Review of The Piano Teacher, a play script
By Dorothy Dittrich
Published by Talonbooks, 2022: 9781772014020
An edited version of this review appeared in the Spring 2023 BC Bookworld. It has been my pleasure to write reviews of books in nearly all genres for this indispensable book review quarterly magazine since 2013. I hope to continue for another decade or even two. I plan to keep writing books and poems and reviews until I pop my clogs or lose my marbles, whichever comes first.
When I am offered a book or a choice of books to review by the BCBW publisher, my rules are as follows: #1 I won't review books I don't like at all. Life is too short for petty wars of words. I don't need the aggro, as the Brits say, and writing is too personal and too difficult to have yet another reviewer vent their egos and/or spleens on a book that may have taken eight years to write and another five years to find a publisher. (Or is it just me who takes that long? Anyway, I'm always on the side of the writer.) I don't hold with the slash and burn, or the passive-aggressive non-stop quibbling schools of nasty reviews and to the naysayer who sneered and said I was merely writing book reports, well, I'm still reading amazing books by much more talented and generous writers than yourself and getting paid for it quite nicely, thank you! Happily, I've received the most appreciative thank you notes from some of those very talented authors who so deserved to have a light shone on their contributions and I treasure these notes. With the perilous state of all print media these days, a review in BCBW may be the only printed, hard copy review some books, who deserve much, much more attention nationally, ever get.
Fortunately there are so many very good and absolutely great writers in B.C. that I have yet to turn down a book offered to me for review purposes except for #2, I won't review books written by close friends because it is a professional magazine and I am paid because I am an objective professional writer. When I know too much about the struggle to write and complete a certain book, when I have commiserated and cheered on the author, well, I cannot write a balanced review after all that. Still, I try to make the time to praise the books of my friends and acquaintances, as far too many of them are writers, a smart and funny tribe to hang out with. I'm not going to ignore them because I do try to read their books of course. So I'll gladly put in a good word for free on Goodreads or in other social media like this blog. It's the least we can do, as writers and readers, to spread the word about really good books. If I don't praise them, well, see #1. You may have written a slightly dull book this time out. Or, more likely, I was too busy trying to finish my own book or swamped by a million other tasks which distract me from my own writing. And finally, #3, I don't pick or lobby for any of the books I get paid to review in BC Bookworld. That's the publisher's job, to assign books to the many good reviewers she already has on standby. She knows I'll review books about gardening, hockey, hi-lo vocabulary, travel, short stories (my favourite genre), novels (second favourite especially mysteries, my brain candy of choice), BC history (tied for second favourite), all kinds of memoirs, growing mushrooms, you name it. Other much more clever reviewers can tackle landscape architecture, cerebral poetry and the autobiographies of business tycoons.
Forthwith, a new genre for me: a playscript from the venerable B.C. publisher, Talonbooks, always pushing the edges, always publishing interesting, innovative and downright edgy writing. Oh, and that's #4, I don't write reviews for books by publishers when I'm under contract and working on my own book with that publisher. That's called the appearance of conflict of interest, a pretty obvious no-no I would think, buttering up your own publisher's new crop of books for possible future personal benefit. I'm spelling all this out because I've been asked about reviewing over the years, and have been lobbied a fair bit by hopeful authors and so on, which I've tried to gently deflect. I've also learned a lot because I read lots of book reviews and have done so for many years. My list of do's and don'ts aka basic professional standards for myself comes from seeing some mighty egregious mutual back-scratching and old buddy championing as well as being inspired by brilliantly incisive and expansive book reviews. I refuse to be cynical about books and the whole ecology of publishing. It's a tough business to be in. Now, here is another brilliant writer whom, like the authors of 98% of the books I've reviewed, I have yet to have the pleasure of meeting!
Winner of the 2022 Governor-General’s Award for Best Canadian play script and the Jessie Richardson Award for Outstanding Original Script as well, The Piano Teacher is Dorothy Dittrich’s fifth script for the stage. Reading it is a master class experience for writers at any stage who write in any genre. Pitch perfect and powerful writing.
I was not in the right place at the right time to see this two act play on stage for its debut but after reading the script in book form, published by Talonbooks, I certainly hope other theatre companies will choose to mount it so I can plan to attend. Dittrich is a Vancouver-based musician and writer, a composer, playwright, sound designer and musical director. Her play for three actors comes with such specific musical notes that I sought out certain compositions by Haydn, as played by the Beaux Arts Trio and revisited Aaron Copland’s Appalachian Spring by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra just to hear the desired musical ambience. I could well imagine the beautiful musical pieces swirling out to an audience from amidst the 3-D presence of the players on the stage.
Do not skip over the illuminating Foreword by Yvette Nolan, who directed the first production of The Piano Teacher at the BMO Theatre Centre in Vancouver, produced by the Arts Club Theatre Company. Or the equally compelling and nuanced Introduction by dramaturge Rachel Ditor. They understand Dittrich’s clean, clear melody through Elaine’s voice, the pauses and hesitant harmonies as Erin is introduced, and the bounce and energy of Tom’s lines. They understand grief and healing and joyful release, and why this play is dedicated by the playwright: For all those who have worked through a difficult passage.
The essential plot emanates from a tragedy, slowly revealed, as experienced by Erin, a classical pianist who has been unable to play for two years. The classical music quintet she used to perform with is waiting for her to recover and so is a major orchestra touring opportunity but she is blocked, overwhelmed by the loss of her husband and son. This is compounded by the fundamental loss of her own musical means of expression. Think of a painter who cannot imagine what to do with colours anymore or a sculptor whose world view has gone flat, and stays that way. A psychiatrist and another counsellor have not worked for her. Then, she attends a student recital and meets Elaine, an unconventional piano teacher who gives her hope for a breakthrough. As Elaine gently reacquaints Erin with the piano, I was reminded of other kind and skilled people among us who work with traumatized children as art therapists and with the ‘whisperers’ who work with abused horses, who rebuild relationships based on trust by patiently overcoming fear.
We witness the relationship between student and teacher blossom into a true friendship and then, as any perceptive teacher well knows, the roles can reverse with gifted pupils and the concepts of teacher and student flow back and forth. For Elaine, ever optimistic, kind, and generous, is coping with decades of her own repressed sadness, and no small amount of physical pain. She reminds herself, several times, that Oscar Peterson had arthritis in his hands but he didn’t let that stop him from becoming one of the world’s most accomplished pianists.
Those of us who sing in choirs know how much better we feel in mind, body and spirit after a rousing rehearsal we’ve dragged ourselves to on a cold and damp night. Some of us were lucky enough to grow up in a house with a piano and other instruments, to learn to read music by taking lessons and to become lifelong musicians, amateur or professional. Next up on the stage is Tom, a skilled carpenter whom Erin has hired to build a window beside a large and dark stairwell landing, a spot in her house she considers wasted space.
Tom comes from a working class family and his love of old tunes like “Stardust” and “My Buddy” was instilled by listening to his grandpa sing along to the radio in his truck as they picked up lumber and did other building trade errands. Music lessons were unaffordable but music appreciation was a joyful given every day along with the love of solving design problems and working with wood. Tom confides to Erin, whom he does not know is a fairly famous pianist with recordings to her credit, that he would love to take piano lessons some day like she does.
The power of music to heal, to overcome pain and to restore joy and love in our lives is honoured by this remarkable work. Given that a musical written by Dorothy Dittrich, When We Were Singing, has toured Canada and the United States, I wish for even more exposure and success for The Piano Teacher.
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