The World of Movies: 30 Minutes, Mister Plummer
Written by Rachael Crawley
The World of Movies is a series that explores global cinema, drawing on films from many countries, industries and eras. This week, in our first-ever documentary, we look at the Canadian theatre world behind the scenes.
30 Minutes, Mister Plummer.
The movie’s title slightly narrows its true focus – while Christopher Plummer is certainly prominent, in the end, it is really a tribute to Stratford. Not the birthplace of Shakespeare, but its namesake in southern Ontario, a town most famous for its annual Shakespeare festival. Of the many great artists that have worked there, Plummer is perhaps most closely associated. Since his death in February, I’ve wanted to write about his impact on stage and screen – and what better way to do so than from the perspective of his home country?
This blend of Canadian institutions is called 30 Minutes, Mister Plummer (Anne Claire Poirier, 1963). The documentary short, courtesy of Canada’s National Film Board, depicts the lead-up to various performances of the 1962 Stratford season - pre-Sound of Music, for Plummer fans keeping score at home. Though the movie spends a good deal of time with him and with Kate Reid, it also focuses on other artists, including actors Martha Henry and Len Birman, and director Michael Langham.
From the beginning, this is a film of voices and faces – we start with a montage of production stills, masks, warm-up exercises, and repetition of titles, characters, and actors’ names. (Fittingly for Canada, this takes place in both official languages.) The actors and their roles begin to blur together, as we shift to Plummer in the makeup chair. Poirier carefully explains that we will not see the show itself, but rather experience it solely through its creation. The movie takes us through this process, from day to night, out of reality and onto the world of the stage.
The narration then turns to Plummer himself. Poirier wonders what he is thinking as we watch him prepare. In between the dressing room images, there are shots of Plummer, Birman and Reid experiencing daily life in Stratford. Birman explains his relationship with the town, and how the shift in perspective affects his growth as an actor. Perhaps best of all is brief footage of Reid rehearsing The Taming of the Shrew. Even watching this on film, some sixty years later, the power of the performance radiates. (It is particularly poignant after a year without theatre at all.)
The movie contrasts formal, somewhat flowery narration with a leisurely pace, mimicking the natural rhythm of a theatre season. A vaguely Renaissance soundtrack backs up Poirier’s calm speech. Poirier repeatedly reflects on transformation – both in the makeup chair, and that intangible mental shift that turns an actor into a character. She addresses the actors directly, and even asks them outright for answers. Sometimes these speeches feel a little too pointed, though the words themselves are quite poetic.
As Reid smokes a cigarette in her costume, we hear a voiceover of centuries-old lines from Macbeth. Plummer drives nonchalantly through Stratford at dusk, on his way to work like anyone else. Amid the frenzied preparations, the increasingly strident dialogue, and the excited audience, it is still a quiet summer night in a small Canadian town.
30 Minutes, Mister Plummer portrays a day in summer theatre by attempting to recreate it on screen – not just in its depiction, but in the film’s very construction. For the viewer, it almost gives the feeling of being involved in the creative process. A real treat for theatre fans, 30 Minutes is an early glimpse at one of Canada’s finest cultural experiences, and at some of her brightest stars.
Rachael Crawley holds a Master's Degree in Film and Photography Preservation and Collections Management from Ryerson University, and has worked with film in Canada and in Europe. She adores language and cinema, and how these subjects interact with each other.