It’s hard to imagine that a crackling drama could revolve around a poet laureate’s career. But Jack Canfora’s “Poetic License” manages to render a tale of artistic ambition and hidden secrets with the breathlessness of a well-paced thriller.
The story begins innocuously enough, with the arrival of young lovers Katherine and Edmund at her parent’s well-appointed home. They’re there to celebrate an impending announcement: Her father, John (Geraint Wyn Davies), is about to be tapped as the nation’s official poet.
The meeting begins pleasantly, as the bashful Edmund (Ari Butler) professes his nervousness: “None of my other girlfriends’ fathers had a Pulitzer on his mantel.”
But the pleasantness ends when Edmund is finally alone with his host, and the young man lets loose with a wildly inappropriate comment about John’s daughter. Suddenly, all hell breaks loose.
To reveal any more would spoil the clever surprises of this tensely plotted drama, presented by the Directors Company.
In the opening scenes, the dialogue is a little too self-consciously clever, as John’s acerbic wife (Liza Vann) delivers enough ironic one-liners to fuel a Noel Coward comedy. “Models today all look like Dachau inmates with makeovers,” she sniffs.
But once the plot kicks in, the play is tautly suspenseful in its gradual revelations and charged encounters.
The acting is first-rate. Butler’s skillful in conveying Edmund’s startling personality change, while Natalie Kuhn proves sympathetic as his confused girlfriend.
Wyn Davies, a veteran Canadian actor and mainstay of the Stratford Festival — he was the acclaimed King Arthur in its recent “Camelot” — is outstanding as the refined poet, whose initial placidity soon gives way to violent anger. His complexly ambiguous portrayal keeps us wondering about his character long after the play has ended. Here’s hoping he returns to our stages again soon.