Clinton News-Record, 1984-08-01, Page 24Play roes..human, nature
DARRE11f L, KL OEZE
Layne . Coleman, in his latest play now
being performed at the Blyth Festival, has
written a very accurate depiction of life in
tbe.°amall town. As such, Blue City is an
effective new play to be presented at Blyth.
'Buie City is a believable piece of theatre,
at lean, 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 In Blue City, and examines
some off the characters' motivations and
reactions to life.
The team plays a baseball gape 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 Blue City.
Some of the team members include
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 established. The
security is false, especially to herself,.
because we suspect she is capable of much
more, but settles for even 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 by
Robert King, would rather go out drinking
with his buddies than make an effort 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.
Cts
This bas to explain why his girlfriend Kim,
played by Jenny Monday, would go out with
him in the first place. But Klin is tiring of
Butter's irresponsibility, and rejects his
drunken proposals of marriage.
Kim seems like she, might have a chance
to avoid the paralyxinglaek 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, betaine something concrete actually
happens to her. The father of her young son
returns to the town 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 issuehas 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 oneswho 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 nwn hanniness
10.
CO'AY',AUGUST'1984-PAGE
Now OPEN
McCALLUM'S EMPORIUM
BAYFIELD =- THE SQUARE
tf ANTIQUES FRAMING
PAINTINGS - PRINTS
COLLECTIBLE BOOKS -
AND OLD BOTTLES
--MANY ITEMS IMPORTED FROM THE U,K.--
•
S�p,Fo�
NOTE J f=--
Thurs.-Fri.
CARMELA
LONG
saturd'ay
PERFECT
AFFAIR
OPEN SUNDAYS
The family of
John and Barb
Jewitt
invites
Friends, Neighbours
and Relatives
to a reception
held in honour of
their
25th Wedding
Anniversary
Friday, August
lr
in Seaforth
BEST, WISHES ONLY
The Family of
Lorne & Renee
SNELL
invite friends and
neighbours tO
LONDESBORO
HALL
Saturday
AUGUST 11
8:30 p.m. -1:00 a.m.
to celebrate the
40th Anniversary
of their parents' marriage
Best Wishes Only
Blue City opened at the Blyth Festival last week. The play is about small-town living and
centres on the lives of the women, on a baseball team. Here, in a scene showing what gots on
after the game, are (left to right) Ron Gabriel, Jenny Munday, and Robert King.
OPEN RECEPTION
for
Jeff Gibbings
and
Sharon Thompson
SATURDAY, AUGUST 11
DANCING 9PM-1 AM TO
"Free Spirit"
AT CLINTON COMMUNITY CENTRE
EVERYONE WELCOME -
OMNI
emow
PIANO TUNING
• REPAIRS • REBUILDING
• KEYS RECOVERED
• DAMPP•CHASERS
• REGULATING
• BENCHES
BRUCE
PULSIFER.
• 348-9223 MITCHELL
Happy 25th
Wedding Anniversary
Mom & Dad
From Wayne, Rick,
Sharon and Scott
BUCK AND DOE
for
Jeff Gibbings
and
Sharon Thompson
SATURDAY, AUGUST 4
For information call
482-3678 482-7419
BROWNIE'S
DRIVE-IN THEATRE
169 Beech St.-CLINTON
BMX OFFICE OPENS 1:30 PM
FIRST SHOW AT DUSK
7A0Wi6C4Yu 1G'"VICC'TF'IORSDAr1ULY26'
SYLVESTER DOLLY
STALLONE PARTON
HINESTONE
son T Pmommammone
hr Knu.hnut(Dowdy of the Sum mer'
rMt.• WARNING: Coarse
t.,,....ct Language - TBO_
- PLUS 2ND FEATURE NM
John Travolta - Olivia Newton John
"TWO OF A KIND'
STARTS FRIDAY JULY 27
TO THURSDAY AUGUST 2
"The most
imaginative
movie
since `E.T."
I 'US MOfNING NtiwS
rPS.tV r'l corms
1
CiREMLiN$
PARINIAI
,I: Mt AM,
WARNING: Frightening Scenes (TBO)
Whon you're on a train
with five million dollars,
nothing can
throw you oil the hack.
Finders
Keepers
PARItaitil
6111.10((.11
SEAFORTH OPTIMIST CLUB AND
SEAFORTH FIREMEN present
and
STAGECOACH
per person
Age of Majority
Lunch
Provided
Seaforth Et District Community Centres
Saturday, August 11,
TICKETS UW111ebie at Bob & fetty's,
Seaforth Gulf Service, Dixie Lee
laid from members
_liseurn sponsors local x .bit,
Participants from ailofiluron County will
display their doll making, weaving, music -
boxes, wood carving, shingle and furniture
making in and around the grounds of the
Huron County Pioneer Museum in Goderich
the weekend of August 11 and 12 from 11
a.m. to.5 p.m.
The ladies of the I.O.D.E. association will
be selling box lunches, and there will be
games for the children. Come and stay all
day.
At p.m. a number of local politicians,
including Goderich Mayor, Eileen Palmer
and Warden of the County, Tom
Cunningham will open the Craft Festival
and will welcome everyone to the museum.
Fairest of the Fair
If you're single, between the ages of 19
and 23, and live in Southwestern Ontario,
you're invited to enter the Western Fair
"Fairest of the Fair" competition to select
an official hostess for the September 7 to 16
exhibition. -
The winner will be chosen on the basis of
poise, charm, personality and appearance,
and will participate in a variety of functions
during the fair. She receives a travel prize
worth $1,500, a $500 wardrobe of her choice
from Hudson's, London, and is paid an
honourarium and expenses by the Western
Fair. In addition, she will have the oppor-
tunity to represent Western Fair at the
Queen of the Fairs contest at the 1985 Cana-
dian National Exhibition next August.
The first runner-up is awarded a matched
set of luggage from The Traveller, London.
Last year's winner, 21 -year-old Maureen
Brereton of London, will turn over her title
and crown to the new Fairest of the Fair
following the final judging to be held during
a news reception at the fairgrounds on
Wednesday, September 5.
Entries must be received at the Western
Fair offices by 5 p.m. Monday, August 13.
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STAG and DOE
for
Larry Fraser and Gail LaCroix
on
Friday, August 3, 1984
For further information
call 482or
48-7220
Some of the staff at the museum will show
the candle -making and rope -making -that is
always part of the school tours.
Local participants will include: Jim
Remington (wood ducks), George Griffiths
(knitting machines), Blanche Kerr,
(quilting), Mrs. Ray Scotehmer (rug
hooking), Gerry Zurbrigg (weaving), Jean
Hanly (doll making) Lu Legg (a display of
Tom Pritchard's paintings and the original
way to use oils) and a Wingham wood
turner, Ray Hanna who s made a bowl
from wood that was a tr on the museum
grounds.
Remember to send to the museum your
answers to the "What is it?" contest.
1
BEST INTEREST
3 3/4 %
Guaranteed Investment
Certificates
BEST RATE
'Subject to
change
Gaiser-KneaIe
Insurance Brokers
Inc.
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235.2420 482-9747
o7
9,1•Ov*:10 s1qlitQa`G�a�e<
421%0"P%.1300%.0.4::‘,
,�.a° 4096
ObVe PPv d•PSA
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GODERICH - r
S24.7t11
:.e....'. -.i .
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HELD OVER
THIS WEED
FRI.-SAT. 7 & 9:10
SUN.-THURS. 8:00 P.M.
PARENTAL
GUIDANCE
REMEMBER
' . SALE DAY
TUESDAY- ADULT
YOUTH
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MOTS iU CS ear L'L'tJIUU
O••••••••••••,••••••••••••••••••®•
1f adr utare has a Mel ..'
it Must be Indiana hies: <>;
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NOW PLAYING
2ND FEATURE
The insanity
Continues...
THE HUNTER
FROM THE
FUTURE
STARTS FRIDAY
BOX OFFICE OPENS
THURSDAY
NIGHT
THE PRICE
OF ADMISSION
IS CUT I/2
TO $2.00
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MON.-THURS. 8:30 P.M. e
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2ND
FEATURE,.
WITH
' MICHAEL
CAINE
VALERIE'
HARPER
t, .6C•WUIt
il
P.NltlEM1'
• TWENTIETH (INTIM FOX PLESENIS
• AN 1Ni sCOff. CIJNMiUNI6VIONS PLcoxi1oN A sr KANEW MR REVENGE OF iimi NERDS.
• ROBERT CAARRADINE • AN THON-Y ECWARDS • TED KUINO • DERNIE CASTY
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COARSE LANGUAGE
ADDED SUNDAY NIGHT ONLY 1T' --•`••trench °.
From the people who brought you "Animal Houser
NATIONAL
LAMPOON'S
Coarse Language
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