arrow_downarrow_leftarrow_rightarrow_upbookmarkArtboard 6bubbleicon_arrow_lefticon_birdicon_calicon_facebookicon_mailicon_searchicon_twittericon_websiteicon-emailicon-facebookicon-ldicon-twitterArtboard 6review_countsigthumbs_downthumbs_uptop_allArtboard 6top_yearw-negw-nonew-nutw-pos
Margaret Laurence, Vern Thiessen, Yvette Nolan's

The Diviners

August 7th - October 2ndTom Patterson TheatreTicket Info
Generally Positive Reviews based on 8 Critics
  • mid 57% of shows in the 2024 season
8 Reviews
Comments

Traditional arts journalism is in decline. Now more than ever, this independent website and our podcast fill a growing void. We've had over 1.5 million page views, and are grateful that you are here. We rely on readers — and a handful of advertisers who share our values — to make our work possible. When we raised funds for our podcast, The "Performers Podcast," the average donation from people like you was $96. Now we hope you’ll join us in augmenting our coverage of arts in the region by making a one-time donation today.

Founder Stratford Festival Reviews
Donate Now

My Entertainment World - Kelly Bedard

Must See The Diviners!

“My favourite Stratford production so far this year is undoubtedly The Diviners.

Staged with beautiful fluidity by Krista Jackson with Geneviève Pelletier, the production contains some of the season’s grandest celebration and its quietest tenderness…

A hard, complex, uniquely Canadian story adapted with sensitivity for a new medium and staged with stirring creativity and moving performances, The Diviners represents the very best of modern work at the Stratford Festival.”

Read Full Review09/11/2024

Our Theatre Voice - Geoffrey Coulter

Cast Rises to the occasion

“The show moves quickly, and the cast more than rises to the occasion. The excellent ensemble acts like a Greek chorus—chanting, dancing, playing violin, guitar, and bagpipes as we travel back and forth through Morag’s life. Several play smaller roles, but all are fully engaged and invested in the narrative….

Jesse Gervais strums guitar and sings Métis folk songs with conviction. He also has a fine comedic sense…

Josue Laboucane and Caleigh Crow deliver fine performances as Jules’s father, Lazarus, and sister, Piquette, respectively.”

Read Full Review09/12/2024

The Slotkin Letter - Lynn Slotkin

Exquisite, Beautifully Directed

“The Diviners is directed with vivid imagery and creativity by Krista Jackson with Genevieve Pelletier…

Morag is played by Irene Poole with a fierceness that is impressive…

Jesse Gervais, as Jules Tonnerre is a mix of boyish charm and shyness. There is a quiet grace about this performance that brings out the kindness of Jules…

The cast is very fine. Everything about The Diviners is exquisite.”

Read Full Review09/09/2024

Stage Door - Christopher Hoile

Makes Canadian Theatre History

“[Vern] Thiessen and [Yvette] Nolan have created in their stage version one of the finest, most complex roles for a woman in Canadian Theatre…

Krista Jackson and Geneviève Pelletier have drawn outstanding performances from the entire cast. Principal among these is that of Irene Poole as Morag. Audiences will know that Poole has been one of the finest actors in the Stratford company over the past ten seasons…

If anyone tells you that Canadian literature or drama is boring, send them to The Diviners as a show that thrillingly refutes that notion.”

Read Full Review09/01/2024

The Globe and Mail - J. Kelly Nestruck

An Intercultural Collaboration

“[Vern] Thiessen adapted, to much success, W. Somerset Maugham’s Bildungsroman Of Human Bondage for Soulpepper in 2014 – so he’s got the right experience to adapt Laurence’s Künstlerroman, a related genre that follows an artist’s alter-ego’s development to maturity. He’s partnered with Yvette Nolan, an Algonquin playwright and director who also has a flair for adaptation.

Clearly, care has been taken to include First Nations and Métis in this stage retelling – and expand on their presence in the story. The direction, too, is a intercultural collaboration between Krista Jackson and Geneviève Pelletier.

Still, the telling of the events of The Diviners from the point of view of Morag – once removed from the bigger drama of the narratives of the Métis characters, both in Manawaka and overseas (where Jules ends up fighting at Dieppe) – can feel idiosyncratic, especially on a stage where all characters take up equal physical space.”

Read Full Review08/29/2024

The Toronto Star - Joshua Chong

Haunting Dreamlike

“Irene Poole, onstage for almost the entire play, is wonderful in the role. She plays Morag’s younger self with a shy curiosity. And as the adult version of the character, Poole turns that curiosity into a wistful longing, as Morag scours through fragmented recollections from her past…

this production works best when it forgoes dialogue altogether. Choreographer Cameron Carver’s dance sequences, especially the Métis jigs featuring fiddler Darla Daniels, take on a haunting, dreamlike quality as the ensemble fills the elongated thrust stage. Another choreographed scene — featuring Morag frantically typing away as the chorus swirls around her holding papers of her manuscript — is one of the few moments in the play that successfully transports the audience into Morag’s mind.”

Read Full Review

The Stratford Beacon Herald - Bruce Urquhart

Irene Poole's Masterful Performance

“Yvette Nolan and Vern Thiessen accomplish the near-impossible with their wonderfully realized adaptation of The Diviners…

[Irene] Poole’s stellar turn as Morag is bolstered by an excellent supporting cast. As Jules Tonnerre, Morag’s childhood friend and eventual lover, Jesse Gervais ably manages many of the same acting challenges faced by Poole. Like his co-star, Gervais convincingly plays his character — an itinerant musician and Second World War veteran — from early childhood to adulthood. For much of the play, Gervais uses a smile to mask his character’s pain, hiding a bruised heart behind humour and his love for music…

Driven by Poole’s masterful performance, and some bold creative choices by Jackson, Pelletier and designer Bretta Gerecke, The Diviners is an affective piece of theatre, carrying an emotional heft that resonates long after the curtain closes on this world premiere.”

Read Full Review08/30/2024

Ontario Stage - Kelly Monaghan

Major Achievement

“One of the major achievements of The Diviners, the play, is that [Vern] Thiessen and [Yvette] Nolan have done an excellent job of nipping and tucking characters and plot points to render an epic story into a lucid two and a half hour theater piece that captures the essence of Laurence’s work…

Even more impressive is the way in which this iteration of The Diviners makes manifest the interlacing metaphors and themes of the novel.

Much of the credit for this illumination of Laurence’s work must go to the co-directors Krista Jackson and Geneviève Pelletier…

The Diviners is a major achievement and one of the highlights of the Stratford Festival’s season.”

Read Full Review09/05/2024

No Matches for Reviews

Share This Post:

Share This Tweet This Email This