Martin Millerchip
THEATRE REVIEW

Forever Plaid, written and
directed by Stuart Ross. At the
Starlight Theatre, Denman
Street, for an open-ended run.
Information and reservations:
280-4444.

HE BIGGEST come-

back since Lazarus!”

That's pretty big billing to
live up to, but I'm plaid to report
that this show comes close.

Oh boy! Careful now! It’s
awlully easy to fall into that tar-
tan-tinted gagster mode after 90
minutes of Forever Plaid.

What's that you say? It wasn’t
a very funny pun?

Well, Mr. Cynic, maybe it
would work better on the Ed
Sullivan Show than Letterrnan;
in that age of popular inno-
cence that is generically known
as the fifties.

Forever Plaid is a tribute to
an era that exists in the collec-
tive imagination: where black
and white referred to the only
television in town and not to
the ingrained racism of a nation.

Through our rose-tinted
glasses remembrances of family
values include respect, church
and sodas, not cynicism, cults
and drugs.

But if the songs are sweeter
and the love is more innocent
as we move further away in age
and experience, isn’t that exact-
ly what memory is for?

Don’t we all need to believe
in a little piece of heaven here
on earth? And if it’s not going to
happen in the immediate future,
then what better place than the
dim and distant past.

Stuart Ross, writer, director
and choreographer of Forever
Plaid, has successfully repack-
aged the concept of innocence
in a carefully staged show that
is litle more than an excuse for
twenty-or-so songs from the
“fabulous” fifties.

The premise is as simple as
the show.

The Plaids, an aspiring har-
mony group working burger
joints, have been snuffed mid-
coda by a busload of catholic
schoolgirls on their way to an
Ed Sullivan Show.

The four teenage crooners
are returned to our theatre after
30 years of musical limbo to
perform the show they never got
to give in life.

Still cluiching the one suit-
case aliowed on their heavenly
trip they are as bemused by
their trip through the hole in the
ozone as the audience.

But it took no more than two
numbers to warm up the crowd
the night | saw the show and by
the time Robert Miller stepped
forward to shyly reach the first
note of Moments To Remember
there was an audible “aahh” of
identification.

I'm not sure whether this was
in response to Miller's vulnera-
bility as the stage-frightened Jinx
or recognition of the number.

Riach loves kids

From page 28

day for an hour and a half. It was
pretty wild.”

The end of her marriage saw
Riach and two teenage sons dri-
ving west towards Edmonton
(“because | liked the sound of it”)
without any prospect of a job.

Gut once again drama provid-
ed her with work as a fortuitous
meeting with Doug Riske, now
artistic director of Victoria’s New
Bastion Theatre, led to a job with
the City of Edmonton training
drama instructors and creating
drama programming.

And she kept acting by help-
ing to found Theatre 3, which
would eventually become the

B.C Js

Phoenix Theatre.

Ten more years of the classics
and another long association
with the CBC followed, but a
family tragedy precipitated
another move, this time to
Vancouver. And here she has
stayed, although an urge to make
it as an actor in Toronto led to
two years of teaching at Young
People’s Theatre.

“ve been terribly lucky. }
love children and | have a pas-
sion for drama and I’ve been
able to combine that ail my life.

“Of course, you're never satis-
fied. Now | want a theatre here
in West Vancouver.”

The way drama works for
Riach, she'll probably get it.

IGGEST

SINGLES EVENT!

Bi 6 workshops
I lam - 7pm
only $25 ea.

@ Mingle'N Mix‘N Muffins £20
Ba Summer Fun Social Mixer/Dance

SATURDAY

JUNE 18, 1994
HOTEL VANCOUVER

PLAIDS GO Jamaican! From left, Kevin Markle, Neil Nash, Edward Glen and Robert

ing) are perfection in the light-hearted musical Forever PlaiJ.

it was not a tune | recog-
nized, but clearly | was in a
minority.

It's not that you need to be
over 50 to enjoy the show, but
unless your teenage ear was
pressed against the radio or
jukebox that many years ago
there will be a level of emotion-
al memory that will remain as
mysteriously unattainable to
you as it did to me.

But the evening offers many
other pleasures. The harmonies

of Edward Glen, Kevin Markle,
Miller and Neil Nash are spec-
tacular. By the time they scaled
the heights of the £-flat dimin-
ished chord of Love Is A Many
Splendored Thing | had sworn
never to sing in the shower
again. Every moment of the
show is tightly choreographed
and crystal clear.

The transformation of the
Starlight Theatre courtesy of
Jane Reisman’s lighting and Neil
Peter Jampolis’. sét, complete

4

Photo David Cooper
Miller (stand-

with expanding palm trees and
bubble machine, succeeds ir:
sensation. Even the audience
participation sequence was not
too embarrassing.

So, if songs like Three Coins
In The Fountain, Cry, Shangri-la
and Catch A Falling Star set
your strobe a-spinning you'll
rave over Forever Plaid.

Generation Xers may wonder
whether there’s anything under
this particular kilt.

A Community Celebration on the North Shore

JUNE 24, 25, 26

Celebration Central
Norseman Park.
23rd & St Georges

welcomes

The Commonwealth
Games

rt ure
Tour

NORTH VANCOUVER RECREATION COMMISSION

* ARTWORKS *

SPONSORED BY THE NORTH SHORE NEWS
Hands-on Arts Workshop lead by NVRC Visual Arts Instructors

SAT June 25
1:00pm -

at Norseman Park

5:00pm

SUN June 26
10:00am - 4:00pm