At least, that is what the promotional material and
the rejected ads read. I’m not sure I would have gotten the
same message out of Sharon Pollock’s 1993 play, Saucy
Jack, now in only its second professional performance at the
Theatre & Company in Kitchener.
-----Pollock, much-laurelled playwright
of such gripping historical dramas as Fair Liberty’s Call
(Stratford, 1993), has extensively researched the circumstances,
autopsies, and suspicions surrounding the infamous Jack the Ripper
murders in 1888, and woven a plausible, but confusing, tale of
a possible encounter after the fact. Three friends, each possibly
responsible, are gathered. James "Jem" Kenneth Stephen
(played by Alan K. Sapp) has invited Crown Prince Albert "Eddie"
(Mike Peng) and Montague Druitt (Andrew Lakin) to a confrontation.
He has engaged an actress, Kate (Linda G. Bush), to portray each
of the five middle-aged and destitute women, Polly Nichols, Annie
Chapman, Long Liz, Catherine Eddowes and Mary Kelley, viciously
murdered and eviscerated in the dark streets of Whitechapel. The
play-acting is supposed to draw out a confession, but none is
forthcoming, nor are any reasons explored for these hideous acts.
-----Nothing is accomplished, nothing
resolved, nothing new unearthed. There is a dearth of humour,
no suspense, little action, and no sympathy elicited for victims
or suspects. If you have an abiding interest in this macabre subject,
then go and immerse yourself in it. Otherwise, why?
-----The moral, “Women are killed
because they can be”? Ridiculous. So are men. So are children.
The lesson history teaches us in the Jack the Ripper case is that
worthless people are at the mercy of those in power. It only remained
for Ms Pollock to give it an oportunistic feminist twist, a twist
not needed, and not appreciated. A play, in fact, not needed and
not appreciated.
-----Saucy Jack is playing
at the Theatre & Company’s Water Street Theatre (King Value
Centre) in Kitchener, until November 18. Tickets are $15 or less.
Call 519-571-0928; and let me
know if you agree.
