Author's Notes

The mind boggles at the thought of the many things you could say about how to perform The Duchess, but there’s only one area that might be any help at all to future productions. It concerns the Canadian commedia style of it. In the stage directions, I use commedia dell’arte as a catch-all, the best term I know to describe an approach to the society chorus. It doesn’t fit exactly, but then nothing does, and commedia is one of the basic touchstones.

The characters are at their most effective when a balance is found between their comic potential and the reality of their emotions and situation. In the first production, David Fox as the king in “The Death of the King” scene could have had the audience roaring and guffawing at any given moment. It was as if he held the strings to the audience’s responses in his hands; while the parody of a recognized British style was real to them, the fact that the king was dying was also real to them. Fox would loosen the strings to the laughter at certain times, as if to let off steam, then rein the audience in again. When Jennifer Phipps as the queen wept at the king’s death, her tears were real.

There are humorous scenes with moments of seriousness, and serious scenes that turn on a bit of silliness, and then return—whatever this might be called, different versions and evolutions have been used in Canadian theatre for many years. In this variation, director Paul Thompson and the actors found a way to give depth and subtlety to characters that might otherwise be considered utterly “commedia-ish.” Act Two of the play takes us into a darker emotional territory than the first, and if this complexity of playing is found at the beginning, the characters make sense later on. But it won’t work if no one has any fun.

I would like to thank the Canada Council for the Arts, the Laidlaw Foundation, the National Arts Centre, the Ontario Arts Council, Alberta Theatre Projects, Simon Heath, Mr. and Mrs. P. Griffiths, Susan Serran, and Paul Thompson.

Many extraordinary actors gave their time and talent in the development of this play. Many thanks to Sandra Balcovske, Bob Bainborough, John Blackwood, Greg Kramer, Bev Cooper, Greg Morrison, Jennifer Phipps, Judy Marshak, Karen Hines, Richard McMillan, Jovanni Sy, Steven Morel, Jonathan Wilson, Nancy Beatty, Anne Anglin, Tom Rooney, Kate Newby, Andrew Moodie, Bill Webster, Donna Belleville, Anthony Santiago, and Alex Thompson.