PLAYBOT: Comedy Company, ten-HUT!
Long before trolls ruined the Internet for everyone, Edmonton hosted some Trolls of its own. These were good Trolls.
Playwright and actor Neil Grahn is well known to us – a comic conspirator in the so-called Three Dead Trolls in a Baggie, a legendary sketch comedy troupe that was Edmonton’s answer to Kids in the Hall – though we forgot the question.
The Trolls were funny and just weird enough, had a good run, and coulda been-a contenda with a short-lived CBC-TV show.
Their individual talents continue to shine more than 25 years later. Fellow former Troll Cathleen Rootsaert is in fact working in town on Friday night, as part of Hey Ladies! (see below). Wes Borg, who still carries the Trolls flag, continues to work in Canadian comedy and teaches theatre to special needs adults in Victoria, B.C. The third (and arguably) most musical Troll Joe Bird died in 2009, and his memory lives on.
Which brings us to Neil Grahn – the last but not least of the four “Three” Dead Trolls in a Baggie. He’s been busy, and has written a new play called The Comedy Company, in which a group of World War I Canadian infantrymen are tasked to produce a comedy revue to boost morale – and become very popular amidst all the mud and death. It’s based on a true story of events within the Princess Patricia’s Light Infantry Division, and the play coincides with the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I.
Directed by John Hudson, the show features a star-studded cast whose names are also known to us: Andrew MacDonald-Smith, Steven Greenfield, Sheldon Elter, Jesse Gervais, Julien Arnold, Nathan Cuckow, and Nick Samoil.
The Shadow Theatre production is a world premiere at the Varscona Theatre Oct. 24 to Nov. 11. This is one of the biggest deals in Edmonton theatre this fall – not bad for a Troll!
The Bone House
Poor Marty Chan has been suffering a real-life nightmare since his horror play premiered 19 years ago – as a successful YA fiction author doing book tours of elementary and junior high schools across Canada! AIEEEEEE! The horror!
Naw, it’s all good. The kids are alright. Marty is a great YA fiction writer, he loves his fans, and his fans love him. In fact, try to imagine a better job – perhaps a playwright who writes a play that gets produced in the future, and then he gets paid, like an insurance agent, without lifting a finger? It’s the life.
The Bone House is coming back just in time for Halloween, billed as terrifying “immersive theatre” (code for: You are literally IN the play) that takes a dangerous peek inside the mind of a serial killer. It plays Oct. 25-31 at the Varscona Hotel.
Tim Koslo
This guy is known to us, too, a veteran Edmonton stand-up comedian with almost 30 years experience. He’s known for a rapid-fire observational style that incorporates music, for he can play guitar, and generally steers clear of politics. His own life, however, is grist for the comedy mill, with some tales of his struggles overcoming drug addiction. Like that time he ran straight into a wall after doing the best comedy set of his life, passed out, woke up in the hospital – and then promptly made another joke! Don’t try this at home, kids.
This Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Grindstone Comedy Theatre, Koslo is doing a special filming, with highlights of his set to be used for a promo reel, and sights on possibly producing a comedy video.
Hey Ladies!
The aforementioned Cathleen Rootsaert stars in this monthly comedy show – half talk show, half improv, half sketch comedy, and half live music, which makes four halves, which adds up to two. The Three Dead Trolls have always been numerically challenged – and it turns out Hey Ladies isn’t all ladies, either. Along with co-stars Leona Brausen and Davina Stewart, the troupe also features the token male Noel Taylor.
Special guests on this episode – Friday at 8 pm in the Roxy on Gateway – include Dale Gienow from Wild North with some non-human guests, and the local band F&M. They also plan to do an “edibles” cooking segment.
Dark
The thing about haunted houses is that you know none of it is real. They’ve been trying to make them more realistic, but if it were really real then you’d be dead, and that’s just too real. One of them in the U.S. recently got busted for “going too far,” there’s that issue of consent, and operators rushed to remind the public that the haunted house actors are not actually allowed to touch the guests … er, victims. Therefore, no matter how good they are, haunted houses are basically just horror stories without the story – just a whole lot of BOO! and EEK! and OMIGOD LEMME OUTTA HERE! That, plus laughter.
That said, Fort Edmonton Park’s annual Halloween event isn’t your normal haunted house – it’s an entire freakin’ haunted village! All old-timey and creaky and creepy, a vast and indeed “dark” place where up to three ghastly fates may befall you: You will be kidnapped by an evil cult, be party to a horrifying wedding, and have an encounter with a flesh-eating werewolf! Not a real one, of course.
Dark runs 7-11 pm nightly at Fort Edmonton Park until Oct. 27.
La Traviata
Opera buffs claim La Traviata was an inspiration for several Hollywood movies – highbrow stuff like Moulin Rouge or Pretty Woman. But Giuseppe Verdi’s famous opera also bears a striking similarity to Love Story, the 1970 romantic drama starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali MacGraw.
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 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 soprano Laquita Mitchell and featuring the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, the show continues at the Jubilee Auditorium Oct. 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 until Oct. 27.
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!
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.
This is the last weekend! Playing until Oct. 28, this is easily one of the Mayfield’s most entertaining musical revues.
