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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 1998-08-19, Page 18cetden Wedding annittectuvtg Glenn and Elizabeth McKercher and their family invite friends, neighbours, and relatives to an Open House on the occasion of Glenn and Elizabeth's Golden Wedding Anniversary at their home in Jamestown on Saturday, August 22, 1998 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Best Wishes only, please PAGE 18. THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 19, 1998. E ntertainment winning play to Garage Healey brings award Trick or treat? Ross Manson (standing) as Chet Carter wonders what his partner Billy-Bob Griffin (Ari Cohen) is up to when plans change after the two Texas businessmen visit a small Ontario town in Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!, which opened Aug. 6 at the Blyth Festival. (Photo by Off Broadway Photo) Theatre Review `Jobs!' the kind of theatre that made Blyth Festival famous By John Greig Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! is the kind of theatre for which the Blyth Festival has become famous. The play, which opened Aug. 6, combines strong, snappy writing, with quality acting and stage design, all set within the confines of a story which could happen in any of our small towns. Throw in a lot of humour and gentle social commentary and you have Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! What makes Keith Roulston's Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! even more attractive is that it could easily be based in Huron County. The story, and the set, centre around the clerk's office of Winstead, a small town of 3,000 to 4,000 people which could easily be any of 10 or so such towns within an hour's drive of Blyth. The play commences shortly after the election of a non-nonsense mayor, Phil Gainsmore (played by Thomas Hauff). He's a self-made businessman with little time for the restrictions of bureaucracy, or the Municipal Act, for that matter. His desperation to fulfill his promise of jobs, jobs, jobs, and to avoid amalgamation overtures from the larger town a short distance away, lead to the mayor bring like an inattentive farmer not noticing the chickens a fox is stealing from his already ramshackle henhouse. In short order, he's bet his daughter, job and personal fortune on a couple of mysterious Texans who arrive ip town. The appearance of the Texans immediately livens up the play with their boisterous nature and outrageous clothing. Their knowledge of big business and the interest they show in the recently- closed cannery in town, has Mayor Phil eating from their palms. Ari Cohen is suitably slimy as the brasher, slicker, Billy-Bob, while actor Ross Manson handles his role as the confused Chet well, as the character evolves substantially throughout the play. Cohen and Manson both had lead roles in the play Yesteryear (which plays until Aug. 22) and again, they play off of one another well in Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! While the Texas accent occasionally sounds like a mix between Scottish and Canadian, we find, in the end, that there's a good reason for that. Providing a voice of reason during the turbulent times in Winstead is clerk Shelley Stoller. She's dealing with the legacy of her father, a former mayor, and the potential that she could lose her job if any sort of amalgamation takes place. As someone, who until recently was in the middle of reporting on small-town amalgamation issues, I was concerned that the dry and tedious subject of amalgamation could have a detrimental effect on the play. Press releases promoting the play tended to play up the amalgamation issue, likely because of its current prominence in local affairs. But, thankfully, amalgamation is only an effective backdrop to provide more complication to the plot. It's another pressure driving the desperate doings of the mayor. In fact, the play could likely exist A hit at the Toronto Fringe in 1996, at the Tarragon theatre, The Artrage Festival in Perth Australia, and the Uno Festival in Victoria, BC, Michael Healey's solo showed Kicked comes to the Blyth Festival Garage Theatre Aug. 18 to 22 as part of the Extra Edge Series. "Kicked is brilliant" says the Globe and Mail. The West Australian called the show "as fine a piece of writing for the theatre as you will find. Healey's performance of his own work is powerful indeed." Toronto's Now Magazine calls Healey " a gifted comic actor and a bravely intense performer." A little girl disappears on her way home from school. The only thing found is her right shoe. A man shows up in a hospital emergency room, suffering from a very particular injury. Kicked follows the investigation of the girl's disappearance through three interviews conducted by the cop charged with finding her. A bus Blyth has never seen dance like this before. Kate Alton's new company Overall Dance will bring some of the country's finest modern dancers and choreographers to the Blyth Festival for the first time in the the- atre's 24-year history. Kate Alton, a dancer and chore- ographer formed Overall Dance last year to create new dances both for herself and for other choreogra- phers and dancers. Alton was nominated for a Dora Award last year for outstanding performance. After seven years as a driver, a shoe salesman and a urologist each shed light on the crime, while the cop struggles with the ghost of the girl he knows is dead. The cop solves the case, but in doing so reveals how incapable adults are of understanding let alone protecting children. Kicked deals with strong subject matter and contains coarse language. Kicked was nominated for the Chalmers Award for playwriting, and won the 1998 Dora Mayor Moore award for Best New Play. Michael Healey will be familiar to this year's Blyth audiences as Frank from Wilbur County Blues and Howard the hardware store man with a heart of gold from Yesteryear. Past Blyth credits include Jake's Place, Ballad For a Rum Runner's Daughter, and He Won't Come in from the Barn. Michael's new play, The Drawer Boy will be produced at Theatre Passe Muraille this season. Kicked is directed by Brian Quirt, with lighting design by Bonnie Beecher. featured member of Toronto Dance Theatre and two years of working as an independent dancer in Canada and abroad, Alton is recognized as a talented Canadian dancer. Her show Necessary Risks at Dancemakers in Toronto sold-out to rave reviews last spring. For the show at Blyth, Alton has put together a program geared to an audience new to dance. The four pieces in the show were created by renowned choreographers many of whom have been nominated for awards. Continued on page 20 without even a mention of amalgamation. Providing another stress to the mayor is his flighty daughter Vicky. Cappy Onn, a local actor deserves several cheers for the role she played, mostly because she was thrust into it on opening night. She replaced Mackenzie Muldoon, who was involved in a car accident Aug. 6. By the Saturday matinee, for which this review was done, Onn was still using a script to guide her, but used the sheets as part of her motions at times, which helped. She played an effective innocent with her father, but seductress, when needed. Perhaps the character with the most logic, and common sense in the play is Rita, played by Kathryn Ashby. Rita is one of the 150 local people who lost their jobs when the cannery closed down, but she has some ideas of her own. What's needed is a way to get the attention of the people she needs to help her. Rita's plans are side-tracked, and then aided by the ma'yor's infatuation with the Texans and their top-secret project to bring 500 jobs to town. Along the way she stumbles on to someone to love. Ashby plays a spunky, but at times worried, Rita. She's an effective choice for the role. The second act is especially funny and moves quickly and effectively. Director Jerry Frankin's sense of understated comedic timing, which is famous at Blyth, is in evidence throughout the play, but especially in the second act. An example of that comedic Continued on page 20 Modern dance comes to Festival's Garage Aug. 24, 25 Happy 45th Wedding Anniversary Maxine and Bill Seers August 22 Love: Your family!