K-W & Beyond 

Royal Alexandra Theatre in Toronto is celebrating its 100th anniversary with a bang and what a bang it is! Dirty Dancing is "The Classic Story on Stage by Eleanor Bergstein" known to many of us from the movie of the same title – and it is attracting audiences not only from Toronto, and the rest of Ontario, but also from the south of the border! The Boomers generation is having fun beyond expectations: the time of this musical is in the 50’s, the place a summer resort full of guests and staff including dancers offering dancing classes and initiating evening entertainment. There is a story of some complications requiring urgent substitution of the lead dancing lady by a teenage visitor and resulting in summer romance between her and a leading male dancer.

The story is really marginal to the phenomenal show of dancing, singing (more than 50 songs, some of them very well-known like "The Time of My Life", "Hungry Eyes", "Besame Mucho") and spectacular changes in stage décor – better than I have ever seen – the renovations and improvements of Royal Alex are really shown here. Eleanor Bergstein, who wrote the script, has a special flair for music and shows great feeling for the audience. The production was originally staged in November 2004 in Sydney, Australia by Jacobsen Entertainment, which eventually brought it to Toronto. David Mirvish has a good instinct for great entertainment, as usual. The dancers are Canadian, special kudos to Jake Simons dancing the part of Johnny Castle and Britta Lazenga as Penny. Directed by James Powell, stage design by Stephen Brimson Lewis, choreography by Kate Champion, all of them great, the result is beyond description. The commemorative program, assorted souvenirs and the music discs are available in the lobby. At the end the audience had only one thing in mind: let’s go dancing! And many of us did just that.

Theatre & Company in Kitchener
staging Harold Pinter’s Betrayal

It really is a pity to close such a centrally located theatre considering past successes and current plans for the neighbourly city of Cambridge to proceed with the new theatre facilities. What will happen to this location, people ask.

Betrayal, a known and valued play by British playwright Harold Pinter shows that there is still life in the theatrical team, the director Daryl Cloran was present at the opening and personally greeted local politicians and regular theatre aficionados. This is not an easy play, it deals with the issue of marital infidelity going on for years, the affair presented in reverse time flow, the last moments when it is practically over, back to the times of secret meetings and excitement, back to the first moment of temptation. This time it is a wife having an affair with her husband’s best friend.

The acting was very good, the silence, a lot of silence, small gestures and facial expressions transmitting more than tears or shouting would. Jeff Meadows particularly impressed me in the role of the husband, Brian Marler took part of the lover, Ingrid Rae Doucet was playing the wife. It is Pinter at his best. The scenes could be seen from all sides, the stage was located in the centre and the audience was sitting around it.

Hopefully it is not the last time we see Theatre & Company in our Region.

The Hollow by Agatha Christie
at Fergus Grand Theatre

Fergus Grand Theatre is 80 years old, it started as a movie theatre, now it has a stage and live shows. Vision Theatre Production for the 3^rd year organized an Agatha Chistie’s play: in 2006 it was Spider’s Web, last year Black Coffee and this year The Hollow.

Considering there are at least another half a dozen of plays in existence, we may look forward to this annual event and more of Dame Christie plays. With the exception of The Mousetrap they are rarely staged and this is quite an opportunity for anyone who is fond of old British mysteries.

Please accept congratulations for all your work and creative enthusiasm, I will be there to see another Agatha Christie play in March 2009.