Theatre Seen

Sensation of Magic
Designed and performed by Vitaly Beckman
The Havana Theatre
17th to 21st August, 2010

Vancouver, BC. A Magic Show at the Havana? Sounded like it might be fun so a friend and I headed over to Commercial Drive to enjoy a pre-show supper at the Havana Cafe and then watch illusionist, Vitaly Beckman work his magic, so to speak.

The three rows of seats in the small Havana Theatre were packed by the time the show was to start. I had no idea what to expect - maybe a bit of "magic rings or scarves" and some "rabbit out of a hat thingie." I settled back in my seat thinking cynically to myself that in such an up-close and intimate playing space, it would be a cinch to spot whatever tricks he would be using to create his illusions. But I guess I won't be hired as a sooth sayer any time soon! Because...

Enter Beckman, with a disarming, almost self-deprecating, smile and an charmingly engaging personality. He started off slowly with a spoon, two glass tumblers and some gentle swirling motions of his arms and hands. Without touching it, he got the spoon to move around in the glass tumbler. Hmmm ... I thought to myself,  "okay, some kind of magnet or something. "

The next moment the spoon was floating freely in the air.  I sat up and started paying attention - serious attention.

Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Directed by Michael Shamata
Arts Club Theatre Company
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage
July 22 to August 22, 2010

Vancouver, BC.  Drifting through the Stanley Theatre lobby at intermission, I  was struck by the unusual number of men engaged in lively and animated discussion about the events of the first act. There seems to be something about this Mamet piece (other than that it features an all-male ensemble), that makes it resonate more strongly than most productions with male audience members.  Maybe its the sense of watching a war-zone where only the strong and ruthless will survive, that makes it so much a man's play.

Or maybe not exclusively so.  This is the third version of Glengarry Glen Ross that I have seen (one being the film adaptation and the second  an outstanding equity-co-op production of Glengarry Glen Ross by a small group of fine local actors) and despite the fact that there is not a decent or sympathetic character whose fate one should care about - in fact they are all pretty despicable people - as before, I found myself completely caught up in the action.

Robin Hood by Sebastian Archibald
Directed by Chelsea Haberlin
Itsazoo Productions
Queen Elizabeth Park - at the Bloedel Conservatory
 August 4-7, 10-14 and 17-19, 2010 at 7:00 pm.
Run extended  - 25th to 28th August

Vancouver, BC: It is definitely becoming one of  Vancouver's  summer theatre traditions - a promenade play by Itsazoo Productions in Queen Elizabeth Park. With the natural scenery of the park as the stage, the audience follows members of the company along pathways and grassy areas as the story moves from scene to scene. Company playwright Sebastian Archibald adapts and creates the stories from varied sources.

Last year's show was drawn from The Canterbury Tales. This year Archibald has taken the story of the medieval folkloric hero, Robin Hood, and his Sherwood Forest gang and set it in contemporary Vancouver.  The premier, Nottingham (played by Archibald) and his pal MLA, Rich White (I kid you not) played by David Benedict Brown, are planning a Big Deal event to put the city on the map, and in the process get themselves re-elected. To succeed they need lots of money, which they get  by cutting funding for everything else. They also want to clean up the streets and get the drug dealers, petty thieves and the homeless out of sight.  And they have just the person to do this, taser-happy Chief Gisbourne (Julia Church), helped by cop (Mel Brown) and other cops.

Henry V by William Shakespeare
Directed by Meg Roe
Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival,
Studio Stage, Vanier Park.
to September 24th, 2010

Vancouver, BC: Following her 2008 directing debut at Bard on the Beach with a lively production of The Tempest, Meg Roe has again created a visually exciting and engrossing work in this year's production of Henry V. And this year, instead of having Alessandro Juliani produce a complete soundscape to underscore the production as in The Tempest, she places him front and centre as Henry V.  A multi-talented artist - he performs both tasks, sound design (for The Tempest) and acting in the lead role (of two plays at the same time!), with equal aplomb. Juliani is quite entrancing to watch onstage, and he played a Hal and a Henry worthy of the crown he ultimately attains.

Falstaff
Adapted by Errol Durbach from Henry lV, 1 & ll.
Directed by Glynis Leyshon
Bard on the Beach Shakespeare Festival,
Studio Stage, Vanier Park.
to September 22nd, 2010

Vancouver, BC: Having enjoyed both the Mainstage productions of  Much Ado about Nothing and Antony and Cleopatra, I did not want to miss Bard's two Studio Stage shows of the 2010 season. So before I took off for a London visit to dine and see theatre prior to going Ballroom Dancing round the British Isles, I made my plans to see Falstaff and Henry V on successive nights soon after my return. 

39 and Ticking! The Musical
Written and Directed by Sharon Heath
Music by Ted Hamilton with Joan MacLean
Full Figure Theatre
Jericho Arts Centre
August 3 to 8, 2010

Vancouver, BC: I bet there isn't a woman in the audience for "39 and Ticking!" who regardless of age, does not empathize with Rose and the conflicting voices in her head - specially that of her mother. We may not all share the special dilemma  of a 39 year old - longing to have a baby versus that darn ticking biological clock but we all at one time or another have been buffeted by conflicting images and desires from voices buried, but not-so-deep, in our subconscious minds.

Writer/ director Heath has taken the voices that plague 39 year old Rose (Lisa Beley) or at least three of them, and embodied them as free spirit/ cougar Mattie (Lisa Bunting), Mom (Joan MacLean) and some kind of existential guru, played by Chery Mullen who doubles as Rose's boyfriend Dan.

We meet Rose in her flat, where she is whizzing around in response to the noisy inner voices, and ignoring the pregnancy test kit waiting in her bathroom. Desperate to get pregnant, Rose has spent time, a lot of it,  on-line dating - where she  encounters numerous less than desirable guys. Until she finally meets Dan.

Singing in the  Rain
Book by Betty Comden and Adolph Green; Songs by Nacio Herb Brown and Arthur Freed
Director Shel Piercy; Music Director Wendy Bross-Stewart; Choreographer Shelley Stewart-Hunt
Theatre Under the Stars,
Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park
Alternating nights to August 20th, 2010

Vancouver, BC. As much as Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat  will enchant children this summer, adult audiences will enjoy this production of Singing in the Rain. Although the words "singing in the rain" can't help but  evoke the iconic image  of  Gene Kelly  in the 1952 movie, the fun this TUTS cast has with the story managed to get the movie images out of my mind.

Singing in the Rain was first produced as a stage musical in London's West End more than three decades after the film version and we saw an entertaining version of the Arts Club stage a couple of years ago. This is the first time for this musical  on the TUTS stage, and the talented Cailin Stadnyk gets to reprise her part from the Arts Club production, as the untalented but gorgeous Lina Lamont..

Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat
Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice
Directed by Shel Piercy;
Music Director Kevin Michael Cripps;
Choreographer Keri Minty
Theatre Under the Stars,
Malkin Bowl, Stanley Park
Alternating nights to August 20th, 2010

Vancouver, BC.  TUTS could not have asked for a more perfect evening to open their 2010 season. The evening air was warm, and the strong winds that blew through Vancouver yesterday had moved on to bluster across  another part of the province.  This year TUTS have instituted reserved seating throughout, a move that seemed to be appreciated by all.

We arrived early, after enjoying a delicious meal at the Tapastree restaurant just off  Denman Street, and sat down to enjoy the lively pre-show music.

The season opener was Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat by the team of composer Andrew Lloyd Webber and lyricist Tim Rice, based on the story of Joseph from the old testament Book of Genesis.  In keeping with the 1968 origin of this work as a fifteen minute performance piece for the music department of an high school project Director Piercy has changed the narrator function into an interactive communication between a group of children and a tribe of "flower children".

In Vancouver, arts organizations and theatre companies are reeling under the impact of massive cuts to arts funding. From our recent visit to Kelowna for the Spring Wine Festival, Destination Travel: Kelowna in the Okanagan Wine Country , here is an inspiring story of "a little company that could" - The Kelowna Actors Studio is thriving and looking forward to an expanded season next year - and they do it through ticket sales.

Randy Leslie and Nathan Flavel are the brains, passion and talent behind Kelowna's independent theatre company, The Kelowna Actors Studio. Despite being a week away from the opening of "The Miracle Worker" when we called to see them,  they generously took time out of their frenetic schedules to show us around their theatre and describe their impressive plans for  8 productions during their 2010/2011 season.

Although neither mentioned this during our talk, some prior research on my part revealed that both Nathan and Randy have established themselves as dedicated contributors to the cultural and entrepreneurial scene in Kelowna. Randy was the recipient of the first ever Okanagan Angel Award in 2005 for his contribution to the local arts scene and recently received a civic award for Honour in the Arts. Nathan was the recipient of the Kelowna Chamber of Commerce Young Entrepreneur Of the Year award for his work with Kelowna Actors Studio.

Twelfth Night by William Shakespeare
Directed by Tariq Leslie
What You Will Equity Co-op,
Jericho Arts Centre
July 2 to July 24, 2010

Vancouver, BC: It is a fascinating experience to see how a directorial approach can alter one's perception of a play, particularly something so familiar as Twelfth Night. The production of Twelfth Night that I saw by Bard on the Beach in the 2008 season, was played with rapid-fire intensity and fairly sparkled with light-hearted humour.  

This pace of this production of Twelfth Night was much slower and more leisured. This brought out the darker aspects of the play so the overall mood of the play was heavier and more ponderous.

The plot of mixed identities and genders centers around Viola (Courtney Lancaster), who, having survived a shipwreck in which her twin brother Sebastian (Adam Bergquist) was ostensibly drowned, enters the service of Orsino, Duke of Illyria (Trevor Devall) disguised as a boy, Cesario. Each twin, unbeknownst to each other is rescued - Viola by the captain (Yurij Kis) of the wrecked ship; Sebastian by a sea captain, Antonio (Kis).