HUNCHBACK Review
The Gateway

AN IMMERSIVE JOURNEY INTO A TORTURED LOVE STORY HUNCBHACK

By Alana Willerton
March 14, 2011

Imagine a love so powerful and all-consuming that that you can literally think of nothing else — something that in its most seductive and potent moments also has the ability to torture your very soul. A love that you would not only die for, but also kill for. This kind of emotion is something that is difficult for most of us to imagine, much less adequately portray. And yet somehow, the Catalyst Theatre's masterpiece Hunchback manages to do just that, dragging us into a world of unimaginable pain and passion, all in the name of love.

This adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame focuses on the relationship between three characters: Quasimodo (Ron Pederson), the hunchbacked bell ringer who lives in the towers of Notre Dame; Claude Frollo (Scott Walters), a tormented priest; and La Esmeralda (Ava Jane Markus), a beguiling gypsy. A mangled love triangle begins to emerge as Frollo develops an obsessive and dangerous love for La Esmeralda, who in turn finds herself smitten with the captain of the guards. Meanwhile, Quasimodo, in all his loneliness, experiences the joys of friendship for the very first time as he finds an unlikely companion in La Esmeralda.

Imagine a love so powerful and all-consuming that that you can literally think of nothing else — something that in its most seductive and potent moments also has the ability to torture your very soul. A love that you would not only die for, but also kill for. This kind of emotion is something that is difficult for most of us to imagine, much less adequately portray. And yet somehow, the Catalyst Theatre's masterpiece Hunchback manages to do just that, dragging us into a world of unimaginable pain and passion, all in the name of love.

This adaptation of Victor Hugo's 1831 novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame focuses on the relationship between three characters: Quasimodo (Ron Pederson), the hunchbacked bell ringer who lives in the towers of Notre Dame; Claude Frollo (Scott Walters), a tormented priest; and La Esmeralda (Ava Jane Markus), a beguiling gypsy. A mangled love triangle begins to emerge as Frollo develops an obsessive and dangerous love for La Esmeralda, who in turn finds herself smitten with the captain of the guards. Meanwhile, Quasimodo, in all his loneliness, experiences the joys of friendship for the very first time as he finds an unlikely companion in La Esmeralda.

Hunchback is different from past adaptations in that it refuses to focus on a sole character. The title character sometimes takes a back seat to allow the stories of La Esmeralda and Claude Frollo to come to the forefront. Unaccustomed to such an in-depth examination of previously overlooked characters, it feels as if we are being fully introduced to them for the very first time.

In a show where every performance becomes a standout at one time or another, Hunchback finds its backbone in Ava Jane Markus' portrayal of La Esmeralda, encapsulating the very essence of a gypsy impassioned to a fault. However, perhaps the most impressive portrayal is Scott Walters as Frollo. After all, obsession, infatuation, and tortured love are not emotions we tend to come by every day, and yet Walters manages to pack all of these things into his performance. Ron Pederson has a somewhat different task from the others, but succeeds in capturing the desolate loneliness of the sheltered Quasimodo. Expressing a different kind of love, Pederson is as gentle and vulnerable one moment as he is tormented the next.

The exceptional acting performances are not the only standouts to be found in Hunchback. Metal bars that drape down from the ceiling like spider legs make up the stage's set; a minimalist but effective approach to a story that would have otherwise required several complicated changes of scenery. The wide range of music, played either in the background or as vocal accompaniment, both raises goosebumps and heightens the dramatic performances as the actors respond to violent outbursts of melodramatic sound.

For those hoping to experience the optimistic and kid-friendly fun of Disney, don't be fooled: Hunchback is a dark, complicated look into a story about devastating love and passion. Still, while the costumes may be more avant-garde, the sets more interpretive, and the music more impassioned than in performances past, the ultimate message of Hunchback remains the same: our motivation for everything we do and feel is love. It seems impossible that anyone could feel anything less than love for the brilliance of a production like this.

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