July 27, 2007, Newsletter Issue #164: Come Like Shadows by Welwyn Wilton Katz

Tip of the Week

Come Like Shadows
by Welwyn Wilton Katz

Coteau Books, 401-2206 Dewdney Ave, Regina, Saskatchewan,Canada S4R 1H3
ISBN 1550501704

Welwyn Katz is a much-beloved Canadian author. This wonderful example of her work, sadly out of print for several years, has now been reprinted, and has another opportunity to receive the readership and acclaim it deserves.
"Come Like Shadows" has everything a young person´s book should have: mystery, drama, a tiny touch of romance and a huge helping of suspense. While its targeted audience would probably be the 14-to-16 set, I (at 48) enjoyed it immensely. I also learned much about Macbeth (the play and the person), and was fascinated by the detailed insights into the production and staging of a major play.
Kinny, a Canadian teen, gets an opportunity to be assistant to the director of a summer production of Shakespeare´s Macbeth, to be performed at the prestigious Stratford Theatre Festival. From the start, things go awry, and ´the Scottish Play´ lives up to it´s reputation as a jinxed production. In the very first rehearsal, an actress dies in a mysterious accident. Living up to the dramatic maxim, "the play must go on," the production continues, but mysterious difficulties continue to plague the cast and crew. A mirror, which Kinny finds at a junk shop, is the perfect prop for the famed witch´s scene; but it seems the mirror has some frightening powers, and both Kinny and her friend Lucas are caught up in its spell. In it, Kinny sees the ancient crones of the play; her vision of their actions is both puzzling and terrifying. Lucas, who is hoping to play Macbeth himself, sees the true Macbeth in the mirror, and discovers him to be a fine and honorable man, despite the darker character painted by Shakespeare.
Mishaps continue during the play rehearsals, foreshadowed by the appearance of an ancient, hunchbacked woman who lurks in the shadows, where only Lucas notices her. After an unexplained fire damages the theater, the troupe goes on a field trip while repairs are made, traveling by bus through Scotland. Along the way they are joined by aged Mrs. Maugham, stranded by a bus strike, who bears a striking resemblance to the hunchbacked woman Lucas had seen during the mysterious mishaps. They travel on together to Kincardine O´Neil, the small Scottish town for which Kinny was named, only a few kilometers from the stone circle where the real Macbeth reportedly died.
The climax of this beautifully researched and written tale, which brings together the witches, the true Macbeth, Kinny and Lucas in an agonizing conflict of evil and honor, will leave you gasping. I highly recommend this book.

Reviewed by Teddi Stransky
BookGuru@lifetips.com

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