premiere

Paradise Garden by Lucia Frangione
Directed by Morris Ertman
Arts Club Theatre Company
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
March 11- April 11, 2010

Vancouver, BC:  Over our pre-show dinner at Yuji's Japanese Tapas restaurant, we discussed the phenomenon that my companion called "the bum factor" but which I prefer to think of as "the watch factor". Simply put, it is the thing that happens when a certain restlessness develops as one is watching a show - either because something is dragging on too long or because it just  fails to grip one's attention. He gets antsy and wriggles in his seat while I get an irresistible urge to check the time - saved only by the fact that I cant see the dial in the dark.

I hasten to add that in our post-show discussion of the opening night performance of Paradise Garden we both agreed that neither factor was operative. On the contrary, he didn't wriggle, I did not check my watch and in fact my attention was held throughout the play. So the perplexing aspect was why the play failed to "get me". I am usually a sucker for love stories and romance and Paradise Garden is on several levels  a love story - or at least an exploration of the inexplicability of some relationships.