HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2009-01-29, Page 19If you’re looking for a break from
the gloomy days of mid-winter, The
Wild Guys, currently playing at
London’s Grand Theatre, could be
the tonic you need.
Starring Eric Coates, Blyth
Festival artistic director, The Wild
Guys is full of laughs, and you won’t
be troubled by having to do much
heavy thinking.
The play, by television writer
Andrew Wreggitt and his playwright
wife Rebecca Shaw, was first written
back in 1992, winning several
awards, and has been performed in
75 theatres across North America
since. It was made into a film in
2004.
It makes gentle fun of the men’s
movement of the 1990s when writers
like Robert Bly were urging men to
get in touch with their inner “wild
man”.
Coates plays Stewart, produce
manager of a small town
supermarket who agrees to go along
on a male bonding adventure in the
north country because he’s been
asked by an executive of the
supermarket chain and thinks it may
lead to a promotion.
William Vickers, a 21-year
member of the Shaw Festival
company, plays Andy, the executive
who has joined a men’s group and
now is urging the others to dig deep
into their psyches. He’s brought
along Robin, another member of the
men’s group, who has made a full-
time occupation of attending new-
age meetings across North America.
He’s the most gungho participant in
the event.
The fourth “wild guy” is Randall
(Stratford Festival vet David
Snelgrove), who has come along
because he’s Andy’s attorney and
wants to keep on his good side.
Heading to a cabin on a remote
lake, Coates’Stewart feels that as the
country guy he must take the lead,
and he promptly gets the party
lost.
Stewart soon realizes that he’s not
only lost in the woods, but lost in
this dissimilar group of men. His
idea of a guys’ outing is drinking
beer and he’s stuffed enough bottles
in his backpack to keep him going
for the weekend (one of the less
obvious jokes is watching an endless
supply of beer bottles come out of
the bag: his knees would have
buckled carrying so many bottles).
When Andy urges them to read the
poem he’s asked each of them to
select and bring, Stewart recites
“Beans, beans, the musical fruit”.
The most flamboyant of the four is
Robin, who compounds Stewart’s
error in getting them lost, by not
having brought the food he was
assigned to tote because he figured
they’d be better to hunt for their food
like real men.
Of course later when they get
hungry enough that he sets a snare to
catch a rabbit, he’s too tender-
hearted to go and finish off the
animal he thinks he’s caught.
Played by Aidan deSalaiz, Robin
is both irritating and hilarious, a
satire on all those people who go
overboard with a fashionable trend.
Robin’s new-age mumbo-jumbo
drives lawyer Randall closer to
Stewart, even though he’s angry with
him for getting them lost. He thinks
the whole get-in-touch-with-your-
inner-savage bit is ridiculous, but
doesn’t want to alienate his client,
Andy.
The play is at its best in the short
first act. One of its awards was as the
winner of a national one-act festival,
and it has the feeling of one of those
half-hour situation comedies that has
been stretched into a one-hour
special.
Naturally, as happens in sitcoms,
the play does try for its profound
moments late in the play and each
man in turn is pressed to deal with
his own emotional deficiencies. It’s
the least satisfying part of the play.
But for those seeking therapeutic
laughter to cure the winter blahs, it’s
a short diversion. Those who took
part in Saturday’s matinee bus trip
organized by the Blyth Festival came
away praising it as a good
afternoon’s outing.
The Wild Guys is playing at The
Grand Theatre until Feb. 7.
THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JANUARY 29, 2009. PAGE 19.Entertainment Leisure&Theatre reviewGrand’s ‘Wild Guys’ a mid-winter brightener
What a guy!
The Wild Guys, now in production at The Grand Theatre in
London, is a hilarious look at male bonding. Among those
‘going wild’ on stage is Blyth Festival artistic director Eric
Coates. (Claus Anderson photo)
Benefit Night And
Silent/Live Auction
Friday, February 6
Blyth Community Centre
A Fundraiser in assistance of
BJ and Ang Cullen
Donations in trust may be made at C.I.B.C. in Blyth
or United Communities Credit Union in Clinton.
For more information please contact:
Bill and Susan Meyers at 519-482-5846 or
Mike Boven at 519-523-9060
DDOOOORRSS OOPPEENN AATT 88::0000 PPMM
Proudly hosted by: The Clinton and District Kinsmen & Kinettes
and The Londesborough Lions Club
Donation box at the Door
An Age of Majority Event
Engagement
NICHOLSON-CHESTER
Mike and Diane Nicholson
are pleased to announce the
engagement of their daughter,
Ange to Jamie
son of
Tom and Julie Chester,
of Wingham.
Social evening May 23,
Wingham Arena.
Valentine’s Dance
Saturday, February 7th
Memorial Hall, Blyth
Dance to the Riverview Band
9 pm to 1 am
$10.00 a person
lunch available, cash bar, age of majority
Sponsored by the Blyth Legion and Ladies Auxiliary
Proceeds to the Building Fund
Tickets available at the Legion 519-523-9535
Stratford, ON
Saturday, Feb 14th, 2009
Happy 70th
Birthday
“Sweet Cheeks”
February 1, 2009
Gotcha!
By Keith Roulston
The Citizen