|: Sal going after 25 years at the Arts Findley play kicks off Bill Miilerd’s anniversary season. IT does not seem possible that The Arts Club on : Granville Island has been operating for 17 years. I * still think of it as the “new” Arts Club. ; Tuesday fast week, I was rudely reminded of just how quickly the seasons flow as opening night of The Stillborn Lover becarce an opportu- nity to celebrate director Bill Millerd’s 25th. anniversary as Artistic and Managing Director of the Arts Club. : As always, Millerd stepped very quickly out of the spotlight before the show to allow Canad2 Council maven Max Wyman the oppor- 2 tunity to ramble on in a well-intentioned “address that moved from the growth of the Arts ~- Club to the state of the arts in Canada. * While the speech was as wooly as Wyman’s trademark white locks, it did give opportunity to reflect on Millerd’s achievements. They are considerable. Since assuming control of the then nine-year- -old but still small company in 1972, Millerd has _ dizected nearly 100 of the theatre’s 334 produc- tions. : «The middle °70s, with supportive federal funding, was a time of huge growth and excite- ment in the irtisic life of Nancouver. At the "time, I was developing 2. pro} ing at _COOP Radio (CFRO FM) with the likes of - “playwright John Lazarus and was an enthusiastic . Witness to the birth of such companies as City Stage, Tamahnous and the New Play Centre. lor a brief, heady period artistic expression seemed to matter to Vancouver while Canadian theatre became, well, Canadian, as opposed to . British, American or classical. Millerd was instrumental in the process. __. ‘Many of his carly productions and about one third ia.total have been Canadian, of which 60 -. have been premiers. I still remember early works : “of David Freeman, Michel Tremblay and : George F. Walker playing at the atmospheric Seymour Strect theatre while the Vancouver ‘Playhouse concentrated on “classics.” . More recently, Morris Panych’s development as a distinctive playwright ( Vigil was a stellar ’ standout at the Revue before that theatre was ‘taken over by TheatreSports) owes much to Millerd’s support. ’ Two more new works will premier this sea- ‘ Ta . “iA a HONE COUPON PER-CUSTO ~1763’Marine Dé _ 126 ‘Marine.Dr. \ 833 Bigoksbatk — Ne oT “Joint Pain” “els Ctosamine Sate Sale- Club son; Jocy Shine by David King and Fear Not by Gary Jones and Shawn Macdonald. This, despite the fact thar it has been fashionable to categorize the Aris Club's seasen as concentrating on entertainment. Tris certainly true that enter- tainment rather than art sells at the box office and the move to the 480-seat Granville Island “mainstage” and the subsequent opening in 1986 of the Revue eatre required a constant cye on the compa- ny’s bottom line — something Millerd is renowned for within the theatrical community. Yet, his careful husbanding of assets means that the historic Stanfey Thectre will next year boast the newest 650-seat version of the Arts Club. Millerd’s stewardship stands unique not just in Vancouver but all of Canada. So, it is with the deepest respect that I report T was disappointed with The Stillborn Lover. Well known author Timothy Findley’s play is a fascinating collage of ideas. It reads well. A Canadian mystery, overlaid with personal and political guilts. Like any good spy story there’s a sense of boxes within bores. Ted Robert’s set recreates rooms on top of rooms (albeit in a more literal fashion than seems necessary} bur I found this production left me outside the front door without a key. Harry Raymond is a career diplomat for Canada. As the play opens in 1972, he and his family have been recalled to an Ottawa “safe” house from Moscow to have recent and carly events in his political life examined by the RCMP under the direction of his friend Michael, who plans to become Prime Minister. Interrogation and memory flashbacks gradu- ally reveal the events that have shaped Harry’s life and that of his wife, Marian, who is slipping, down the sad slide of Alzheimer’s. I won't reveal all the important plot points but pacifist Harry is as shaken as Nagasaki by an atomic bomb dropped after the Japanese emper- or is ready to sue for peace. A subsequent per- sonal breakdown in the diplomatic nightmare that is 1957 Cairo has its roots both in the hor- ror of Japan, and in earlier events that have been buried, stillborn, by Harry. In the present, Harry is faced svith a friend who betrays him, a loyal wife who is, in a sense, Friday, October 17, 13997 — North Shore News — 27 ALLAN Gray and Donna Carroll White share a tender moment in Timothy Findley’s The Stiliborn Lover. leaving him as she loses her memory, his own memories of difficult choices and a daughter who accuses him of hiding in silence. Barry, or his family, would seem to be the poine of access to this multi-textured journey, ut I found I was only interested, never involved. Worse, I never believed the flashbacks. In these scenes, emotions are released instead of masked, so truthful acting becomes paramount and, regretfully, it is the time that Allan Gray has ever disappointed me on stage. Donna Carroll White, as the disturbed but occasionally perceptive Marian, and Kathleen Duborg as Harry’s challenging daughter have their moments, but J still never felt their losses personally. The episodic structure of Findley’s text works in terms of intellectual stimulation, but it hampers the emotional involvement I desire. a Enter to win Arts Club a season ticket passes The Arts Club Theatre's SIXTIX flex. Pie playe out ofthe eight play schol SEN. six plays out c Sica wien treat ther Tall us TEAL’ how many Canadian premieres Bil Millerd has produced over the years and you could be the winner of two flexpass ti i your name is drawn. Deadline for the contest is Thursday, Oct. 30, 5 p.m. Winners will be notified on Friday, October 31. Send in your answers to Arts Club contest, c/o North Shore News This Week, 1139 Lonsdale Ave., North Vancouver, 5.C. ¥7M 2H. Or fax themni to us at 985-2104. 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