First Mutant's Mutant X Warehouse

Pic from Jam Canoe Theatre

Eye Weekly 5/4/06: Tom McCamus

Cougar Party

Truly great roles for women rarely require the donning of an apron, and this holds true in Mathilde, the story of a shockingly rebellious wife. Nightwood Theatre presents the English-language premiere of this stark marital drama by France's Véronique Olmi. Actor Martha Burns relished the chance to get inside a woman who beds a 14-year-old boy as a rebuke to her husband and her life.

"Restless women are really interesting to me, especially if they're [depicted] well," says Burns, a two-time Dora winner and a critical favourite for her Soulpepper turns in Genet's The Maids and Beckett's Happy Days. "I think our society still goes, 'What do we do with them?' With men, they can become heroes or warriors or run companies, but what do you do with the women?"

In Mathilde's case, society jails her for four months for seducing a minor. The play opens as just-released Mathilde returns home to confront her husband (Tom McCamus). Burns says she was attracted by the intensity of the writing, translated here by Dora-winning Morwyn Brebner. It crosses lines that few couples transgress even in private, says Burns, yet any couple will find some resonance and even humour in this primal marital scene.

Rehearsals for Mathilde were twice interrupted so Burns could travel to Italy for her small but key role in the film Silk, based on the novel by Alessandro Baricco and co-starring Keira Knightley. Burns says the breaks ended up being invaluable to the Mathilde production. "We needed that digestion time. It makes you think we've become prisoners of our Actor's Equity formula. You think you have to work six days a week, eight hours a day."

Then there's that other occupational hazard: typecasting. Playing an actress diva in the excellent TV series Slings and Arrows, Burns spent the first season dallying with a young stud boyfriend. And now, with Mathilde, is there any danger that she'll be seen as the sexy older woman who beds young men?

Burns responds with incredulity. "Did you say danger? That would be a danger?" GORD McLAUGHLIN

MATHILDE RUNS TO MAY 27 AT THE YOUNG CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS, 55 MILL. $28-$32 PLUS LIMITED $10 RUSH SEATS. MON-SAT 8PM; TUE 1PM; WED & SAT 2PM. 416-866-8666.

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