HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1979-08-01, Page 9BY ALICE GIBB
Keith Roulston has taken
the characters you find in an
small town, exaggerated
their foibles just a bit and
turned life in the village of
•
Hamhocks into a. pleasant
evening of theatre.
McGillicuddy's Lost
Weekend, the Roulston play
• which opened at the Blyth
Festival on July 24, is based
on the diary of Ezekiel
McGillicuddy, the long suf-
• feringAaw enforcement offic-
er ?it Hamhocks, who puts his
woes on paper every month
in Mr. Roulston's magazine,
the Village Sqnire.
In this play, the author not
.only manages to poke some
gentle fun at life in a small
town, but he also makes: us
laugh at a campaign to rid
the community of "sin and
smut" - a campaign that
• hasn't always 'been taken
aptly, by some members of
the Huron County commun-
The fatniliar characters
we've seen in the. Village
Squire diary have been suc-
cessfully transferred to the
• stage - and prove to -be even
more likable in person than
. they were on paper. First,
aside from the chief, himself,.
there's Councillor Sally
Hemple, the woman who's,
waging .the campaign to get
rid of just about anything
that's any fun; Mayor Lum-
py, who's followed his
grandfather and father into
political life ih holding the
village's highest office; and
Cindy Lou, the chief's net
door neighbour who's con-
vinced the way to Zeke's
heart must be through his
stomach, so she tempts him
with ' delights like Cindy
Lou's surprise, a potent
omelette heavily laced with
anchovies and chili.
WELL DESERVED REST
The premise behind Mc-
Gillicuddy's Lost Weekend is
simple - after a number of
years without a holiday, the
town council has granted the
chief leave for a three day
fishing trip. When the play
opens, Ezekiel McGillicuddy
has exactly 30 tninutes to go
until he can hang up his hat,
toss a fishing pole into his car
and take offon a well deserv-
ed rest, both from the job
and,the eccentric citizenry of
• Hamhocks. • The chief is so
relaxed in contemplating the
holiday that he doesn't
even • get • upset when,
Councillor Hemple sails into
his --office on one of her
search and destroy missions,,
•catches him reading a copy of
Playboy and lectures him on
the fact he's failing to set a
high moral tone • for the
townspeople to follow. The
prissy councillor also warns
the chief she's going to be
Noisy Ladies come third
•
in tournament
The Noisy Ladies softball
team placed third in a
tournament- in Holstein on
the. weekend.
They won their first game
ainst Carlisle in a close
ame with a .10 - 9 score.
S urday afternoon they -lost
• to urlington 9 - 5 despite a
• good effort.
Listowel • later defeated
Burlington by a score of 4- 1
• to winthe tournatnent.
Good team • spirit was
shown by those who played:
Judy Draper, Barb Helm, Pat
• Boak, Judy Van KoOten,
Nancy Cameron, Bonnie Tay-
lor, Wendy Gerster,, Arlene
:Turner, Ann 'Inglis, Debbie
Price, Linda Guse arid Kathy
Mewhinney. Coaches • are
Steve Hackett and Brian
• Draper. Players Dona, :Mac:
• Donald and Sherry Boak
were unable to attend.
Recommended as
ADULT ENTERTAINMENT
Starts Friday A01): 3 id Aug „ 7th
Friday & Saturday Two Showing's 7 & 9 p.M.
Sunday • Thursday One ShoWing4 p.m.
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WARNING SOME SCENES MAY FRIGHTEN'
•
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PARK
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AIRCONDITIONED 10
challenging the long -termed
Mayor Lumpy in the next1
municipal • election with a
campaign nicknamed COME
-Committee on Morality Ev-
erywhere -and the chief s
haviour will be one of her
main targets.
Ezekiel McGillicuddy,
played by.. Theatre Passe
Muraille actor Layne Cole-
man, is an underpaid and
often unappreciated village
policeman who sees through
the facades of the villagers in
his care, but hasn't quite got
the ambtion to move on to
greener • pastures -even
though he's frustrated with a
job that Job that involves little more
than issuing parking tickets
and chasing the younger
"Terrorists" of the town.
But when McGillicuddy
suddenly finds has an ,
actual kidnapping on his
hands, , and Mrs. Money-
• bank's beloved son Junior
seems to be the, victim, then
the chief decides to sacrifice
• his long awaited vacation for
a chance to prove to himself
• and the townspeople that •
he's • more than just "a
duthbhick town cop."
EZEKL41 McGILLICIIDDT
Layne Coleman, who deliv-
ered strong performance as
the Dutch immigrant in This
• Foreign Land, seemed less
sure of himself in the role of
the . police chief. His line
were often shouted at the
• audience and from the port-
rait of the chief in both the "
play and the original diary, it
seems Ezekiel should., have
been middle-aged and more
frustrated. Layne Coleman's
• strongest scenes in the play
• Were confrontations with the
Awesome Mrs. Moneybanks
and in one particular tender
scene with an unusually
chastened. Councillor Hem-
pleo , •
• One of the, most convincing
portrayals in the play was
Anne Anglin,'s portrait of the
banker's wife, Mrs. Money -
banks, a familiar -character in
every small townie member
st
Lucknow Sentinel, Wednesday, August 1, 1979—Page 9
•A iipliceman's lot
of a well-to-do family that
likes to imagine ,they're the
Rocicefellers or Bronfmans of
the village. Anne Anglin has
managed to make the unsym-
pathetic Mrs. Moneybanks,
with her frumpy clothes and
obsession with a spoiled son -
"Junior's the only thing I've
got that money can't re-
place" -almost likeable and
she captured both the ex-
pressions and gestures of
"the citizen" of the town.
Another strong perform-
ance was Mary Ann Cole's
portrayal cif Cindy Lou -the
Single "girl" who lives next
door to Ezekiel McGillicuddy
and obviously has intentions
of making an honest man
- even after years of unsuc-
cessful campaigning.
• In the diary excerpts,
Cindy Lou has often seemed
mainly a figure of fun, but on
stage she's more human - in
the scene where she con-
fronts Councillor Hemple
and advises the politician on
the finer • points of child
raising or when she collapses
in tears, after being labelled
the town .tramp. Mary Ann
• Coles has taken a giggly girl
who badly wants a man and
turned her into a giO-Who'
hides a heart of gold nder.
• her scanty, bikini (well, bare-
ly hides a heart, of gold).
The • two other stars of
McGilhicuddv'sWeek-
end • are Peter Elliott as.
Mayor Lumpy,, the than WhO
tries to be everyone's friend,
spending all his time trying
to stay in place on the fence
in the process; and 'Angie Gei
as the very moral Councillor
• Sally .Hemple. While Miss;
Gei gave a convincing por-
trayal of the woman who
,tried to forget her own' tint -
happiness by "cleaning up"
Hamhocks and its citizens,
again..the actress seemed to
young for her role, a fact
which might have been alter-
ed by better 'makeup.
STRONGER PRODUCTION
McGillicuddy's Lost
Weekend directed by Janet
Amos, who will be the
artistic director of the festival
next season, is definitely a
stronger production than last
year's Roulston play, His
Own Boss, Part of -the reason
may be that the character
Ezekiel McGillicuddy was
already familiar to many of
the opening night audience,
but the play itself was also
faster paced. The theme that
a policeman's lot in a small
town isn't always a happy
one as well as the gentle
satire aimed at everyone
from the morally pure Mrs.
Hemple to the fence sitting
mayor, couldn't help but win
a response from the audience
- after all, these characters
are our neighbours, and
maybe even ourselves.
The set was one of the few
weaker points in McGillicud-
dy's Lost Weekend, and
seemed to suffer from too
much crowded on the stage,
which sometimes created dif.
faculties for the actors. Tony `
Abrams the set designer,
' could have asked the audi-
ence to use their imagination..
a little more and created a
• less cluttered scene on stage.
McGillicuddy'.s Lost
Weekend will, add to Blyth
Festival's already successful •
season which his ;seen a• •
numbe . of sello V' erform-
ances �f: "I'll Be "k For
You Before 'Midnight".
_Keith Roulston has abandon •
-
-ect the puns of last year s His
• OwnBoss, andtreated the ..•
audience to some ligh and
entertOning comedy 'opthe
nature of human nature, The -
performances of. McGilliciid-
dy's Lost Weekend run from
July 26 to August 17 and
include two matinee per-
formances. ; .
..
Last Night Thurs. Aug. 2nd
BEYOND
THE POSEIDON
ADVENTURE
lechnicalor
l'ana‘kion
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'STARTS FRI., AljO, 3-9
t ttiVide :the speeci
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He was tough enough for the streets...
Was he tough enough to leave them?
Scime scenes may
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SUN AUG 5T1.71 ONLY!
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MON., AUG. 6th - CLOSED!
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