The Citizen, 2003-07-30, Page 23THE CITIZEN, WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 2003. PAGE 23.
Entertainment fa Leisure
Theatre review
‘Hippie' a mix of the beautiful and not-so
J Mil
the dairy farmer’s wife and gaining
the self-respect to stand up to Hector.
The cast all perform well working
both sides of the fence — taking
roles as hippies and the country folk.
There are standouts, however. Sean
Dixon does an excellent job as dairy
farmer Norman Baker, and as Harry
Finlay the owner of Stratford’s
notorious, for its time, Black Swan
coffee house. With little effort he
conveys a sense that Finlay sees the
world differently than everyone else.
The talented McIntosh is both a
delight and a disappointment. There
is an ethereal quality to her fine
singing voice which is heard in her
original music throughout the show.
She demonstrates considerable range
in her acting as the schoolhouse
hippie and Norman’s wife. But,
many of her scenes lean towards
self-indulgence, art pieces that break
any cohesiveness to the production.
Tara Hughes is mesmirizing as
Alice, using small gestures to
convey deep emotions. A slight body
move, or change in facial expression
and you knew what she was feeling.
Interestingly the flowing-locked
Gil Garratt was more entertaining to
watch in his few scenes as a local
than as Hector.
Lyon Smith as the dancer was
always good for a laugh and Mark
Harapiak and Chuck Herriott offered
solid support.
The set design by Victoria
Wallace was as simplistic as the
hippie lifestyle, and worked
effectively with the busy interchange
of characters.
For those who never experienced
the lifestyle, either living it or living
next to it, there is little to relate to.
There were times when Hippie even
for those who were there was a little
confusing.
These were the ragged pieces. The
beautiful ones were created by some
fine performances, by the way it
captures the essence of the era and
by the story’s humour. There were
more laughs in this production, good
solid laughs, than in any other Blyth
Festival performance this year.
Sometimes you have to take the
bad with the good. If you can open
Composer at Bruce your mind, relax and let the parts
you don’t like flow past, there is
plenty to enjoy in Hippie.
Blast from the past
Alice (Tara Hughes) and Hector (Gil Garrett) discover
paradise in rural Huron County in this scene from Hippie
playing at Blyth Festival. (Courtesyphoto)
By Bonnie Gropp
Citizen editor
You never know what to expect
when writer/director Paul
Thompson’s name is attached to a
production. What you usually find in
his collective experiences are a
patchwork of ideas. Some pieces are
beautiful, some a little ragged
around the edges. Some fit, some
don’t.
Such is the case with Hippie which
premiered at Blyth Festival on
Thursday night. In this production,
director Thompson strays slightly
from the typical collective concept,
working with dramaturge Jonathan
Garfinkel and actor/wnter Kelly
McIntosh. While ideas were
generated through the typical
collective process, discussions with
local residents, the writers fleshed
out the material amongst the
dialogue.
This works well on one level.
There is more than a glimpse of a
storyline woven throughout scenes
and some characters are more
developed than would otherwise
occur in a collective.
However, there is still the sense
that you are watching a work in
progress. This is what we’ve got so
far and how do you like it?
The story revives, with some
fiction, the time period of the late
'960s and 1970, when hippies
moved into conservative Huron
County, a place where people “farm
and go to church”.
Leading the crusade are Hector,
the folk singer and Alice his wife,
who is vehemently opposed to a life
in the country, but acquiesces. After
a romantic beginning in “paradise”
where local youth are bewitched by
the hippies of this rural commune,
Alice finds herself facing a Huron
County winter alone, while Hector
tours the world.
She ultimately wins the struggle,
connecting with the land, earning the
respect of her strongest adversary,
for
Kim Babcock
& John Watson
Saturday, August 16
Blyth Arena Floor
Tickets: $5.00
Age of Majority Required
Dancing 9-1
Music by D.J.
Lunch Provided
For tickets call Kerry at 523-4904
or Bruce at 523-9717
or at the door.
On Friday, Aug. 15 at 7:30 p.m. at
the Bruce County Museum and
Archives, explore Bruce Coast
history and lore through music and
songs with composer and performer
David Archibald. Admittance to the
concert, called Songs of the Great
Lakes, is $10.
Archibald will be performing lake
songs and stories and telling why
and how history finds its way into
song. He is known to many in this
area, as well as across Canada. His
work on Great Lakes marine
heritage is featured at many festivals
and parks and workshops across
North America. His music has been
regularly featured on CBC and he
has written and performed for a
variety of popular CBC programs
and, in a more classical vein, with
the Genessee Symphony Orchestra
in New York.
Most recently, Archibald’s
swashbuckling musical The
Perilous Pirate’s Daughter, written
with award-winning playwright
Anne Chislett, was performed at the
Blyth Festival.
Archibald says: “I find the
combination of history and music
quite compelling. A chance to bring
characters, events and emotions to
life in song is a rare privilege.”
For more information call 797-
2080 or 1-866-318-8889.
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