a welcome return to the Toronto stage after many years of absence, Welsh was a superb Jacob Mercer, a boozy, anger-ridden Newfie transplanted to Toronto and involved in a bitter struggle against his young rebellious son. A vivid portrait of a pugnacious, drunken, angry, and anguished man.

(Honourable mention: Robert Martin in The Drowsy Chaperone (Mirvish) and Joseph Ziegler in The Time of Your Life (Soulpepper))

BEST ACTRESS
Megan Follows (Right)
*Megan Follows (Top Girls and Three Sisters/Soulpepper): As Marlene, a sexy, successful businesswoman in Thatcher’s England, and then as Masha, Chekhov’s most neurotic Prozorov sister, Ms. Follows demonstrated her versatility while always acting with truth and feeling. An actress of real charm, elegance, and subtlety, she hit emotional peaks that were truly moving.

Judy Kaye (Sweeney Todd/Mirvish): Raven-haired and buxom to the point of almost bursting out of her mini-skirt, swatting flies off her horrible meat pies, and manipulating a cut-throat Cockney humour, Ms. Kaye was a Mrs. Lovett to remember: saucy, vulgar, macabre, stout of voice and histrionic caliber, and of skillfully balanced farce and blood-curdling melodrama. A major re-interpretation of a role made famous by Angela Lansbury.

Fiona Reid (Homebody/Kabul/Mercury Stage Productions): Playing an English homebody, a woman with a mind full of digressions and convolutions and a soul embittered by political petition, Ms. Reid glimmered with wit even when she sounded notes of wry self-deprecation or contained distress. Sedentary throughout her voluminous monologue, she flew mentally and psychologically far above suburban London.

(Honourable mention: Diane D’Aquila in Leaving Home (Soulpepper) and Kate Trotter in The Elephant Man (CanStage))

BEST PRODUCTION/DIRECTOR

*Scorched (Tarragon/Richard Rose): A powerful quest story with numerous windings that lead into the heart of evil, Wajdi Mouawad’s play (the best Canadian play I have ever seen) vibrated with political and domestic turmoil, its psychological realism varnished by poetry of the heart and dramatic images that were simply stunning.

Monster (Da Da Kamera/Daniel Brooks): Full of macabre humour, vivid (virtually cinematic) expressionism, sly wit, and theatrical gamesmanship, this 80-minute monologue about a man who spins eerie, spellbinding and self-reflexive narratives premiered in 1998 to rapturous acclaim, but seemed totally fresh and engaging in 2007. Brooks’ direction was masterly without ever seeming obvious or forced, and MacIvor’s solo performance was a real tour de force.

The Time of Your Life (Soulpepper/Albert Schultz): Schultz’s production was largely deft and a little dreamy, touched with effusive comic and uproarious madness, and sweetened by romanticism, comedy, drama, and philosophic wisdom. It did not shrink from the wistful, nor did it avoid the bewildering, and it effectively delivered the airy, rather loose, folksy tone of Saroyan’s script.

(Honourable mention: The Drowsy Chaperone (DanCap/Casey Nicholaw) and The Overcoat (CanStage/Morris Panych & Wendy Gorling)

Go Back to: Stage Reviews