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Home My WebLink AboutThe 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 FOR MOVIE INFORMATION... www.movielinks.ca long distance?1-800-265-3438 TOps Along The WaY PiVisitor's Guide to Huron County $lgoeway id eating 4r! & SO IS THE NUMBER OF VISITORS TO HURON COUNTY! Will they find your business? LOW RATES HIGH IMPACT Next Issue: Summer - 14,000 copies Next Deadline is July 13 519-523-4792 info@ northhuron.on.ca stopsalongtheway.ca