BY LIBBY DORNBUSH
George Pothitos, artistic director of the Sudbury Theatre Centre, has chosen to open the 2008/9 season with Moliere's The Miser, an old play whose themes of "greed, duplicity, lies, and children at odds with parents" had attracted the director.
Although The Miser premiered in Paris 340 years ago to the month, and Pothitos must have picked the play and chosen to set it in the Depression years of the 1930's some months ago, with the current political background of looming financial disaster in the USA, and serious threats to arts funding in this country, the themes of this show are as modern as today's headlines.
The Miser is savagely satirical and hilariously funny. Moliere has gone back to a play by the Roman comedic dramatist Plautus for the basis of The Miser, also the source of inspiration for A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, another Pothitos production in the spring of 2005.
Along the way the low, raw Roman comedy has been refined through the influence of the Italian commedia dell'arte and the Elizabethan dramatists, and shades of Shakespeare and Marlowe can be heard in the witty dialogue.
The play's centre is the avaricious character of Harpagon, brilliantly played by Ian Deakin. Mr. Deakin is the very soul of penny pinching frugality; he sells off all that is beautiful in his home to accumulate money. His very fingers twitch and the sides of this mouth quiver at the idea that he may have to spend money.
(It is difficult for this reviewer to resist playing with names when attending a government sponsored arts event about a man named Harpagon whose obsessions and ignorance seem so very familiar.)
Deakin's high standard of acting is repeated in the rest of the cast members. Geoffrey Pounsett gives an exceptionally strong performance as Valere, the servant who sycophantically agrees with everything his master says, while working behind the scenes to actually accomplish the opposite.
His measured mannerisms and gestures, as well as his never ruffled helmet of hair again bring this reviewer eerie reminders of our esteemed anti-art Prime Minister, while perfectly conveying the intent of his character.
Pothitos has set The Miser in the Depression Years and the gradually reducing grandeur of the Harpagon mansion, designed by Geoffrey Dinwiddle, reflects the splendour that was the stock market rise and the resulting loss.
These themes are carried through in the procession of poverty stricken servants that remind the audience of the reality that exists along with the comedy, all against the background of familiar songs of the Depression era.
True to satire and farce, all the elements of this play are bigger then life: the characters, mostly one-dimensional; the situations, mostly familiar from hundreds of years of repetition and variation, right up to modern plays and sitcoms; the dialogue, fast, witty, full of puns and allusions; the gestures and expressions; and the costuming, here done so very well and over the top by Crystal MacDonell.
The Miser is a romp of a play but, as any satire does, it makes a social and moral point. Introducing the new season Opening night, George Pothitos thanked those who contribute the essential support to keep the arts alive, making the point that all those involved in the arts, whether by profession or by participation, live in "politically terrifying times."
To make the point that Arts are for all people seems almost redundant in the face of the contribution this theatre has made to the City of Sudbury. Particularly under the directorship of George Pothitos it has moved to a viable financial position, and has, through shows such as Hockey Mom, Hockey Dad, The Patsy Cline Show, and the Buddy Holly Story introduced hundreds of new theatre goers to the joys of live theatre. It supports programs to bring children into theatre both as audience and as performers.
The money brought into the Sudbury Theatre Centre stays in Sudbury: it is spent in our shops and businesses, it pays taxes here. So does other monies generated by the Arts in Sudbury.
If it does need, as do so many other organizations including sports and participatory leisure activities of all sorts, some government funding to survive, it should, as other groups do, have reasonable access to that money.
Mr. Harper would have us believe this is elite entertainment, yet the audience at opening night comprised a wide cross section of the community; small business owners, teachers, nurses, doctors, politicians, retired INCO employees from both underground and administration.
We must not allow this community, which has enjoyed a wide reputation for inclusion and tolerance, to be divided at the hands of narrow minded people who have only their own limited interests in mind, whether it is Stephen Harper railing against funding the offensive Arts, or local letter to the editor writers who would have us believe that the elimination of all potholes can be achieved by turning down requests for an Arts Centre by a few fringe artsy-fartsy types.
This artsy-fartsy reviewer thoroughly enjoyed the STC production of The Miser; so will hundreds of other Sudburians in the next few weeks. Before you knock the local performing arts, give them a try.
The Miser runs at the Sudbury Theatre Centre until the October 11th.  The Box Office can be reached at 705 674 8381.
Libby Dornbush can be reached at [email protected] .
