A Good Review - Good for the Ego
From the October 26, 2006 Vue Weekly:
THEATRE
MAGNOLIAS CAST BLOOMS
DAVID BERRY / david@vueweekly.com
I’m predisposed against plays like Steel Magnolias, but it’s got a lot more to do with aesthetics than gender. Sure, it’s “chick” fair (there’s no clever “flick” or “lit” rhyme for theatre, sadly), but, more to the point, it’s not particularly good chick fair. Playwright Robert Harling draws six caricatures who practically ooze overcooked Southernisms and uses them solely in service of a cloying plot that simultaneously manages to supposedly celebrate women’s strength as it cements them in every easy stereotype it can manage.
It is a serious, serious credit to director Linette Smith and her cast, though, that the Walterdale’s production of Harling’s contemptible little play, set in a Southern hair salon before and after the wedding of a young Shelby (Rebecca Pontig), is a thoroughly engaging, casually charming evening of theatre. Where Harling goes wrong, Smith and her troupe go right, earning with their natural charisma and chemistry a kind of emotional honesty that Harling just doesn’t on the page. Much of the credit is due to Kristen Finlay (mother-of-the-bride M’Lynn) and Lisa Pulak (wealthy socialite Clairee) who play markedly different roles to similar levels of efficacy.
Finlay works as the emotional core of the play—no small feat considering four of the other five are essentially different forms of comic relief and Pontig is at times too tentative in her tragic role—and her anchor is crucial in keeping it grounded: without her sitting indignantly under a hair-curler after an argument with Shelby, or watching the tears essentially creep up from her feet until they burst through her eyes in the play’s final scene, the play would be as empty as Harling envisioned it, but her stern, honest emotions lend a gravitas to even the one-liners.On that side of things, Pulak excels. She bursts forth pure sass with the unrestrained glee of a wined-up aunt at Thanksgiving, and her boisterous cackle fills the stage at every available opportunity.
Erin Foster-O’Riordan as the pragmatic Truvy and Lousie D Maryniak as the sour-faced Ouiser have their moments as well, but Pulak seems most comfortable in her role, sniping—albeit in good humour—from her stylist’s chair to add levity to nearly every occasion. One can’t help but wonder what they might have pulled off with better source material, but such wondering seems redundant: they’ve found gems where there should only be dirt, and that’s harder to pull of anyway. V
To Sat, Oct 28Steel MagnoliasDirected by Linette SmithWritten by Robert HarlingStarring Kristen M Finlay, Lisa Pulak, Erin Foster-O’Riordan, Lousie D Maryniak, Rebecca PontigWalterdale Playhouse (10322 - 83 Avenue), $12 - $16
THEATRE
MAGNOLIAS CAST BLOOMS
DAVID BERRY / david@vueweekly.com
I’m predisposed against plays like Steel Magnolias, but it’s got a lot more to do with aesthetics than gender. Sure, it’s “chick” fair (there’s no clever “flick” or “lit” rhyme for theatre, sadly), but, more to the point, it’s not particularly good chick fair. Playwright Robert Harling draws six caricatures who practically ooze overcooked Southernisms and uses them solely in service of a cloying plot that simultaneously manages to supposedly celebrate women’s strength as it cements them in every easy stereotype it can manage.
It is a serious, serious credit to director Linette Smith and her cast, though, that the Walterdale’s production of Harling’s contemptible little play, set in a Southern hair salon before and after the wedding of a young Shelby (Rebecca Pontig), is a thoroughly engaging, casually charming evening of theatre. Where Harling goes wrong, Smith and her troupe go right, earning with their natural charisma and chemistry a kind of emotional honesty that Harling just doesn’t on the page. Much of the credit is due to Kristen Finlay (mother-of-the-bride M’Lynn) and Lisa Pulak (wealthy socialite Clairee) who play markedly different roles to similar levels of efficacy.
Finlay works as the emotional core of the play—no small feat considering four of the other five are essentially different forms of comic relief and Pontig is at times too tentative in her tragic role—and her anchor is crucial in keeping it grounded: without her sitting indignantly under a hair-curler after an argument with Shelby, or watching the tears essentially creep up from her feet until they burst through her eyes in the play’s final scene, the play would be as empty as Harling envisioned it, but her stern, honest emotions lend a gravitas to even the one-liners.On that side of things, Pulak excels. She bursts forth pure sass with the unrestrained glee of a wined-up aunt at Thanksgiving, and her boisterous cackle fills the stage at every available opportunity.
Erin Foster-O’Riordan as the pragmatic Truvy and Lousie D Maryniak as the sour-faced Ouiser have their moments as well, but Pulak seems most comfortable in her role, sniping—albeit in good humour—from her stylist’s chair to add levity to nearly every occasion. One can’t help but wonder what they might have pulled off with better source material, but such wondering seems redundant: they’ve found gems where there should only be dirt, and that’s harder to pull of anyway. V
To Sat, Oct 28Steel MagnoliasDirected by Linette SmithWritten by Robert HarlingStarring Kristen M Finlay, Lisa Pulak, Erin Foster-O’Riordan, Lousie D Maryniak, Rebecca PontigWalterdale Playhouse (10322 - 83 Avenue), $12 - $16
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