October Theatre - It's all about the Scare Factor... Isn't it?

This October has quite a few cool options for those of you who like your theatre to have a Scare Factor! I must say, the Edmonton theatre community has really risen to the challenge this year! I was happy to catch 2 of them last week!

First up is A Party to Murder at Walterdale Theatre. I quite enjoyed the unwrapping of this Agatha Christie inspired story. It's a layered story and things are not as they seem, and it channels elements of And Then There Were None, but with a more modern take.  I was reminded a bit of Knives Out in that not everyone is who they seem to be. The twists and turns really start coming in the second act and it appears that everyone has a motive for murder, but just who did it is the question. Lots of laughs in this show too, mostly from the deadpan delivery of Erwin Veugelers as former football player, Willy. The whole cast is tight and you can tell that everyone is keeping secrets. When the whole thing spills out you'll be replaying earlier moments to see what you missed!  There's some great stage violence and a bit of blood, for those who like that, and a real sense of 'what will happen next?' at the end. It runs from October 9-19 with tickets running between $20-$30.  The show is directed by Sarah Spicer and features a top-notch cast of 6! Tickets can be purchased here. 

Teatro Live! is presenting The Woman in Black running from October 10-27 with tickets running between $25-$42. In Edwardian London, a young actor helps a lawyer make sense of a long ago encounter with a mysterious apparition who invariably leaves death in her wake. Together the two men conjure the mysterious marshland of northeastern England and its population of haunted characters. The show features Julien Arnold and Geoffrey Simon Brown and is directed by Andrew Ritchie.  This show was excellently executed with jump scares eliciting screams from the audience. The woman in black appears suddenly and in a disturbing way more than once - the magic created by superb lighting.  Ritchie has directed a terrific piece of theatre  that moves (once you get past the first 15 minutes which set up the convention of telling the story). The world is created in a old empty theatre, but it is not hard to imagine that various locations from the busy London street, to the train ride, to the haunted house in question. Even the house itself is simply but powerfully created from a scrim and boxes and a door. A chest becomes a desk and through the power of expert storytelling, we believe it. The inevitability of the horrible ending creates an anguished anticipation and a hope that all will be well with our loved ones too! Tickets can be purchased here. 

There are other shows coming up with a high creepy factor too:

A new company, Putrid Brat, presents The Maids by Jean Genet. Two young women toiling in servitude escape into sensual fantasies of luxury, violence and revenge in Jean Genet’s masterpiece. Loosely based on the notorious and shocking case of the Papin sisters who murdered their employer’s wife and daughter, The Maids explores the line where fantasy and reality blur and the stories we weave become indistinguishable from the truth. The show runs October 24-Nov 3 and tickets are $21.69 with options for PWYC. Tickets can be purchased here. 

Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical is a hilarious ‘upside down’ take on the hit Netflix series – and all its campy 1980s glory. Mike, Eleven, Lucas, Dustin, and the whole Hawkins gang have a night of adventure, thrills, pubescent angst, heavy synth, poor parenting, convoluted love triangles, cheap effects, dancing monsters, and maybe, just maybe justice for everyone’s favorite missing ginger, Barb Holland. The show runs from October 18-26 at the Backstage Theatre. Tickets are $30-40 and can be purchased here. They are selling fast, so move quickly! 

Teatro la Quindicina presents one of my FAVOURITES! The Importance of Being Earnest!

When I first started teaching high school drama years and years ago I knew that one of the first plays I would do with the kids would be Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. It had long been one of my favourite plays and it was one that made me laugh aloud many times when I read it. I also had a great group of students who were up to the challenge and style of Oscar Wilde. I had so many that I double-cast the show. That was about 18-19 years ago but it still lives in my memory as one of my favourite theatre adventures.

So... when Teatro la Quindicino announced they were presenting The Importance of Being Earnest I was ever so excited! The show did not disappoint. It is wonderfully cast, with great chemistry between the four lovers. There are moments of magic between Jack (Mark Meer) and Algernon (Ron Pederson) and between Cecily (Shannon Blanchet) and Gwendolyn (Louise Lambert), and when they are in their various configurations. Miss Prism (Cathy Derkach) and Rev. Chausable (Julien Arnold) are delightful in their intellectual flirting, and Leona Brausen is an imperious Lady Bracknell. The production will please any aficionado of Wilde from the opening cucumber sandwiches, to the buttonhole to muffins and a handbag! It's quick-paced and light and although there were a few opening night fumbles, it's well worth a night out on a summer evening! Indeed, I think as this cast runs with the show I will only get better and better... perhaps I will have to go back for a second viewing!

The Importance of Being Earnest runs to July 28, 2018 at the Varscona Theatre.
Click here for tickets.

More than tea and scones in Going to St. Ives...

Sometimes you completely have the wrong assumption about a play and you are wonderfully surprised when that is turned on its ear... That was me tonight at Going to St. Ives at the Varscona Theatre presented by Altas Theatre Company. I hadn't read too much going into the show so all I knew was that it was about two women meeting for tea. There was so much more.

The two women could not be more different. May N'Kame (Patricia Darbasie), the mother of a despotic African 'emperor', has come to England to receive eye surgery from Dr. Cora Gage (Belinda Cornish). Prior to the surgery Dr. Gage has something to ask of her patient - a favour. There are of course, complications and consequences to this request.

The script by Lee Blessing is wonderfully complex, and skillfully directed by Julien Arnold. Each of the women is brilliant and articulate and they each have a very good understanding of their world. They are however both somewhat prejudiced with how they see the other's world. Their cultural differences mean that each steps on the other's toes at times - sometimes deliberately and sometimes accidentally. Both Cornish and Darbasie give complex and layered performances. This is not their first time in these roles as the play was presented a few years ago with the same cast, and I think because of that they both really know these characters they are playing. There is a real investment from both of them and each has their moment of raw and exposed truth.

Beyond the performances, what I liked was that it challenged me and how I think about the world. I don't know if it gave real answers and solutions, but it certainly says that there aren't a lot of easy ones out there.

Going to St. Ives runs to April 14 at the Varscona Theatre. Click here for tickets.