As I See It

The Breath of Life by David Hare
Directed by Adam Henderson
United Players of Vancouver
Jericho Arts Centre
Apr 2 -25, 2010

Vancouver, BC: I finally managed to see the last of the four plays with "great roles for older women"  featured in Vancouver  within the past 4 months, as alluded to in my Preview of Collected Stories. Starting with the Arts Club's, Mrs. Dexter & her Daily in January, this coincidental "series" of plays includes  Queen Lear at  Presentation House in March, and  Collected Stories at PAL Theatre and Breath of Life, both this month.

Each play had a cast of two women. And in two of the four (Mrs Dexter and Breath of Life), both roles were for "veteran" actresses. In Queen Lear and Collected Stories, the interaction was between a younger student and an older woman. All four plays were heavily focused on the relationship between the two characters rather than being event driven. And what I find most fascinating is that all except Mrs. Dexter, were written by male playwrights. Sounds like there is an interesting idea for a Masters thesis in Drama somewhere in this topic.

Masters' Play
Ballet Kelowna
Roundhouse Community Centre
Sat, Apr 19th, 2010

Vancouver, BC: In an unusual conjunction, this weekend I had the pleasure of seeing two dance shows (instead of two plays  back to back on successive evenings. Friday night's show was the stunning high energy Burn The Floor Ballroom and Latin Dance production at the Vogue Theatre. As a lovely counterpoint, on Saturday night, Ballet Kelowna, a small ballet company with a huge heart performed at the Roundhouse Community Center.

This was the 14th of 17 performances for Ballet Kelowna on their 2 month tour through communities of British Columbia, from Fort Nelson to Golden, and to their home base in Kelowna. Their schedule listed in the program looked quite grueling to me but as the dancers range in age from 19 to 25, they have the youthful energy to bounce back from the performances and travel between locations. On stage they certainly showed no signs of having been on the road for long although this is near the end of their tour. The ensemble on tour consists of three ballerinas, Tiffany Bilodeau,  Christina Cecchini and Raelynn Heppell, and three male dancers, Cal Glover,  Davin Luce and Eloi Homie.

When Artistic Director, David LaHay, began to introduce the program for the evening I knew I was in for a treat. His enthusiasm and obvious passion for honoring those who have been part of the history of Canadian ballet created an excited anticipation as he  talked about each piece we were about to see. The concept behind this program was to celebrate great Canadian choreography.

Burn The Floor: FloorPlay
Conceived, Directed and Choreographed by Jason Gilkison
Vogue Theatre
Remaining shows Apr 17, 2 and 8 pm, April 18.

Vancouver, BC:  Last night at the Vogue Theatre I saw  Burn the Floor for the third time in eight months . The show has lost none of its impact from the first two times I saw it  in New York and the dancing- and the singing - is as fantastic as before. They got several standing ovations and deservedly so. Anyone who loves dance should see this show and there are only three performances left  before they head off to Toronto.

We were a group of 8 people with very mixed experience in dance,  that met to go and see  the Friday night performance.  All of us, from the 5 who are simply enthusiastic observers of dance shows, to me - a very late starter in ballroom dance, and my two teachers, who are ex-competitive dancers, were wild about the show. 

Earlier this week I had enjoyed the opportunity to chat to some of the dancers and to Preview the cast dancing in three of the numbers up close, but the energy they generated in the dance studio was nothing compared to that  in the theatre, when magnified by the strong percussive music.  You could power a city with the force of their energy.

Unfortunately I had a very large, tall man  in the seat in front of me with a big head that really blocked my view of the overall  stage, except for two numbers when he sat a little lower in his seat. If it was the first time I saw the show I would have been really upset. 

But as it was, looking around his head,  I found myself focusing less on the spectacle and more objectively on the individual dancing- the various steps that I could identify and the awesome precision of the footwork.

Collected Stories by Donald Margulies
Directed by Mel Tuck
PAL Theatre
April 14 to 17, 21 to 24, 2010

Vancouver, BC:  Well I have now seen three of the four plays I mentioned in my  Preview of Collected Stories. Plays with satisfyingly meaty roles for "veteran actresses." Ruth Steiner in Collected Stories is such a character and, in the opening night show,  Karen Austin did full justice to the role.

Collected Stories, by American playwright, Donald Margulies (who teaches playwriting at Yale School of Drama) premiered in New York in 1997 and won a Drama Desk nomination for Best play. it is beautifully constructed to show the changing relationship between successful writer/ professor, Ruth Steiner and the young student Lisa (Deborah English) who  becomes her protege, her friend and ultimately her rival.

We first encounter Ruth and Lisa on the occasion of their initial meeting when Lisa is an awe-struck student and Ruth, a confident if weary, teacher of creative writing. The story unfolds through successive interactions over the course of six years, marked by a change of calendar on the wall of Ruth's apartment, where the entire play but one scene takes place.

Last year I came across some interesting posts in The Guardian newspaper's theatre blog on the subject of stage roles for older women. Critic/blogger Lyn Gardner  asked "what happened to great stage roles for older women" and academic/critic Karen Fricker responded by naming some great classic roles.

Since "older' is a relative term - viewed differently at 70 then at 20 - Fricker suggests "middle age [for which there is actually no one accepted definition anyway ] and best played by an actress in her 50s or above."

Well Vancouver must be way ahead of the game because I can think of at least 4 plays here within the last year with roles that fit that criterion,  three of them are on right now; namely Queen Lear, Collected Stories which starts tonight, and The Breath of Life, which I hope to see next week. And then there was  Mrs Dexter & Her Daily, a new Canadian play  at the Arts Club this January. Interestingly all four are double handers, two featuring two "older" women, and two featuring an older woman with a younger protege.

Refuge of Lies
Written and directed by Ron Reed
Pacific Theatre Company
Pacific Theatre,
April 9 - May 1, 2010

Vancouver, BC: Refuge of Lies is the kind of play that makes theatre exciting for me.   It tells a great story, has strong characters struggling with profound life questions and has the power to engender intense discussions as well as individual explorations of  one's personal sense of morality. Throw in a number of excellent performances and powerful staging under the direction of the playwright himself, and you have a riveting drama.

As Reed states, his impetus to write this play originated sixteen years ago when UBC botanist and Mennonite, Jacob Luitjens, was extradited to the Netherlands for war crimes committed some fifty years earlier, during the second world war. Reed took  the title and theme for this play from the lines of  Isaiah 28:7 - " And I will make justice the line... and hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and waters will overwhelm the shelter.”

While the play grew out of the Luitjens story (and that of others like him), Reed emphasizes that the play is not biographical but more about the emotional conflicts stirred up in the playwright himself  in response to the events.  And the different degrees to which these conflicts spill over into  each audience member adds to the power of the piece.

Forget about your superheroes. Forget about "swifter, higher, stronger". The fittest athletes not to compete in an Olympic Games are performing in Vancouver this week. It's the cast of Burn The Floor, the  dance spectacular that reinvents International Ballroom and Latin Dance in a show that is absolutely riveting.

They are fresh off their Broadway run - where I loved it so much that I saw it twice in two weeks  - see Burn The Floor - New York Theatre.

And guess what,  I already have my ticket for the Vancouver show.

So what's so special about this show? The music will rock you to the core and the percussion rhythms of Georgio Rojas with vocalists Ricky Rojas and Rebecca Tapia will make you want to get up and dance.

The dancing is amazing.
It's fast and high energy. You won't believe that human legs can move that fast.

It's sexy and passionate. If you've needed Viagra, you won't after this show.

It's sensuous and romantic - like floating in a dream dance.

"I get the performing part - its a dance show after all, but athlete?" you may ask. 

Trunk
Written and directed by Jeremy Waller
Box Studio
Craning Neck Theatre
April 9 to 17, 2010

Vancouver, BC: Trunk is an original play by Vancouver playwright/director Jeremy Waller. Selected for workshopping through the  2009 Playwright's Colony at BC's Playwrights Theatre Centre, this is its premiere production.

Staged in the Box Sudio - a large "white box " space, presently configured with seating for just over 20 people per show, the dominant set piece is a two tiered metal scaffold on wheels,  with white sheeting hiding the interior or drawn back to reveal the skelton of the structure.

A large battered trunk also features prominently - on the floor, or swinging, suspended like a pendulum, from the scaffold.

This is THE TRUNK - metaphor for the suppressed fears, anxiety and anger that, compounded by obsessive religiosity,  turns Dylan into a violently abusive husband and father. The pain he inflicts on his wife and children devastates their lives and continues into the third generation.

At least that is what I think this play is about - that the effect of profound psychological dysfunction is felt far beyond the next generation. 

However I must confess that while I felt the anger, the energy and the passion reverberate in the room along with David Mesiha's often pounding original music,  I did not always follow the story and the transitions in time and space were often disconcerting and too abstract for my straining mind to get.

So with that caveat I will continue and if I get anything wrong I encourage the writer, cast or dramaturgs or others who have seen the show, to comment and point out my error. Or if you prefer you can review my review on the ReviewFromTheHouse Facebook Fan Page.

Where's Charley?
Book  by George Abbott. Music & Lyrics by Frank Loesser
Directed by Dean Paul Gibson
Musical Direction by Steven Greenfield
Choreography by Shelley Stewart Hunt
Studio 58
Mar 25 to Apr 18, 2010

Vancouver, BC: I always love attending the  shows at Studio 58 because regardless of the genre they are performing, the student cast always exudes the vitality and joie de vivre that comes from doing something they love to do. Tonight's show was no exception.

Where's Charley is a musical farce based on the play, Charley's Aunt by English playwright, Brandon Thomas. The play premiered in 1892 and had record breaking runs in England and later on Broadway. Abbott and Loesser's musical adaptation, Where's Charley, directed by Abbott, opened on Broadway in 1948.

Loesser is probably best known for his marvelously hummable melodies and clever lyrics in his 1950 musical, Guys and Dolls, and the 1961 Pulitzer Prize winning How to Succeed in Business without Really Trying.

I mention this because sometime between 1948 and 1950 Loesser must have been blessed by  Euterpe, the Muse of Music and later, also the Muse of Lyric Poetry. How else could he come up with the marvellous sound-track of Guys and Dolls?

Queen Lear by Eugene Stickland
Directed by Colleen Winton
Western Gold Theatre and Presentation House Theatre
Presentation House
Mar 25 to Apr 10, 2010

Vancouver,BC:  Memory - what a powerful emotional factor in so many ways. Is there anyone among us mature (never "older") individuals who does not fear  loss of memory as a foreshadowing of loss of mind? I know that every time I can't for the moment recall the name of the lead character in the book I just read, or an actor in a play I reviewed last year, I can feel that  my RAM is failing but there is no store where I can buy an upgrade as I can for my computer.

But we can laugh off  these memory lapses  as minor incidents. For an actor whose biggest nightmare would be to come up blank with lines on stage - wow- how much more frightening an age-related decline in memory would be.

In a heart-wrenching performance, Shirley Broderick conveys the anguish of knowing that one - and one's ability to learn - is not what it was at fifteen!

Broderick plays Jane, a "not-old"  aging actress who is to play Lear in an all-female production. She arranges for Heather, the schoolgirl daughter of her deceased best friend, to help her learn her lines.  In the process, both learn to look at life a little differently.