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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Goderich Signal-Star, 1984-08-01, Page 20PAQE; A. -GQD +'LICIff SIG iALSTAR, WI.,�DNESDAY, AUGUST 1,1 SALTFORD VALLEY HALL FOR RENT CALL 5 2 4.2 4 4 3 Happy 4? BIRTHDAY Paul 524-7165 or 524-2544 ,t TAINM NT Blue City gives accurate depiction of life BY DARRELL KLOEZE Layne Coleman, in his latest play now - being performed at the Blyth Festival, has written a very accurate depiction of life in the small town. As inch, Blue City is an effective new play to be presented at Blyth. Blue City is a believable piece of theatre, at least in the situations and characters it portrays. The circumstances of the play surround a women's baseball team in a small town, and its team members. The play is simply a day in the life of some of the people who live ill a small town, and examines some of the characters' motivations and reactions to life. The team plays a baseball game during the course of the play (the action comes off believably well on stage), and wins; however,one gets the impression that the team loses just as often as they win. And that is a fairly accurate summation of the lives of the people who live in this small town, that they win and lose in equal measure. But the overall outlook of the play is not pessimistic. The characters, as all people, are able to live with their losses and rejoice in their gains, and this makes their lives somewhat livable. The play has no real plot, at least in the way plot is understood, and it has„ no real central character. Instead, the audience meets a number of the people on the baseball team and in the small town where the play takes place. Some of the team members include PECK PPLIANCES "IN THE HEART OF DOWNTOWN VARNA" •FILTER QUEEN SALES & SERVICE •VACUUM CLEANERS - (Sales & Service to Moat' Makes) • FM COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS For Farm & Business) • WHIRLPOOL APPLIANCES •WOODS FREEZERS • CENTRAL VACUUM SYSTEMS •INSECT & FLY KILLING UNITS (For Indoor & Outdoor Use) • GIFTS & MANY MORE ITEMS VARNA, ONT. 482-7103 THEATRE REVIEW iimunimmir Chicken, played by Peg Christopherson, a young woman who has fleeting glimpses of ambition to move to the city, but who is too, afraid to leave home and whatever false sense of security she has establlshed. The security is false, especially to herself, because we suspect she is capable. of much more, but settles foreven less than mediocrity. Mary Ann Coles plays Barbara Boom, a married woman who is beginning to regret the lack of interest her husband shows in their marriage. The husband, played b Robert King, would rather go out drinki with his buddies than make aneffort to communicate with his wife. One of the buddies is named Butter, played enthusiastically by Ron Gabriel. Butter has probably enjoyed better days as somewhat of a local character, but now has turned into an unemployed, futureless drunk. He can still .get by on his fading earlier reputation, however, and is still enjoys some small level of reverence shown by his peers. This has to explain why his girlfriend Kim, played by Jenny Munday, would go out with him in the first place. But Kim is tiring of Butter's irresponsibility, and rejects his drunken proposals of marriage. HAIR DESIGN FOR WOMEN AND MEN EAR PIERCING AVAILABLE Oreads gIlp ,SUNCOAST MALL-GODERICH. 524-8515 Dashwood's ray ateniffillee of windows ana °EVER! 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Insulated Steel Doors Complete with frames and sills some with leaded lues 45-6.O% OFF SUGGESTED LIST Dashwood Garage Windows Limited quantifies available.only, single glazed G -F-2 511 , x 39' List 585. 4 SALE 3. 100's more at similar savings. Tor further information please call 1-226®6624 DASHW000 INDUSTRIES LIMITED P O. Box 10, Centralia, Ontario NOM 1 KO Tar t��r P.4 S�iQQnsU 1 14' , ,, 1.� ,tin !, je y an,1 /1*1Pf ^/1t np(P4Sa rely • POre Soel? o,,r rngullar pr're fir tt a prrrP4 111 rrlmpPtonr, Kim seems like she°might have a chance to avoid the paralyzing lack of ambition that plagues the others, but it is clear that peer pressures and her own uncertainty are factors which are constantly urging her to conform. and it is not at all certain that she can resist these pressures. Lori Walker, played by Deborah Kimmett, is an important character in the play, because something concrete actually happens to her. The father of her young son returns to the4own after a 14 -year absence, and she is forced to deal with that. She does, to some degree; at least she confronts the man, played by Wendell Smith, and tries to settle the pain she has had to live with for so long. As with most of the play, the resolution is unclear, but at least the issue has been confronted. David Fox gives the best performance as Lori's father, Bill Walker, who is at the same time the team's coach and the self- appointed moral guide- for the community. His religion is well-meaning and basically kind, but his ministrations are unheeded by 'the others. Mr. Walker sets the tone for the whole play, and strangely it comes at the very end in the form of a prayer he says out loud on stage. He prays for happiness and peace, and in the end that is all that anybody could ask for. The characters in Blue City seek their own versions of peace, and the ones who win are the ones who can honestly identify what they think can give them what they want. But life mainly keeps on going in Blue City, and eventually nothing much will have changed. The play itself resolves little. The audience however is left with the impression that life in the small town is not as rustically peaceful as some people make it out to be, but it is equally not as terrible as others might imagine. It is life, just like anywhere else, with its ups and downs. Your life is what you make it out to be, and by stressing the good and learning to live with the bad parts, you can learn to make your life fulfilling. The people in Blue City are divided among those who will never realize that, and those who are just becoming conscious of the fact that they do have some level of control in their own happiness. Blue City opened centres on the after the game, are at the Blyth Festiykal last week. The play is about small-town living and lives of the women on a baseball team. Here, in a scene showing what goes on (left to right) Ron Gabriel, Jenny Munday, and Robert King. Playhouse production is fascinating BY DARRELL KLOEZE Billy Bishop Goes Ta War, now playing at the Playhouse II at the Huron Country Playhouse, is a fascinating look at an unusual subject -the matter of the Canadian hero. Canadians have long been characterized by both their unwillingness to create heroes and their subsequent lack of heroic figures. Historical and mythical heroes are an important part of any country's culture, and the lack of heroes may be a contributing factor in an overall lack of identifiable Canadian culture. John Gray has gone ,a long way to rectify both situations, and a couple of years ago wrote a genuine popular Canadian play with Eric Peterson about a bona fide Canadian hero. The subject was Billy Bishop, a World War I flying ace who held the Allied record in that war in number of enemy planes shot down. The result is an enchanting musical that tells much about the war and Billy Bishop in particular, as well as about heroism, and about Canadians and British in general. Billy Bishop was originally from Owen Sound. He had a typically inauspicious beginning for a Canadian hero -had it not been for the war, he would undoubtedly have been expelled from the Royal Military College where he was a cadet. As it was, the war came along in the nick of time and, full of the usual expectations of glory and adventure, Bishop became an officer in the army. Bishop's story would have ended there had it not been for two thins -his discovery of airplanes and the relative comfort air warfare provided compared to trench warfare; and the interference of an older British lady who recognized Bishop's potential for power, beneath his "rude Canadian exterior." The story goes on to tell of Bishop's more successful and lucky war experiences, and his eventual fame as a flying ace and international hero, The play is essentially a two-man show, and the story unfolds as told by Bishop to a piano player, ostensibly in a Canadian Legion Hall, as the program tells us. Bishop, in remembering the past, plays all the characters involved, and takes the audience directly to the scenes as they happened in his memory. Hank Stipson as Bishop does an excellent job of portraying 18 different characters, some in conversation with each other. Bishop is of course always the central character, but Stinson works enough mannerisms and personality into the others to give them unique identities of their own. Stinson must sing as well as act as Billy Bishop, and his very fine voice is certainly not a disappointment as he works his way through the great music John Gray wrote. The other character is played by Michael Mulrooney. He is essentially Bishop's accompanist for his songs, but Gray has worked him so cunningly into the play that he must also sing, listen and throw in a few words of his own. In all these tasks, but Hank Stinson --is Billy Bishop In the Huron Country Playhouse production of Billy Bishop Goes To War. At the piano is Michael Mulrooney. The musical plays at the Playhouse II until this Saturday. especially in playing piano, Mulrodney performs very well, and his constant presence on stage does not detract from Stinson's performance. Stinson's portrayal as the Canadian Bishop, aware of his origins almost as much as are the British, is very good. The play offers some choice insights into what it meant to 'be , a colonial fighting in an essentially Etiropean war, and what it meant. and means, to be a Canadian. For example. Bishop's mentor tells him at one point, "You°'are behaving like cannon fodder, perfectly acceptable behavior for a ('anadian." The implication is, in her British logic, for Bishop to stop behaving like a Canadian and to start becoming a hero in the fine British tradition. Ultimately, Bishop is retired from active service because his death, as it was explained to him, would be a tremendous blow to the colonial enthusiasm in the war effort. The British, we are to conclude, are second to none in creating heroes, but it is not for British to need them. Bishop himself says, "The British like their heroes cold and dead, or so it seems." Perhaps this is why, in spite of the fame Bishop received as a British -styled hero, he was to remain a Canadian. 'After losing some of his youthful enthusiasm for the war, Bishop sings about his home country in the song, "Nobody shoots no one in Canada." "It may not be heaven," he admits, "but heaven knows we try. 1 wishl-was in Canada today." Not bad for a realisation by a Canadian about his country, and after all, Bishop wasn't bad as a Canadian himself. If it is not so easy to inspire pride in Canada, the least we could do would be to inspire some appreciation. Gray has done his best in "Billy Bisshop Goes To War," and after seeing the fine Playhouse II production, it is hard to go away not feeling good about being a Canadian. CountryFair will have new attractions The Blyth Festival's third annual Country Fair will be held at Blyth Memorial Hall from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 11 - just over a week away. And it's going to be bigger and better than ever before ! ! Favourite stalls from past years include fruit and vegetables, plants, books, tomorrow boxes, clothing, Granny's Attic, and home -baked goods. Among the new attraction`s' for this year are the kissing booth (run by members of t vcaf1. m 1. _a.eal faik jcrlt-eP-- your favourite cake and win a prize), a mime troupe, a fiddler, and artists to sketch, or .do a caricature of you and your family. Hotdogs, coffee, lemonade and other refreshments will be available. The Food Spot will be open for light lunches. Anyone with items for the Country Fair ( second-hand clothes, furnishings, or books, home-made goods and fresh produce; etc.) can drop them off at the box office between 9 a.,11>aa....aur1__8;-30..p.m. on performance days, and 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on non-performance days; closed on Sundays: Details for entry into the Cake -Walk can be obtained by calling the Blyth Festival at 523-9300 or 523- 9225. Saturday, August 11 is also the first day of the Blyth Festival's reunion weekend. A registration booth will be set up at the Country Fair and anyone wishing to join in the festivities can check out what's happening. We're planning a big party - why LnotJoin us?_