There was a moment in Goya Theatre’s production of Neighbours The Musical when it all came together. It happened when a group of neighbourhood kids, whose lives are purportedly being examined in this show, break into a tuneful and amusing ditty called What Will I Be. The song dealt with that most familiar of childhood preoccupations — what do I want to be when I grow up — but here it was enlivened by clever lyrics, lively music and performances which survived the dire staging and which showed genuine sparkle and spontaneity.

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I saw this production of TEMPTING PROVIDENCE a few years ago at GCTC (Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre )  and enjoyed it immensely. It’s no less enjoyable at a second viewing. TEMPTING PROVIDENCE by Robert Chafe (The Secret Mask) tells the story of Nurse Myra Bennett, a woman of remarkable courage and dedication. She left her home in England in 1922 to provide medical services on the remote northern Newfoundland coast with its long and brutal winters. Originally committed for two years, she ended up staying for life in what she called “a great adventure”. During that time she delivered hundreds of babies and extracted 5,000 teeth. Nurse Bennett also fell in love, married and had a family. She passed away in 1990 at the age of 100.

Playwright Chafe tells Nurse Bennett’s story as a sort of docu-drama in an interesting combination of dialogue and narrative using only four actors. Since no set designer is credited, I assume that the spare but clever set of four ladder-back chairs, sturdy table, versatile sheet and a beige rug that defines the playing area are a group effort. Barry Buckle’s costumes are basic period dress entirely in shades of off-white and cream, while Terrance Rice’s lighting adds to the mood. Rufus Guinchard is responsible for the lively pre and post show fiddle music.

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Trying to do too much often results in achieving too little. This is the impression left by Neighbours, a 1991 musical by Manitobans Craig Cassils and Robin Richardson.

The neighbours in questions are a group of kids who meet in the communal yard of what appears to be a subsidized housing complex (judging from the allusions to their backgrounds and problems).

Apart from trying to pack too many social and personality issues into too small a space, the writers maintain a noticeable silence about the supposed ages of the group. Only one child announces her age several times and she seems to be the most precocious five-year-old ever born. In general, all the characters use vocabulary more suited to adults and this diminishes the credibility in the encounters among the children — who are one-dimensional representatives of a single characteristic — as they swing back and forth between friendship and enmity. The aim, according to the writers, is to create a collage. Sadly, the result is more of a tangle of undeveloped storylines.

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David Whiteley (Al) and Michelle LeBlanc (Christine). Photo Andrew Alexander.

Plosive Theatre’s version of How it Works, by award winning writer Daniel MacIvor, whose plays often appear straightforward but are usually loaded with structural traps at all levels, is an admiral production by a company that has given us some of the best and the worst theatre in Ottawa! This time, director Stewart Matthews has done meticulous work with an impeccable cast and it all comes together in the most satisfying way.

I must say however that opening night began with an unfortunate performance by Michelle LeBlanc as the narrative voice of the prologue. I lost most of what she said! This important moment that explains the title and sets up the multiple threads of the play that leave many clues to subsequent events, was marred by the actress’ diction and rhythm. She spoke too quickly, she mumbled and slurred and this continued through most of the first act when she appears as Christine, the beer drinking lady from the south who first meets Al in a bar. I attribute all this to opening night nerves because during the second part of the evening she was clearly understandable to the point where her important revelation near the end, spoken both as an interior monologue and as a confession to the rebellious daughter Brooke, was the most powerful moment of the evening. Thus we know that Mme LeBlanc can do better. Let’s hope that it all works out for the rest of the run.

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Photo by Andrew Alexander. Hannah Kaya (Brooke) and    Donna (Geneviève Sirois).

Where would we be without our stories? In more trouble, it seems, than we already are. Sories – certainly when they’re about our own lives – are how we dilute pain and celebrate the good stuff by sharing the tales with others. By sharing difficult past events we can also separate those events from ourselves enough to put them into perspective and move on.

That’s pretty much how it works in How It Works, Daniel MacIvor’s play about a dysfunctional family’s stumbling toward the light or at least toward a brighter shade of dark. And despite some problems on opening night, Plosive Productions captures well this story about stories.

MacIvor, weaving flashbacks into his narrative, tracks the increasingly complex interplay between four people: Al (David Whiteley), a cop looking for a settled life; his perceptive, beer-chugging, girlfriend Christine (Michelle LeBlanc); Al’s uptight ex, Donna (Geneviève Sirois); and Brooke, Al and Donna’s drug addicted, 19-year-old daughter (Hannah Kaya).

It’s a potent mix of characters, each damaged in his or her own way but all accessible to any theatregoer with even a modicum of self-recognition.

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