HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1987-09-02, Page 22PAGE 22. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1987.
Entertainment Museum quilt show
shows local contribution
“ Another Season’s Promise” returned to the stage at the Blyth Festival last week for another run before
departing on a tour through Ontario and western Canada. Lee J. Campbell [left] as Ken Purves treats
Jerrod Button as his grandson Sandy, to a brownie while Nicola Lipman, as Helen Purves, looks on.
Theatre review
'Promise' delivers on promise
BYLISEGUNBY
On national radio recently, an
“expert” commenting on Can
ada’s theatre scene remarked that
this country has no “political
theatre” to speak of. Canadians,
he said, just don’t mix their politics
and entertainment.
He was soon corrected. A caller
who had happened to visit Blyth
during theatre season made it clear
that Canadians have been known to
take both their issues and art
together. In fact, the Blyth Festival
has shown time and again how
powerful and relevant issue-
centred theatre can be when it
comes from the community in
which it is produced.
In few plays anywhere does that
mix work better than in “Another
Season’s Promise,” the Blyth
Festival’s final production this
year. Written by Anne Chislett and
Keith Roulston, the play will be
familiar to Blyth patrons from its
debut last year. Another Season’s
Promise, as a play, has fulfilled its
title, and after its second run at
Blyth will head out on an extensive
tour of Ontario ending with a
four-week run at the Citadel
Theatre, Edmonton.
Also familiar will be the fact that
Another Season’s Promise has
garnered excellent reviews. Some
of the best responses have come
from the local audience, an
audience all too familiar with the
play’s wrenching story line, which
takes the Purves family through
the heart of the farm crisis and
shows with thoroughness and
sensitivity how financial disaster
divides - and comes close to
conquering - a farm family and the
immediate community. That audi
ence, in fact, made a direct
contribution to the script through
interviews and comments, and the
play’s performance does justice to
the first-hand research that went
into it.
The drama is masterfully han
dled in this year’s production by
the director, Linda Moore, and
cast, particularly by Lee J. Camp
bell, who plays the father, Ken
Purves. With unstinting skill he
carries Act 1 to an intense close,
expressing a bitterness and rage
fierce enough to leave the audience
shocked and less than dry-eyed
whenthelightsgodown. He’sa
stoic, conservative character at
heart, caught between pride and
self-recrimination, which makes
for a potent conflict.
Equally well played is the role of
Granny Purves, keeper of the
traditions and an endearing Scot
tish wit. “In my day we grew things
people ate, not profit margins,”
she notes tartly. Played by Flor
ence Paterson, who has a long
career in theatre behind her, the
delightful Granny provides genu
ine comic relief (and much more) in
a play that manages to balance
top-notch humour and high drama.
Also making their appearance
are Nicola Lipman as Helen
Purves, the picture of a harried
farm wife seeking a common-sense
solution to what seems a hopeless
situation, and Blyth resident Jer
rod Button as her tow-headed
grandson Sandy, whose grin can
steal a scene.
Judith Orban and Stan Coles
handle their roles as “city slick
ers” with zest. Laurel Paetz as
Jane Noonan, whose husband
Continued on Page 23
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COME JOIN THE LOSERS & GO HOME A WINNER
For information 396-7005
Due to the current reconstruc
tion project underway at the Huron
County Pioneer Museum, the
Third Annual Quilt Show is being
held at the Livery on South Street in
Goderich, this year. The show
opened Friday, August 22 and will
continue to delight viewers until
Monday, September 7.
The Quilt Show includes dozens
of handmade quilts in a variety of
patterns as well as a twenty-minute
film on the art of quilting and a
boutique of quilting supplies which
may be purchased.
Not to be missed at this year’s
show are the two new wall
hangings quilted by the Museum
Friends volunteer group. The
special projects incorporate twenty
embroidered squares belonging to
the Livery permanently mounted
on the stone walls of the building.
One of the hangings represents the
contributions of West Wawanosh,
Turnberry Township, the Huron
County Jail, the Oakwood Inn in
Stephen Township, the Goderich
Women’s Institute, the Blyth
Town Hail, Bayfield, The Goderich
District After Five Club and the
Colborne Township Hall in Carlow.
The second contains contributions
from Hullett, Hay Township,
TuckersmithTownship, the Morris
Township Hall, the Usborne Town
ship Hall, the Van Egmond
residence, Ashfield, and St.
George’s Church.
The two quilted wall hangings
represent the co-operative effort of
THURS., FRI., SAT
5P.M.-12A.M.
Blyth Inn
EAT IN OR TAKE OUT
523-9381
two of Huron County’s cultural
interests and wil’ be the highlight
of this year’s Quilt Show.
The displays are open to the
public each day from 1 to 5 p.m. as
well as Friday evenings from 7
through 9 p.m. at a cost of $1.50.
Tea and coffee will be available in
the lobby of the Livery. The entire
proceeds from the show will go to
the reconstruction of the Huron
County Pioneer Museum and show
organizers are expecting as many
as 1,500 visitors over the two
weeks.
After the French Revolution, the
great chefs of that country who
could no longer rely on the
patronage of the wealthy, began to
open the first-ever restaurants. As
asymbolofthe liberty, equality
and fraternity proclaimed by the
revolutionaries, one of the first
dishes they dared to serve was the
brand-new “revolutionary”
tomato.
;! ;!
f°r I*
? Steven Radford and
*i Darlene Gulutzen ]'
i‘ September 4,1987
; Blyth Community Centre /
i ’ [upstairs] ' •
50ti 'Weddutty
The family of John and Clara
Perrie invite relatives and
friends to join them in
celebrating their parents’
50th Wedding Anniversary
at an Open House to be held
on Saturday, Sept. 12,1987,
2 - 4 p.m. at Cranbrook
Community Centre. Best
wishes only.
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