May 9 - High School Plays

7:30 p.m. - South Huron DHS in Exeter performs its final showing of Our Town. Tickets are $7.
8:00 p.m. - North Middlesex DHS in Parkhill performs Grease! You’re the One that I Want. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for students.

Shakespeare’s best known story back in Stratford

To readers of Live! On Stage!
Thanks for reading – I enjoy the feedback.
On a personal note: If you’re on any road trips this summer, stop at Port Hope, about an hour east of Toronto on Lake Ontario. Our son Thomas will be performing in the Port Hope Festival’s production of Anne of Green Gables at the Capitol Theatre, July 31 to August 24. He landed the part of Moody Spurgeon MacPherson, one of the Avonlea School boys. Rehearsals begin in mid-July and we’re looking forward to being there on opening night August 1. Check out www.capitoltheatre.com
All the best,
Mary

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Hamlet
By William Shakespeare
Performed by Ben Carlson, Maria Ricossa, Scott Wentworth, Geraint Wyn Davies, James Blendick, Victor Ertmanis, Bruce Godfree, Adrienne Gould, Tom Rooney.
Directed by Adrian Noble
Stratford Shakespeare Festival Production
Festival Theatre, Stratford
April 23 to October 26, 2008

Live! On Stage!
By Mary Alderson

Shakespeare’s most quoted and most often performed tragedy, Hamlet, is back on stage in Stratford this summer. Renamed the Stratford “Shakespeare” Festival by new management, one might think that the Festival would put the emphasis on recreating a true Shakespearean/Elizabethan experience. But compared to the traditional version that was presented in 2000, this year’s production is modernized.
Costumes are Edwardian style – instead of ancient Denmark, it feels like an English parlour in the early 1900s. In fact, the suits and gowns look like they just stepped on the upper class section of the Titanic. Other little things remind the audience that they are not in ancient times – Hamlet’s famous play within a play is performed through a scrim in silhouette, using electric lights to make the shadows.
But more noticeably updated are the spoken words. Ben Carlson as Hamlet does not speak in the traditional Shakespearean iambic pentameter – the usual ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum, ta-dum rhythm. Somehow Carlson has made the lines sound like modern English, even though he is saying the Elizabethan words. He also glosses over the rhyming couplets at the ends of the scenes, making them sound like prose. The recent preview performance I attended was filled with high school students – I suspect their English teachers told them to watch for the rhyme to know when to applaud. As it was, they hesitated, then overreacted with wild cheers.
Young Prince Hamlet (Carlson) returns home only to find that something is rotten in Denmark. He’s terribly upset to learn that his father is dead and his uncle Claudius (Scott Wentworth) is now king and hastily married his mother, Gertrude (Maria Ricossa). (If you’re not familiar with Hamlet, and yet this storyline seems familiar, perhaps you know it from Disney’s The Lion King.) Hamlet immediately has his suspicions, but when the ghost of his father, Old Hamlet (James Blendick) appears, Hamlet heeds the ghost’s request to avenge his murder.
In order to find out what’s been going on, Hamlet pretends to be crazy. Shakespearean scholars sometimes argue whether Hamlet’s madness is feigned or real, but in this production, it seems to be faked. In fact, Carlson actually makes Hamlet funny while he’s feigning madness, adding levity and comic relief to this tragedy. Carlson plays the role less angrily than most. Many Hamlets are embittered and beleaguered, but when Carlson utters the famous “to be or not to be”, it’s impossible to think that he is at all serious about suicide. Even Paul Gross (of TV’s Due South and the movie Men with Brooms fame) played a more sober Hamlet at the Festival in 2000.
Hamlet realizes that someone is hiding behind a curtain, thinks it’s his opportunity to kill Claudius, but unfortunately stabs the Lord Chamberlain, Polonius (Geraint Wyn-Davies of TV’s 24). Wyn-Davies is not quite as annoying as the chatty Polonius should be. I think Shakespeare wanted Polonius to be a nosy gossip, so that the audience doesn’t feel bad when he dies. Wyn-Davies doesn’t make Polonius’ busybody nature apparent enough.
Unfortunately, Hamlet’s madness drives his girlfriend Ophelia (Adrienne Gould) mad and sadly, she commits suicide. Gould is a delightful Ophelia, a little perkier than others. She, too, has a couple of comedic moments.
Polonius’ son Laertes (Bruce Godfree) wants a duel with Hamlet when he learns his father is dead and poisons the tip of his sword. Eventually, all the key players are dead, and thus ends this great tragedy.
The set does not use the typical Shakespearean thrust stage and balcony, but it seems to work with the extended floor.
While most of the cast adapts to the modern cadence, Wentworth as Claudius prefers the traditional style of speaking. Not only is it difficult to understand him at times, but whenever he turns his back, it is also difficult to hear him.
The fun in seeing Hamlet is noticing all the everyday clichés in it. Amazing to think that those phrases you hear all the time, were actually coined and written in 1599.
Whether or not you like this production of Hamlet will depend on your tastes. If you are a Shakespearean purist, you may not enjoy the language, set and costumes. However, you believe that Shakespeare wrote for all times, then you’ll enjoy hearing the rhythm of the language made understandable today.
Hamlet continues at the Festival Theatre, Stratford until October 26. For tickets, call the box office at 1-800-567-1600 or check www.stratfordfestival.ca.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.

May 6 - SHDHS presents Our Town; Port Franks meeting tonight

May 6 - 7 p.m. - Thedford arena - Lambton Shores is holding a revitalization meeting for Thedford, Arkona and Port Franks. Citizens are encouraged to attend this important meeting. For more details, visit the Lambton Shores website.
7:30 p.m. - SHDHS in Exeter presents Our Town, the Thornton Wilder play. Tickets are $7. For more information, visit the SHDHS website.

May 6-9 - SHDHS presents Our Town; post-secondary grads give advice

Principal’s Page
By Jeff Reaburn

One of the events that we look forward to at this time of year is the annual school show, and it is rapidly approaching. This year’s production, Our Town, by Thornton Wilder, will be performed from May 6 to 9 in our small gym. Director Beth Jantzi and her cast and crew have been rehearsing and preparing for months for this well known classic. The show begins at 7:30 each evening and tickets, which are only $7.00, can be purchased in the main office at the school. This will be an excellent opportunity to see and hear the dramatic talents of many fine young actors, and we encourage you to come out and show your support of our dramatic arts program.
The School Council’s final community forum of the year will take place on Monday, May 5. This one will be a departure from past forums in that it will take place in the afternoon and the audience will be students rather than parents. The topic this time is “What I Wish I’d Known,” and we have invited graduates who have gone on to college and university to come back and speak to South Huron students who will be heading to post-secondary education this fall. Our goal is to have the grads share their experiences and make our current students more aware of the challenges and opportunities they will face when they head off to college or university.
While we believe that we (the school and parents) do a pretty good job of preparing students for the post-secondary world, some lessons, both good and bad, can only be learned through experience. We also think that recent grads may have more credibility with our students than some of us who attended college or university many years ago. The goal of this session is to have the speakers share the lessons they have learned, to offer some tips and pointers, and perhaps help some of our present students avoid the mistakes and pitfalls that sometimes happen at college or university. If this proves to be a worthwhile forum, we may consider offering it every year.
The forum will be open to Grade 12 students who have applied to college or university and will take place in the cafeteria in last period on Monday, May 5. One of our speakers will be speaking to us via the Internet from Rotterdam, and we are keeping our fingers crossed that we won’t have any technical difficulties. We encourage the students who will be attending this session to come prepared with any questions they may have about post-secondary education, whether they be about finances, independence, having a roommate, workload, or any other aspect of college or university life.
More information about this forum can be found on the SHDHS web-site at: http://www.shdhs.ca/.
This week we have also entered into the election campaign for next year’s Students’ Council. Campaigning will take place throughout this week, with the election on Friday, May 2. Congratulations to Leanne Hoffman, who was selected earlier this month as the Student Senator for SHDHS. She will be meeting regularly with senators from the other high schools in the Avon Maitland District School Board to discuss issues and provide the student voice to the trustees of the school board. Two of the senators were chosen last week as student trustees and they will sit with the elected trustees at regular school board meetings.
Finally, I would like to remind parents that the Semester Two Mid-Term Report Card was distributed in last period last Friday. If you haven’t seen it yet, you may want to ask your son or daughter about it. For this report students were required to complete a Response Form on which they were to comment on their academic progress this semester and on their goals for the year. This form must be signed by a parent and returned to the school to be placed in the students’ Ontario School Records. The deadline for this is Friday, May 9, and we would appreciate any assistance that parents may offer in getting this task completed.

Twist & Shout: The British Invasion ~ Nostalgia made for Baby-Boomers

Twist and Shout: The British Invasion
Performed by cast of 14
Written & Directed by Alex Mustakas
Grand Theatre Production
Grand Theatre, London
April 15 to May 11, 2008

Live! On Stage!
Review by Mary Alderson

If you were glued to the family TV set on that fateful night in February 1964, and watched the Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show as they flickered across a snowy black and white screen, then you’ll love Twist and Shout: The British Invasion now playing at London’s Grand Theatre.
This show is aimed at the demographics of our times. Statistics tell us that the baby-boomer population is now in the 45 to 55 age range. If the theatre’s goal is to put “bums in seats”, then it makes perfect sense to put on a show that will appeal to the bulk of the population.
Twist and Shout: The British Invasion will not only attract the populace, but it is a crowd pleaser, as well. In fact, you’d better order your tickets early, as it’s sure to sell out.
The show was conceived and written by Alex Mustakas, the artistic director of Drayton Entertainment. It debuted three years ago at Huron Country Playhouse in Grand Bend. Mustakas designed it to take baby boomers on a nostalgia trip and show them a good time. And he succeeded – it quickly sold out at the various Drayton Entertainment venues.
In some areas, the Grand has improved on Mustaka’s success – flashier costumes with all the bright colours and sparkles of the sixties. But they were also careful to hang on to what made the show so good: they kept the two key voices. Danny Williams and Christine Glen were the show stoppers three years ago, and clearly demonstrated they still hold that position in the Grand’s version.
The audience is taken back to a mid-sixties TV studio, complete with microphones on booms and old TV cameras. Two high large-screen televisions show the action on stage in living black and white. Watchers are treated to some 1960’s commercials – a Heinz pickle ad is particularly entertaining.
A five-piece band under musical director Mike Lerner plays in a loft above the stage, recreating the early rock and roll sounds. A cast of 14 fills the various roles as required, transporting us back to those heady days.
Mustakas, with the help of his historical consultant Michael Bignell, has done excellent work in pulling together a wide variety from those British Invasion years. They educate as well as entertain – trivia concerning the different acts flashes on the TV screens. For example, did you know that Peter Noone of Herman’s Hermits was a child star on the British soap Coronation Street?
As well as the Beatles and all their familiar tunes, we see Dave Clark Five (Glad All Over), The Searchers (Needles and Pins), Wayne Fontana and the Mindbenders (Game of Love), Donavon (Mellow Yellow – and he still appears to be suffering from that early drug bust), Gerry and the Pacemakers (Don’t Let The Sun Catch You Crying), Freddy and Dreamers (I’m Telling You Now), Swinging Blue Jeans (Hippy Hippy Shake), Spencer Davis Group (Gimme Some Lovin’), Herman’s Hermits (Henry the Eighth sing along version), The Hollies (Carrie Anne, Bus Stop, ) and more groups with many more familiar songs.
I admit that I didn’t know all the groups – and even when I knew some of the bands, I didn’t know that they were part of the British Invasion. Frankly, I was surprised (and embarrassed) to learn that many groups I thought were American were indeed British. But I did know every song, and I loved them all.
And while all the early rock groups are covered, there is good representation of the female singers: Lulu with To Sir, With Love, Petula Clark’s Downtown and I Know a Place, Mary Hopkins, (Those Were the Days), and the late great Dusty Springfield with fantastic songs like You Don’t Have to Say You Love Me and You Don’t Own Me.
The showstopper is Danny Williams, first when he sings The Animals’ House of the Rising Sun, then Procul Harum’s A Whiter Shade of Pale, and also He Ain’t Heavy; He’s my Brother, which is better than the original. Next he brings the house down when he does his Mick Jagger imitation for Honky Tonk Woman, Let’s Spend the Night Together and Satisfaction.
Similarly, Christine Glen’s powerful voice rocks the house with Dusty Springfield’s Son of a Preacher Man.
The musical numbers are interspersed with Robin Ward as TV host Roy Solomon telling background stories on the various singers. Ward gives a decent Ed Sullivan impression.
Also remarkable are the dancers – Dance captain Michelle DiGioacchino is outstanding, as is Michel LeFleche. Kudos to choreographer Gino Berti who intersperses some Fosse moves with the sixties dance.
After a long winter, this show is guaranteed to put you in the mood for some hot summer weather. This is good entertainment from a talented cast of strong singers and dancers with amazing energy.
Twist and Shout: The British Invasion continues at the Grand Theatre in London until May 11. Tickets are available at the Grand box office at 672-8800 or 1-800-265-1593.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.

May 8-10: North Middlesex DHS students get Grease-y

Students at Parkhill’s North Middlesex District High School are preparing their annual dramatic performance, this year producing the musical Grease: You’re the One that I Want. The play runs May 8, 9 and 10 at 7 p.m. at the high school. “We thought it was something the students would be excited about performing,” says music director Rod Culham. “It has 50s and 60s rock, and that’s always fun to do and yet fairly simple. And the story line is where they are: teenagers in high school. It has love relationships that involve being bad and good.
“Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think kids have changed that much since the 50s. There are differences, of course, but there has always been the investigation of good and evil, the excitement of sexual tension, and the element of teasing each other, the questioning of adult authority. The same sorts of things that were relevant then are still relevant today.”
Sandra Smith directs the play, with technical direction by Rick Pardo, costumes by Lindsay Denning and choreography by Andrea Wegg. The production involves a cast of more than 20 students, six instrumentalists, and many adults assisting.
Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and students, and are available by calling the school at 519-294-1128.

Romantic Comedy about Selling the House

Real Estate
By Allana Harkin
Performed by Scott Robert Fink, Keira Loughran, Carly Street, Brendan Wall.
Directed by D. Michael Dobbin
Grand Theatre Production
Grand Theatre, London
March 11 to March 29, 2008

Live! On Stage!
By Mary Alderson

Joel is a writer, who has churned out a couple of mystery novels, but now life’s crises are getting in the way, and he’s suffering writer’s block. His wife left him for another man, and his widowed elderly father has moved into a seniors’ residence, so Joel is back living in his parents’ lakeside home. But the bills have piled up and he’s forced to sell the house, which his Dad built for his Mom when they were newlyweds. His flaky real estate agent is determined that this will be her first sale. Then things get worse – his ex-wife shows up with her pretentious boyfriend, and his Dad dies.
And somehow, this is a romantic comedy on stage at London’s Grand Theatre. The plot has all the components for laughter and the writing is fairly clever. The tale has some suspense: we know Joel will end up with a woman – but which? He would love to reconcile with his estranged wife, yet he’s interested in his real estate agent.
The cast of Real Estate is impressive – all have interesting and extensive theatre backgrounds. Yet somehow, they have missed the mark. They haven’t pulled together to create the chemistry for good romantic comedy.
Scott Robert Fink is excellent as Joel. We get comfortable with him right away. In fact, as the audience was coming into the theatre, Joel was on stage, stretching and scratching, looking in the mirror and checking out the food stuck in his teeth. Joel is just on the verge of being labelled a loser, yet we recognize some redeeming features. Fink makes Joel a likeable guy and soon we’re on his side.
But then, along comes Emma, the real estate agent. She, too, is on the edge of loser-dom, and unfortunately, Keira Loughran, in playing the part, isn’t able to save the character. I think the playwright intended that we like Emma – she’s quirky but still we’d enjoy her company. Loughran failed to bring us on side. Loughran has an impressive background at the Stratford Festival; in fact, she was outstanding as Valeria in Coriolanus. But she lacks the facial features and comedic timing to make Emma likeable. The part calls for a Lucille Ball type – slightly too chatty, a little annoying, but we still love her.
Similarly, the casting of Carly Street as ex-wife Estelle is questionable. Again, Street has a remarkable theatre background, having played in the Toronto’s Lord of the Rings. But Street was unable to make us understand why Joel would want her back, after she cheated on him. Even when they kissed, the chemistry wasn’t there.
Brendan Wall plays the pretentious boyfriend Ted. Again, the character’s comedy hasn’t been fully developed. When the city-boy snob carrying his man-purse shows up in the country, there is potential for more laughs. His manner of speaking didn’t sound like a city lawyer-turned-business-tycoon – he dropped his “ing” endings (doin’, comin’), which belied his background.
The set is very good – the lakefront home among the trees is complete. It looks like any elderly couple’s home with the tacky old couch and chair and an array of family portraits on the wall. The front of the cottage lifts up and we are invited inside, not just peeking through the windows.
Director Michael Dobbin did much better in finding the comedy a few years ago with the Black Bonspiel of Wullie McCrimmon, a delightful play about curling which the Grand presented. Real Estate, written by Canadian Allana Harkin, has the potential to be a touching story with plenty of laughs, but it requires a cast with strong comedic timing the ability to create chemistry.
This show was sponsored by the London – St. Thomas Association of Realtors and on opening night the audience was made up real estate agents (I know this, having moved twice in the last seven years and buying & selling a couple of houses. I recognized several of them….). And the real estate agents appeared to be enjoying themselves. The best laugh of the evening was when Emma said that real estate agents also have to be psychologists. Their clients are going though change and stress, and the agent has to know how to deal with it. In the audience, many heads were nodding as the chuckles rippled across.
Real Estate continues at the Grand Theatre in London until 29. Tickets are available at the Grand box office at 672-8800 or 1-800-265-1593.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.

An Evocative Story Very Well Told

Hana’s Suitcase
Adapted by Emil Sher, from the book by Karen Levine
Performed by Burgandy Code, Jennifer Dzialoszynski, Jan Filips, Nicco Lorenzo Garcia, Gil Garratt, Matthew Gorman, Manami Hara, Janet Lo.
Directed by Susan Ferley
Grand Theatre Production
Grand Theatre, London
February 12 to March 1, 2008

Live! On Stage!
Review by Mary Alderson

Right after a show, friends sometimes call or email me with questions before I get the review written. Did you like Hana’s Suitcase? No, it’s not likeable. Was it well done? Yes, absolutely.
Hana’s Suitcase, now playing at London’s Grand Theatre, is by far the most emotionally draining show I have ever seen. I knew I was going to see a play about the holocaust. Obviously, this was not a comedy with a fairy tale ending. But I was certainly unprepared for how Hana’s story gripped my heart, how moved I felt, how many tears would flow, and how it still haunts me days later.
The story begins in Japan, where Fumiko Ishioka (Janet Lo), a teacher at Tokyo’s Holocaust Education Centre, displays some artefacts, which are on loan. Two school children, Maiko (Manami Hara) and Akira (Nicco Lorenzo Garcia) are fascinated by an old suitcase bearing the name Hana Brady, her birth date of May 16, 1931 and the German word for “orphan”. Their many questions stimulate the teacher to try to learn more about Hana. They write letters to Auschwitz, and other museums in Europe to find out Hana’s fate. Sadly, they learn that Hana was killed in the gas chambers at the concentration camp, but they are able to trace her life back to Czechoslovakia, and eventually they discover that she has a brother George, still living in Toronto, Canada.
George writes to the school children, and tells them of his and Hana’s idyllic childhood, pre World War II. He also tells of the ever-increasing Nazi regulations – they aren’t allowed to go to movies, then they can’t play in the park, then they can’t attend school and see their Christian friends. Finally, they must wear the Star of David at all times. Their parents are both arrested and taken away to concentration camps, but they stay on briefly with their Christian uncle. They, too, are taken away, first to a concentration camp in Theresienstadt, and then in 1944 both ended up at Auschwitz. Hana is murdered immediately, but George, as he is able to do work, is spared. The Japanese children, so moved by Hana’s story, decide to share it with other school children across Japan.
CBC reporter Karen Levine heard about the Japanese project and turned the story into a radio documentary. In 2000 she published a children’s novel, intertwining the Japanese school children’s story with George’s sad account. The play follows the same format. In the first act, we hear the Japanese children, and see them in their research, while the characters of Hana (Jennifer Dzialoszynski) and George (Matthew Gorman) move silently about the stage. In the second act, Hana and George have voices, as the Japanese teacher reads the adult George’s letter.
Burgandy Code is exceptional in her many roles as the various museum curators, but most effective and endearing as Marketa, Hana and George’s mother. A new mother herself, she portrays both the unbelievable pain and the strength she had to summon to say a final goodbye to her children. As Karel, Hana and George’s father and the older George, Jan Filips is also very good. Gil Garratt does excellent work as several male characters and Uncle Ludvik, who has the horrific task of sending off his niece and nephew. Lo as the Japanese teacher is very successful in showing her concern about the children taking the news that is “sadder than sad” as she unravels the tale for them.
Dzialoszynski and Gorman as Hana and the young George and Hara as Maiko are all very effective in the difficult task of playing children and capturing the essence of youth. However, Garcia was not convincing as the Japanese schoolboy, perhaps because he appeared too old for the part and therefore his child-like antics came across as awkward and uncomfortable. Adults playing youth caught in very un-childlike situations can be a challenge for actors.
Director Susan Ferley has probably created one of her most memorable shows. Anyone in the audience will be unsettled by this poignant play for a long time. The stage is very plain yet very fitting – with several sliding doors, it is suitable for Japanese rooms, also appropriate museum storage, and even convincing as a train carrying crowded Jews to the camps.
Normally, opening night audiences at the Grand are generous with their appreciation. Standing ovations are usual. But on the opening night of Hana’s Suitcase, there was even a hesitation before applause filled the theatre. Clapping hardly seemed appropriate for such a gripping tale. There was no standing ovation, not because the cast didn’t deserve it, but because we were too drained to get to our feet.
Hana’s Suitcase continues at the Grand Theatre in London until March first. Tickets are available at the Grand box office at 672-8800 or 1-800-265-1593.

Mary Alderson offers her view of area theatre in this column on a regular basis. As well as being a fan of live theatre, she is a former journalist who is currently employed with the Ontario Association of Community Futures Development Corporations.