It was down to the last three Fringe performances that I could fit into my insanely crowded schedule, and the day was grey and rainy. Did I really want to take the ferry across to Granville Island and stand in lineups in the rain? Luckily the skies cleared and by the time I needed to leave it was dry and quite pleasant. I packed my umbrella into my knapsack and set off to the ferry dock for a quick ride over to the island, and was really glad I did. I had been looking forward to hearing Melanie Gall sing Piaf since I heard her sing while I waited in line-ups for the earlier shows, and she did not disappoint me. The Sparrow and The Mouse is my favorite show of the selection of 8 plays I managed to see in this year's Fringe.
But first at the False Creek Gym I saw "Suicide(s) in Vegas, staged by members of the Seoul City Improv group who have been touring across Canada since June.
Tuesday I was back on Granville Island for more Fringe Festival performances. I picked two shows at Studio 1398 on Cartwright Street at 5:15 and 7:45 and what a treat they both turned out to be.
Dianne & Me
Playwright: Ron Fromstein
Director : Luke Brown
Studio 1398 at Festival House
RT: 55 min
Remaining shows Sept 16, 17.
Dianne & Me is a delightful look at the bond between mother and daughter seen through the eyes of an imaginative teenager who is suddenly to confront a problem far out of the realm of homework, best friends and teenage infatuation.
Emma is played by Elena Juatco, who shone as Christine, the naive / sophisticated con-artist in the Playhouse's 2009 production of "Dirty Rotten Scoundrels." As Emma, she captures perfectly the speech and mannerisms of a gawky teenager and I thought she did an excellent job of this one-woman show. The script garnered first place for Fromstein in the Hamilton 2010 New Playwright's Best Of Fringe contest. Though the arc of the story and the outcome were quite predictable, I was engaged throughout and I confess I surreptitiously wiped away a tear or two at the end.
So we come to Sunday, the last day of the Festival and I am planning to see four plays. The dilemma is how to chose what to see, juggling priorities, time slots and distances. And selection of what to see is a subject to which I will return later.
My first choice was Hannah Moscovitch's "Little One." I first heard of her when I saw "East of Berlin" and really loved her writing. A year later I saw Mexico City and The Russian Play, two short plays by Moscovitch and although I was not as "blown away" by them as by East of Berlin, I thought her work was well worth seeing.
My second choice was "The Trolley Car" by Amiel Gladstone because I received a Facebook invitation, it was developed in Vancouver, and I had not had a chance to see it before.
That took care of the 4 PM and 10 PM slots, conveniently leaving me able to see White Rabbit, Red Rabbit at 7:30 PM. I was told by several sources not to miss this as it was a Volcano/Necessary Angel co-production and had to be good.
After missing out on a number of events from October to December, I now find myself confronted with a plethora of theatre offerings - far more than I can keep up with. I was really excited to see that in one of those unusual programming conjunctions that occur from time to time, in this month alone three award winning plays about dysfunctional family relationships are opening.
Trace Letts' August: Osage County (2008 Pulitzer, Tony and New York Drama Critics Awards) is already playing at The Stanley, Arthur Miller's Death of A Salesman (1949 Pulitzer, Tony and New York Drama Critics Awards) opens this week at the Vancouver Playhouse and Edward Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf(1963 Tony and New York Drama Critics Award) is at the Granville Island Stage.
And here is where the first bit of trivia comes in.
Back in Manhattan after an awesome dance-filled Labour Day Getaway Cruise, feeling great except for my tired feet. I am ready for another 5 days of dance, theatre and fine food. First thing on the agenda will be to pick up a pair of practice shoes for the next couple of lessons. Somehow on board ship my feet must have grown from a dainty size 4½ to something huge. By the end of the voyage I felt like one of Cinderella's sisters, trying to squeeze my foot into a shoe that was suddenly far too small. Oh well, no prince for me I guess.
I plan to spend the rest of the day catching up on writing, laundry and planning my feasts for mind and body for my remaining days in the city.
Wednesday, September 9th - No Gill, you're not in a Bruce Willis movie !
I guess it was bad karma for being amused at the lady in the elevator who was scared of heights but my day started out with a bang - literally. I have only two phobias - I shudder at fluttering things like butterflies and moths - and I have a mild degree of claustrophobia. While my ultimate claustrophobic nightmare would be to be in a submarine, being trapped in an elevator would come pretty close. And guess what happened.
With my day planned out to the minute - subway to Times Square, pick up theatre tickets, visit Worldtone dance shop, have lunch, go to dance lesson, have supper, see play - I was feeling quite the jaunty travel-writer as I waited for the elevator on the 11th floor of my building. After all I had sort of mastered the routes I needed on the New York subway, only turned in the wrong direction about 5 times, and was comfortable finding my way around the various areas of Manhattan where I needed to go. After all in theory with an intelligently numbered grid system even a directionally challenged person should hardly stray too far wrong. But back to the elevator.
So the elevator comes, I enter and press the button for the Lobby. Doors close, the elevators starts to move - and I hear a loud bang. The elevator drops precipitously and then stops. My stomach continues downward. Oh Oh. I look at the indicator - it still says 11 and it is not moving. I press the Door Open button - no response. Something was definitely wrong but an intrepid world traveller does not panic, even a claustrophobic world traveller.
New York is one of my favorite cities – it has a unique buzz, an electric feel, that is unlike anywhere else I have visited. Each time I visit New York I feel like a humming bird, hovering just above the surface of culture and cuisine, dipping down for a taste, but never able to perch long enough to experience more than that brief and tantalizing taste.
Annie Book by Thomas Meehan
Music by Charles Strouse, Lyrics by Martin Charnin
Directed by Glynis Leyshon
Music Director Wendy Bross Stuart
Choreographer Jason Franco
Vancouver,BC: One would have to have a heart of steel, or maybe no heart at all, not to adore feisty little orphan Annie and her unshaken belief that her parents will return to take her away from Miss Hannigan and the orphanage. The story of Annie and Daddy Warbucks, however implausible (it was based on a comic strip after all) taps into the dream of any lonely, lost or abused child; namely that someone big and strong and loving will come to rescue them. And then as well as its optimism and emotional appeal, the musical is jam-packed with well known songs that stay in your head, long after the curtain falls. Annie is great family entertainment.
Sunny weather is predicted for the next while so go and enjoy the shows.
Also opening this week at the Playwright's Theatre Centre is an original work by local actor/playwright Jenn Griffin, called Via Beatrice, that I saw last year as a Work in Progress and thoroughly enjoyed. I look forward to seeing the full production. Check it out too.
It is hard for me to believe that it is three and a half years since I wrote my first Rants, Raves and Reviews post for Immediate Theatre. Somewhat ironically, it was titled Our Town, as it was partly about seeing the Thornton Wilder play but in Toronto, not Vancouver - my town! My first posted travelblogue (I really should copyright that word!) London and Languedoc about studying travel writing with Angela Murrills in France, was written in the fall of 2006. And the first theatre review officially posted to ReviewFromTheHouse.com was The View from Above in April 2008, just over a year ago.
Over the last year we have been fine tuning ReviewFromTheHouse.com focusing on the three sections of Theatre, Food and Wine, and Travel. Over the next month or so we will be adding a fourth section on Dance as well as an interactive section called Your View. This last section will feature Your Comments, as well as provide a forum for your theatre reviews - Your Seat View - and for your restaurant experiences - Your Eat View.
In the mean time check out my upcoming Travelblogue called Dancing at Sea, chronicling my experiences on a coastal cruise from Los Angeles to Vancouver, featuring winery excursions and ballroom dancing.
Bill MacDonald and Meg Roe in Toronto, Mississippi Toronto, Mississippi by Joan MacLeod
Directed by Dean Paul Gibson
Vancouver Playhouse
Playhouse Theatre Company
Feb 28- Mar 21, 2009
Photo by David Cooper.
Vancouver, BC: I was really happy to be able to catch the closing night performance of Toronto Mississippi, the day after I returned after three weeks away from Vancouver. The play itself is one that I had often heard discussed but had never read nor seen performed and I expected that Dean Paul Gibson would draw strong performances from the cast of Colleen Wheeler (Maddie), Meg Roe (Jhana), Bill MacDonald (King) and Alessandro Juliani (Bill).
Dianne & Me
Tuesday September 8th 
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