Seven years have passed since the Guelph Symphony Orchestra performed its first concert in March 2001. It developed from four concerts per season to the present six and established itself as a professional orchestra occasionally providing support to choral groups and also offering musical education to younger audiences. No question - Simon Irving, Artistic Director, has been instrumental in leading the Guelph Orchestra to its present success. The orchestra is professional, perfectly attuned, and makes one wish that they would play together more than 6 times a year.

Northern Lights concert on February 17 featured Sibelius’ Karelia Suite, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Capriccio Espagnol and Grieg’s piano concerto with Todd Yaniw at the piano. For a snowy and cold winter afternoon it was an appropriate choice: Sibleius so smooth and gentle, Rimsky-Korsakov bringing the warmth and fire of Spain and Grieg’s piano concerto so clearly Norwegian in style. The selection was admirable and highly appreciated. The orchestra, conductor, and soloist were spectacular. The opening notes of Grieg’s concerto took breath away and made one really appreciate the beauty of the music. As Simon Irving said in his introduction, Grieg was young when he composed it, consequently it is a very young piece with energy and vision, with spectacular delivery by 21-rear old Todd Yaniw. One cannot help but anticipate a promising future for this talented young man.

The next and final concert for this season of the Guelph Symphony Orchestra is scheduled for Sunday, March 30, at 3 p.m. The program features Tchaikovsky’s Rococo Variations, Schubert’s Symphony No.9 and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture.

The Registry Theatre, located in downtown Kitchener is available for theatrical shows, one time musical performances, solo singers, jazz bands or corporate events. This time it was hosting Lost & Found Theatre production of J.M.Synge The Tinker’s Wedding directed by Douglas Beattie (at the moment on sabbatical from his own Touchmark Theatre) and featuring Kathleen Sheehy and Andrew Lakin known to us from Theatre & Company and Elana Post who acted in several of Touchmark Theatre productions in past years.

The Tinker’s Wedding is an Irish play about early 20-th century tinkers, Catholic clergy and life in Ireland at that time. The language of the play leans toward Irish colloquialisms and consequently is difficult to grasp for an audience not used to it; however, at the same time it gives special joy to those comprehending and hearing it spoken on stage. The story is full of humour, as the young woman bargains with the priest over the fee for performing a wedding ceremony for her and her chosen. The fight breaking out in the second act is a wonderful combination of comical theatrical over-exaggeration and absolutely great stage-fight design, a great spectacle not often so well done. Kudos to Mr. Beattie!

The Tinker’s Wedding was presented at River Run Centre at The Cooperator’s Hall in late February. We wish Douglas Beattie would direct and produce more of his favourite plays, be it at Touchmark or Lost & Found Theatre!

Theatre & Company in Kitchener presents
I, Claudia

By the time you read this I, Claudia will have completed its run in Kitchener and moved to Montreal’s Segal Theatre. Knowing Montreal-Québec audience - in spite of the fact that it is not an easy play - I anticipate another success.

It is a one-actress play, with Michelle Polak taking upon herself 4 roles: 12-year-old Claudia, her grandfather, the caretaker of the building and the new girlfriend of her recently divorced father. She wears and replaces masks, enabling her to portray these characters, she changes clothes right in front of our eyes and at the same time changes personalities: voice, accent, modulation and vocabulary, gestures and movements, point-of-view and perception of reality change to match the person portrayed. Between the actress and the director Leah Cherniak they create a unique and deeply emotional portrait of a very young girl struggling with adolescence, simultaneous dramatic changes in her life, parents divorce, mother’s loneliness and sense of abandonment, father’s infidelity and approaching wedding to his girlfriend. There is a deep sense of betrayal and hurt, at the same time a modern socially required effort to accept it and keep it hidden, to be polite and go on with every day life. It is a play about Claudia and her pre-teenage years, other characters are really secondary, but necessary to complete the picture.

There are moments when the audience laughs as they listen to the reasoning of a pre-teen girl, but at the end the pain and loss is so naked and hopeless there is only silence. Michelle Polak was superb in this role. I do hope to see her again on stage.