Standing Ovations

To establish a baseline for our comments, here are the shows we have given standing ovations - real ones, not just standing up because the people in front did and you want to see what is going on:

HOSANNA (Michel Tremblay) Tarragon 1974, Richard Monette as Hosanna

The recent death of Richard reminded me that this was our first real standing ovation. It was a great performance by the then very young Richard Monette. We were very young then too, so we saw him as a contemporary of ours. I imagine the play seen today would not have the same impact on us now that we are older. But any actor playing Hosanna has a long way to go to do better than Richard Monette playing Elizabeth Taylor playing Cleopatra!

RICHARD III Stratford Ont. 1977, Brian Bedford as Richard

THE HOUSE OF BERNARDA ALBA (Frederic Garcia Lorca) Shaw 2002

JOURNEY'S END (R.C. Sherriff) Shaw 2005

THE MAGIC FIRE (Lillian Groag) Shaw 2006

THE BLONDE, THE BRUNETTE AND THE VENGEFUL

REDHEAD (Robert Hewett) Stratford Ont. 2006, Lucy Peacock

SCORCHED (Wajdi Mouawad) Tarragon 2007

MACBETH Lyceum New York 2008, Patrick Stewart as Macbeth

HAMLET Stratford Ont. 2008, Ben Carlson as Hamlet