For what quickly seems an obvious reason, Anthony Black has adapted for the stage Yann Martel’s prize-winning short story “The Time I Heard the Private Donald J. Rankin String Concerto With One Discordant Violin, by the American Composer John Morton.” The obvious reason? Black has found material with which he strongly connects as an actor. He displays that happy affinity in One Discordant Violin, presented at 59E59 Theatres by the Halifax-based 2B Theatre Company.
Martel’s 1992 tale involves a Canadian drifter hanging around Washington, D.C. who wanders one lonely night into a decrepit music hall to hear a concert including music by Bach and Telemann as well as a second-half piece by composer whose name, John Morton, he doesn’t know. Martel’s protagonist is so profoundly moved by Morton’s composition that after the concert he tracks the man—a bank janitor—down. When he arrives at the bank, Morton lets him in and engages in a brief chat while mopping floors. The composer-janitor even has his guest pitch in by wiping telephones.
Some years later the narrator again attempts to locate Morton. The self-deprecating fellow, now deceased, had been living in Florida and married to a woman who never knew her husband had composed music, a revelation that profoundly dismays the narrator.
Black is so involved with One Discordant Violin that he not only directs (Ann-Marie Kerr co-directs) but also designed the set, a series of scrims on which evocative projections frequently materialize. Nick Bottomley and Anna Shepard provide the delicate lighting, with projections from Bottomley.
Also contributing to the welcome success of One Discordant Violin is violinist Jacques Mindreau, who plays the supposed John Morton composition. Mindreau wrote the music with Aaron Collier, who handles the live sound design and music direction. The violinist also appears as Morton, although he doesn’t speak Morton’s lines. Black does that as part of his appealingly committed performance.
With a kind of dark beauty, Martel’s story drives home a few pointed, if familiar, observations that never suffer from repetition. The author is impassioned about creators in any artistic field who never receive the recognition they deserve. And he celebrates the unexpected moments in our lives that dramatically alter forever how we think and feel.
It’s likely One Discordant Violin ticket buyers will leave the theater wanting to read more of Martel, who is best known for The Life of Pi, which was turned into the successful movie. It’s also likely audiences will be curious to find out what the 2B Theatre Company is doing next. Has Black shaped something even newer for the stage? If so, bring it on.
One Discordant Violin opened November 3, 2019, at 59E59 and runs through November 24. Tickets and information: 59e59.org
