Assassins

Adam Brazier’s award-winning production lives to kill again

Presented by Birdland Theatre & Talk Is Free Theatre
By Stephen Sondheim (book by John Weidman)
Directed by Adam Brazier

Photo by Guntar Kravis.

The Theatre Centre was decked out like a sinister roadside carnival on Saturday for the opening of Birdland Theatre and Talk Is Free Theatre’s remount of Assassins. Winner of the 2010 Dora Award for Outstanding Production of a Musical, Adam Brazier’s chilling production is back on stage in Toronto, and boy does it hit the mark.

Sondheim’s Tony Award-winning musical about the American dream gone awry tells the story of nine individuals who assassinated, or attempted to assassinate various presidents of the United States. From John Wilkes Booth to Lee Harvey Oswald, these historical antiheroes come together in their shared frustration with the powers that be and plot their revenge against the injustice and inequality that prevails in the “land of opportunity.” Each has a unique story, but in the end they all want the same thing: “the right to be happy.”

Joined by five new cast members, the ghoulish ensemble moves effortlessly around the big open space of the ground-level stage, leaving adequate room for props and the musicians around them. Much to our delight, several of the multi-talented performers play instruments throughout the show, adding to the production’s bewitching quality. Sondheim truly is the master of macabre melodies, and under the musical direction of Reza Jacobs something magical happens. You will get goosebumps when the banjo and violin unite.

From left to right: Paul McQuillan, Steve Ross and Alex Fiddes. Photo by Guntar Kravis.

All of the actors give brilliant performances, but we’ll only mention a few here. Paul McQuillan is wonderfully refined and articulate as the intense Southerner Booth — a real gentleman’s assassin. Despite our better judgement, Alex Fiddes’ self-pitying portrayal of Willam McKinley’s killer, the down-and-out Leon Czolgosz, garnered our sympathy. And Christopher Stanton exudes creepiness as the Jodie Foster-obsessed John Hinckley (this maniac attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan in an effort to impress her).

The comically crazed Lisa Horner shines as Gerald Ford’s attempted assassin Sara Jane Moore. And finally, we have to mention Graham Abbey’s deranged portrayal of Samuel Byck, the man who tried to hijack a plane and crash it into the White House in hopes of killing Richard Nixon. In what might have been the show’s most memorable scene, he tape records an agonizing rant to Leonard Bernstein while drinking alone in his car.

Even 20 years later, Assassins is right on target. It’s scary how often history repeats itself. For tickets visit artsboxoffice.ca.

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