Watching a distinguished novel become a disappointing play is an irritating experience. Such is the Stratford Festival's attempt to stage The Hunchback of Notre Dame.
Based on Notre-Dame de Paris, the epic romance, adventure and social commentary written in 1831 by Victor Hugo, this adaptation has no excuse for being so uninspired and uninspiring.
But Stratford playwright Rick Whelan has dutifully transplanted the novel's plotline while preserving precious little of its emotional impact.
Set in 15th-century France, the tragic tale profiles a gallery of grim people inhabiting the Middle Ages, a dark period punctuated by "fast life and slow death."
The play's frantic action revolves around La Esmeralda (Jennifer Gould), a vivacious gypsy girl who has ignited the sexual urges of a corrupt priest, an unheroic soldier and a would-be poet. She has also elicited the loyalty of Quasimodo, Notre Dame Cathedral's deaf, hunchbacked bellringer, whose love is as pure as his deformed appearance is grotesque.
Unfortunately, this theatrical vehicle has transformed the multi-dimensional human beings of Hugo's narrative into dull, cardboard cutouts.
To their credit, several of the actors valiantly strive to escape the script's constricting bonds.
Nicolas Van Burek offers an athletic and occasionally very moving portrayal of the social outcast Quasimodo, the "half-made man" whose tortured life is changed in one brief moment by the kindness of a stranger.
Likewise, Stephen Russell, whose Stratford career spans 21 seasons, tries to make Frollo, Notre Dame's archdeacon, more than just a lust-crazed cleric, although this shallow adaptation supplies him with scant support.
Representing the reverse image of Quasimodo is Captain Phoebus (David Snelgrove), whose shiny army uniform and handsome, dashing looks mask a hollow, cowardly heart.
So effective as Gaston in the festival's production of Gigi, Dan Chameroy here succeeds in giving the poet Gringoire some semblance of humanity and a few funny quirks.
However, one of his character's lines -- "If we could bore you to death, we would!" -- sounds like dramatic irony in this muddled presentation.
Meantime, actor Krista Leis deserves praise and pity for taking on the unenviable task of playing Esmeralda's pet goat Djali, a silly bit of comic relief that would fare better in a children's play.
Also wasted is Alexander Dodge's stunning set design, which gives an authentic sense of the historic Parisian cathedral that is the story's prime action site.
Directed by Dennis Garnhum, the overwrought, underdeveloped production fails to engage the interest of its audience.
At intermission, one theatre-goer voiced her disappointment in a very telling comment: "There isn't one character that I can care about."
Hugo's classic has spawned several solid film versions and even the latest, a 1997 animated Disney feature, is more effective at exploring the themes of prejudice, erotic obsession and religious hypocrisy than this Stratford edition.
The powerful passions that inhabit every page of Hugo's novel are no-shows on the stage of the Avon Theatre.
At the tragedy's end, Quasimodo is joined in death with his beloved Esmeralda, but any hope for a better show has already suffered a slow and painful demise.
IF YOU GO
What: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, by Rick Whelan, adapted from the novel by Victor Hugo
Where: Avon Theatre, Stratford
When: Till Nov. 2
Tickets: $23.65 to $87.57 (some special rates may apply); call 1-800-567-1600 or visit www.stratfordfestival.ca
Rating: * * 1/2 (out of five)
