Dec. 27th & 28th 8:00pm
Dec. 29th & 30th 3:00pm at The Gladstone Theatre

Blacksheep Theatre welcomes the Canadian Fringe Festival smash hit Vernus Says SURPRISE …

As Ken Godmere breathlessly thanked all his  team that created the soundscape of his new show -  where he only utters one single word -  he could scarcely contain his excitement, his  immense gratitude and the thrill of this first performance of his Ottawa Fringe appearance. It was  greeted with a  spontaneous  explosion of emotion and  pleasure  by an audience that hung on every movement, every facial twitch, every  recorded shuffle,  ring, knock, tick, rustle snap,  scrape and vocal sound  that filled the space of the capacity crowd in the  Leonard Beaulne studio. Standing ovations have become so commonplace on the Ottawa stage that they no longer mean anything, but in this case, it meant everything. It was real!  And Godmere deserved it.

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Photo Barb Gray

If you’ve never seen the Axis Theatre Company’s clever and very funny production THE NUMBER 14, now’s your chance. Originally directed by Roy Surette, this version in the show’s 20^th season of touring is directed by Wayne Specht and features six incredibly versatile actors from Vancouver. The piece was developed by a group known as The Number 14 Collective.

The series of improvisational sketches provide a hilarious look at a day on a downtown bus. Using wonderful masks created by Melody Anderson, inventive costumes by Nancy Bryant, (one robe has printed on it “William Blake slept here”), and their own mobile and expressive faces the six performers play over sixty characters. Enhanced by Pam Johnson’s cartoon-like bus, Gerald King’s effective lighting and Douglas MacAulay’s excellent music and sound, the high-energy performers have the audience giggling and gasping to keep up.

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Shannon Taylor & Alix Sideris  

Photo: Trudie Lee

Fans of Jane Austin in general and of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE in particular will probably have one of two reactions to the stage version currently running at the NAC. They’ll either bemoan the fact that so much of the book is left out or they’ll relax and enjoy yet another version of a favorite classic. For me there’s a basic problem with Janet Munsil’s adaptation, as there would be with any adaptation of this book for the stage. In condensing a complex book of this length many subtleties must be omitted. You’re left with largely two-dimensional characters. It takes some pretty nifty acting to bring these characters to believable life. That said, there are some nifty actors in the large cast who manage it.

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Photo: Andrew Alexander

FLY ME TO THE MOON by Marie Jones, author of the popular STONES IN HIS POCKETS, is a very funny black comedy. Frances and Loretta are home care workers in Belfast who take care of the elderly Davy. Their normal work day takes a sudden turn when they discover that Davy has died in the loo. Their decision to collect his pension leads to one darkly comedic twist after another. It finally leads to their realization that they knew almost nothing about him, just that he liked Frank Sinatra and playing the horses.

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The Glace  Bay Miner’s Museum by Wendy Lill, based on the short story by Sheldon Currie, is set in Glace Bay on the east coast of Nova Scotia during the years following World War II. It’s a town supported by coal mining with its dangerous working conditions, lung disease and the early struggle toward unionization. The MacNeil family is trapped in a routine of squabbles and toil when young Margaret meets Neil Currie. Although without job prospects, eil’s music and love of life, (not to mention his love of Margaret), is a catalyst for change in the family dynamics.

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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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