REVIEW: Tempting Providence at Gateway Theatre
A cast from Corner Brook proved its ability to create intensity with little more than a dining set, determination and a tablecloth.
And oh that tablecloth. It served as a ball of dough, a baby, a wedding dress and a symbol of the sparse landscape of Tempting Providence, which opened at Gateway Theatre Feb. 3.
At 82 minutes, Robert Chafe's play is the right length for a bio-play of Myra Bennett, a British nurse who settled in Newfoundland in 1921 to provide first-line medical care to residents along a rural coast. In Tempting, audiences get real history, a taste of East Coast culture and convincing acting from a quartet of Newfoundland actors.
The play starts slow and quietly, its fast-paced, accented dialogue requiring the audience to sit up straight. With exposition out of the way, the woman known as "Nurse" delivers babies and pulls teeth while fielding repeated warnings of the looming winter.
We're told the stakes are high, but ferocious weather is hard to imagine on the West Coast nearly a century later. More conflict brews when the stone-cold nurse admits to feeling inner sadness—but nothing much comes of it.
Along the way we get some interesting facts, like how Nurse discovered the abundance of breech babies in the fall was linked to pregnant women bending over to tend crops.
Tempting offers a few early laughs, but then dives into the serious and never resurfaces. Here we see Deidre Gillard-Rowlings (Nurse Myra Bennett) at her best, single-handedly building a pivotal scene of desperation during a medical emergency, which finally underlines the ferocity of winter.
The real standout is Willow Kean, who deftly handles roles of the female Newfoundlander. Leaving scenes to Kean is an invitation to steal, and she obliges, particularly when she hilariously scolds her son as only a woman of the time could.
Solidly backing these women up is Darryl Hopkins, who smartly plays Angus Bennett—the man who becomes husband to Nurse—and Robert Wyatt Thorne, who plays the roles of the male Newfoundlander with endless enthusiasm. They do it all on a sparse set whose four chairs see more synchronized flipping and dipping than an Olympic swimming pool.
Gateway Theatre's artistic director Simon Johnston says he aims to welcome one touring production each season. With Tempting Providence, audiences get something they'll likely never see on the West Coast again. For those who appreciate theatre's magic, it's worth a look.
Tempting Providence by Robert Chafe
•Feb. 2 to 18 (Opening Night Friday, Feb. 3) at Gateway Theatre
•Tickets, $30 to $47, at gatewaytheatre.com or at the Gateway box office: 604-270-1812
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