REVIEW: The Lady in the Van

One strong character can make a play. So it is with Sylvia Rhodes as Miss Shepherd in Langham Court TheatreB次元官网网址檚 production of The Lady in the Van.

The odorous Miss Shepherd has parked the van in which she lives in the front yard of playwright Alan Bennett. She continues to do so for the next 15 years. Their interaction, mostly fractious, is the backbone of the play.

Mining the back story of Miss Shepherd, who speaks French fluently but canB次元官网网址檛 manage to bathe, piques BennettB次元官网网址檚 interest. She inquires after BennettB次元官网网址檚 ailing mother (Lesley Gibbs), yet accuses Bennett of having too many scruples.

Dressed in black gumboots, grimy tan coat, and carrying a mesh bag in oversized mitts, Rhodes B次元官网网址� a Langham stalwart B次元官网网址� lights up the stage. She nails the twitchy, shoulder-shrugging, hands-a-twitter character whose first name may be Mary or Margaret.

B次元官网网址淗ow can you have a conversation with someone who has conversations with the Virgin Mary,B次元官网网址� Bennett asks himself, who is literally another self. Two actors, Tony Cain and Roger Carr, play tweed-jacketed Bennett. One reluctantly allows Miss Shepherd to park her van, a colourful presence on an almost bare stage, while the other, the mercenary playwright, gleefully observes and records the ensuing tensions.

And tension there is: Miss Shepherd is pushy, asking Bennett to write to the pope, and argumentative B次元官网网址� sorry is for God to say, she claims.

But she is also fragile. Louts from near and far lurk around her van.

Music sends her into near hysterics. B次元官网网址淚 didnB次元官网网址檛 say I didnB次元官网网址檛 like it, I said I didnB次元官网网址檛 want to hear it,B次元官网网址� she says, trembling.

Just why Bennett would allow her to stay in his driveway for 15 years is something the playwright continually asks himself. With VictoriaB次元官网网址檚 ubiquitous street population, we could ask ourselves the same question. Is it guilt, knowing the institutional alternative might be worse?

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 not guilt, itB次元官网网址檚 art,B次元官网网址� the playwright concludes from his desk, the only other stage prop on Bill AdamsB次元官网网址� set design.

The Lady in the Van occasionally veers toward the timid, a gradient Bennett admits is his temperament. Scenes with pompous neighbours Pauline and Rufus (Lorene Cammiade and Michael Romano) feel like fill rather than fodder.

Alex Carroll as a B次元官网网址渓out,B次元官网网址� Michael King as a sympathetic ambulance driver and Paul Bertorelli as the doctor are punctuation marks. Rhodes remains the integral plot pivot around which everything and everyone revolves in this thoughtful, timely play.

The Lady in the Van runs until March 19. The theatre is at 805 Langham Court. Call 250-384-2142 for tickets; $18 general, $16/students, seniors.

vmoreau@oakbaynews.com