This show won me over, but it took a while.
The problems I had aren’t with the production, which is excellent, but with the script — although the source material is astonishing.
Playwright Kat Sandler drew inspiration for Wildwoman from the fifteenth-century history of Catherine de Medici. When they were both 14, Catherine was married to the prince who would become King Henry II of France — and immediately tasked with the business of making babies. Hers was a closely watched womb. Henry kept a much older mistress, Diane de Portiers (Didi in Sandler’s script). Catherine was trailing her family’s reputation as poisoners. And Henry kept a “pet” human, a man named Pedro González (Pete in the script), whose extreme hairiness was caused by a condition called hypertrichosis. In an experiment, Henry had González educated, given a position at court, and married, possibly to Catherine Raffelin, who becomes Catherine’s lady-in-waiting, Kitt, in Sandler’s telling. The seven children of this marriage were sold, as curiosities, to other European nobles, who traded them as properties. The marriage itself inspired Beauty and the Beast.
Sandler gives this 15th-century story a largely comic, heavily sexual treatment, especially in Act 1. Her characters speak loose, contemporary English.
The playwright uses all this to explore power, particularly the powerlessness and exploitation of women. Didi exerts enormous influence over Henry, but holds no direct authority. Kitt claws her way up from being a stable wench, but her increasing status wins her no security or control. And smart, competent Catherine’s entrapment in the role of babymaker drives her to near madness.
But it wasn’t until halfway through Act 1, which is 80 minutes long, that I cared about any of this in Wildwoman. That’s partly because, in the early going, the script is intent on winning the audience over with a style of humour I don’t find funny. Wildwoman’s strategy is to wring laughs from transgression — Henry repeatedly penetrates Catherine from behind as they yell things like “Babies tomorrow!”, “Babies for dad!”, and “Triplets for France!” — and the lights to go blackout. But none of this startled me, nor did I find it witty. Henry tells Catherine, “As a wedding present, dad got me a horse with two dicks.” Okay.
I wasn’t snagged until Wildwoman offered me relationships I could invest in. Interestingly, in a story that’s about the oppression of women, the key to this is the “wildman”, child-like, dog-like Pete, who has the purest heart of any of the characters onstage.
Halfway through the first act, Catherine visits Pete in the dungeon, where he is kept in a golden cage, and they start to form an alliance. “Yeah, one time I was held hostage in a convent while an angry Protestant mob called for me to be stripped naked and given to a military brothel,” Catherine tells Pete. “I was nine… So it’s kinda like we’re the same, you and I.” There we go. Solidarity.
Similarly, when Pete is married to Kitt, his openheartedness releases Kitt’s capacity for tenderness.
I also had problems with Act 1 because its focus on Catherine and Henry’s fruitless attempts to conceive a child gets dully repetitive. But, when the two couples’ children come into the picture, the stakes go way up; Act 2, unlike Act 1, is filled with plot.
Director Jamie King’s production is gorgeous. Narda McCarroll’s lavish, gilded set, with its rich arches and spiky, modernist chandeliers, Alaia Hamer’s sumptuous costumes, and Gerald King’s wildly dramatic lighting allowed me to appreciate the fairytale world that Sandler has created — and that’s the richness I rode all the way through the second act. Nancy Tam’s sound design adds wit: she underscores the most romantic scene of the evening with a period-sounding, instrumental version of “Angel of the Morning”.
And you’d be hard-pressed to find a stronger acting company than the one King has assembled. I’ve never seen deeper, or more relaxed work from Sythia Yusuf than the performance she delivers as Catherine. Catherine de Medici has a possibly well-deserved reputation as a cutthroat, and Yusuf draws a clear line between the idealistic fourteen-year-old and the vengeful regent.
Nathan Kay is perfectly cast as Henry. As it so often does, Kay’s work here combines extraordinary timing, confident inventiveness, and a unique ability to blend petulance with depth.
N Girgis brings the requisite chilliness and intelligence to Didi, and Elizabeth Barrett’s work as Kitt is moving, even as the plot veers into a series of betrayals.
Playing Pete, the soft heart of all this, Connor Stuart could not be more endearing.
It took a worryingly long time for the world of Wildwoman to cohere for me but, when it did, I was glad to visit it.
WILDWOMAN by Kat Sandler. Directed by Jamie King. Produced by the Gateway Theatre and Alberta Theatre Projects. Running at the Gateway Theatre until April 4. Tickets and information. Running at Calgary’s Martha Cohen Theatre April 21 to May 10. Tickets and information.
PHOTO CREDIT: (Photo of Synthia Yusuf and Nathan Kay by David Cooper. Costumes by Alaia Hamer. Set by Narda McCarroll. Lighting by Gerald King.)
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