Eatdrink #44 November/December 2013

№ 44 | November/December 2013 www.eatdrink.ca 53
Beer matters
theatre
Donald DISHES on Local Theatre
By DONALD D’HAENE
“ I “dramas” I’ve sat through.
hate comedy!” a local thespian
is known to opine. Now that’s
funny. Especially after some of the
One of the most celebrated actors who
ever lived, Edmund Kean, is often credited
with this take: “Dying is easy, comedy is
hard.” I know something harder. (And no,
it is not keeping a straight face during one
of those dramas just mentioned.) Pulling
off an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy!
That isn’t stopping Passionfool Theatre.
They’re taking on Tom
Stoppard’s Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are
Dead — the playwright
at his intellectual best
(Nov. 8–23, The ARTS
Project). If you’re tired
of fluff but still want a
meaty good time, this
play is a worthwhile bet.
They’re not the only
ambitious troop in the
Forest city. The Hobbit,
Our Town, and Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor
Dreamcoat are just three of six Original
Kids Theatre Company’s shows running
at Spriet Theatre before year’s end!
Aptly named the “Season of Many Colours,”
it will be “a celebration of the colours and the
make-up
in the
world
around
us,”
promises
Artistic
OKTC’s Cast of Little Mermaid by Dana Couvillon Director
Andrew
Tribe. In theatre, he continues, “We breathe
life to the words on the page and bring them
onto the stage. We transform the black and
white text into a fresh, expressive landscape
of colour. The limitless tints and tones of the
characters in these plays will excite or calm
you, warm or cool you. The reds, yellows,
Raymond Moreau, Sarah Green and Chris Kevill in
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
blues — and everything
in between — that
shape our lives will
come alive in the stories
we tell.” Sounds
like a rainbow of fun at
Covent Garden Market’s
resident theatre.
Speaking of a colourful season, this fall is
proving to be one of the busiest for thespians
and theatre goers alike.
At the McManus Studio the fourteenth
season of The London
One Act Festival has
a four-day long
competition of short
plays of any genre
running 30 minutes
or less (November
6–9), immediately
followed by a missing
link theatre’s production
of Vigil by Morris
Panych (Nov. 12–23).
Last time London saw
this dark comedy produced was back in ’97,
upstairs on the Main Stage.
By the way, if you’ve been keeping tally,
so far our friend cited at the outset will be
hard up for drama this season. On stage,
anyway. Let’s see what else we have on the
theatrical horizon.
Well, the rest of us have a couple of
colourful old gems to consider: Musical
Theatre Productions kicks off their 25th
Anniversary Season with the 70 th Anniversary
of Oklahoma at the Palace Theatre
(Nov. 14–24) and Empty Space Productions
offers A Woman of No Importance at The
ARTS Project (Nov. 29–Dec. 7).
Who knows if any of these will be in the
running for my Fifth Annual Theatre DISH
Awards? I attend all comedies and dramas
in London each calendar year, and I have
a team of judges who take in the musicals.
Deliberations take place in December. Check
my web site later that month (donaldsdish.ca/the-