Nobody Does it Better... Evelyn Strange at Teatro La Quindicina

 

I had the absolute pleasure of taking in the Opening Night of  Evelyn Strange at the Varscona Theatre as part of the 40th Anniversary Season for Teatro la Quindicina. Before the show I was lamenting to my friend the challenge of another company doing a Lemoine play in Edmonton, because even though the scripts were so good, any other company was unlikely to do it as well as Teatro would, and then this production (directed by Shannon Blanchet) proved my point brilliantly. 

Everything about the production was on point, from the costumes to the style of the acting, to the music and the lighting. It's perfectly cast with Gianna Vacirca as the mysterious title amnesiac Evelyn Strange; Oscar Derkx as her rescuer Perry Spangler who works to help her figure out who she is; Belinda Cornish as the glamourous wife of Perry's boss; and Jesse Gervais as Perry's co-worker and rumored lothario. The four of them are funny, invested, and tangled in a truly unusual way (no spoilers!) that delighted the audience as it unraveled. 

It was the kind of show that had us speculating on possibilities during the intermission (the group behind us recorded theirs on paper and we heard them checking them off after the show). Like Perry, we wanted to know the answers! We were right about some of it and wrong about other things and we simply didn't mind! 

If you want to see an engaging mystery that's a lot of fun with terrific performances and an exceedingly well-constructed script, I would definitely check this out. You will laugh and be surprised! I know I was!

Evelyn Strange runs to June 12th at the Varscona Theatre. 
Tickets range from $25-$42 depending on the performance with a Pay-What-You-Can on Wednesday, June 1st. You can purchase tickets in advance here. 

Photo Credit: Marc J. Photography

 

A Steady Rain... fine, layered, complicated performances

I took in Blarney Productions' A Steady Rain last night, at C103.  It's a dark and gritty story of two cops, friends from kinnygarden, in Chicago.  The show explores the grey area morality of Joey (Jesse Gervais) and Denny (John Ullyatt) as they tumble through re-telling the events of a summer in Chicago where everything goes wrong and the rain never stops.

Both actors give layered performances as they take turns telling the events of their shared history.  As beat cops aiming for promotion to detective and getting overlooked each tries their own way to cope and try to get ahead. Denny (Ullyatt) is married with the perfect wife and two young children.  He's the alpha of this relationship but despite his perfect looking life he is also the more corrupt. Joey (Gervais) is the worrier and the peace-maker, he sees the the wrong in what Denny insists is right, but he is challenged by his own hesitancy and the pattern of their relationship to push for what is right. The tale is told back and forth, and interspersed with dialogue between the two. Narration is often a challenge, but both are born story-tellers and the twists of the story and it's horrible inevitability are handled deftly. It becomes particularly interesting when each presents the details of the same events.  There is significance in the differences.

Director Wayne Paquette has wisely cast the eminently likable Ullyatt to play the more reprehensible Denny - his natural charisma bleeds through in a way that makes you not hate him, and which makes you understand how he has gotten away with what he has.  Gervais' emotional connection is also quite wonderful when he is stuck in Joey's inertia and helplessness as some of the more horrible things play out.  Although on opening night some moments felt a touch under-rehearsed, overall it made for a compelling and engaging 90 minutes.  

The Magic is in the Unwrapping... Let the Light of Day Through at Theatre Network

I saw a play last night I wish I had written.  This happens every once in a while when I go see a new work.  I marvel at the work the playwright did.  I wonder, "How will I ever know how to do that?" That's how I feel about Collin Doyle's new play Let the Light of Day Through now playing at Theatre Network.  The script is so elegant and tight and funny and honest and it feels effortless as we experience it.  I don't want to say too much, because much of it's brilliance comes in the way the story is unwrapped.

We start in the now of Chris (Lora Brovold) and Rob (Jesse Gervais), a couple in their thirties and then swoop along with them as they portray each other's parents and co-workers and themselves when they were younger.  We experience their growing relationship thinking we know how it will go because we have already met them in an older form.  It begins with a lot of laughter. A LOT of laughter.  Brovold and Gervais have great chemistry and play off each other so well, always staying real as they take us from hilarity to sadness. Each of them shows a flexibility that is impressive as they veer from point to point in time and space and character.  In one night of theatre I had some of my biggest laughs and destroyed a myriad of tissues with my crying. Now that's a play.  The set (Cory Sincennes) and lighting (Scott Peters) seem simple at first, but there is much more there than first appears.  For the lighting, it is about what is hidden in the shadows and what is shown in the light and for the set, it is about what is hidden behind those walls. Director Bradley Moss has worked well with all these brilliant components creating a piece that will make you laugh and break your heart and finally give you peace.