REVIEW: Madame Minister is a star vehicle for actor Laura Condlln
iPhoto caption: Madame Minister production still by Dahlia Katz.
A new adaptation of a 1920s Serbian farce? Staged in a cramped hallway in residential Barrie, Ontario? Really?
You must be new here.
Based in Barrie for over 20 years, Talk Is Free Theatre has never shied away from inventive spaces and surprising programming choices. And Madame Minister, the scrumptiously silly romp through politics and class originally penned by Branislav Nusic and adapted for TIFT by Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, is no exception.
When you arrive, you might think you have the wrong address, but no, Layne Coleman’s production does indeed take place inside a real home, nestled into the armpit of a quaint cul-de-sac. After a quick jaunt through the house’s kitchen, you’ll find a hallway flanked by living rooms, inside which are 40 or so chairs for the audience to peer into that liminal chasm between parlours.
The playing space, that little hallway, can’t be more than a few square metres. But under director Coleman, the foyer feels huge, a receiving room of endless possibilities. When we meet Živka (a starry Laura Condlln), she’s destitute and miserable, draping herself over furniture as she begs her aunt (Gabi Epstein) for a loan. Živka wants nothing more than to move up in the world — to be a member of the elite.
Thankfully, her husband soon gets vaulted to the title of minister, and lowly Živka becomes, yes, Madame Minister. But being rich and comfortable isn’t without its battles — Živka’s daughter Dara (Brittany Kay) is married to, ugh, an artist (Nolan Moberly), and it’s up to Živka to find her offspring a spouse worthy of her family’s new status.
A complicated subplot involving the maid (a playful Mariya Khomutova) soon emerges; meanwhile, Živka preoccupies herself with a steamy affair at the advice of a mysterious visitor (Cyrus Lane). After all — that’s what wealthy women do.
Condlln and Lane alone are worth the drive to Barrie, two comic whirlwinds with terrific chemistry and timing. Condlln’s eyebrows are at times a character all their own — it’s a treat to get to watch her act up close. Lane, no stranger to Talk Is Free, is in fine form here, seemingly given carte blanche to play up all the play’s quirks. (His mispronounced French non-sequiturs are very, very funny.)
Corbeil-Coleman’s adaptation leans into the Gogol-y chaos of Nusic’s play, and uses a fairly modern syntax to create dialogue that is easy to follow despite overlapping plotlines, relationships, and identities. The writing calls to mind Liisa Repo-Martell’s recent adaptations of Uncle Vanya and Hedda Gabler — placeless in diction and rhythm, but specific in emotion and psychology.
Where Madame Minister starts to wear out its welcome is in its conceit as a site-specific piece. It’s easy to see why Talk Is Free chose a residential home for this production — thematically, there might be no better stage for a show critiquing the bourgeoisie than a spacious casa close to cottage country — but suburban single-family houses weren’t built with audience sightlines in mind, and Madame Minister suffers for it. Coleman’s staging is efficient and boisterous, and his cast does all they can to play to both sides of the playing space, but your enjoyment of the show will vary greatly depending on where you sit. (Pro tip: Opt for a chair toward the middle of one of the archways.)
Tenuous sightlines aside, Madame Minister is 90 minutes of good fun. One gets the sense Živka might be a sign of what what’s to come from Condlln’s Miss Hannigan at the Stratford Festival next summer — in another life, Živka and Annie’s infamous orphanage matron are probably friends, knocking back bootleg whiskey and pining for the finer things in life.
Madame Minister might not be the most obvious programming choice for most theatres, but hey — Talk Is Free Theatre is no ordinary theatre company, and Condlln’s performance is well worth a craned neck.
Madame Minister runs at Talk Is Free Theatre through December 7. Tickets are available here.
Intermission reviews are independent and unrelated to Intermission’s partnered content. Learn more about Intermission’s partnership model here.
Aisling Murphy
Aisling is Intermission's senior editor and an award-winning arts journalist with bylines including the New York Times, Toronto Star, Globe & Mail, CBC Arts, and Maclean's. She likes British playwright Sarah Kane, most songs by Taylor Swift, and her cats, Fig and June. She was a 2024 fellow at the National Critics Institute in Waterford, CT.
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