Review: No Great Mischief

David Fox (photo credit: Cylla von Tiedemann)

The Recollected Family

by Christian Baines

Adapted from Alistair MacLeod’s award winning novel of the same name, No Great Mischief follows Alexander MacDonald (R. H. Thomson) in his attempts to reconnect with his family’s past, his brother Calum (David Fox) and the many tragedies and trials that have befallen both. Distinctively Canadian and occasionally compelling, it’s an unapologetically anecdotal story, ultimately not much more than a series of clips and memories from Alexander’s life.

The first trial, however, is for the audience – a marathon slog of exposition that, while possibly immersive on the written page, makes for a pretty tedious opening to a two hours plus play. The audience’s second great challenge is making sense of Calum. This is no shame to Fox, whose detailed embodiment of the character is unquestionable. With a burdened past and a battered liver, Calum’s life has been one of hard knocks, but his quasi-reflective ramblings only serve to make the play more impenetrable, right when it’s crying out for a reprieve from Alexander’s dense narration. 

A clear sense of what these men want, beyond some vague sense of closure on the past, has been lost on the way to the stage.

So as Alexander sets out to buy yet more liquor for his brother, the recollections begin, brought to energetic, if not exactly vivid life by a game cast, most of whom play a multitude of roles. This too, does nothing to clarify the story, and so we’ve no real reason to care about Alexander’s journey. Come to that, thirty minutes pass by before the play raises any kind of tension at all – dead on arrival theatre by anyone’s definition. It’s not until the second, perhaps third tale that we even get a clear picture of Alexander, much less of the effect Calum has had on his life, or his relationship with the broader family. A clear sense of what these men want, beyond some vague sense of closure on the past, has been lost on the way to the stage.

Several of the MacDonalds’ stories are interesting and one can easily see how the creators have fallen so in love with them. One can also see the pacing and breadth of this story being far more satisfying within the luxurious scope of a novel. Here, it simply lurches from tale to tale with highly varied results, then fizzles into an unsatisfactory ending, with the occasional impromptu Scottish-Canadian ho-down to cover slow spots along the way.

It’s one of my least favourite things to see on stage – a cast working so hard to bring a confused muddle to life. 

No Great Mischief plays until October 21 at Tarragon Theatre’s Mainspace.