A CAREER IN PROGRESS, PART 2: DONALD DAVIS CANADIAN ACTOR AND DIRECTOR, 1959-1990

Jill Tomasson Goodwin

Donald Davis's professional career as an actor, producer, and director spans forty-three years and two continents. This second of two articles ¹ discusses his professional work from 1959 to 1990, and chronicles his work in the United States and Canada.

La carrière professionelle de Donald Davis, acteur, metteur en scène, et producteur, s'échelonne sur quarante-trois années et deux continents. Dans ce second de deux articles, ¹ l'auteur discute de l'activé professionnelle de Davis entre les années 1959 et 1990 aux États-Unis et au Canada.

In Canada and abroad, Donald Davis is respected for his life-long commitment to the theatre, and is known as a versatile, accomplished actor and a world-renowned interpreter of Samuel Beckett's works. At 62, however, Davis would now rather direct a play than act in one. 'Many actors feel as I do,' he says. 'Eight times a week on stage is no longer the thrill it was when I was twenty.' ² For Davis, directing gives a much greater sense of fulfillment and control - envisioning an overall effect, working to achieve certain production values by assembling actors, overseeing the design, lights, costumes - allowing him, in short, to bring together his forty-three years of experience in the theatre. Yet, as he freely admits, it was his desire to act that shaped the middle years of his career and motivated him to leave Canada for a decade to fulfill that ambition. ³

Frustrated by producing plays ex nihilo and by the severe restriction placed on his opportunities to act and direct in Canada, Davis took a sabbatical from the Crest Theatre in 1959 to challenge himself on the New York stage. The first part of this article (Volume 10, number 2, Fall 1989) explained how Davis spent most of his energy in the 1940s and '50s producing theatre in Canada so that young actors and directors, including himself, might develop their art in such venues as the summer stock Straw Hat Players (1948-55) and the permanent, city-centered Crest Theatre (1954-66). The present article covers the last thirty years of Davis's career.

To elucidate his activities of the last three decades, this paper will examine his successful stay in the United States, highlighting in detail his acting roles in plays by Samuel Beckett, outlining his performances in plays by Edward Albee, and reviewing his work with two summer festivals: the American Shakespeare Festival in Connecticut, and the Ypsilanti Greek Theatre in Michigan. These years solidified Davis's international reputation, which he brought home to Canada and has continued to build on since 1969. I will survey such diverse projects as his acting in a full range of classic, contemporary, and Canadian plays across the country. Indeed, as I hope to show, this phase of Davis's career supplied him with the breadth of theatre experience that he now wishes to draw upon as a free-lance director.

Davis's first acting role in New York City was as Krapp in Samuel Beckett's one-man play, Krapp's Last Tape. While Davis knew that the production itself was extraordinary, he had no sense of the impact that it would have on theatre critics nor of the theatre milestone that it would become. He got the role of Krapp mostly by luck. But he succeeded in the part because of his particular talents, which were especially suited to the minimalist qualities of Samuel Beckett's dramas. More than being the young actor's first 'break' in New York, this opportunity was a pivotal point in Davis's professional life, establishing many key features of his acting career: starring in North American premieres of Beckett plays; working with Beckett's director in the United States, Alan Schneider; and refining his vocal training to meet the demands of Beckett's plays.

Davis moved to New York City in September 1959. Though unknown to American audiences, at 31 he was a Canadian theatre veteran: he had acted on virtually all the country's stages, run two companies, completed stints in radio and on television. Through an arrangement with his brother, Murray, Davis planned to spend the year away from the Crest Theatre, their jointly-run company in Toronto, primarily because the day-to-day details of managing the Crest had prevented him from acting for almost two years. Unlike many young actors, Davis came to the city with theatre connections already in place: for some years he had employed a prominent New York agent, Martin Goldman, and he knew many other theatre agents through his years as a theatre producer in Canada. Moreover, the New York theatre community knew and respected his work at the Crest Theatre, and at the Stratford Festival where he had acted for three seasons. As it turned out, however, fall 1959 was a frustrating time. His connections proved barren, and the entire plan to make it on the American stage, tenuous. As Davis puts it, he couldn't even get arrested in New York. ⁴

Until December, no acting work fell into place. Then, by virtue of being 'under foot,' Davis landed the role of Krapp in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape. ⁵ Davis knew the play's producer, Richard Barr, socially, and its director, Alan Schneider, professionally. Three years earlier, Schneider had liked Davis so well as Tiresias in Oedipus Rex (Stratford's production at the Edinburgh Festival, September 1956) that he hired Davis to repeat the part in a television version of the play (CBS, Omnibus, December 1956). In 1957 Schneider again approached Davis, this time to play the role of Hamm in the North American premiere of Samuel Beckett's Endgame, but Davis was already committed to work at the Crest.

In spite of his confidence in Davis, Schneider hesitated when Barr suggested that 31-year-old Davis play the role of Krapp. He had envisioned an older actor for the part, one who would be closer in age to the on-stage 70-year Krapp, and on-tape 39-year-old Krapp. But he was having difficulty finding an actor: dozens turned him down, among them Eli Wallach, Michael Strong, and Hume Cronyn (who later played Krapp). ⁶ Interested in off-Broadway, drawn especially to roles in new plays, Davis was available, under foot, and agreeable. He got the part.

Responding to the production of Krapp's Last Tape, one commentator applauded 'the extraordinarily astute collaboration between Samuel Beckett, who wrote Krapp's Last Tape, Alan Schneider, who directed it, and Donald Davis, who plays the solo role.' ⁷ Preparing for the performance, Davis and Schneider worked through several pain-staking steps. First, to achieve the most 'accurate,' author-approved production, Schneider corresponded with Beckett by letters and telephone calls, reviewing details, posing questions. Once satisfied, the actor and director worked together on the most serious practical and artistic challenge that the text poses: the tape recording of the younger Krapp. ⁸

Because Krapp's Last Tape is a duologue between the infirm 70-year-old Krapp and the tape recording of his 39-year-old self, Davis and Schneider agreed that not only was the tape recording the 'core' of the play, it had to be the focus of the characterization. ⁹ A play with so little outward action demands that the character develop through minutiae: small gestures and movements of an old man, and modifications of voice between the younger man on tape, and the old man responding.

For Davis, the marriage of his particular acting talents and experience with the Beckett text was ideal. Tall and deep-voiced, he had spent his life performing parts of old men, from Sir Toby Belch at age nine to the 900-year-old Tiresias at twenty-nine. In each instance, Davis used his voice as the primary means to create older characters, a natural talent shaped early in life by Josephine Barrington, his drama teacher in Toronto, and then later, by Iris Warren, the voice coach for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts (LAMDA, 1951-63). Davis worked intensively with Warren as her private student during the early 1950s, when he regularly crossed the Atlantic to act and to study theatre management. Warren taught Davis more than the mechanics of breathing, diaphragm control, articulation - she insisted on the value of total body relaxation to free the voice.¹⁰

This relaxation proved vital to Davis's characterization of Krapp. To create the marked differences and subtle similarities between 'the character, timbre, and tempo of the voice of a thirty-nine year-old man' on tape and the same man at seventy, Davis made ninety tapes before he and Schneider were satisfied. ¹¹ Davis read the lines over and over, varying his pitch and inflection to mimic a man eight years his senior. Equally challenging, Davis continually guarded himself against sounding (and moving as if he were) less than seventy years old, a particular sticking point considering that the tape, with which the audience could compare, is 'relentlessly the same.' ¹²

Warren also forced Davis to release the tension in his vocal chords through a series of exercises (which he still maintains today, forty years later). ¹³ Equally important to his voice control, Warren made Davis whisper speeches. She argued that denying the voice forced good-voiced actors to listen more to the words than to themselves. This instruction sensitized Davis to the rhythms of sound and silence in Beckett's play, and to reconstruct accurately the interplay of the old voice and the young voice.

As part of the 'Theater 1960' season, Krapp's Last Tape had its North American premiere on 14 January 1960 at the small Provincetown Theatre in Greenwich Village to a capacity audience of 188. When the 54-minute performance finished, Davis received six curtain calls, was hailed as a new young talent, and later won an Obie award for his efforts. Although Brooks Atkinson of the New York Times disliked the avant-garde play (later changing his opinion), he applauded Davis's 'vivid acting,' saying that he 'makes every movement significant and every line caustic. The whole portrait is wonderfully alive.' ¹⁴ Jerry Tallmer of the Village Voice wrote: 'The performance by Donald Davis as Krapp and the staging in every minute particular by Alan Schneider - not least the phenomenal synchronization of living actor and dead voice - is inspired, inspirited, perfect: the first full realization in America of a work by Samuel Beckett.' ¹⁵ Many Canadian reviewers were equally impressed. Mavor Moore, for example, called Davis's performance 'extraordinarily complex and polished,' commenting that his 'timing, his response to the audience's needs . . . is rightly being compared to the finest Broadway has to offer.' ¹⁶ Herbert Whittaker concurred: 'Mr. Davis, blear, lumpy, scruffy and shuffling, gives a virtuoso performance as Krapp. He creates, in pantomime reaction, to the sound of his own voice, a derelict of some magnificence.' ¹⁷

Eight years later, Krapp's Last Tape was revived as part of a Beckett and Albee retrospective. Alan Schneider and Richard Barr focused their fall offerings of 'Theater 1969' on a selection of the two playwrights' works: Albee's Box, Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-Tung, The Death of Bessie Smith, The American Dream and The Zoo Story, and Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape and Happy Days. Davis acted in both plays of the (by then) famous double bill from 'Theater 1960,' commonly referred to as Krapp and Zoo (which opened 9 October), and in The American Dream (2 October). Before opening at the New York 'home,' the Billy Rose Theatre on 41st Street, Davis played Krapp, Zoo and Dream, first as part of 'A Season of Albee' at the University of Buffalo, and then at the Studio Arena Theatre (10 and 17 September) in Buffalo.

The critics were very excited by the 'Theater 1969' concept and calendar. Clive Barnes, for instance, saw the showcase as the beginnings of a repertory company that was devoted to staging modern and experimental plays, 'a theater that potentially might do as much for us as the Royal Court Theater has done for London. Rarely can a long-felt want have been either so long-felt or so wanted.' ¹⁸ The three productions in which Davis played received uniformly strong reviews: he was 'excellent' as 'hollow-eyed Daddy' in Dream, 'splendidly rheumy as the old man fondling his past with despair' (as Krapp), and 'also fine - square, appalled and yet fascinated - as Peter.' ¹⁹

Between 1976 and 1984 fell the final and most varied cluster of Beckett plays in which Davis starred. In 1976, Davis was once again directed by Alan Schneider in the North American premiere of Play (as Man) and That Time (as Face and Voice) at Washington's Arena Stage Theatre (3-19 December). A year later, Davis repeated the performances at the Manhattan Theatre Club with Schneider (14 December 1977-15 January 1978). Then in 1983, Davis played the Director in the North American premiere of Catastrophe and played Bam in the world premiere of What, Where at the Harold Clurman Theatre in New York (opening 11 June, directed by Schneider). These two productions were remounted the following year for the Edinburgh Festival (Church Hill Theatre, 13-25 August) and the Donmar Warehouse in London (opening 27 August), just months after Schneider's death.

The critics lauded the productions of Play and That Time, and later, Catastrophe and What, Where. Many commented on the 'faultless' quality of the productions, the actors' 'strong, nuanced, and totally controlled' performances, ²⁰ and the 'technical precision' of the delivery. ²¹ Mel Gussow of the New York Times singled out Davis's efforts in That Time:

At the Arena Stage, Alan Schneider ... is particularly fortunate in his choice of Donald Davis for 'That Time.' This Canadian actor, who played the title role in the first New York production of 'Krapp's Last Tape,' has a marvelously rich voice, with the resonance of an Orson Welles. He is able to modulate his tone so that one can readily distinguish among the three voices in the dark: three instruments playing different songs in harmony. (26 December 1976)

Reviews of the plays note two important features of Davis's approach to Beckett: first, Davis's careful and controlled manipulation of his voice, which, second, brings out and amplifies the 'rhythmic' qualities of the language and meaning of the plays. 'Resonance,' 'tone,' 'instruments,' 'songs,' and 'harmony' all allude to the musical attributes of Beckett's works, attributes of which Davis is acutely aware, commenting to one interviewer: 'You must feel it like music - you can't perform it unless you sense that.' ²² Many other critics agree, likening the performances and the plays to music: a 'melody of times past,' writes The Scotsman; ²³ 'the final quartets of Beethoven' (New York Times); ²⁴ and about the director: 'Mr. Schneider doing Beckett is like Casals playing Bach.' ²⁵ Schneider himself wrote in the program notes to Play and other plays that the pieces 'represent a kind of theatrical chamber music.' Later, he wished that he could use a metronome to establish exactly the pattern of repetitions in What, Where. ²⁶

In 1984, Davis starred in his most recent Beckett role, in the best-known play of the canon, Waiting for Godot, at the Toronto Free Theatre (14 March - 22 April). When he read about the proposed production initiated by actors Neil Munro and Saul Rubinek and director Peter Froelich, Davis phoned to ask to play the character of Pozzo. ²⁷ While the production was not entirely successful - Davis especially dislike the awkward set design of a steep, two-sided hillock which severely inhibited the actors' movements - the critics applauded Davis's 'masterful' performance. Ray Conlogue of the Globe and Mail found that Davis captured the tension between Pozzo's 'hollow,' vaudeville flourishes and the 'real substance and credibility as a tyrant and oppressor of men. His triviality underscored his heedless evil.' ²⁸ Robert Crew of the Toronto Star comments at length:

[Davis's] Pozzo is an object lesson in how to work within Beckett's framework and still produce a thoughtful and consistent characterization. Davis's Pozzo is colourful and flamboyant. With his handlebar moustache and ever-present whip, he is the archetypal ringmaster. More crucial, he understands and obeys Beckett and has a keen ear for the poetry of the language. His pacing is good and the stresses (and the silences) are thoughtfully realized. (15 March 1984)

Crew pinpoints many of the salient qualities that Davis brought to his performance as Pozzo: staying within Beckett's exacting cues to create character; listening for and obeying the poetry of the language; pacing the performance through stresses and silence to preserve the playwright's intention. Indeed, from his 1960 performance of Krapp to his 1984 portrayal of Pozzo, Davis has been recognized and applauded for his consistently faithful and sensitive realization of Beckett's characters, including Krapp, Man, Face, Voice, Director, Bam, and Pozzo. Davis's favorite, however, remains Krapp, the aged character mastered in his youth and a one-man play in which the actor alone controls the success of the presentation.

After the closing of Krapp's Last Tape (15 May 1960), the reputation of Davis's performance served him well: during ten years in the United States, he was never out of work, most of it, Davis thinks, directly attributable to the notice he had gained in his New York debut. ²⁹ His next important engagement came almost immediately afterward. Jack Landau, associate producer at the American Shakespeare Festival, invited Davis to play the summer season in Stratford, Connecticut. Davis and Landau had worked together at the Crest Theatre in Toronto, where Landau had directed many productions, the most recent of which had been two years earlier, in 1958. In the 1960 season at Stratford, Davis appeared in two productions: Twelfth Night, in which he played Orsino (which opened 8 June); and Antony and Cleopatra, in which he played Enobarbus (31 July). In both, Davis acted with Katharine Hepburn, who selected the plays, and, it seems, Davis as well. Before the season began, Landau arranged a meeting with Miss Hepburn to show her that Davis was as tall and as imposing as she liked her leading men to be. At six foot two inches and one hundred and eighty-five pounds, Davis suited her preferences. ³⁰

Under Landau's direction, the Festival was decidedly more star-studded and audience-appealing than his predecessor's, John Houseman. While the season itself was completely sold out, the critics' reception to it was mixed, and to the two productions in which Davis played. ³¹ Brooks Atkinson thought that the performances in Twelfth Night, set in an 1830s English seaside resort, had 'less vivacity' than the breathtaking sets by Rouben Ter-Arutunian. Overall, he disliked Hepburn's performance, finding it 'deliberately contrived,' although he found Davis's one of the best, saying that he played 'Orsino with the grave fastidiousness of that formal personage.' ³² Like other critics, Lewis Funke of the New York Times found strengths in the other offering which featured Davis, Antony and Cleopatra. Funke described Davis's portrayal of Enobarbus in some detail: 'Donald Davis gives a sound rendition of Enobarbus, a rough and ready warrior who in his betrayal of Antony and in his repentence is completely credible.' ³³

After this critical reception, Davis was invited back for the 1961 season. He played in three productions: Jaques in As You Like It (which opened 15 June), Duncan in Macbeth (16 June), and Achilles in Troilus and Cressida (23 July). In the casual, modern country dress production, Davis, as Jaques, wandered about the woods in black dress and sandals. He received very strong reviews for his portrayal, and for the 'Seven Ages' speech in particular, which was delivered in a colloquial, rather off-hand manner. ³⁴

Howard Taubman listed Davis first among the 'able performances' in Macbeth, commenting on his 'dignity' in the part, and liked him equally well as the 'sybaritic Achilles' in Troilus and Cressida .³⁵

Davis's two seasons at Stratford, Connecticut, were part of what has been referred to as the 'invasion' of the American Shakespeare Festival from Canada. ³⁶ Raymond Massey (1955 company), Christopher Plummer (1955), Don Harron (1956, 1957, 1961), Richard Easton (1957, 1958, 1959), John Colicos (1957, 1958), and Dino Narizzano (1959) - all were critically acclaimed, and had a 'vital influence' on the company in these years. ³⁷ Much later, especially in the 1969 season under Michael Kahn, another group of Canadian Shakespeare actors did the same: Len Cariou, Roberta Maxwell, and Kate Reid.

In July 1963, Davis began what was to be his longest engagement with one production: a ten-month stint as George in Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, which had opened at the Billy Rose Theatre on 13 October 1962, and was being directed by Alan Schneider. Before the premiere, Davis had read the first draft of the script and had been very excited by the energy of the play, but because Schneider and Richard Barr wanted a 'name' cast, they chose not to audition him. However, when Shepperd Strudwick (who played the character of Peter in the premiere of The Zoo Story) left the matinee company, Davis called Baff to read, and got the part. He stayed for four months, playing opposite Elaine Stritch (fellow Canadian, Kate Reid, had already left the matinee company). In December 1963, Davis succeeded Canadian Arthur Hill as George for the evening company, and worked with Mercedes McCambridge, staying until the production's close in May 1964. Even then, Davis's work as George was not over: a year later, Canadian audiences saw Davis in the role at the Manitoba Theatre Centre (opening 7 April 1965). Director John Hirsch reproduced the Schneider production, using the New York groundplan, blocking and set, and Davis starred with Kate Reid, who became his favorite Martha.

Davis played in two other Albee productions: as Peter in The Zoo Story and as Daddy in The American Dream. As part of the revival of the 'Theatre 1960' double bill of Krapp and Zoo, and in a retrospective of Albee's works, Davis found that the opportunity to be directed by Albee in Dream was particularly rewarding. Albee, he discovered, was open to both questions and criticism from his actors. One incident especially endeared Albee to Davis. During rehearsal, actress Sada Thompson, who played Mommy, told Albee in exasperation, 'I don't know what to make of this line,' to which he replied, 'Well, we better have a look and see what the playwright meant.' After looking at the script, he announced, 'I haven't the slightest idea. Cut it.' Albee's respect for the actor and the graciousness with which he acknowledged it impressed Davis. ³⁸

Always attracted to new efforts in the theatre, Davis accepted an invitation to perform in the inaugural summer season of the Ypsilanti Greek Theatre in 1966. Much like the story of Tom Patterson and Stratford, a local contractor spearheaded the effort to mount a festival of classical Greek drama in the small town of Ypsilanti, Michigan, named after General Demetrios Ypsilanti, a Greek nationalist of the 1820s. Alexi Solomos, director of the National Theatre of Greece, Greek composer Iannis Xenakis, choreographer Helen McGehee, Dame Judith Anderson and Bert Lahr were the luminaries who joined the company. The group presented all three plays of Aeschylus' Oresteia (opening 28 June, evenings) and Aristophanes' comedy, The Birds (29 June, matinees) over an eight week run. Their theatre was a converted baseball field at Eastern Michigan University, around which the audience sat in bleachers, arranged to mimic the theatre at Epidaurus, the site of one of the most perfectly preserved theatres of ancient Greece.

Though The Birds was not successfully staged, the Oresteia was brilliantly conceived and presented, and received rave reviews from the critics. ³⁹ One brilliant touch concerned Davis in particular. Solomos deliberately cast Davis in two roles: as Agamemnon in The Agamemnon and as Apollo in The Eumenides, who delivered his judgement from a twenty-foot balcony. Once again, Davis's voice served an artistic conception of character: calculatingly, the voice of Apollo echoed the voice of dead Agamemnon. Perhaps this decision prompted critic Stanley Kaufman to observe: 'Donald Davis is a royal and stubborn Agamemnon, but Mr. Davis is even better when he reappears in the third play as Apollo, lucid and golden.' ⁴⁰ Although plans were made to establish the festival as an annual event with a permanent theatre, they did not come to fruition, and the Ypsilanti Greek Theatre was an unrepeated theatre experiment. Davis has speculated that perhaps the main reason for the single season was that classical Greek drama simply did not capture the audience's imagination. ⁴¹

While the Beckett, Albee, Shakespeare and Ypsilanti productions are the most prominent of Davis's American tenure, many others make up the full gamut of his work: his starring role in Jean Anouilh's Becket (Goodman Memorial Theatre, Chicago, opening October 1962); his reading of Shakespeare for President John Kennedy at the White House (with the American Shakespeare Festival, October 1962); his role as Sam 40 in Peter Ustinov's Photo Finish (Brooks Atkinson Theatre, New York, opening 12 February 1963); his portrayal of Robert Frost the Younger in Donald Hall's An Evening's Frost (Mendelsshon Theatre, Ann Arbor, 8 February 1965 and Theatre de Lys, New York, 11 October 1965); his co-starring (as Essex) with Judith Anderson in the revival of Maxwell Anderson's Elizabeth the Queen (New York City Centre, 3 November 1966); his part as Archie Rice in Theater West's opening season production of John Osborne's The Entertainer (8 February 1968). ⁴² These plays all show Davis as an actor whose repertoire covers classical, traditional, and experimental works, and whose love of acting has led him to play in well-established, lesser known, and even brand new theatres. During this time, Davis also expanded into television (in both live dramas and guest appearances in series) and film, ⁴³ as well as supporting young actors as an artist-in-residence at the Goodman Memorial Theatre (then an acting school, 1962) and at the University of Montana (1966), a pursuit he would continue in Canada. ⁴⁴

In November 1968, Davis returned to Canada. Shortly thereafter, he commented on some fundamental changes in Canadian theatre since his departure ten years earlier:

[T]here are so many fine theatres now all across the country that I'm sure that no one really misses [the Straw Hat and the Crest]. Of course, I'd also say - and without shame - that this whole new development of theatres had its origins in those two companies and a few others like them. A great number of principals at these new theatres were connected with us back in the 1950s. That was actually part of our goal: to develop new Canadian directors and designers. I think we succeeded rather well. (Don Rubin, Toronto Star, 7 July 1969)

For Davis, two features of the theatre landscape had altered in a decade: there were now a number of theatres in which he could act without creating the physical space or the company, as he had to do with the Straw Hatters; and the Crest. There were also fellow Canadian artists - some of whom the Davis family had fostered-with whom he could work. These two changes influenced not only his decision to stay and work in Canada, they also determined the range of acting opportunities that Davis has pursued for the last twenty years. While in America, Davis specialized somewhat in the plays of Beckett and Albee, in Canada he has acted in a wide range of plays, including classical, traditional, modern, and Canadian.

Just as events conspired to keep Davis in the United States long after his one-year sabbatical from the Crest Theatre, so they conspired again to return him to, and keep him in, Canada. In the fall of 1968, Davis's father became ill during his engagement as Henry II in the Lion in Winter (Studio Arena Theatre, Buffalo, opening 31 October 1968). Wanting to stay close to the Newmarket, Ontario residence, Davis began to accept work in Canada, on condition that he be released from his contract should his father's condition worsen, which it did, and in March 1969, his father died. That winter, Stratford's artistic director Jean Gascon invited Davis to replace Douglas Rain as Orgon in a revival of their 1968 production of Moliere's Tartuffe, a role which Davis played the summer of 1969 (3 July-26 September).

Davis spent half of the following season settling his father's estate, but by February 1970 he joined Stratford's eleven-week pre-season tour of the Merchant of Venice, during which the company played at the University of Illinois (Champaign-Urbana), Chicago (Studebaker Theatre), Place des Arts (Montreal), and Ottawa (National Arts Centre). They opened in Stratford (8 June), and while the production received mixed reviews, it was the box office hit of the season. ⁴⁵ Davis also played Judge Brack to Irene Worth's Hedda Gabler, to uniformly good reviews (opening 10 June).

After finishing the Stratford commitment with a four-week post-season engagement of Tartuffe at the National Arts Centre, Davis turned his energies to other ventures. The next several years reveal both Davis's eclectic acting interests and his support of theatres established and experimental: Theatre Calgary (Plaza Suite by Neil Simon, as Roy Hubley, 7-23 October 1971), the Vancouver Playhouse (The Sorrows of Frederick by Romulus Linney, as Frederick 11, 11 November-4 December 1971), the opening season of Festival Lennoxville (Captives of a Faceless Drummer by George Ryga, as Harry, opening 10 July 1972), Manitoba Theatre Centre (The Dybbuk by S. Ansky, as Rabbi Azrielke, 11 January-2 February 1974; St. Lawrence Centre, 10 September-12 October 1974), and Factory Theatre Lab (the premiere of Beyond Mozambique by George F. Walker, as Rocco, 11 May-2 June 1974).

Likewise, Davis's commitment to Canadian performers and artistic standards has been and continues to be vocal and vigorous.⁴⁶ In 1973, Davis publicly castigated the Stratford Festival for appointing a non-Canadian Englishman Robin Phillips - as the new artistic director. In many other interviews, Davis has lamented our 'genocidal attitude toward Canadian talent in this country' ⁴⁷ pointing out that we regularly put our artists in a frustrating double bind:

I know that my work as an actor is much more highly valued when I work in the United States than when I work here. When I did take up residence again in Toronto, of course, the kind of thing I'd hear was, 'Well, if you're that good, why did you come back? (Salem Alaton, n.pub., n.d)

To fight this attitude, this 'amorphous enemy' ⁴⁸ as he calls it, Davis has fought to prove that Canada is home to important theatre work. He has supported his argument on many occasions by taking up roles in Canadian plays.

Davis's commitment to Canadian plays and playwrights didn't just begin in 1969 when he returned to Canada. Starting with Hart House, where he played Idris Rowlands in Robertson Davies's Fortune My Foe in 1949, Davis has consistently taken roles in Canadian works since his return to Canada: Captives of a Faceless Drummer by George Ryga (as Harry, 1972), Beyond Mozambique by George F. Walker (as Rocco, 1974), E. C. U. (Extreme Close-up) by Neil Munro (as Edward Marshall, for which he was nominated for Dora Mavor Moore Award as an Outstanding Male Performer, 1980), Tower by Lawrence Jeffery (as Richard, 1983), Filthy Rich by George F. Walker (as Tyrone M. Power, 1983), Bonjour, là, bonjour! by Michel Tremblay (as Armand, 1986), and The Idler by Ian Weir (as Wilfred Grimshaw, 1988). Davis remains eager to play these roles because, beyond their Canadian content, there is the challenge of creating a role and the freedom of 'not measuring yourself against somebody else's definitive performance.' ⁴⁹

By participating in new plays, Davis's performances have often become part of the definition of the character. And he succeeds so regularly because of his ability to create character with exact, minute details. When he approaches a character, Davis says that he follows exclusively neither Method acting techniques nor Laurence Olivier's study of outward detail and manner, but a combination of the two. He listens first for the playwright's 'song' in a work - his musical sense of writing reflecting perhaps an influence from his work on Beckett - concentrating on what his own character's 'voice,' in the broadest sense, sounds like in relation to the whole work. ⁵⁰ For him, a playwright voices a play through its characters with the same precision that a composer voices an opera through its singing parts. ⁵¹

To discern a playwright's 'song,' Davis looks both for external details of the 'voice' of his character - whether he walks with a limp, leaning heavily on a cane, for example - and for internal or emotional strings that reverberate with him - a particular phrase the character might speak, or an element of one scene. In Bonjour, là, bonjour!, Davis found that many aspects of his character, Armand, reminded him of his own father, and the relationship with Armand's son, Serge, of his own relationship with his father. These emotional clues help Davis 'hook into' the play, and he develops the finer details of character out of them. Moreover, when he gets stuck, he returns to these 'understood elements' to overcome any problems he faces.

Davis's approach to characterization has reaped critical rewards. In Bonjour, là, bonjour! for example, Ray Conlogue of the Globe and Mail notes that Davis's performance is 'full of understated eloquence and finally almost overwhelming in its sadness and dignity.' ⁵² Other critics have singled out how Davis's acting style has contributed to Canadian plays. In E.C.U. for example, Davis gave a 'bravura performance,' in which the 'rhythms of speech and silence are deftly braided into a moving emotional melody.' ⁵³ In Talley and Son, Davis 'provides a clear focus for the second half of the play . . . a proper rhythm is finally established ... with his wonderfully crusty, malevolent portrayal of Calvin Talley.' ⁵⁴ And in Tower 'veterans Davis, [Marion] Gilsenan and [David] Main deliver authoritative individual performances. Experienced actors know how to fill in the emotional gaps in a playwright's text.' ⁵⁵ In her review of David Pownell's Master Class, Audrey Johnson of the Victoria Times-Colonist comments at length on Davis's acting:

Davis is an actor of great presence and deep penetration in character building. There is nothing wrong with his being substantially taller than Stalin as long as his thought processes and responses create for us the correct image, which they do. His lumbering movements, his dancing (in a wonderful scene where he and Zhdanov demonstrate the true Russian rhythm and spirit), his sudden changes from brow-beating rage to cat-like purrs of brotherly love, his moments of wrenching anguish, are profoundly real. (21 March 1987)

Johnson's review epitomizes what many other reviewers have said of Davis's characteristic qualities on stage: he has a 'keen ear for language,' and he is an 'actor of authority and economy,' 'a marvel of taut emotion, fine texture and warm humanity.' To these qualities, I would add one more, which may, in fact, be the most distinctive feature of his acting and the most important force in his career: his ability to create the finest details of character almost solely with his voice. Trained by Josephine Barrington and Iris Warren in his youth, and then through work with Guthrie and Langham, Davis brought his classically trained vocal abilities to such avant garde parts as those in Beckett's plays. It is Davis's finely-honed vocal interpretation of Beckett characters for which he will be especially remembered.

Although he has spent the last thirty years of his career refining his skills as an actor - first in the United States where he gained the reputation as an important interpreter of the works of Samuel Beckett, and where he acted both in established and innovative theatre, and more recently, of course, in Canada where he has acted in virtually every playhouse in the country - Davis now wishes to apply his forty-three years of theatre experience full-time to the challenges of directing, a full study of which could be the topic of another paper.

Davis would not come to the job of directing unprepared. Besides taking up more than a hundred roles and giving countless performances, Davis has already directed a total of sixteen plays: two for the Crest Theatre (1957, 1959); four in the United States, including the Cherry Lane Theatre in New York (1961, 1962), the Studio Arena Theatre in Buffalo (1967), and in the inaugural season of Theatre West in West Springfield, Massachusetts (1968); and a dozen in Canada, including Festival Lennoxville (1973), the Neptune Theatre (1975, 1976), London's Grand Theatre (1977, 1979), the National Arts Centre (1978), the Muskoka Arts Festival (1979, 1981, 1982), and the Citadel Theatre (1982). Of the twelve plays he has directed in Canada, five of them are Canadian: Bright Sun at Midnight by John Gray (1957); This is Our First Affair (a revue, 1959); Jig for the Gypsy (1973); the world premiere of John and the Missus by Gordon Pinsent (1976); and Jitters by David French (1981).

Whenever Davis's directing has been reviewed, critics have singled out his contribution, acclaiming his work as inspired and professional. More particularly, many of the features that Davis is known for in his acting - lively performances, solid ensemble playing, insightful interpretations of complex texts - have shone through in his directing. It seems that Davis can take the best qualities of his own performances on the stage and translate them for, and foster them in, the actors he directs. Terry Doran, for example, notes that Davis inspires his actors to 'sparkling' performances and impressive ensemble playing to lift Molière's The Imaginary Invalid 'into the realm of exciting theater.' ⁵⁶ Keith Ashwell of the Edmonton Journal comments on Davis's ability to cast The Lion in Winter 'so solidly' and to achieve 'such perceptive readings of this complex script from all his actors,' pronouncing, 'what a right royal and commanding production this is, so much so I'm about ready to declare it the hit of this season of theatre in Edmonton.' ⁵⁷ Likewise, Doug Bale of the London Free Press congratulates Davis on his solid direction and the ensemble acting in Otherwise Engaged: 'Donald Davis has directed so surely that Douglas Rain, at his astonishing best, does not so much head the cast as stand at the centre of a precisely balanced array of talent. The balance is almost as impressive as the talent.' ⁵⁸

Directing, then, allows Davis to communicate both good acting technique and production values. Moreover, it allows him to pull together his vast knowledge of different acting and production styles: from the Greeks to Shakespeare, from Sheridan, Molière, and Shaw to the moderns Shepard, Beckett, Albee, and Canadians Tremblay and Ryga. And Davis knows professional standards outside Canada: he has both experienced and measured himself against acting and production levels outside the country, both in Britain and in the United States. Davis would like to pass his extensive knowledge of, and enthusiasm about, acting and the theatre to another generation of Canadian actors and audiences by directing more plays. Because his life chronicles, in many respects, the history of Canadian theatre since World War II, Davis may well be prophesying an important development within our theatre institutions - the rise of the free-lance director - as more Canadian actors, like him, want to make use of, and pass along, their experience.
 

Notes

A CAREER IN PROGRESS, PART 2: DONALD DAVIS CANADIAN ACTOR AND DIRECTOR, 1959-1990

Jill Tomasson Goodwin

1. 'A Career in Review Donald Davis Canadian Actor, Producer, Director,' heatre History in Canada/Histoire du théâtre au Canada vol 10 no 2 Fall 1989 pp 132-151
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2 Personal interview with JILL TOMASSON GOODWIN, 5 July 1990
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3 Ibid
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4 Ibid
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5 Ontario Historical Studies Series. Interview with DONALD DAVIS, p 146. Davis was the Narrator for the Stravinsky opera Oedipus Rex (New York City Center, 24 Sept 1959), his only work in the fall of 1959
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6 JAMES KNOWLSON ed, Samuel Beckett, Krapp's Last Tape: A Theatre Workbook (London: Brutus Books, 1980), p 53
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7 ALAN SCHNEIDER, Entrances: An American Director's Journey (New York: Viking, 1985), p 277
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8 Davis himself decided the other major practical issue: whether to operate the tape recorder on stage himself, or whether to pretend and let the stage manager cue in. A number of factors influenced his decision: a low budget ($4,000) restricted the number and expertise of the staff; the theatre did not possess good sound equipment; Beckett's text does not address the practical mechanics of operating the machine (KNOWLSON, p 58). Davis chose to do it himself. Using an ordinary tape machine, he systematically cut notches with coloured leaders into the tape as a visual cue to stop the machine at particular places. Though the audience assumed that he was rewinding the tape, he was, in fact, moving it forward. Although tricky to do, Davis, as Krapp whose eyesight is failing, could bend over the machine to watch for the notches. (KNOWLSON, p 54)
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9 KNOWLSON, p 57
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10 Personal interview with JILL TOMASSON GOODWIN 26 July 1988. Warren's most famous protege, Kristin Linklater, emigrated to the United States, trained American actors, and later wrote Freeing the Natural Voice (New York: Drama Book Specialists, 1976), which outlines her expansion of Warren's methods
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11 ALAN SCHNEIDER, quoted in KNOWLSON, p 54
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12 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1988
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13 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1990
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14 BROOKS ATKINSON, New York Times, 15 Jan 1960; 31 Jan 1960
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15 JERRY TALLMER, quoted in SCHNEIDER, p 276
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16 MAVOR MOORE, Toronto Telegram, 29 Feb 1960
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17 HERBERT WHITTAKER, Globe and Mail, 22 Jan 1960
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18 CLIVE BARNES, New York Times, 11 Oct 1968
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19 DAN SULLIVAN, New York Times, 3 Oct 1968 (on Dream); CLIVE BARNES, New York Times, 11 Oct 1968 (on Krapp and Zoo)
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20 RICHARD EDER, New York Times, 19 Dec 1977
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21 RICHARD COE, Washington Post, 9 Dec 1976
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22 Macleans, n.d.
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23 HAYDEN MURPHY, Scotsman, n.d.
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24 CLIVE BARNES, New York Post, 19 Dec 1977
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25 EDER, 19 Dec 1977
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26 ROSETTE LAMONT, Other Stages, 16 June 1983, p 3. The critical reception of Catastrophe and What, Where was also laudatory. In New York, the actors were hailed as 'eloquent communicators' of Beckett (MEL GUSSOW, New York Times, 16 June 1983) as they 'respond admirably to Alan Schneider's carefully detailed direction' (DOUGLAS WATT, New York Daily News, 16 June 1983).

Commenting on Schneider's instructions to Davis as the Director -'Donald, you are slimy, so much so that when you get up to leave Maggie wipes the seat of the armchair, and even turns it over before she sits down' - one critic claims that 'Donald Davis creates two striking avatars of the dictators of our age.'

(LAMONT) In Edinburgh, the critics were equally impressed: the acting was 'impeccable' and the productions 'should serve as a model for future directors'

(MALCOLM HAY, Observer, 26 Aug 1984); the stage picture 'is extremely beautiful' and Schneider's actors 'know their business' (IRVING WARDLE, The Times, 15 Aug 1984).
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27 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1988
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28 RAY CONLOGUE, Globe and Mail, 15 Mar 1984
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29 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1988. Davis played Krapp the following year in Washington (Arena Stage Theatre, Apr 1961), and in Toronto (Crest Theatre, Oct 1961)
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30 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1990
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31 ROBERTA KRENSKY COOPER, The American Shakespeare Theatre (Washington: Folger Shakespeare Library, 1986) pp 66, 69
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32 BROOKS ATKINSON, New York Times, 9 June 1960
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33 LEWIS FUNKE, New York Times, 1 Aug 1960
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34 HENRY HEWES, Saturday Review, 1 July 1961
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35 HOWARD TAUBMAN, New York Times, 19 June 1961; 24 July 1961
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36 JOHN HOUSEMAN and JACK LANDAU, The American Shakespeare Festival: The Birth of a Theatre (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1959), p 79
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37 lbid
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38 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1990
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39 See, for instance, STANLEY KAUFMANN, New York Times, 30 June 1966; 1 July 1966
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40 KAUFMANN, 30 June 1966
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41 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1990
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42 Davis continued to perform on American stages through the 1970s and 80s: with Colleen Dewhurst, he starred in the inaugural production of Circle-in-the-Square's production, Mourning Becomes Electra (as Marmon, New York, 10 Nov-31 Dec 1972); in the American premiere of Edward Bond's Lear (Yale Repertory Theatre, as Lear, opening 13 Apr 1973); and in Aleskei Arbuzov's Old World (Zellerbach Theatre, Philadelphia, as Rodion Nikolayevich, 23 Apr-10 May 1981).
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43 Davis starred in the 1965 MGM feature film Joy in the Morning with Richard Chamberlain and Yvette Mimeux. He also appeared in several television series, among them: the prestige drama series, Play of the Week, Robert Herridge Theatre, and CBS Chronicle; the weekly series The Defenders, The Nurses, Mission Impossible, The Eternal Light
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44 In 1968, Davis was a guest artist at the National Theatre School in Montreal; in 1969, at the University of Alberta in Edmonton
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45 HERBERT WHITTAKER, Globe and Mail, n.d. The Merchant of Venice had the largest box-office gross at the Festival since 1962 (topping other offerings: Michael Langbam's The School for Scandal, which had the critics' nod; Hedda Gabler, starring Irene Worth; and Jean Gascon's Cymbeline. Merchant attracted 96.8 percent capacity)
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46 See, for example, DONALD DAVIS, Financial Post, 17 Nov 1973; BARBARA LITTLE, Victoria Star, 15 Dec 1982; RAY CONLOGUE, Globe and Mail, 29 Oct 1983; DOUG BALE, London Free Press, 9 Jan 1985
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47 BALE, 1985
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48 RAY CONLOGUE, Globe and Mail 29 Oct 1983
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49 CONLOGUE, 1983
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50 Interview, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1990
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51 Interviews, TOMASSON GOODWIN, 1988,1990
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52 RAY CONLOGUE, Globe and Mail, 28 Nov 1986
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53 MARK CZARNECKI, Macleans, n.d.
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54 ROBERT CREW, Toronto Star, Aug 1986
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55 MARK CZARNECKI, Macleans, Oct 1983
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56 TERRY DORAN, n. pub., n.d.
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57 KEITH ASHWELL, Edmonton Journal, 4 Feb 1982
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58 DOUG BALE, London Free Press, 4 Jan 1979
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