Review: (Ottawa) Detroit

David Benedict Brown and Stephanie Izsak

Party Madness is infectious
by Jim Murchison

The play is called Detroit, but the themes of diminishing urban and suburban community and evaporating middle class are pretty universal. As technology shrinks the world and social networking expands our virtual lives, it is actual relationships and frank conversation that bring joy and release from pressure and financial distress.

Attila Clemman's set has two adjoining back yards that tell slightly different stories about their occupants. One home has the backyard barbecue, patio furniture and sliding glass doors. The other has the rickety screen door, unfinished deck and backyard debris. The laundry hanging from the clotheslines serve as a screen for projections of neighbourhood scenes and Madison Avenue images of perfect commercial backyard barbecue moments.

Review: (Ottawa) War of the Worlds

Welles Does Wells

by Jim Murchison

When Orson Welles and the Mercury Theatre brought H. G. Wells War of The Worlds to life on radio it created widespread panic through the United States and brought the young wonder kid Orson instant international fame. The Gladstone’s production under the direction of Teri Loretto Valentik is decidedly lighter.

This is the third radio play I've reviewed but the first that has had a Halloween theme. While the set is familiar this is a different sort of fun from the Christmas shows. For the most part the direction of this play has a tongue in cheek goofiness. There are some true moments of drama mixed in. Primarily these occur when the Martians are engulfing all and when the focus shifts to the very serious Orson Welles played by Zach Counsil. Counsil does not try to imitate Orson Welles but he captures his dramatic essence and is omnipresent throughout even when he is in the background.

Michelle Leblanc as Wilmuth, Stranger and others, plays primarily male voices although dressed elegantly in a floor length gown. Good thing this is radio or we would have had a harder time believing it in that gown.

As for the three voices of the radio announcers, they were so effective and believable that they could probably all successfully pursue broadcasting careers if acting doesn't pan out for them. Since Laurence Wall and Dave Gerow already have steady jobs with CBC they will likely keep their day jobs but maybe eke out more opportunities to satisfy the theatre itch. David Holton may have the more difficult decision if selected in the next broadcaster draft. In any event there was an authentic feel to the broadcast although the one gag involving Professor Pierson went on a bit long for my taste.

In radio the real star is often the sound effects that finish the illusion that you are live at the scene. Karen Benoit provides a great deal of fun and spacey scariness particularly playing the theremin. If you aren't familiar with the instrument you will be familiar with the squeaks and squawks and weird whistling sounds that have said space to us since the infancy of audio science fiction dramas.

It should be a fun time for all and it is something that you can take the whole family to. It's a short run so try to make it.

Runs until November 2

Running time: 90 minutes with no intermission

Review: (Ottawa) Private Lives

                                                                                      (photo by Andrew Alexander)
Cowardy Custard
by Valerie Cardinal

Written in 1930, Noel Coward’s Private Lives is considered to be among the great drawing room plays along with Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest. Despite being set between two world wars, its themes and text still resonate with a modern audience.

Divorced couple Elyot and Amanda find their respective honeymoons with new spouses ruined when they happen to be staying in neighbouring hotel rooms. This allows the pair to revisit the reasons they love each other – and the reasons they hate each other, of course.

Private Lives’ strength is in its cast, with everyone bringing their A-game. However, David Whiteley and Alix Sideris as divorced couple Elyot and Amanda really shine in their scenes together thanks to their obvious chemistry. Steve Martin wins the award for best facial expressions as Amanda’s bumbling and well-meaning new husband Victor. Martin has the ability to crack up an audience with only a single bewildered glance. Bronwyn Steinberg is a delight as Elyot’s new wife Sybil, who is the human incarnation of naïve femininity.

Review: (Ottawa) In The Next Room or The Vibrator Play

l-r Michelle LeBlanc, Sarah Finn and David Whiteley, photo by Andrew Alexander

The Next Room (The Vibrator Play) Humms Along

by Jim Murchison

There are lots of opportunities for cheap jokes in a review about a play called The Vibrator Play. I will avoid overdoing it, but I am only human. 

First let’s get right to the point. Bronwyn Steinberg has done a wonderful job of directing and the cast make sure that the story confidently humms along. There will very probably be a good buzz about this very well performed production.

Sarah Ruhl has written a very funny play set near New York City in the 1880’s. Electricity is an infant and the full benefits of it have yet to be realized. The medical community and, in this play, a particular doctor by the appropriate name of Dr Givings are treating female hysteria with a device used to stimulate to the point of achieving hysterical paroxysm. While 21st century audiences will recognize the euphemism for orgasm, this is not a word that is ever uttered in the play.

Review: (Ottawa) Billy Bishop Goes to War

Chris Ralph (photo credit Andrew Alexander Photography)

BB's Back in Town
by Jim Murchison 

I don't usually refer to previous productions in my reviews but when a play has been so identified with one actor and one creative team as Billy Bishop Goes to War has been with Eric Peterson and John Gray I am willing to alter my guideline. The play was heralded on its opening and subsequent tour and although Gray and Peterson were not unknowns by any means in theatrical circles it put them on another level in the theatrical community. I saw it when it played at the Centaur Theatre in Montreal in its 1979-1980 season.

In many ways I liked this production better, although it has been many years and I am relying on a memory more of my initial reaction to the original production and a feeling that may be affected by layers of years added to it.

Review: (Ottawa) Miracle on 34th Street

(from the company website)

Christmas with a Raving Sentimentalist
by Jim Murchison 
@JimMurchison

Plosive productions annual Christmas radio play at The Gladstone this year is Miracle on 34th Street. It has been adapted by John Cook in collaboration with Teri Loretto-Valentik and director Nicole Milne from the original story by Valentine Davies. Of course the advantage to this type of presentation is that you get to use mostly the same set every year, although tucked downstage left this year was a cozy little room where Poppa played by Bob Lackey and grandson Jake played by Ben Blacklock added some ambiance and modern context. It's a nice touch since so many of us have shared the film experience of this tale with family.

First of all I have to disclose that I am a raving sentimentalist. I have some favourite films that I watch at Christmas: A Christmas Carol, It's a Wonderful Life and of course Miracle on 34th Street. What works best for me in theatre is when your own imagination creates the magic. Film can pull out all the bells and whistles if need be, but few theatre companies can afford to create incredible live effects. For the most part, happily it is the audience's suspension of disbelief and their own imaginations manipulated by cast and crew that create the finishing effect. You simply have to believe. That's how it is with theatre, books, radio and also with Christmas.

Review: (Ottawa) How It Works

MacIvor's Folk

by Jim Murchison

How It Works is a very honest look at how we work our way through life and its problems. The stage floor is a blueprint for how the set pieces move about to create the various environments where the characters dwell throughout the period of the play, complete with opposing arrows indicating where the audience and actors position themselves in the theatre. Designer\director Stewart Matthews has the cast spinning about walls and doorways creating apartments, bars, theatres or police stations as required. 

Playwright Daniel MacIvor has set the play in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and his storytelling reflects the natural ease with which Maritimers can spin a yarn. Michelle LeBlanc introduces us to the play and its theme right at the start leaving no doubt in our minds that the "it" that the title refers to is life. She performs with an easy-going rural charm that belies the underlying wisdom that endures when you pare things down to their simplest components. Shortly thereafter we are introduced to her character Christine through that comical and awkward device; the first date.

Review: (Ottawa) Cyrano de Bergerac

The Nose Knows

Cyrano at the Gladstone with a bang-on translation and splendid cast

by Jim Murchison

Cyrano de Bergerac has inspired countless versions of itself. To many actors and directors it is what brought them to the theatre in the first place. It certainly has been a favourite of mine as long as I can remember. I was thinking this before I read David Whiteley’s comments on the play which eloquently paraphrased my own thoughts and all those whop love the theatre. Whiteley’s respect and passion are obvious in a translation that I believe is very accessible without losing any of the power or grace of the period or the poetry.

Review: (Ottawa) Speed-the-Plow

More Than Madonna

When libido and midlife crisis meet head on, impartial judgement is lost.

by Jim Murchison

I confess that I didn’t know a lot about Speed-the-Plow, other than it was the vehicle that launched Madonna’s Broadway career.  The irony of a play about marketing over substance, that used a pop star like Madonna to sell a million dollars in advance tickets, did not go unnoticed by the critics at the time. Fortunately, small Canadian theatre companies are not encumbered with the dilemma of hiring a pop icon, so we can concentrate on the merits of this production instead. Oh yeah, I hear Madonna is back in the music business.