BeatRoute Magazine BC Edition February 2019

PLACES, PLEASE
YOUR MONTHLY THEATRE GUIDE
LEAH SIEGEL
Children Of God blends ancient traditions and contemporary realities for an emotional musical.
February might only be four weeks long (side
note: why can’t rent be cheaper this month?) but
there’s a ton of good stuff happening onstage.
Grab your Valentine (or your Galentine!) and
buckle up.
Cabaret at Studio 58, January
31-February 24
“Leave your troubles outside,” entreats the emcee
at the beginning of this well-loved musical. “Life is
disappointing. Forget it! In here, life is beautiful!”
No, he’s not pitching Netflix’s newest
advertising campaign. It’s Berlin in 1929, and there
are plenty of reasons for any rational individual to
seek some sort of escape: namely, the economy
sucks, and Nazis are rising to power. Isn’t it neat
how history repeats itself?
Without any sort of streaming service available
(or personal computers, for that matter),
Berliners with loose morals or open-minded
dispositions would frequent seedy hubs like the
Kit Kat Klub, where we find ourselves with the
emcee, chanteuse Sally Bowles, and a Britishwriter-searching-for-inspiration
Cliff Bradshaw,
among other members of the Scooby Gang.
While the show is certainly rife with
interpersonal drama (forbidden love! Early
twentieth century abortion! Secret Nazis!),
what makes this musical stand out from Cats or
Oklahoma is the play’s doomed yearning for the
greener pastures of yesteryear in the midst of
major, life-threatening political upheaval. Quel
juxtaposition, n’est-ce pas?
For the prudes among us, there’s going to be
some skin showing, and a sampling of rather
colourful language. But let’s be honest: with a title
like Cabaret, what were you expecting?
Yoga Play at Gateway Theatre,
February 7-16
An executive at the yoga apparel company Lulule
– sorry – Jojomon gets in trouble for fat-shaming.
Joan is hired to save the company’s image, and
comes up with some, er, creative solutions.
Dipika Guha’s new play tackles issues such
as body image, cultural appropriation, and the
awkward intersection of yoga spirituality with
capitalism, but the show never takes itself too
seriously. “The more serious, the more difficult
something is to talk about, the more we actually
need the laughter to explore it,” says the play’s
director Jovanni Sy. “There’s so much that can be
unpacked through humour.”
Despite taking place in California, Sy adds,
Yoga Play is particularly relevant for Vancouver
audiences. “I think the more you hustle to try
to buy a home where the market is so crazily
inflated, or you try to make rent, the harder it
might be to find a place that is spiritually centred,
where you have a sense of yourself,” he says. “And
what does it mean when that search for self is in
itself a huge, billion-dollar industry? What does
it mean to find that kind of inner peace when
everyone’s trying to sell it to you?”
Children of God at the Cultch,
February 20-March 10
If you don’t think Canada’s residential school
system is the most obvious subject for a musical,
you’re not alone. That didn’t stop playwrightdirector
Corey Payette, though – and his show
Children of God returns this month to Vancouver
after a sold-out run in 2017.
The story focuses on an Oji-Cree family that’s
torn apart by one such school. (Payette himself is
Oji-Cree.) “We felt it was important to tell a more
personal story,” he says. “These were brothers and
sisters; these were aunties and uncles; these were
people that were funny and quirky and had joy
and sadness.”
Critics have called it “must-see theatre for
Canadians,” and say it has “the most punch-tothe-gut
emotional ending I have ever experienced
in my many years as a theatregoer.” Well, dang.
THANK YOU FOR BEING A FRIEND
CARRYING A TORCH FOR YOUR FAVOURITE QUEEN BEE SEPTUAGENARIANS
JENNIE ORTON
It is hard to imagine a universe in which a
network would greenlight a show with the
following synopsis: “The hilarious daily lives
of four women over 65 who share a Miami
bungalow and maneuver the trials and
tribulations of aging, dating, female friendship,
independence, and the reconciliation of oneself
in your twilight years.” Not only does this
universe exist, but, at one time, we were living
in it.
In 1985, four pioneers of the voice of women
in television signed on to do a show that was as
ground-breaking as it was unapologetic. There
have been attempts to reclaim it (the earnest
but ultimately disappointing effort of “Grace
and Frankie” comes to mind) but nothing can
match the impact of the original. With chemistry
so difficult to replicate, there was only one real
solution that made sense for any kind of tribute
show: puppets.
“‘The Golden Girls’ is a master class in sitcom
writing,” says Thomas Duncan-Witt, who cocreated
the show with Jonathan Rockefeller. “It’s
a very attractive fantasy. What person wouldn’t
want to live in a lovely ‘80s retro Miami house
with their three or four best friends and sit
around and eat cheesecake and talk shit all day?”
And get laid. And get arrested. And meet Burt
Reynolds. And chase careers. And slam the door
in the face of your loser ex-husband. It was all
pretty relatable and hilarious material, delivered
by experts at comedic timing.
“Like most successful sitcoms, which are
incredibly rare, it was a bit of lightning in a
THEATRE
bottle,” posits Duncan-Witt. “Obviously you have
a great script, but you have these four actors who
have very successful track records and who were
all available. I suspect it was serendipity that it
did get made.”
“Golden Girls” was a critical hit in both senses
of the word: loved by critics and a meaningful
strike to the patriarchy of prime time network
television. None of the cast were new to female
led button-pushing fare; Bea Arthur and Rue
McClanahan did “Maude,” the former portraying
the title character, which was an “All in the
Family” spinoff that grappled with issues like
racism, homophobia, white privilege, and drug
laws, and Betty White played Sue Ann Nivens, the
fiercely charismatic and veracious portrait of the
housewife archetype squirming against the apron
strings on the also female-fronted “Mary Tyler
Moore Show,” known for its scandalous attempts
to showcase a career-minded woman who dared
wear pants on network television. Literally, pants:
it was scandalous back then.
Today, women are still fighting for equal
pay and for top billing. Issues like gay
marriage, reproductive rights, sexual assault,
intersectionality, and female sexuality (all issues
tackled by “Golden Girls”) are still on the docket
for politicians to discuss. There is no better time
for us to reconvene around the wicker kitchen
set, over a plate of cheesecake, with our favourite
friends and hash it all out.
Thank You for Being a Friend takes place at the
Vogue Theatre on February 13.
The inimitable dynamic between the Golden Girls could only be recreated through puppetry.
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