I went to see this show out of a desire to know more about this Nobel Lau­re­ate, and this pro­duc­tion sat­is­fied that need. It start­ed with a lyri­cal dance sequence that I was a lit­tle dis­ap­point­ed to see end, and then became a drama­ti­za­tion of the poet’s life.

Some­times the play told rather than showed, but for the most part it gave us a fas­ci­nat­ing look into Yeats’ past. Neil MacArthur wrote the play and por­trayed Yeats. I did not find his per­for­mance par­tic­u­lar­ly con­vinc­ing, although he does bear a cer­tain phys­i­cal resem­blance. The main prob­lem for me, though, was that the scenes between him and his lover Maud Gonne did not show much pas­sion, either for each oth­er or for Ire­land. I could nev­er see this as a great love affair. On the oth­er hand, the scenes between him and his even­tu­al wife, Georgie, were believ­able and had a nice flow.

Venue 3 — ALTO Portage Place
Play Dra­ma
60 Min­utes
Gen­er­al Audience