Tiger's Heart

Tamara Jones is Production Stage Manager/Operations Supervisor,
Entertainment Department, Paramount Canada’s Wonderland.

Now here is a play that can satisfy both reader and audience. As
dramatic literature, it brings one into a distinctive place and time to
witness the extraordinary life of Dr. James Barry, who was posted to
Capetown, South Africa in the 1820s. Theatrically, it allows for strong
and sometimes harsh visual images and provides rich characters for a
director to draw upon. On stage there is much potential to develop
nuances that are only suggested in the dialogue and HALF-realized in the
reader’s mind.

Kit Brennan takes historical material about Dr. James Barry—including
speculation that he was actually a woman—plays with it a bit, and
gives us this curiosity: a fictionalized account of a period in Dr.
Barry’s life. Dr. “Marian” Barry uses her disguise as a man to
live and move more freely in her professional world. Brennan focuses on
the internal and external struggles of someone who has many secrets to
hide. Questions about gender, race, and sexual identity are obviously
central to the play, but their treatment is not overwrought or banal.

The success of this treatment is in part due to the development of
Brennan’s characters; they help to build the strong sense of place and
time that is integral to understanding Barry’s motivations. The
central characters have their own rhythms and are not one-dimensional or
static. “The Tracker” moves through many of the scenes. Instead of
simply excerpting Dr. Barry’s life as she sees it, Brennan uses
Tracker to form transitions and carry the storyline, as an outside eye
looking in. This technique serves to create an alternate impression of
what the reader is witnessing.

A mild annoyance is that, prior to reading the play, one feels
compelled to read the casting requirements, casting notes, staging
notes, and the foreword. Forget them; they serve better as an afterword
and are not necessary to an appreciation of the work. Brennan’s
attempts to retain control over her play place undue restrictions on
staging, direction, and interpretation. Readers and directors need to
get into this text and get their feet dirty.