The Wind in the Willows, an 80-minute, kid-friendly version of the classic 1908 tale, is a sweet and magical show with beautiful, original music; imaginative instrumentation and lively, innovative staging at the Ross Creek Centre for the Arts to Aug. 19.
Director Ken Schwartz, who co-wrote the show with composer Allen Cole, sets the play in front of a large pond at the sprawling arts centre over the North Mountain behind Canning.
This setting – with dragon flies, swooping birds, ducks and the croak of bullfrogs – is idyllic for a story that celebrates the natural world and is told in pastoral, lyrical music with some riffs of rock and roll and spoken word.
The Wind in the Willows, produced by Two Planks and A Passion Theatre for its 32nd season, is an interwoven story about river critters with the theme of friendship. When Mole gets so tired of housecleaning they decide to leave home for the wide world, they meet Ratty who introduces them to her friends – Otter (Chris O’Neill), Badger (Michelle Fisk) and, most significantly, the boastful, super-lively Toad, played as a force of nature by Burgandy Code.
As much as they like her, Toad’s friends are jealous of her wealth and annoyed by her ego and obsessive love for any new trend, in this case, the automobile. Yet Toad’s energy and enthusiasm carry the day and the tale of her escape from jail is a show highlight.
While it’s hard to remember who Pinky is, Possum’s song about searching for her lost pup Pinky is a wonderful lyrical monologue – so purely, intently and sensitively sung by Kih Becke, who is also great in voice and character as the legal clerk outlining the case against Toad to the judge (Omar Alex Khan).
Schwartz and his actors convincingly portray their creatures without big furry costumes or excessive animal behaviour. Henricus Gielis as Mole has giant glasses and brown corduroy pants, a wonderful waddling walk and the suggestion of a very active nose. Mole is loud and petulant and somewhat childish while Rosie Callaghan’s Rat is more sophisticated, mature and very clear about her world and her place in it. Her rat tail is a piece of brown rope.
The design for The Wind in the Willows is enchanting and beautifully detailed with hybrid costumes by designer Diego Cavedon Dias that are suggestive but not exclusive to the early 1900s and with Holly Meyer-Dymny’s colourful, storybook set pieces.
Allen Cole wrote the score and lyrics and Schwartz the book and lyrics for a varied, expressive music that very much suits the story. The actors play colourful ukuleles and guitars with a range of fun, non-tech instruments from wooden blocks to a kazoo to a tiny xylophone.
The Wind in the Willows is an excellent family show for even small children. “It went by in a minute!,” said one of the troupe of young summer campers at a recent outdoor show.
The musical runs through Aug. 19 at 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sundays with a 6 p.m. show Friday, Aug. 18. Book tickets at www.twoplanks.ca. As its night-time show told around a campfire (and yet to be seen by me), Two Planks is staging Kate Besworth’s version of a classic tragedy, Antigone by Fire, at 9 p.m. on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 9 p.m. (This show contains physical violence, death and suicide so definitely not for children though some teens might love it.)
The New Canadian Curling Club, Antigonish
Excellent casting, acting and direction make Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre’s production of The New Canadian Curling Club, just on through July 21, a funny, poignant and uplifting comedy.
FAST is back indoors after two summers of outdoor productions for a full season of three plays at the sweet Bauer theatre on the St. F.X. University campus.
The New Canadian Curling Club, a two-hour and 15 minute comedy with intermission by Canadian playwright Mark Crawford, is about four immigrants taking a small-town rink’s first Learn to Curl class for new Canadians: a Chinese medical student, a Jamaican, Tim Hortons manager, an Indian father of three who has worked for seven years at Tims and dreams of a promotion, and a 17-year-old Syrian refugee.
When the class’s organizer breaks her hip, she calls on her ex-husband, the rink’s ice-maker and former curling champion Stuart MacPhail.
Stuart’s Scottish roots go back seven generations and his name is on the great Highlander cup. He has very vocal, deeply held (and familiar) views against immigrants including the medical student, Mike, who hopes to marry Stuart’s granddaughter.
But when Mike enters the unlikely team in the Bonspiel, all the characters are forced to dig deep into themselves at a time of increasing challenges in their personal lives.
This is a play that perfectly suits its place; Antigonish is both a traditional Scottish community and an international one; it is the heart of the Highland Games and home to Peace by Chocolate, the highly successful chocolate business started by the Syrian refugee family, the Hadhads.
Crawford makes Tim Hortons the cultural touchstone in a comedy full of Timbits, Tims coffee and dreams of climbing the Tims corporate ladder.
Wally MacKinnon, a favourite at Festival Antigonish and throughout Atlantic Canadian theatres, is the right man for the tricky job of making Stuart compelling and even lovable while breathing vigorous life into a surly, bitter character with deep prejudices.
The actors are totally invested in their characters and make them rich and believable; the accents are excellent – not overdone and very convincing. Matt Lacas, who played Robin Hood at FAST two years ago, is a standout as Anoopjeet Singh, a very lively, comical, friendly character who likes to tell jokes and has a wonderful zest for life even as his dreams are dashed.
Liliona Quarmyne is also excellent as the Jamaican Charmaine, incarnating her physicality, manner of speaking and inner depths, as are Anat Kriger as the innocent and worried Fatima and Adrian Choong as Mike Chang, the most successful and assimilated of the four immigrants.
Andrea Boyd, artistic director of FAST, is great at pacing and keeping the action moving with a very clever way of portraying the curling game in blinks of light and flashes of action with lighting design by Ingrid Risk and sound design by Paul Morgan Donald. The New Canadian Curling Club is well-served by the curling rink set design by Vickie Marston and costume design by Diego Cavedon Dias.
Though I read a review criticizing the 2018 play for being a throwback to Trudeau’s version of multicultural Canada and Archie Bunker, I disagree. The topic of immigration is very much front-of-mind. (Stuart says things that most people wouldn’t say in public today but they would think it and it’s certainly a rhetoric present online and in right-wing media.)
Festival Antigonish (Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre) also presents the family show (not recommended for children under five), The Adventures of the Little Girl and the Wind, by Kalale Dalton-Lutale, directed by Andrea Boyd, July 27 to Aug. 5, at 10 a.m., 1 p.m., 4 p.m., and 7:30 p.m. on different days, and Murder For Two, by Joe Kinosian and Kellen Blair, directed by Jeremy Webb, a co-production with Neptune Theatre, Aug. 11 to 26, as well as A Festival Antigonish Kitchen Party, July 29, 7:30 p.m., and Cassie & Maggie, Aug. 4, 7:30 p.m.
And there’s more (lots more!):
Theatre Baddeck – Baddeck: July 6 – August 6, Half-Cracked: The Legend of Sissy Mary starring its writer Mary-Colin Chisholm; August 18 – September 24 , The Hydrofoil Mystery.
Shakespeare by the Sea – Halifax: to September 2, Pinocchio; July 19 – September 1 Romeo & Juliet; September 3 The Unrehearsed Dream
Neptune Theatre – Halifax: July 20 – 22 Wannabe: The Return of the Spice Girls; August 1 – 27 The Argyle Street Kitchen Party; September 26 – October 22 The Play That Goes Wrong
Mulgrave Road Theatre – Guysborough: July 27-29 Watch Over Me
Ship’s Company Theatre – Parrsboro: Crypthand (just wrapped); Catherine Banks’ new play around the Swiss Air disaster, August 15 – 27, Downed Hearts; August 31 – September 3, Long-Distance Relationships for Mythical Times.
Chester Legion – Chester: July 21 Every Brilliant Thing, a Highland Arts Theatre production starring Mark Delaney
For tickets and more information on all productions, visit: https://www.theatrens.ca/production-listings
- Rain On The Parade: A Theatrical Satire Like No Other
- Alisa Snyder’s Notes on the Terrain: lovely, lyrical, painterly works at Chase Gallery
Categories: theatre, Uncategorized
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