Spoofing a genre can be very funny. Much depends on the style of the original and the wit of the humorist.

In Murder in Noirville, playwright Peter Colley, best known for his highly successful whodunit I’ll Be Back Before Midnight, mocks film noir. Does it work? Not entirely. Film noir —a term first used in 1946 — referred to a style of melodramatic, black-and-white movie popular in the 1940s and 1950s that frequently focused on private detectives in seedy offices, often accompanied by a Girl Friday in love with him and a femme fatale competing for her boss’s affections.

Colley throws in a number of the basic ingredients and mixes in too many more to create a stylistic trifle, in both senses (a dessert containing a mixture of assorted ingredients and a work with little depth).

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Photo. Maria Vartanova

The pattern of daily living changes as we grow older. At the core of Half Life are aging and the alterations within and around us.In his 2005, award-winning drama, playwright/mathematician John Mighton draws and reshapes the lives of two generations of protagonists. Anna, an artist, and Donald, a scientist — both divorcees — approach the difficulties of caring for their aging parents from opposite ends of the emotion/logic spectrum, pitting happiness against safety in a seniors’ home environment.

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Age of Arousal
By Linda Griffiths
Bear & Co.

It is difficult to think of the typewriter as a symbol of liberation. Yet, such apparently was the case in late 19th century England for many single women. And, because women heavily outnumbered men at the time, many were destined to remain single.

So, these women, classed as odd, in both senses of the word, reached for a new place in society.

Their struggle towards a different norm is demonstrated through the five women in Linda Griffiths’ 2007 drama, Age of Arousal. Mary, the aging and cynical ex-suffragette and Rhoda, her young lover run a typing school, where the three impoverished Madden sisters try to type their way to independence. The three are presented as depicting sexual discovery, gender uncertainty and retreat into spinsterhood. …

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Perfect Wedding
By Robin Hawdon
Kanata Theatre

Farce must move quickly to amuse, but the early frenzy and constant shouting throughout the Kanata Theatre production of Perfect Wedding by Robin Hawdon are likely to leave audiences with headaches rather than smiling faces.

First-time director Geoff Williams has chosen to have his cast begin at too high a pitch to have anywhere to go. In addition to the corkscrew of frenzied action, repeated movements, looks and voice cadences and the regular brandishing of a toilet brush increase the predictability and reduce the watchability.

The starting point of Perfect Wedding is the morning after the bachelor party, when the reluctant groom wakes up in the bridal suite to find a naked woman (a complete stranger) beside him. Whoops! His bride and her mother will arrive momentarily, expecting to use the room to change for the wedding. …

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Kim’s Convenience
By Ins Choi
A Soulpepper production at the National Arts Centre

In telling how a Korean patriarch and his family overcome the generation gap, Kim’s Convenience also focuses on why Appa (father) is so reluctant to sell his corner store. The money would be welcome, but the store has been the centre of his life in Toronto’s Regent’s Park neighbourhood for so many years. If Kim’s convenience store does not stay in the family, he fades into oblivion.

This charming, semi-autobiographical comedy with depth by Ins Choi, who also plays prodigal son, Jung, revolves around opening to closing on one fateful day. A slight weakness of the script is that the succession and relationship problems are solved a little too quickly for credibility. …

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War Horse
Based on the novel by Michael Morpurgo. Adapted by Nick Stafford
Broadway Across Canada at the National Arts Centre
National Theatre of Great Britain production

The puppetry is brilliant. The staging is highly effective. The key performances are well executed. Yet, despite all this, it is difficult for anyone who knows the history of the horses used in the First World War to be wholeheartedly enthusiastic about the Tony award winning, War Horse by Michael Morpurgo, adapted by Nick Stafford.

As wrenching as Anna Sewell’s 1877 classic novel, Black Beauty, War Horse focuses on one horse. Joey, shown from colt through adulthood, is manipulated by three puppeteers — visible but soon unnoticed by audiences watching the story of his life unfold. …

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Rumors
By Neil Simon
Ottawa Little Theatre

The frenzy of farce can be tiring, but the alternative of moving at a more measured pace generally gives audiences too much time to think about a flawed, illogical storyline. This is likely the main reason that, in the Ottawa Little Theatre production of Neil Simon’s 1988 farce Rumors, director Joe O’Brien has opted for speed, light and high decibels to compensate for the problem of a rocky opening premise. …

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