Last year, the Undercurrents festival launched at the GCTC and was one of the theatrical highlights of the year. The festival’s aim is to promote independent boundary pushing theatre or “theatre below the main stream.” Last year’s line up was terrific and I saw every show. Undercurrents 2012, opened yesterday and I’m once again looking forward to seeing more independent theatre!

In fact, I’m on record, and have been quoted in marketing material, saying this about last year’s festival: 
“I hope this festival becomes a regular feature of the Ottawa theatre scene and that the GCTC will sponsor even more independent theatre productions in the future.”

As a strong supporter of this festival, I thought I would take some time to tell you about two of the shows I am particularly looking forward to this year. I think I would be remiss if I also didn’t tell you about the one show I feel should not have been included this year and why, but I will save that for another blog post.

Here are two recommendations: 

At the 2011 Ottawa Fringe Festival, Luna Allison premiered Falling Open in a very original venue(her bedroom.) Unfortunately, I didn’t have a chance to catch this one at Fringe. Her home was a little off the beaten path and, to be completely honest, the play’s subject matter (one family’s experience of sexual abuse) scared me off a little too. That being said, those who saw it raved about this show. I’m told Allison treats the subject matter with appropriate sensitivity and puts in a powerful performance. While I’m sure this one will be challenging, 

Falling Open is top of my list to see at Undercurrents 2012.

Highway 63: the Fort Mac Show, looks like an interesting piece of verbatim/documentary theatre, bringing to life the stories of the people who live in Fort Mac, Alberta. I love when communities use theatre to tell their stories. I’m also a fan of the verbatim movement so I’ll definitely be checking this one out.

So if you don’t know what to see, those are the two shows in the festival that I am most excited about.

Get your tickets soon!

It was quite a year for Ottawa theatre and quite a year for me in the role of a reviewer. And now, as this new theatre season begins, I have decided not to renew my column commitment with Ottawa Tonite.

Even with some indications that “APPRAISE” may not be what the Ottawa theatre scene wants, it is actually my fresh focus on acting and directing that is driving my decision (performing in a television series pilot with Parktown Productions, creating two films for the Digi60 Festival, developing a new webseries with Tim Anderson, performing a new solo show for a national Fringe tour, and more). I am full-plated. And sated.

To wrap a whole year of experience and experiences, I graciously thank Ottawa Tonite Producer and Editor, Cheryl Gain for such faith and support. A big thanks to the theatre companies, casts, and crews for inviting me and trusting me to review their work. And so much appreciation to the readers and the commenters for sharing in the life of my “APPRAISE of the Theatre” column.

Au revoir, merci, et merde.

>> Ken
.

* Opening Night, Tuesday July 19, 2011 *

Agatha Christie novels are often material for other playwrights. This script for Spider’s Web was penned by the grand dame herself. The setting is a 1955 drawing room in the Hailsham-Brown home in Kent, England. The characters include the wife of a foreign diplomat; her young step-daughter; her husband’s ex-wife’s new husband; three gentlemen house guests; the gardener; and, of course, the butler. The plot contains the customary dead body, a secret passageway, an old desk, and a web of stories and connections. It is a reel of relationships with a mix of mystery and a smidgeon of suspense. Definitely Christie. Quaint, but not spectacular.

The Ottawa Little Theatre’s production design was also quaint, but not spectacular. There was an air of “leftovers-hashed-together-for-a-post-season-production”. The set was fine and functional, but had some odd and awkward pieces in the room, including garden lattice and vines on the walls, mis-fitting leaded glass in the windows, and oriental area rugs thrown down just, wherever. The time spent on costumes seemed to be proportional to the time they would spend on the stage. I cannot comment on what the lighting design was meant to look like — with countless opening night mis-cues, especially in the crucial timing-for-suspense moments.

Director Timothy Ginley valiantly tried to focus on the human relationships between Clarissa Hailsham-Brown, her step-daughter Pippa, and her long-time friend and mentor, Sir Rowland Delahaye. Unfortunately, in his OLT directorial debut, he was not able to develop much in the other layers and levels of this simply complex script. Surprisingly, the weakest parts of this murder mystery were the pivotal and key moments of suspense and climax which fizzled and fell. This kept me guessing – not at the usual suspects, but at whether the play was meant to be a comedy-drama, a dramatic mystery, or a mysterious satire of the genre itself.

There were elements of strength and style in Chantale Plante’s performance as Clarissa. And, though she knew how each logistic bit fit, she hit them all with the same force, not allowing for the subtleties of dynamics, discoveries, or development through the moments, scenes and overall story arc. Robin Carter, as Sir Rowland, brought experienced charm to the stage and to the story, and Sarah Hearn’s Mildred Peake (the earthy gardener) capped the comedy with fun pace and energy, but with less commitment. The various other characters, and the various experience levels of the actors playing them, wandered. And so did I. Although, even with some dramatically impotent scenes, there was (and is) some promise in the talents of two relative newcomers – Steve Liddiard and young Katie Norland.

OLT’s production of Spider’s Web was a lot of work for the cast and crew. And for us. A ski trip without a map, a lift, or enough snow for the slalom.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a flat necklace without a clasp.

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Agatha Christie’s Spider’s Web
continues at Ottawa Little Theatre
through July 30, 2011
and is part of the Downtown Rideau SUMMER FLING!

Tickets available at the OLT Box Office Online
by phone at 613-233-8948
or in person at 400 King Edward Avenue
Monday to Friday 11 am to 4 pm
Showdays 11 am to showtime

ottawalittletheatre.com

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

* Opening Night, Saturday July 16, 2011 *

It’s big. It’s bold. And it’s blatant. The first few lines of credits in the programme read: Disney presents The Lion King. Music & Lyrics by Elton John & Tim Rice. Additional Music & Lyrics by Lebo M, Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin, Julie Taymor, Hans Zimmer. Book by Roger Allers & Irene Mecchi. Adapted from the screenplay by Irene Mecchi & Jonathan Roberts & Linda Woolverton. (Whew!)

Bringing a ‘classic’ Disney movie to the live theatrical stage poses two very big questions. Why? And how? Both magnified exponentially when the original film is animated and the characters are animals. Why would someone want to do a staged musical about animals? Although Cats has had a very long and successful run, my first point was going to be that it should have a strong story as a core. (And Cats didn’t. So go figure that one out. And then let me know.)

The Lion King‘s story is from Disney’s 1994 animated film of the same name, which is thematically from Shakespeare’s Hamlet (and that was probably from some earlier fable or lore) — a Prince’s succession is sidetracked by his father’s death at his uncle’s hand. Okay, with a story to tell, art to create, and money to make, the next question is: how?

Julie Taymor. Her name is all over this show – Director, Costume Design, Mask/Puppet Co-design, and Additional Lyrics. Very well known for risky, novel creativity, Ms.Taymor tapped deeply into the roots of Africa for concepts, style, and story-telling. Strong and stirring. Creative and courageous. And costly. So the questions is, still, how?  Money. Who has more money than Disney? And it is their property. So now I have another question. Were they trying to bring the story to the stage? Or the movie? (Which is, to me, a dangerous mix and misuse of media.) Or are were they fighting to do both?

In the staged production I saw on Saturday night, there were several powerful plusses. The opening pageant of animals was truly moving. And magical, in seeing through the rough and raw mechanics to the humans living inside. Also profoundly apparent were the strong feelings of this cast of fifty creating a village of tribal story-telling with their puppets, shadows, dance, and colourful cultural costumes. Even the highly-technical and complex staging of the wildebeest stampede worked well because it was dramatically countered with the bare, simple, human moments between Simba, his fallen father, and his sinister uncle, Scar.

Where the production struggled and clashed with itself was, ironically, in some of those same areas. Spectacle often trumped spirit. Machine over human. Being. The masks and puppetry of key characters were inconsistent in extremes ranging from the lions’ simple head-top masks allowing them full access to motion and emotion; through the awkwardly distracting and varied versions of the hyenas; all the way to an exact replica of the movie’s cartoony Timon the meerkat, leaving his puppeteer walking awkwardly and separately behind him in floppy feet, green camouflage and face paint. These extremes were also reflected in staging and characterization. Some characters were allowed to grow in the story and in the evolution of the production with new scenes and songs for the scheming Scar and for the maturing Simba and Nala. But that growth and life were completely absent in the characterizations of Timon and Pumbaa which ended up being a strict and rigid parroting of the movie’s original cast soundtrack. Even delicate design choices of organic fabric leaves and plants were slammed with glaring kiddie-kitsch when two giant plastic inflatable plants were pushed onstage, then deflated to sagging as an illustration of the thirteenth Pumbaa fart joke.

With such a sprawling show, there are bound to be bald spots. And when the show is as big and busy as The Lion King, over-mechanized devices and cloying gimmicks and jarring irregularities can mortally wound the story and the heart of the show. This fighting between indigenous African story-telling and American Disney-factory fodder may simply be the timeless friction between the piece of art being painted and the wall of money it’s hanging on. (See Woody Allen’s Bullets Over Broadway.) (I mean it. Literally. See it.)

Thankfully, there were also some individual spirited performances growing and glowing between the machines and the marketing. There were memorable notes in the performances of leading characters like Scar, Mufasa, Simba, and young Nala. But worthy of special mention were Buyi Zama’s playful charm and chants in the role of the mystical Rafiki. And Syndee Winters, who brought it all together, acting, singing and dancing (and fighting) with power, grace, and that “something else” in the way of believing and discovering it all as new. I would also like to spotlight the actor who played young Simba on opening night (no programme indication whether it was Niles Fitch or Zavion J. Hill). For a performer with smaller stature, age and experience on this big stage in a big show with big players to find real moments to be present and to believe (in a way few “Disney Channel actors” can or do), his character earned my sentiments; and his “character” earned my respect.

There is something deep in Disney’s The Lion King as it takes us on a spectacular walk along an earthy path. And something cheap in being served plastic-wrapped mechanically produced process cheese slices at every intersection.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a tangled charm bracelet.

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Disney’s The Lion King
continues at the N.A.C.’s Southam Hall
through August 7, 2011.

Tickets available ONLINE
by phone through Ticketmaster 1-888-991-2787 (ARTS)
or at the NAC Box Office

The National Arts Centre

Broadway Across Canada

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

Complex Numbers = No Pants

You know when the writer and producer of a theatre production hands you a condom before the show that you’re not in for a run-of-the-mill Rom-com.

And certainly Nadine Thornhill’s Complex Numbers is anything but run-of-the-mill. It’s smart, funny, sexy, and geeky and has no fear treading deep into the confusing and taboo world of open relationships. Polyamory: check. Intraoffice romance: check. Analingus: check.

But it’s not all about sex, it’s about the people.  And here Thornhill as Writer & Producer and Ken Godmere as Director deliver a piece that’s remarkably human whereas others may have been tempted to indulge in prurient exhibition. We watch mathematician/software developer Fiona (Stephanie Halin) and English academic Alex (J.P Chartier) navigate the dark, deep waters of an open relationship (with a little help from a course on the subject as voiced by Jenn Keay.) There are many rules but sometimes rules are broken. Sometimes with consequences.

The script is quick and clever, rapidly switching between intimate discussions about the fine mechanics of relationships to the minutia of mathematical algorithms with ease (and technical accuracy!) Staging is spare and simple and music provides a surprisingly effective means of setting the scene. Tim Anderson is excellent as Dan with great timing and delivery and Ellen Manchee as a female PHB (that’s Pointy-Headed Boss for non-Dilbert readers) gets some of the best laughs as Maggie.

The rapid-fire delivery could be a little smoother at times, and some of the scene cuts, while clever, could have benefited from a better timing. I saw Complex Numbers on its second of six nights so these quibbles can only improve as the cast and production gets into it’s groove.

Complex Numbers is never heavy but nor is it frothy. It’s a frank (perhaps explicit) exploration of couples and coupling and the irregular intersect between love, desire, and commitment. Like it’s namesake mathematical construct,
Complex Numbers is comprised of multiple parts and dimensions that make it work.

Complex Numbers
60 minutes
Ottawa Fringe—Academic Hall
$12

Sunday June 19, 1:30pm
Monday June 20 9:30pm
Wed June 22 8:00pm
Thursday June 23 11:00pm
Saturday June 25 12pm
Sunday June 26 6:30pm

For information and tickets ottawafringe.com/complex-numbers

David Hicks—Ottawa dweller. Marketing consultant. Dad. Dog owner. Handyman. Gadget guy. Photographer. Coffee Drinker. Scotch sipper. [Not necessarily in that order] Blogs at davidhicks.ca and spends too much time on Twitter.

* Opening Night, Friday June 3, 2011 *

Dirty Rotten Scoundrels‘ book by Jeffrey Lane and music and lyrics by David Yazbek are almost great. Based on the 1988 Michael Caine/Steve Martin film of the same name, the musical has many energetic elements – a big story of the seductive greed of two American conmen in the south of France, with twists and turns, comedy and action, colourful characters, and a few memorable songs. But size and quantity of elements doesn’t always translate to ‘greatness’ as an enduring piece of theatre. Usually, the “Hey, let’s make a musical out of that” practice results in lumps of stage gags, schtick songs, and low comedy set-ups shoved in to bulk it up and package it in a broad way. Some of Dirty Rotten Scoundrel’s songs and bits do seem, as in the golden age of musicals, designed more for the personalities of the specific stars that originated the roles (think Rex Harrison, Bert Lahr and in this case, for those of you who know: John Lithgow and Norbert Leo Butz). And its lengthy list of scene changes certainly feels the stresses of cramming all those film edits onto a live, real-time stage – at the risk of a company’s cast, crew, budget, and audience interest.

Orpheus’ new (Ottawa premiere) production of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels was plugged into many of the energetic elements and found the heat and humour. Almost. The set was a definite and dramatic asset. Designer Jennifer Donnelly and her team found a beautiful balance of math and art in making all those changes possible with clean French Riviera style. Some of the “almosts” were in the lighting, sound and costume departments. Hey, they each had a lot of things working well, quite well, but imbalances (cast members in dark clothing lost in under-lit areas, starkly unbalanced follow-spots cutting across an extremely white jacket, opening night glitched sound cues and microphone qualities) occasionally took more work to keep us in the play.

Director and 14 year Orpheus member, Shaun Toohey brought sense and sass to this potentially unwieldy vehicle. His story-telling was strong — almost strong enough to endure the lags and sags and stray, hollow gags. In the lead roles of Lawrence Jameson and Freddy Benson, actors Rob Henderson and David McLaughlin were very capable of hitting every note, every mark and every joke with fun size and energy, but with less depth, truth and connection they seemed to rely on the situation to lead the story, the company, and our interest. Mr. Henderson did find some sincerity in the understated moments and clever comedy, but Mr. McLaughlin’s strings of physical bits and bawdy humour were not very meaningful or memorable without the core or the care. It was Shawna McSheffrey’s completely generous joy on stage as Christine Colgate that felt, well, “felt”. Ms. McSheffrey, with no ego or excuses, invested everything for the character, the story and for us. And she was not alone. Specifically comfortable on stage was Lawrence Evenchick as the dirty police chief, André Thibault, who put both the ‘supporting’ and the ‘character’ into supporting character. In a standout turn as Jolene (one of the dirty rotten scoundrel duo’s targets), Christa Cullain was an electromagnetic force from the moment we saw her, through her show-stopping number, onto her solid support in her colleagues’ scenes, and well after her departure. Irish O’Brien also brought some stylish fun and the entire supporting ensemble was sharp even through some fraying dance numbers.

I did laugh out loud a few times and with its strong energy and some plugged-in performances, this production was almost bright.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – an oversized rhinestone with some wiggle room in the ring.

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Orpheus Musical Theatre Society’s production of
Dirty Rotten Scoundrels
continues through June 12, 2011
at Centrepointe Theatre.

The Box Office is located at:
Centrepointe Theatre
Ben Franklin Place
101 Centrepointe Drive

Please visit their website at www.centrepointetheatre.com
Tickets may be ordered by phone at 613-580-2700
(or toll free at 1 866 752-5231). A service charge applies.
Visa and Mastercard accepted; Interac available (in person only).

www.orpheus-theatre.ca

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

* Opening Night, Thursday May 26, 2011 *

In 2007, Daniel MacIvor, actor and playwright (The Soldier Dreams, Cul-de-Sac, House, and Monster) announced that he “would no longer be doing solo shows”. Two years later when his life imploded, the award-winning playwright approached collaborator Daniel Brooks to do “one more”. With Brooks’ condition that the stories in this one be true, MacIvor set himself to question truth and real characters in his exploration of true feelings and fears and joys. The result – This is What Happens Next – is layered, complex, and at times, obscure.

In his most autobiographical piece to date, MacIvor began by discussing at length, his arrival, what he’s going to be talking about, and why he’s telling us a story — a story about people telling stories. Is it theatre? Is it meta-theatre? It felt more like “MacIvor in concert”. A CBC Comics Special. It was definitely an interesting look at the life and into the mind of the writer. But I suppose I arrived at the restaurant expecting a meal. What I got was a description of the chef, the menu and the complex preparations, a few juicy samples and then a glass of port to wrap things up. The set and lighting were also in the style of those character-based standup routines of, say, Cathy Jones or Sandra Shamas. Sharp and quick, but static and spotlight-y. Co-creator and dramaturg, Daniel Brooks also directed the piece and he kept things brisk. But with MacIvor’s own mile-a-minute rants and the recurring self-commentary breaks, that briskness made it difficult for us to get right in and stay onboard. Even the ending (that “glass of port”) was an odd fit of instant theatricality and sentimentality in their world of  bare bluster.

On stage this evening, MacIvor’s writing was stronger than his performance. The writer’s sense of the human script (what characters say, what they don’t say, and what they change in the middle of saying) was absolutely brilliant. While the actor’s fluid comfort, consistent connection and confidence only landed near pretty good. I do understand firsthand how it can be most difficult in that kind of autobiographical exposure. Where all the elements did align and light up the night was during the fully-felt character monologues of the female lawyer and the drunken ex-husband. Daniel MacIvor hit deep and high and broad.

I don’t know if it was the project, the script or the performance that had me feeling as though we walked through some very long hallways with lots and lots of doors. And only a few were opened.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a tricky locket.

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This is What Happens Next runs through June 12, 2011.

A Necessary Angel Production
Created by Daniel MacIvor and Daniel Brooks
Written and Performed by Daniel MacIvor
Directed and Dramaturged by Daniel Brooks

At the Great Canadian Theatre Company

Tickets available at the GCTC Box Office
www.gctc.ca
613-236-5196

This production is also part of the Magnetic North Theatre Festival
www.magneticnorthfestival.ca
613-947-7000

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

* Thursday May 5, 2011 *
Thank you. Those are my first words to playwright Lawrence Aronovitch. His two one-act scripts, Safe House and Ex Cathedra are smart, tense and volatile; strategic, tectonic and vital. This is the world premiere production of the two plays, written as companion pieces which are thematically linked to, in, and around the “Lavender Railroad” — his not too far from imaginary collection of safe houses, escape routes, and underground guides for homosexuals fleeing persecution, prison, and peril.

This Evolution Theatre production has taken the norm (the Studio Leonard-Beaulne theatre, for instance) and bent it into sharp, angular style. Set Designer, Margaret Coderre-Williams hasn’t so much designed a set, as she has designed the space itself – using existing exit doors, walls, and the depth of the stage as its breadth. The entire room and all its elements were in total service to the piece. And when I say the entire room, I include the stage lighting. Lynn Cox brought her own art and technical prowess to the style of the production by extending the majority of the lights down from the grid to the level of the actors. Effective and evocative in its mood and its bent. Director, Joël Beddows is powerful in his craft with theatricality and text. His strength is obvious in this staging of two different plays on one stage – criss-crossing both space and time.

All this style and strength was perhaps too much for the two actors in the first play, Safe House. Simon Bradshaw, playing Sebastian (a refugee homosexual mathematician), is a smart and well educated performer. Here, that is what we saw – devices to perform text and style. Intricate, but not involving. Tom Charlebois, in the role of Mother Courage (a code name for this leader of the Lavender Railroad), had a enigmatic voice and stature, but seemed limited by two gears and was not driven by listening or connecting. The delivery of words and messages was there, going by; but with very little reason or reality in it, between them or for us,… nothing happened. As the second play, Ex Cathedra began by weaving in and beyond the first, everything changed. The style became not simply what the actors played, but a flavour in and how and where they were. Maureen Smith as the Commander (a security officer in an anti-gay state) was quick to find her footing. And she stood strong as the story eroded the sand from beneath her character’s feet – challenging us to search for any guarded clues to her true motives. And Beverly Wolfe as the Sister (who has found religion to heal the wounds from her failed romantic past with the Commander) was the embodiment of the play’s smart, tense, tectonic vitality. Her performance was so immediate and present that the chemistry between the two actresses was literally breathtaking. All the way. Through.

While both plays are very powerful and very important (they could and should be made into films), the performances in this production of Safe House were a discussion of a stylized drawing of a tree; and those in Ex Cathedra were a tree.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a chipped jewel.

__________

The Lavender Railroad continues through May 14, 2011
at the Leaonard Beaulne Studio
University of Ottawa
135 Seraphin Marion

May 4 to 14, 2011 – 8 p.m.
Tickets: $25 general admission, $20 students/seniors.
Tickets available online or cash only at the door.
Pay What You Can Matinee: Sunday May 8 – 2 p.m.
(no show on Monday)

Evolution Theatre
www.evolutiontheatre.ca

__________

[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]

All these, and more, are coming to the main stage of the Great Canadian Theatre Company in its 2011–2012 season, which launched officially Tuesday afternoon.

On the main stage of the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre, still set for current production The Middle Place, Associate Artistic Director Brian Quirt joined Artistic Director Lise Ann Johnson to reveal the program for the coming year, with selected previews of each production to whet everyone’s theatrical appetite.

Brian Quirt invites us to take a flight of fancy with Amelia Earhart (Eliza-Jane Scott).

The first production of the season slated for September, Amelia: The Girl Who Wants to Fly (Festival Players of Prince Edward County), is somewhat of a departure for the GCTC. For starters, it’s a musical. Conceived by John Gray (Billy Bishop Goes to War) as something that would have the flavour of a radio play, this is the story of Amelia Earhart told in story and song, with Ottawa actress Eliza-Jane Scott playing the legendary aviatrix.

As part of its mandate, the GCTC strives to present at least one world premiere per season. At the end of October, Whispering Pines will see Brian Quirt direct Richard Sanger‘s narrative of life before and after the fall of the Iron Curtain from the perspective of two East German artists and their Canadian visitor.

With the approach of the holiday season, the mood will get lighter with Ottawa’s own A Company of Fools remounting their award-winning A Midwinter’s Dream Tale under the direction of Al Connors. This quirky fusion of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and The Winter’s Tale is given a characteristic Company of Fools spin with clowns Pomme (Scott Florence) and ‘Restes (Margo MacDonald), who stopped by the launch in search of ice cream and a few laughs.

If A Company of Fools is quintessentially Ottawa, Maja Ardal is equally international. In You Fancy Yourself (Contrary Company), she brings to life Elsa, a young Icelandic girl transplanted to working-class Scotland in the 1950s. This mirrors Ardal’s own upbringing, and the show came full-circle when she performed it in Edinburgh at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe. From the sample performed on the spot, eliciting gales of laughter from the crowd, this will be something to look forward to in the coldest part of Ottawa’s winter.

Director Joël Beddows asks East of Berlin playwright Hannah Moscovitch about her inspiration for the piece.

Spring will bring a different kind of production entirely; the Hannah Moscovitch (The Children’s Republic) play East of Berlin, directed by fellow Ottawa native Joël Beddows. At the launch, Moscovitch spoke to Beddows (for the first time, apparently) via Skype to elaborate upon the inspiration behind the work; someone she met during her four months on a kibbutz in Israel when she was eighteen—a young man whose grandfather had been an SS officer. That evolved into this story of the son of a Nazi doctor and the daughter of a survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp. Despite (and because of) the nature of the material, there promises to be a strong component of humour to help light the way into the darkness.

The season will wrap up as summer draws near, with American playwright Annie Baker‘s Circle Mirror Transformation, an off-Broadway success that tells the quirky story of inadvertent group therapy achieved through a theatre class.

In addition to its regular season offerings, the GCTC officially announced the return of the popular undercurrents festival for its sophomore year. Without going into too many specifics, Festival Producer Pat Gauthier hinted that this festival highlighting the best independent local and national work would feature at least one of Ottawa’s most innovative companies, as well as one of Canada’s best new work companies. undercurrents returns to the studio space at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in February (between You Fancy Yourself and East of Berlin).

If the theme of this season is variety, the GCTC is definitely aiming high and broad: a musical show, a clown show, local and international fare, stories of accusation and of redemption. To inquire about subscription packages, call the GCTC Box Office at (613) 236-5196, e-mail info@gctc.ca, or visit their website.

* Opening Night — Thursday April 7, 2011 *
Sheldon Currie’s Cape Breton born and raised script follows the unassuming life of Lauchie (pronounced “law-key”) MacDonald, a coal miner living with his widowed mother. A fateful evening at the bingo hall spins Lauchie into the arms of the vivacious Liza. Following a $500 bingo win, Lauchie and Liza announce their engagement and their plans to move in next door — just as Lauchie’s smooth-talking twin brother, Rory returns home. As the years pass, Liza’s choice of brothers weighs heavily on her and on the family.

The production design was aptly quaint and simple for the “company house” in a coal mine town. A little on the dark and drab side, it may have been too clay a base for life to grow or glow. An unfortunate wilting occurred with the choice of music. Although the play began with the acoustically brisk colour of Mairi Rankin’s mastery of the fiddle, she was then sat upstage in the dark as many of the musical moments underscoring the dancing, mood, atmosphere and scene transitions came from generic audio recordings. Director Mary-Colin Chisholm has been at the helm of this play from its 50-minute version; through its long and winding road; to this current full-length production by the Mulgrave Road Theatre in association with Frankie Productions. The direction is strong in the pleasant charm of the storytelling, but really thins out in want of focus, pace and energy on the stage. There are a few cleverly tight moments – the four-handed card game performed by two actors certainly stands out; and the bible/priest was good for a laugh. But with so many different staging styles (a parade of bits and bobs and tricks and schticks) the play as a whole was inconsistent and, at times distracting. The mother for example was portrayed as a painting (first by one actor, then the other actor, then a hand, then a fist). I thought perhaps she was dead and her portrait ‘coming to life’ was part of their memory, imagination and decor. I was wrong. Most of the production depended on the actors jumping back-and-forth between characters. So, when Rory Junior was played as an empty space with a disembodied voice, it took some getting used to. And then, in the next scene, he was played by one of the actors. I want to follow the “laws of the universe” created by a production, but when they drop them, they drop me.

Christian Murray, playing half of the characters in the play, brought physical, humorous, and crafty experience to his performance. His ability to snap fully between characters, especially the disparate twin brothers was often moving and memorable. Natasha MacLellan’s vocal and physical energy was lower and slower, but she did bring a sincerity to both the conflicted Liza and Lauchie’s plain-jane sister, Anne.

The line between the touching story at one end — and our theatre evening at the other — felt stretched and sagged with the loads of ideas clothespinned onto it.

MY ASSESSMENT: | Brilliant | Clear | Murky | Flawed | – a simple little stone buried in a brooch.

__________

“Lauchie, Liza and Rory” by Sheldon Currie continues at the NAC Studio through April 16, 2011

The NAC English Theatre

Tickets are available for purchase:
In person at the NAC Box Office
At all Ticketmaster outlets
By telephone from Ticketmaster, (613) 755-1111
Online through the Ticketmaster link on the NAC’s website (www.nac-cna.ca)
A service charge applies on all purchases made through Ticketmaster.

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[Requests for "APPRAISE of the Theatre" reviews should be directed to info@ottawatonite.com]