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The Lost Supper

Toronto Star Review

"Shadowland's movable feast is fine theatrical fare."

RICHARD OUZOUNIAN, theatre critic

The Lost Supper By Shadowland Theatre. Directed by Mark Cassidy.

"Unique" is an overused word in the critical lexicon, but it's the one that best applies to The Lost Supper, the latest work from Shadowland Theatre.It's a strange but lovely mixture of puppetry, movement, light and music that tells seven distinctive stories, but barely uses a word.

Shadowland is the Toronto Island-based group that brings its unique creativity to many aspects of our local theatre scene. It has won three Dora Awards for the grotesquely splendid costumes it provided for Video Cabaret, produced some memorable outdoor spectacles like Right of Passage and also created an assortment of memorable smaller pieces, of which The Lost Supper is a fine addition.Seven life-size puppets sit at a communal dinner table and, after a sort introductory talk from one of them (a kind of papier-mâché Margaret Visser), we launch into the individual anecdotes that connect each guest's life with the world of food.

Throughout, the five black-clad manipulators (Anne Barber, Brad Harley, Mark Keetch, Noah Kenneally and Clea Minaker) do a delicate job of not only seeing that the larger puppets move and react appropriately, but that each story is told by a group of smaller puppets with a wealth of careful detail.
The end result is not unlike those Matryoshka dolls, where a full-sized original keeps revealing a series of ever-tinier miniatures, to our constantly growing amazement.

The Russian atmosphere is echoed by the content of the some of the tales as well as the heavenly Klezmer-flavoured score composed, arranged, produced and even partially played by David Buchbinder.

The individual episodes range from an evocation of passion in a Provençal garden to a year in the life of a farmer, each handled with a different style and some amusing theatrical flair.
Is there a final point to it all, other than the celebration of the joys and sorrows that can be found in the community of dining? That's hard to say, but this is a piece that excites us more for its unheard echoes than its clearly defined statements.

Mark Cassidy has directed with an invention that surpasses mere cleverness and a sense of just when we have to be dazzled and when it's time to let us sit and think. There's also a lot of humour in the piece — some subtle, some broad — and it makes for an entertaining hour.

It's also a treat to see how the five cast members constantly reinforce the emotions that their puppets are meant to be feeling, with a wealth of subtle smiles, exchanged glances and murmured confidences.

Rebecca Picherack has done wonders with a simple lighting plot, including a magical evocation of a Balinese shadow play.

And, as mentioned before, Buchbinder's score wraps the whole thing up in a blanket of sound that soothes without ever smothering. It's some of the best theatre music I've heard in a long time.

The Lost Supper once again shows that Shadowland is a group that can be counted on to provide Toronto theatre with work deliciously out of the ordinary. It's not conventional, but nothing this group does ever is. Still, if you want something different, you'll find it here.