September 2007

Oklahoma
by Richard Rodgers (Music) and Oscar Hammerstein II (Book and Lyrics)
Directed by Shel Piercy Music Director Wendy Bross Stuart
Alternate nights till August 17th at Malkin Bowl

Oh what a beautiful evening, oh what a wonderful night. I love Oklahoma - the musical that is, as Oklahoma is one of the nineteen US states I have yet to visit. It's not that I've been swallowing happy pills but I just love musicals and this one is jam packed with tunes that make me wish I had the singing and dancing talent to be up there on stage having as much fun as the enthusiastic young cast seem to have. Add a mild dry Vancouver night after the threatened rain shower spattered by in the early afternoon, an appreciative audience with families and lots of young people and a great venue in Stanley Park - what could be more quintessential Vancouver than that?

The Shape of Things
by Neil Labute
Directed by Sabrina Evertt
Waterfront Theatre
August 22 – September 1
Twenty Something Theatre

Vancouver, BC: Take two seemingly unrelated questions - what moral values lead to destructive human relationships? And what aesthetic values define art? - combine through the unforgiving pen of playwright/ director, Neil Labute, and you get the edgy disturbing play, The Shape of Things, that previewed last night at the Waterfront Theatre, on Granville Island.

The setting for the play is a liberal arts college in a Midwestern town. Evelyn (Julie McIsaac) is an art student working on her thesis for her MFA degree. Adam (Joel Sturrock) is a shy, awkward, English literature student, working as a part-time security guard at a local museum jobs to get by. They meet when Evelyn, attractive and aggressive, challenges Joel to stop her from defacing one of the exhibits. This encounter leads to an affair during which Evelyn becomes the dominant figure in Adam's world, reshaping his person, his attire and his friendships. Phillip (Jon Lachlan Stuart) is Adam's ex-roommate, now engaged to Jenny (Lisa Aasebo). Jenny harbors an unexpressed attraction for Adam. Over time, Evelyn's machinations alienate Adam from Phillip and Jenny, and destroying their relationship as well.

As only the second production of Twenty-Something Theatre, this was a risky play to chose. In particular, the first act which lacks a major conflict, needs strong direction and acting to convey the tensions and nuances of the relationships between the four young people. Instead the first act was slow and one-dimensional. However the energy picked up remarkably after the intermission and the tension was maintained until the incredibly disturbing denouement.

Julius Caesar
Directed by Katrina Dunn
Studio Stage Vanier Park
To September 21st, 2007
Bard on the Beach

Vancouver, BC. I really enjoyed this performance of Julius Caesar, directed by Katrina Dunn, on the Studio stage at Bard on the Beach. Or more correctly, I should say I thought the first half had some of the most powerful performances I have seen in a while. It always seems to me that the high point of the play is the powerful funeral oration by Mark Antony while the second half of the play, armies clashing and men falling on their swords, comes somewhat as an anti-climax after the earlier dramatic scenes of betrayal and the power of rhetoric.

The play centers on the plotting, carrying out and aftermath of the assassination of Julius Caesar. Despite the eponymous title,Caesar is killed off early in the third act and the focus settles on Brutus, an "honorable man" who "did love Caesar when [he] struck him," and Mark Antony, whose masterful oratory and Iago-like manipulation shifts the mood of the populace against the conspirators.

A strong cast delivers some great performances, with many playing multiple roles. Allan Morgan makes an imposing and imperial Julius Caesar, even when he is vacillating between acceding to the pleas of his wife, Calpurnia (Melissa Poll) to stay away from the Senate, and the scoffing of conspirator Decius (Linda Quibell), who urges him to go. Gerry Mackay's Cassius has the brooding intensity of a "dangerous man" who "thinks too much" yet who lacks the morality to resist bribes. Scott Bellis portrays Brutus with great sensitivity. We see how deeply he is conflicted as to whether his attack on Caesar was the right thing to do. The love between him and his wife, Portia, beautifully played by Jennifer Lines, and his grief at her death made for two very moving scenes.