The Huron Expositor, 1978-08-17, Page 11HURON HOTEL g
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THIS WEEK
Thurs, Fri., Sat.
and Saturday Matinee
4-6 p.m.
THE HUflON EXPOSITORt AUGUST 17, 1976
Serendipity
Pwendol in;
is serious
By Alice Glbb
Gwendoline, the Blyth Summer Festival's fourth
ptoduction of the season, a subtle drama about life in a
small Ontario town at the turn of the century, isn't •a
comedy.
Although the play, by Paris, Ontario author James
Nichol, certainly had its lighter moments, the opening
night audience tended to Ipok'mprofor the humor in the
play than the universal truths it was revealing.
Fortunately the production, directed by James Roy,
is strong enough to please both audience members. who
simply want to be entertained and those who come to
the play expecting something more complex.
Gwendoline is' the story of an eccentric, slightly. fey
young Woman living in the town of Kingforks. Ontario
in the year 1907. The woman has become an outcast in
the town because she simply doesn't conform to the
rigid social rules of her neighbours.
The problem with Gwendoline is that she disturbs the
imposed order of the "decent people" around her, and
her unorthodox approach to life leads the town's
resident arbitrer of good taste to declare, :it's this kind
of behavior that can destroy a civilization."
Although the play's thems of intolerance, repression.
love and jealousy are far from new and although other
playwrights have also chronicled the plight of the
"crazy" person living in the midst of the more
"respectable" people of a community, Nichols has'
created a compelling drama in Gwendoline.
in the city, Gwendolin's eccentricity might be lost in
the crowd, but in a smaller community, her strangeness
is instantly apparent and opposition to her strange ways
forms a -common bond to unify the rest of Kingforks,
"Karen Wiens, who played the unsympathetic
Harriett Hopewell in the earlier production, His Own
Boss; handles the difficUlt role of the "town crazy"
with Understanding if somewhat erratically. In the
opening scene, Gwendoline is an excitable girl who
decides to decorate .her house with yards and yards of
red and blue bunting "'so my house will- be like a
flower", a girl who believes her 1png dead parents still
-W,inderthrotigh the upstairs rooms of her home.
By the play's end, Gwendoline has become a woman
MI6 is able to leave her ghosts behind her, among the
other dead who inhabit the town of Kingfotks.
The problem with playing the "town crazy" is •that
Miss Wien's acting sometimes borders on the
exaggerated, even comic, and this may have helped
distort the perceptions of the audienee. Gwendolinc is
not a slapstick madwoman, and fortunately Miss Wiens
Was able to balance sonic of the wilder moments with
the fragile scenes where. Gwendoline recalls her
unsettled childhood narrow world bound by her
garden, and her parents.
their lives, Gwendoline manages to make every day a
special moment.
Unfortunately Easton's proposal to Gwendoline,
made in the weaker first act of the play, failed to carry
the impact it might. Still, Durant, with the aid of some
backstage artifice, manages to capture thuch of the
portly Easton's character - a man who longs to break
out of his respectability and envies Gwendoline her
ability to be different.
Like many of us, in the end, Easton is too bound
down to the society around him and so, since he can't
escape, he longs for his son to be the things he never
was--"wild, free as a bird."
Toni McCamus, in one of the proddction's stronger
portrayals, handles the diffictilt role of• the teenage
David Easton, an embittered boy who •was deserted by
• his mother almost at birth, and has grown up with an
uncommunicative father and moralistic housekeeper.
MeCamus handled the role with special understand-
ing. since the sad-eyed boy is called to react subtlety to •
the wilder-eyed Gwendoline. Like many young people,
trapped between the world of adult and child, David
Easton demands love, but cannot, accept the pain it
entails. In the end it is David, the character most like
Gwendoline, who almost destroys the woman's hope for
another life.
Steve Thorne is Simon Parker, a fast-talking -
commercial traveller down on his luck, who intends to
con the "crazy lady" out of some extra'cash, only to fall
in love with the fragile creature.
Thorne's transition from potential villain' to a nobler'
character was handled both believably and ,sympath-
efically. Parker, the endless dreamer, is finally the one
who forces Gwendoline to confront her own dreams.
The two Ether members of the cast are Chris Kelk, as
-hid Wiley, one of the town's morality squad who wants
to see Gwendoline put away since she tempts him in a
disturbing way, and Heather Ritchie as Miss May
Jacobs, the spinster housekeeper for the Eastons, who
can't abide people"not acting right."
Both actors infused their easily steriotyped char-
acters with sonic believable humanity.
Although Gwendoline is a departure from the lighter
fare at the beginning of the Blyth Festival season, the
play can hardly be considered controversial, as festival
organizers feared.
Aside from a few four letter words, the characters in
Gwendoline might have come from any old fashioned
morality play. Kingforks is a microcosm for the world
we inhabit, where being different is too often looked on
with_suspicion rather than understanding. The
character we see on stage in Gwendoline are the same
people we see almost every day around us.
Although Gwendoline's audiences may still expect to
-sec >a comedy, they can't help but be enchanted by the
more serious production.
Gwendoline is a more haunting kind of theatre, a
kind of theatre we hope to see at the Blyth Festival
more often.
Gwendoline continues at the festival on August 1-9.,
21, 24, and 25 and is a production well worth seeing.
•
Terence Durant is the stout. middle-aged ,,Pork
Easton, owner 'of the Kingforks dry goods store, a
lonely man who cannot communicate with those around
him and who admires Gwendoline for being able to live
her life with less, inhibition than the other townspeople.
When Easton calls on Gwendoline to 'deliver her
yards of bunting, he tells the young woman that while
Most people have only two or three special moments in
Wedding
Reception
& Dance
Leisa RITCHIE
ancl
Blaine
STEPHENSON
[Bridal Couple I
Sat.
Aug. 19th
9 p.m.
Exeter Rec. Centre
Lunch Provided
EVERYONE WELCOME
.41.E*3,
WEI
Seaforth
THIS WEEK
Thurs., Fri. & Sat.
Starr
Blitz
Next Week
Thurs.,
Fri. & Sat.
Plum Loco
Daily Lunch
Hour
Spec
STAG
for
COLIN
YOUNG
Saturday
August 19
Bingo
Every
Friday
Dublin Community
Centre
Sponsored by Dublin &
District Athletic
Association
No Children under lb,
$eaforth
Horticultural Society
FLOWER SHOW
Saturday, Aug. 19
S.D.H.S.
Entries must be in by 12
2:30-5 and 7-9
Over 60 classes
Display by Arc Industries
Tea will be served
Prize list, entrie tags at Hildebrand lir
Paint and Paper]
Johns' ore-man show tracing
the events leading up to the
great teachers' strike of '78,"
has been playing to packed
houses this season. some
Tickets arc still available for
this popular plays last 2
performances on August
17th and 22nd at 8:30 p.m.
Reservations can be made by
calling the box office at
523-9300.'
Peter Colley's Huron Tiger
wraps up its run with -three
final performances on
August 18th and 26th at 8:30;
and August 24th at 2 p.ria.
His Own Boss, by Keith
Roulsto'n, will play twice
moreon August 16th at 8:30,
and 17th at 2 p.m.
The. moving and beautiful
Gwendoline. By James
Nichol, Will be presented
August 19th, 24th, and 25th
at 8:30 p.m.
STAG
for
Wade
Riley
Friday
August 18
ROUND IV
WALTON MOTOCROSS
Sunday, August 20,1978
12:30 p.m.
Sanctioned By C.M.A.
Admission Family Carload $5.00
Adults $3.00
Children under 12 Free
presented by
MAITLAND DIRT RIDERS
MOU011
01=1110 MOTORMOU
CHAMPI011SHIP'78
A MOLSON AWARDS PRESENTATION
Ivor information-tall 519-887-9-378 or 519-356-2486
RACES GO RAIN OR SHINE
p e
W,E, Elliott, the Goderieh historian who often
contributes letters and articles to The Huron Expositor,
recently celebrated his 95th birthday with his wife Anne
and friends.
Mrs, Winnifred McPhail of Brussels is visiting with
her daughter, Mrs, Betty Glew of Seaforth.
Mr.. and Mrs. Steve Hook and children of
Egmondville_ returned recently from a visit to -Mrs.
Wok's sister'and family in South Carolina.
Howard James of Egmendville returned recently
from a hOliday in London, England where he visited his
sistef-in-law .Liz Watson and Niece Sadie as well as
sights like The British Museum. The rest of the James
family will be returning from England this week..
A.Y. and Winn MeLeab of The Huron ,Expositor are
in Vancouver this week, attending .the annual
convention of the Canadian Community Newspaper
Association.
Miss Lynn Huff datighter of Anne and Hugh Huff of
Tuckersmith and granddaughter of Pat Troutbeck of
Goderich St. W., is a patient in Victoria Hospital,
London where- she had surgery on Tuesday,
Pat ancrGeorge Adamson of Ennismore, Ontario
spent the weekend with Andy, Susan and Gabrielle
White in McKillop Township. Jim and Donna White of
Bronxville, New York were guests with his brother and
family one day last week.
Lucy Kenny returned home Friday August 11 after
attending her great neice's wedding on July 22 in
Manitou, Manitoba and also visiting her brother and
friends while there.
Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Lawson spent the holiday
weekend with relatives at Newmarket, Markham, Lake
Cauchicking returning home on Tuesday.
Mr. and Mrs. Larry Johns, Chris, Carolyn, Leasli
. Jean of Yellow Knife. N.W.T. spent a few days visiting
Mr. and Mrs. Lorne Lawson this week.
Miss Nan Taylor of Stoney Creek visited her many
friends in town last week.
The Blyth Summer
Festiyal is now preparing for
the opening of the final show
ofthe season, Two Miles Off.
This hilarious play is filled
with music and laughter, and
will delight the whole family.
It tells the 'story of a- small
town, just two miles off the,
main highway - just far
enough that the bus and train
don't stop there any more.
The' courage and .humour of
these people makes them
determined to continue • to •
grow and prosper in their
beloved village. Two Miles
off will open August 23rd,
and will turt'-every night from
August 28th to September
2nd at 8:30 p.m.
The School Show, Ted
BEHIND THE SCENE — Judy Rose, the typesetter at the Huron '
Expositor, explains her role in helping putting out the newspaper, to
children from the Totlot program who toured the newspaper office last
Friday. (Expositor Photo)
Final s4ow....-
Opens Aug 23 in Blyth