PLAYBOT: Love means never having to say you’re sorry
Opera buffs claim La Traviata was an inspiration for several Hollywood movies – highbrow stuff like Moulin Rouge or Pretty Woman. But there is another …
Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera bears a striking similarity to Love Story, the 1970 romantic drama starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw. Does anyone remember this? It was the highest grossing movie of all time, at the time, and it set the tone for an entire decade. It was the first of its kind!
The plot goes like this: A high class fellow falls in love with a working girl who has a terminal disease – just like Violetta from La Traviata. In Love Story, the girl wants to study in Paris, where La Traviata is set (in the 1920s, the ‘70s of their time), but the guy doesn’t want to move. Meanwhile, his parents – analogues to Mr. and Mrs. Germont in La Traviata – don’t approve. They get married anyway, and eventually the doomed heroine dies a painless cinematic death, and all are moved by the idea of eternal love. Spoiler alert.
That’s it, give or take a love triangle, and some music. Eerie, isn’t it?
On a grand stage the likes of which has rarely been seen, five major Canadian opera companies have conspired to bring La Traviata to Edmonton – the Edmonton Opera, Manitoba Opera, Pacific Opera Victoria, Opéra de Montréal, and Vancouver Opera.
Starring world-renowned soprano Laquita Mitchell and featuring the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the show runs at the Jubilee Auditorium Oct. 20, 23 and 26.
Blood: A Scientific Romance
Twin sisters are orphaned after a car accident, and “adopted” by an evil doctor in this edgy drama presented by Edmonton’s award-winning all-femme Maggie Tree Theatre. While it certainly sounds like the blurb for a good horror movie, it’s billed as more of an exploration of the balance between genetics and environment, asking questions like “Do relationships take on new meaning when they begin to shape not only our experiences, but our biology?” and “Do we, in fact, complete one another?” Short answers: Yes, and no.
Blood: a Scientific Romance plays at the Arts Barns’ Backstage Theatre Oct. 16-27.
Oh, What a Beautiful Morning!
So speaking of nature vs. nurture, what are the odds that Bridget Ryan would be into musical theatre? Pretty good. She’s the daughter of Maralyn and the late Tim Ryan, who are to musical theatre in Edmonton what Gretzky is to hockey, and was brought up in a musical home. Her sister is Kate Ryan, who is married to the Mayfield’s artistic director Van Wilmott. It’s in their blood!
Now Bridget is doing a one-woman show at the Citadel Theatre’s Club venue Oct. 19-20. In a cabaret musical-meets-monologue, she’ll be tackling the modern obsession with media, among other topics, and will play dozens of characters she’s met over the years – like maybe members of her own extended musical family?
An All New God is a Scottish Drag Queen
Victoria comic Mike Delamont has a smash hit on his hands with a hilarious, sacrilegious show in which he literally plays God while dressed as a frumpy middle-aged Scottish housewife, and a broad accent to match. His new show, coming for one night only, Sunday, Oct, 21 at 8 pm at the Grindstone Theatre, is billed as an improvement on an act that already scored 5-out-of-5 reviews at Fringe festivals across the realm. God can’t go wrong.
Die-Nasty’s Lord of Thrones
This is supposed to be all improvised, but they already knocked together a pretty elaborate and fertile framework to open their latest season of Die-Nasty: The Live Improvised Soap Opera – on stage at the Varscona Theatre Monday, Oct. 22 at 7:30 pm, and every Monday after that until the Apocalypse, or May, whichever comes first.
Basically, it’s Game of Thrones set in Edmonton: “… the Great Battle of Pretenderos has led House Strathconia to dominance, with the Daughter of Minster, Margot (Kristi Hansen) now betrothed to Lord Strathconia (Jesse Gervais). Her father, Lloyd (Jeff Haslam) watches fearfully. House Calgarian has been defeated, overthrown, and presumed dead. But be there dragons on the Bow?”
Short answer: Probably.
Lenin’s Embalmers
Playwright Vern Thiessen is the titular star, albeit a spectral and somewhat sarcastic one, of his dark comic play Lenin’s Embalmers, a Studio Theatre production running until Oct. 20 at the Timms Centre for the Arts. It’s the tale of Russian scientists who have been tasked with preserving the body of the key figure in the Russian Revolution. It was hard, and kind of gross. Embalming, not communism. Stalin’s in this, too (played by Doug Mertz) – and we all know how that turned out.
Lenin’s Embalmers, which premiered in New York in 2010, is said to be both “rollicking comedy” and “epic tragedy.” How can it be both? Ask Marx – Groucho Marx, that is.
Origin of the Species
The body of a four million-year-old cavewoman comes back to life in this feminist fantasia by Bryony Lavery, produced by Northern Light Theatre at the Arts Barns’ Studio Theatre until Oct. 27.
This Canadian premiere stars Holly Turner – who played the Mother of Jesus in The Testament of Mary in Northern Light’s last season – and Kristin Johnston in a remarkable performance as “Victoria.” Many questions are posed here, some of them pretty heavy: Like, have men completely blown it to the point where women should take over running society? Rhetorical question!
The Triangle Factory Fire Project
Ninety years before 9-11 was another tragedy that scarred New Yorkers – a terrible fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory that claimed the lives of 146 people, mostly young immigrant women employed as garment workers.
The event and its aftermath are dramatized in a play by Christopher Piehler (in collaboration with Scott Alan Evans), until Oct. 20 at the Walterdale Theatre. Built on eyewitness accounts and court transcripts, the story focuses on a number of characters, some doomed to death because greedy owners had locked the fire exits to prevent theft and the taking of unauthorized breaks. Bastards!
Jezebel, at the Still Point
Here’s something a little more cheery – a play where there’s an actual dog on stage!
Actor-creator Ainsley Hillyard and her titular hound Jezebel are astronauts on a mission to discover the secret to time travel in what is said to be an “interweaving of text, movement, and an untrained French bulldog.” Sounds interesting, and adorable. It runs until Oct. 21 at the Roxy on Gateway.
Two Good Knights: The Music of Sir Tom Jones & Sir Elton John
It’s probable that Tom Jones and Elton John have at least met one another – but while history does not record what transpired, leave it to fiction to bring these two be-Knighted stars together for the duet they never sang, in yet another lavish jukebox musical at the Mayfield Dinner Theatre. Kieran Martin Murphy (as Tom) and Keith Retson-Spalding (Elton) each do a splendid job in their roles, with Chris Bullough as the host and myriad of supporting characters. Plus, as is expected in this building, there’s a great live band to back them up. Playing until Oct. 28, this show may feel a little thrown-together, but it is easily one of the Mayfield’s most entertaining musical revues. With classics aplenty to fill a pop canon and then some, it’s hard to go wrong.
