A Woman Is A Secret

Karen Knox and Jonathan Higgins in John Patrick Shanley's A Woman Is A Secret. Photo by John Gundy.

When I was invited to the world premiere of John Patrick Shanley’s latest play, A Woman Is A Secret, my first thought was: why is it opening in Toronto? It’s true that this city has an inferiority complex, and I’m clearly part of the problem—but I digress. Once I remembered that Shanley, a Bronx native, worked with Norman Jewison on the now-classic film Moonstruck, things seemed to make more sense.

In addition to his Oscar-winning script for Moonstruck, Shanley has won a Putlizer for his most well known work Doubt (2004), and is also responsible for the delightfully offbeat Tom Hanks / Meg Ryan vehicle (and childhood favourite of mine) Joe Versus The Volcano. Accordingly, my expectations were high on opening night, and although the play does not disclose what the secret is (of course that was never the point,) A Woman Is A Secret did not disappoint.

The play is comprised of a series of six separate vignettes between one man and one woman, bridged together with vintage songs performed live by the cast alongside singer songwriter Matthew Barber. However, while men dominate the musical interludes, it is the women who run the play, and you’re soon led to believe, probably the universe also. The play’s formidable female characters range from a Tennessee clairvoyant, to a Polish femme fatale, to a Banshee (Yes, the mythical creature—Shanley’s background is Irish), while male characters are generally less potent—a middle-aged millionaire having a midlife crisis, a jaded bartender, a younger guy whose most interesting feature is his attraction to a flirtatious French waitress. By the middle of the first scene, it is clear that we are in familiar territory. Typical of Shanley's oeuvre, the play's subject is the ancient battle of the sexes, with each vignette providing a unique re-imagining of the ways women and men negotiate the eternal imbalance of power. And as you can imagine of a playwright who’s written for Cher, in Shanley’s world, the scales appear to be firmly tipped in women’s favour.

The ensemble cast’s performances are excellent across the board, consistently bringing the spiritual depth and humour of the sketches to vivid life. As with Shanley’s best known works, A Woman Is A Secret will force you to look beyond the surface to the shadowlands where sprituality, myth and allegory live. And where women apparently have a monopoly on power.

A Woman Is Secret runs until April 5 at The Theatre Centre. Visit theatrecentre.org for more information and to buy tickets.

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