North Shore Zone of Theatre BC Festival of Plays at Presentation House May 6-12 at 8 p.m. Box office: 604-990-3474.
THE Canucks may be on the golf course, but if it's competition you crave in May, check out the Festival of Plays coming to Presentation House next week.
In fact there are playoffs happening all over British Columbia right now as community theatre groups compete regionally for a shot at representing their geographic zone at Theatre BC Mainstage 2012 in Kamloops June 30-July 7.
The North Shore zone of Theatre BC will be hosting six nights of drama, ending with awards determined by adjudicator Scott Swan and audience members who purchase a week-long pass and vote for the People's Choice Awards. Buy the festival pass, save money, second-guess the adjudicator and tell everyone that you loved their work until they are out of earshot.
Actually, most community theatre groups are not like that at all. There is a lot of mutual respect and support at these festivals - which is why I always feel torn when I am negative about any of the competing entries. I've seen two: one kept me fully engrossed for two hours while the other had me wishing my wrist watch was luminous.
Usual warning: If you have any thought of going to the festival, stop reading now.
Bea's Niece
North Vancouver Community Players' entry is David Gow's mental mystery about a woman in a psychiatric institution who has "lost her place in time."
It's a challenging script and one that confuses by design at times, but director Karen Golden and an excellent cast offer sufficient clues and clarity that what is fantasy and what is reality are fairly easy to discern - truth is always more difficult since everyone has their own version.
Lisa Pope does a tremendous job in the demanding central role of Anne with superb support from Karen Golden in a couple of roles that could easily get out of hand but do not and Pierce Ivan who inhabits suffering in two markedly different ways.
The one element this production lacks is the solidity needed in the role of the psychiatrist who helps Anne.
These Shining Lives
Melanie Marnich's script is less a play than historical manipulation. Even if the ugly story of Illinois factory girls being poisoned by the radium they used in their well-paid jobs is not known, it's no secret 30 minutes into These Shining Lives. Pretty much everything is predictable after that, so the audience had better care about the central character Catherine Donohue and what happens to her, or there's no point to the rest of the play.
In this Deep Cove Stage Society production, Mandana Namazi almost pulls this off. Donohue's journey is split between the developing relationships she shares at work and the one that takes place at home. Unfortunately in this production, only her time at the Radium Dial Company comes to life. Marco Pennino as Donohue's husband Tom has zero chemistry with Namazi - and unfortunately in his other roles - and the production suffers.
The set is an odd mix of elements, but the initially interesting furniture and its movement becomes annoyingly intrusive and laboured.
But don't take my word for any of this. The whole point of festival week is arriving at your own conclusions.
