The Miracle Worker by William Gibson

Reviewed by John Hales

When I found what was being performed at Repertory I wondered what I had let myself in for. Had not the film of this title made Shirley MacLean her first million teddy bears! The tiny theatre in Dixon Street, full of comfortable old ladies, and the cluttered stage at the end did not make me feel any better. Suddenly I realised I hadn't seen an ordinary domestic stage set for years. After leaving plenty of time for stragglers the lights went dim.

As often with amateur productions the play began terribly. The actors seemed so busy concentrating on their American accents that the dialogue stuck like green eggs on ham. The accents at the start of the play were a curious polyglot, a cross between Eton, Texas, and Taumaranui. Fortunately this soon straightened out.

I may as well dispense with the one other production flaw which marred what in many ways was an excellent achievement. The play needs plenty of space, as quick scenes chase each other through various rooms of the Keller house. The set was well designed on two levels to create distinct working areas on the narrow stage. However the lighting though extravagant, often failed to distinguish between, say, when the centre front was used as a garden and when as a dining room. In some scenes it was excellent; in others it needed much more direction.

I have often noticed in plays that desultory acting often picks up momentum in response to the efforts of some other actor. Some people provoke a reaction that is typical and natural for the play. In this production that person was Colleen McColI, who played Annie Sullivan, Helen's teacher. As soon as she appeared all awkwardness disappeared. Her strict air and brisk manner, her brusque authority and her ferocious patience took complete control, not only of the Keller household, but of the play as well. She provoked, cajoled, bullied, the Kellers, and they responded by displaying their temperaments and frustrations in a truely human way.

'Human', now, has connotations of sentiment and roses. But this is not what I mean when I apply the word to this production. I mean that the situation of the play became real. The actors rather than acting were living. Trish Thomas's tantrum was dealt with by an exasperated and frantic Colleen McColl in the way that any schoolteacher has to deal with any tantrum-thrower. Colleen McColl's brain was trying desperately to outwit the nimble mind of Trish Thomas as much as Annie tried to outmanouver Helen. The stalemate, the frustrations that ensued, are those of a social worker and a handicapped child, a probation officer with a kleptomaniac, or a matador with a bull. The tussle to teach a rebellious Helen to eat from her own plate, and with a spoon, required not acting, but brawn and a quick mind. I doubt whether Colleen McColl heard the spontaneous applause that greeted that incredible scene—she would have been too busy getting her breath back.

Of course the unusual thing about the play is that the major role is played by a person who is deaf and blind. Most plays about communication barriers contain a great deal of shouting without getting anywhere. The accompaniment for the battle scene between Helen and Annie is grunts, cuffs, and the sound of chairs falling over. If Colleen McColl's acting held the play together, Trish Thomas's was the tour de force. Her eyes twitching, her hands pawing, grasping, breaking, her mind channelling its frustrations into greed and mischief, taking advantage of all indulgence and bribes, she was more a pest than an object of pity. One can understand the Kellers wanting to send her to an asylum. Here is no sentiment. Annie will have nothing of the duty of affection shown by the Kellers to their daughter. The production is [unclear: haed] headed and terse.

The play itself has many weaknesses. Whatever is made of it in this production, it is steeped in sentimental tradition. However the sentiment is confined here to a few interpolated scenes. I feel that the short sequence in the Perkins Institute of the Blind, and the jumbled nightly visitations by the tape-recorded angels of Annie's family could profitably have been cut out. The rest of the play is excellent, and the performances of Colleen McColl and Trish Thomas among the best I have ever seen.