If you haven’t yet gone, now’s a great time to head back . . . into the theatre.
Talk Is Free Theatre’s (TIFT) production of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods is heading to Toronto’s Winter Garden Theatre on October 28 – 30. The musical interweaves the stories of multiple characters from Grimm’s fairytales as they each search for their “Happily ever after”. The production is directed by Michael Torontow, with original music direction by Wayne Gwillim and a band led by Chris Tsujiuchi.
Toronto-based musical-theatre actor Jamie McRoberts plays the Baker’s Wife in this production, which builds on her already long association with Into the Woods. McRoberts’ relationship with the show began at age 16, when she completed a summer training program at Theatre Aquarius. The program was staging the musical, and McRoberts had her heart set on playing the Witch: “I wanted to rap on stage. I wanted to sing ‘Last Midnight’. I wanted to be ugly. I wanted to be glorious. I wanted to be funny,” she laughs. She auditioned for the role and landed it. Flash forward to the following year: the arts high school that she attended in Mississauga decided to stage Into the Woods. McRoberts hoped to reprise her role as the witch, but the teachers cast her as the Baker’s Wife because they saw it as a better challenge for her.
It wasn’t until today – with TIFT’s production of Into the Woods – that McRoberts understood what a “gift” of a role the Baker’s Wife is. “She really is a gem,” enthuses McRoberts. “She is a modern woman in a fairytale world. I have gotten to the age where I am just like her….concerned with laying down roots, with creating a family, with having home as one of my biggest priorities in life.” In retrospect, she sees how “as a teenager, I had no concept of that. I went through all the motions and sang the songs and did the funny bits, but it wasn’t anchored in any kind of reality.”
Recently becoming the stepmother to two young children is a big part of McRoberts’ deepened connection to the role: “When I first became a stepmom and became more involved in their lives, I did struggle at the beginning with losing my own identity. I think that’s something that a lot of parents struggle with. That’s something even married couples struggle with when they first get married…that you are still an individual outside of the partnership or the family that you have created. It’s hard when you are a mom, and it is hard when you are a wife because sometimes you forget – and sometimes others forget – that you are so much more than that.” Emphatically and indubitably, “I have found that connection with the Baker’s Wife.”
In the musical, the childless Baker’s Wife yearns to have children of her own. Her entire identity centres on being a wife to her husband – right down to the omission of her own name. “She’s the Baker’s Wife, and then she’s mom. She struggles with that, and she struggles with not having her own needs and desires met, until she gains some perspective on that situation,” McRoberts notes. Eventually, the character realizes how to reconcile these identities, and for McRoberts, “that has really hit home this time. I feel completely akin to her. I love her humour. I love her perspective on life. I love her strength. I love her fire. She’s honestly been quite therapeutic to play!”
The Toronto run of TIFT’s acclaimed production is a response to high audience demand following two previous sold-out runs (including an immersive experience in Barrie’s Springwater Provincial Park this summer). McRoberts describes the production, directed by TIFT’s Associate Director Michael Torontow and Assistant Director Jennifer Walls, as a lightly staged, light on props version with basic blocking and choreography (by Lori Watson and David Andrew Reid): “There are no moving set pieces. We all have basic costume pieces (designed by Laura Delchiaro) with stuff that we take off or add, but it doesn’t have a lot of those extra pieces to it.” Instead, the production relies on the text and song to tell the story, which makes for a “refreshing” interpretation of this text-heavy show: “Sondheim chooses every thought and moment so specifically that it’s nice to focus on that, and have the story be told as is: bare bones.”
Another difference is that the ensemble of actors is smaller, which means many play double, even triple roles. The cast also includes Noah Beemer (Jack), Tess Benger (Cinderella), Aidan deSalaiz (Baker), Griffin Hewitt (Cinderella’s Prince and other characters), Germaine Konji (Little Red and Rapunzel), Derek Kwan (Mysterious Man), Richard Lam (Milky White and other characters), Tracy Michailidis (Witch) and Glynis Ranney (Jack’s Mother and other characters). McRoberts finds that interchanging roles is “fun for the actor and a challenge”, and is also entertaining for audience members. She likens fast changes between characters to an intricate dance: “Although I am one of the few that gets to stay on my on track – which I am very grateful for – it is so exciting to watch my fellow actors do that dance. How quickly they can move back-and-forth through these various larger-than-life characters is quite something to witness!”
Although Into the Woods is based on familiar fairy tales, McRoberts is intrigued by an easy-to-overlook question: “Who it is for? Who is the audience?” She notes that fairy tales are told to children and passed down through generations in order to guide youth. She also notes that fairy tales “can be quite dark; they can be fun; they can be sparkly; they can be many things,” and adds that in her view, the fairy tales as interpreted in Into the Woods are not for children. “These fairy tales remind adults that not only do our actions have consequences, but our actions are seen and witnessed by our younger generations.” To underscore her point, she discusses “Children Will Listen”, which she deems “one of the most beautiful songs in the show”. The song makes a simple yet poignant statement about a child’s innate ability to learn through observation: “We forget that children listen. Children watch. Children pick up on what we’re throwing down. They are very observant, and we owe them good behaviour to model after: strength, courage, drive, good examples — but above all kindness, especially when we’re living in a world that is so tumultuous . Our children are watching us tear each other apart, put each other down. Children are watching us discriminate and react to fear with hatred!”
So for McRoberts, a central theme of Into the Woods is adult accountability. Yes, adults have desires and necessities, but how they attain them – and how they treat the people who help them along the way – matters. This production also includes a children’s chorus ensemble, the TIFT Young Company. The story is told through their lens, and their constant presence emphasizes the idea of accountability throughout the journey into the woods: “They are the ones who create this world and create the scenario where these actors come together to tell these fairy tales with these morals. They are watching, observing, listening to all of these characters flounder and mess up and do great things – and then do bad things, as they try to get their wishes.”
The power of tales told or seen to transform their audiences extends well past the woods of this musical into the forests of real life – especially as business opens up and the performing arts resume. McRoberts asks that we recall the role that stories played in the pandemic: “I hope that everyone remembers that when we were all locked down at home, we all turned to art and artists to help us connect and help us feel like we were still human.” In fact, she views deeper respect and greater funding for arts and culture “not only in society but in education” as especially vital at this moment. “We have learned firsthand how important it is for our mental and emotional well-being. Art is connection. ….remembering that you are not alone in this world. I just hope that people remember that and support the arts actively”, so that art continues “its journey of reflecting the real people who live in our world”.
While Into the Woods is a reimagining of classic fairy tales, those “real people who live in our world” are on McRoberts’ mind as we conclude our conversation:. “Whatever shell or vessel you were born into doesn’t mandate or dictate what kind of stories you get to tell or what kind of narratives you get to share with people. Sometimes we are so afraid of witnessing REAL people and REAL stories – that aren’t all puppies and rainbows – that we lose the connection with the real world. We ALL have stories to tell. We ALL have experiences to share. We ALL have the right to connect!”
Toronto audiences can connect with McRoberts and the cast’s performances of TIFT’s Into the Woods until October 30. Each audience member is requested to bring two unreal plush or stuffed animals as their guests, in order to maintain social distance between seats within the theatre. Reserve tickets here.
© Arpita Ghosal, SesayArts Magazine, 2021
