Theatre Review: 
Griffin and Sabine - an infinite world of love and possibilities

review written by Todd Wong and Deb Martin

October 5th to November 4th
Arts Club Theatre
Granville Island

Surreal is a good way to explain sitting through the innovative Griffin and Sabine play which began life as the  hit trilogy of books by author Nick Bantock.   This was followed by the sequel trilogy “The Morning Star” in which new characters Isabella and Matthew are introduced through a correspondence of their own, and also with Griffin and Sabine.  The play at the Arts Club includes all six books, each separate trilogy forming Act 1 or act 2.

The books are unique. The readers are eavesdropping on the private correspondence of two lovers who have not yet met.  I fell in love with the books for their sheer beauty and intrigue, as did millions of people around the world.  With each page I turned, I anxiously looked forward to the next postcard or letter that they wrote to each other.  

Bantock began his own career as a graphic artist. The books are exquisitely illustrated, and the book’s narrative is the correspondence contained on postcards or letters written between the two characters. The books are filled with envelopes that the reader opens to take out a letter. The fonts were created to resemble handwriting. His postcards were elaborate paintings or artistic photographs.  It's wonderful that Bantock's paintings are used a projections which serve as both a linkage to the book, and to illustrate the postcards that the characters are reading.

The characters write to each other between London, England and a possibly mythical island in the South Pacific.  They travel to each other’s home but they never meet up… maybe because they live in different dimensions?  It is like a pop-up book for adults that is tactile and involving.  And this made it magical.

And now it has been turned into a theatre play.  Not just a didactic narrative play, or a memory play… but an incredibly innovative play that takes place as much in the mind as it does on the stage.  There is no dialogue.  Only monologues as each letter or post card arrives.

The action begins with the character of Griffin, played by Colin Legge, holding up an imaginary postcard, as the writer of the card, Sabine, speaks as if she was writing it. Images from the book are projected in the background to create scenery on an undecorated stage with few sets. They help to draw the viewer into the story. Sabine is in a sunken circle on the right side of the stage that represents the island of Katie, and there is a chasm at the back of the stage that moves closer and farther apart depending on how close the characters are at any moment.

Lois Anderson is superb in the role of Sabine, a girl of unknown heritage who is found and adopted by her exploring parents on the island of Katie. She has the gift of telepathic perception and can see Griffin  as he creates his postcards in London England. She is enchanted by his artwork, and finally writes to him. Griffin, of course, believes he is hallucinating when he receives a letter from a woman from a far off land claiming to know him. Sabine is able to describe details that she could only know by seeing Griffin, and Griffin is so lonely in his life that he welcomes the company, even in its unusual form.

The play requires a suspension of belief and a willingness to escape to a bit of fanastical fantasy where visions of wonder become real, and voyages between far off lands just happen, and people fall in love without having met.

And that’s just the first act.

The second act is based on the second trilogy of books where Isabella is a student , and her boyfriend Matthew is an archeologist working in Egypt.  Soon, Sabine writes to Matthew, and Griffin begins his correspondence to Isabella.  Rather than a repeat of the first act, with four characters the interaction is exponentially multiplied.  When a character recalls a dream, the other three characters stand together, then sway and hum and sing.  Very weird – but very cool.

To create a play from the books presents the challenge of taking the tangible where so much depends on visual impact, and translating it to the verbal medium.  Dramaturg Rachel Ditor writes in the program that “experimentation is at the heart of play development – oftentimes, we find out what the play is by finding out first what it isn’t.”

What they found is that the story is a beautiful series of monologues held together by themes of love, fear, hope and compassion.  It allows the actors to really play with their words, and to accentuate with subtle or sustained physical movements.  

While the first act emphasized the physical and emotional separation of strangers getting to know each other, the second act builds upon an already realized intimacy between Isabella and Matthew. Actor Andrew McNee is wonderful to watch as Matthew, an expressive yin to the inwardly focused Griffin.  Megan Leitch as Isabella is similarly brilliant as they must demonstrate their deep love  without conversing, or touching – but through their words and actions.  This allows the action to move to a more sensually heightened tension, that is threatened by the mysterious Mr. Frolatti, who threatens Sabine and Isabella to turn over the correspondence.  

Marco Soriano plays both Frolatti as well as the Griffin’s cat, Minalouche, bringing both a convincing menace as well as gentle yet humourous presence to the stage.   We think that Soriano must really enjoy playing Minalouce the cat.  He does such a great job, and probably really likes having his stomach rubbed onstage by Isabella

Griffin and Sabine, is an exciting play to watch – the actors make good use of the stage, the set moves, the artwork of Nick Bantock is projected on the back screen, and a live musical score is provided by a double bass, and marimba/tabla drums.

It may not be all understandable on a first sitting.  The play, like interculturalism, demands the audience to be open-minded, which brings an appreciation of new ideas and experiences. 
And like a good film, this play will beg another reading of the books and a return.  Think of going on talk back Tuesdays when the cast and crew answer questions from the audience.