HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Citizen, 2018-6-28, Page 19THE CITIZEN, THURSDAY, JUNE 28, 2018. PAGE 19.
Entertainment Leisure
'New Canadian Curling Club' impresses in premiere
Learn to curl
The New Canadian Curling Club, the first world premiere in the Blyth Festival's 2018 season,
is the latest offering from playwright Mark Crawford, who has quickly beecome a fan favourite
in Blyth. His story of four immigrants learning how to curl strikes all the right comedic and
dramatic notes in this season's lead show. From left: Matthew Gin as Mike Chang, Lorne
Kennedy as Stuart MacPhail, Omar Alex Khan as Anoopjeet Singh, Parmida Vand as Fatima
Al -Sayeed and Marcia Johnson as Charmaine Bailey. (TerryManzophoto)
By Shawn Loughlin
The Citizen
What does it mean to be
Canadian? What is Canadian?
The New Canadian Curling Club,
the Blyth Festival's lead show this
season, wrestles with these
questions in a rather existential
manner, forcing the most
"Canadian" among us to revisit our
own definitions and ask ourselves
how Canadian we are.
To Lorne Kennedy's Stuart
MacPhail, the answer to what is
Canadian is Rita MacNeil and
Bobby Orr paddling a canoe. And
while he isn't wrong, audience
members have to know, that with
playwright Mark Crawford at the
helm, it can't simply be that
straightforward.
The New Canadian Curling Club,
which has its world premiere at
Memorial Hall on Friday night, tells
the story of a small Ontario town — a
one -Tim Horton's town, for scale —
and a local initiative that strives to
teach new Canadians how to curl.
The project was created by an
accepting and active pillar of the
community. However, when she falls
and breaks her hip the night before
the course is to begin, the task falls
to MacPhail who is a little less
cordial, but balances himself out
with a healthy dose of racism.
MacPhail "welcomes" four "new"
Canadians to the class in the coming
weeks: Matthew Gin's Mike Chang
(Chinese), Omar Alex Khan's
Anoopjeet Singh (Indian), Parmida
Vand's Fatima Al -Sayeed (Syrian)
and Marcia Johnson's Charmaine
Bailey, who reminds everyone that
while she is a Jamaican immigrant,
she has lived in the town for nearly
30 years, hardly qualifying her as a
"new" Canadian.
Gin, Khan, Vand and Johnson are
all accomplished Canadian actors
who are asked to lean into their "new
Canadian" roles for the show and
embrace the humour of the story
Crawford is trying to tell. Kennedy,
on the other hand, has to lean into
something totally alien to him and
an attitude he finds disgusting.
In his interview with The Citizen
for its "Salute to the Blyth Festival",
Kennedy said he found it
challenging portraying someone
with whom he had so little in
common. Indeed, some of the things
that come out of MacPhail's mouth
truly take the audience by surprise.
The gang gets off to a rocky start,
which will come as a surprise to no
one. Chang is most familiar to
MacPhail as the man who has been
dating his granddaughter for several
years. MacPhail knows Bailey and
Singh from the local Tim Horton's,
but has never before met Al -Sayeed,
a member of a Syrian refugee family
sponsored to come to the town.
The early results of the class are
predictably comical in a Cool
Runnings sort of way. Between
Bailey's bad knees, Singh's inability
to navigate on the ice and Al-
Sayeed's timidity, no one gets very
far. The best student early on is
Chang who consults what MacPhail
Work is recognition, action
Continued from page 17
to do something totally out of
character, like reading a scripture in
front of this church, fundraising for
a family in need or shaking the hand
of a stranger helping a homeless
person. Who knows what God has in
store for you in His service? Maybe
someday you will become a
preacher of the word and sacrament
for this church. The one thing to
remember is that if you turn away,
fail to follow God's lead, you may
become stricken like poor
Zechariah.
Now I doubt you will lose your
voice for nine months, but I do know
that when you realize God's wishes
and chart a new course and follow
the path Christ has set for you.
Things do get better, things do
change and God's blessings
are found, seen and witnessed.
This brings me to my conclusion
regarding naming my sermons. It is
totally useless, because when I am
done writing the sermon, the title
does not fit any more.
God's work is not magic and
wonder, but recognition and action
take the place of the original title.
We are called to be the church to
act and recognize the beauty and the
abundance of God's blessings.
Together as a church, we can defeat
any foe that threatens our army, with
a trust and reliance on the word of
God as assurance that all is well.
MEETING NOTICE
Municipality of
Morris-Turnberry
The upcoming meetings for the
Municipality of Morris-Turnberry will be held:
Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Tuesday, July 17, 2018
at 7:30 p.m.
at 7:30 p.m.
Regular Council Meeting
Regular Council Meeting
calls "The YouTube" and studies up
on curling best practices.
However, like we've come to
expect with Crawford's work, he
primes the pump with authentic,
rural Ontario humour and slips in
real, dramatic scenarios we don't
realize we're experiencing until
they're already happening.
With The New Canadian Curling
Club, MacPhail comes face-to-face
with his notion that those who make
their way to Canada are handed
everything when they land at the
airport and whether or not his
opinion truly represents reality. To
the contrary, new Canadians often
wake up and put their feet on the
carpet every morning to bigotry,
limited opportunity and enduring
hardship tied to family in their home
country.
However, the most crucial
philosophical question at the heart of
The New Canadian Curling Club
that MacPhail — and many
Canadians, to be honest — are forced
to face is, "what does it mean to be
an immigrant?" and, "what does it
mean to be a Canadian?"
MacPhail speaks at length of his
family's rich, Scottish heritage,
though he identifies rather
definitively as a Canadian. What
then makes him more Canadian than
Singh, Chang, Bailey or Al -Sayeed?
Is it time that makes him less of an
immigrant? Is it his grasp of the
English language that makes him
more of a Canadian?
These are all questions that weave
themselves throughout The New
Canadian Curling Club. While on
the surface it's a play about learning
a new sport in a new land, it can
certainly be interpreted as an
allegory for learning a new culture
and being accepted by your new
home.
Learn curling and you become
Canadian, The New Canadian
Curling Club would have us believe.
But really, you can interchange that
first statement with anything: learn
English, dress "Canadian", get a
good job, etc. and you'll be accepted
as more Canadian. However, what
The New Canadian Curling Club
shows us is hat none of us are
uniquely qualified to set the rules
and discern between the Canadian
and un -Canadian among us. The
idea of being a cultural gatekeeper is
Continued on page 20
Brodhagen & District Chamber of Commerce
ANNUAL
CHICKEN BBQ
Saturday, July 14
Brodhagen Community Centre
Dinner 4:30 - 7:00 pm
Adults: $15.00
10 & under $7.50; 3 & under free
MITCHELL MINOR SPORTS
Ball games at 4:00 and 6:00 pm
Jim 519.345.2248;
Debby 519-345-0143;
Pauline 519-348-0940;
Gloria 519-345-2654
Check out 1
www.brodhagencommunitycentre.com
GODERICH 519 524 7811
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www.movielinks.ca long distance?1-800-265-3438
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