Review: (Vancouver / Theatre) Dreary and Izzy

Dakota Hebert, Roseanna Superneault (photo by Barbara Zimonick)

Compel Me

by David C. Jones

Theatre that tackles issues is challenging to write. You have to go beyond pontificating about the subject matter to score easy points. Writing drama is also hard - one easy way to create drama is to have characters misunderstand what is being said and not ask for clarification. To heighten that drama just have the characters speak in half and/or interrupted sentences. Another easy device to get both issues and drama out is to have a sudden change in behaviour in character and a selective memory about the people they interact with.

Four companies came together to present Tara Beagan’s Dreary and Izzy set in Lethbridge, Alberta in 1975. The story is about two sisters, one is an adopted Aboriginal girl with fetal alcohol syndrome (FASD), the other a good Catholic girl.  There is also a First Nations vacuum cleaner salesman and older friend of the family who is a nurse who is also little bit racist.

Review: (Vancouver) The King and I

Not Whistling Dixie!
by Jay Catterson

The Richmond Gateway Theatre Society brings the legendary Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The King and I to life this holiday season. Based on the 1944 Margaret Landon novel Anna and the King of Siam, this show tells of Anna Leonowens' (Barbara Tomasic) unconventional relationship with the King of Siam (Jovanni Sy) while serving as schoolteacher to his many children, and features such iconic songs as "I Whistle a Happy Tune", "Getting To Know You" and "Shall We Dance?". Now does Gateway Theatre do this Rodgers and Hammerstein tuner justice? Well I'm quite ecstatic that I got to know this King and I over a truly joyous two-and-a-half-hour period.