theatre Ky) BRYDON BARRETT as the young Mona weaves her dreams about screen idol James Dean in the Pres- entation House production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. are, left to right, Micheal Vonn (Mona now), Mairzee "NEWS Senate ‘Stuart Davis Almas (Cissy now) and Laura K. Burke (Cissy then). Locals create playhouse TWO NORTH Shore artists have created a ‘‘Vancouver Playhouse Playhouse’? -—- a. magical world that features hand-painted wallpaper, miniature fireplace and tiny toys — to be auctioned off at the gala opening for the 13th An- nual Vancouver Playhouse Inter- national Wine Festival tonight. Theatre designer Pam Johnson and Vancouver architect Jack S. Lutsky came up with the design > =): GRADE A ALBERTA BEEF 4 . 7100 CENTENNIAL WAY, BURNABY . =OR RESERVATIONS CALL 299-1155 wo, vy . + 4 eee for the playhouse, which is valued at $5,000. Set designer Don Zacharias donated the materials. The main floor of this dream castle is a stage for the imagina- tive stories of promising play- weights; the upstairs is a Ppuppeteer’s performance space, and risers have been built to ac- commodate enthusiastic audience vembers — all in a 5'X5°x7° - of fantasy. Pe RAVEN AZUL] FON ¢ BURNABY ° MOUNTAIN £ $16.95 STEAK AND LOBSTER WHOLE LIVE ATLANTIC LOBSTER OFFER ENDS THIS FRIDAY! ® (March 8, 1991} Behind her to a dead hero. This theme pervades Presentat- ion House’s production of Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean. Five former members of an adolescent fan club for James Dean reunite 15 years later at the five and dime store of their youth. While most of the five characters have freed themselves of the teenage obses- sion with Hollywood paradise, they hide behind other false fronts, which, as the show unfolds, topple like the cardboard facade: of tinseltown. The main character, Mona, played at a feverish, neuratic pitch by Micheal Vonn, is still trapped in the Dean fantasy of eternal youth. But the emptiness of her obsession is evident in her gesture to bring to the reunion one pathetic brick salvaged from a building facade used in a nearby Dean film. Like a Texas style hen-party the female characters cackle and coo at each other, playing into the old roles expected of them at the re- union. This production successful- ly conveys the candor and coyness of female interaction. Mairzie Almas as Sissy, in particular, takes charge of the stage with her alarm- ingly forward sexuality and warmth. And Brydon Barrett gives us a fragile, illusion-rapt Mona The title calls up the doubleness of the play. Jimmy Dean is both You Netrt@oLitoon chte THE Peime for ONLY qu ; NOW SERVING a ROA S97 REEF DINNER. With All HE Ter Mtt GS, a a GUTARIST THOR "4 ALIDAY of SATURDAY HAL WEDNESDY MEstrs f SUNOAS PhudcH. 2429 MARWE DaWVE wes Vancouver Wednesday, March 6, 1991 -— North Shore News - 33 Presentation House does well with tale of obsessions Come Back to the Five and Dime, jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean at Pres- entation House. To March 23. Phone 986-1351 for ticket information. AMES DEAN -— an idol frozen in time by premature death, representing a sexual ideal of maleness and free-wheeling youth. The people who worship him are themselves frozen, their growth stunted by their attachment BARBARA BLACK theatre review the famous screen heart throb and the son of Mona (and, as she claims, of James Dean) onto whom Mona projects her own crippled emotional state. In one sense James Dean never does come back to the five and dime, since the past is irrevocably gone. And when Mona’s son Jim- my Dean leaves her, his escape is also a call to leave the past behind and face the present. Conversely, James Dean does ‘‘come back” in the form of the characters’: shared memories. The final scene indicts not only Mona’s hopeless idolatry of James Dean, but also Sissy’s husband’s idolatry of her voluptuous breasts, Stella May’s worship of money, and Juanita’s idolatrous, God-fear- ing righteousness. The play falters slightly here. When both Mona and _ Juanita’s idolatrous behavior and denial is exposed, their transition into enlightenment seemed facile. Perhaps some hint of the facade crumbling before that monent might have made the transforma- tion more credible. Although the production suffers from an inconsistency of Texas accents, in Brenda McDonald’s case an interesting British-Texas hybrid, the cast, performs with a solid sense of character and sensitivity to the_ timing of overlapping scenes. The energy is sustained as the action alternates between past and present. Overall, one has the feeling of having seen a satisfying drama. F-A-§-T COLLISION REPAIRS _CALL THE PROFESSIONALS AT JAYLOAMOTIVE 1959 LTD. FREE RENTAL COURTESY CARS B.C.A.A. APPRGVED -— A.R.A. CERTIFIED 1.C.B.C. VENDOR FOR ALL MAKES AYLORMOSTtTY’ “NORTH VAN. QUALITY WORKMANSHIP TRUSTWORTHY SERVICE 174 PEMBERTON AVE. — ou cuttarion OR APPOINTMENTS 985-7455 PRESENTATION HOUSE PEOPLE “The Greek Waiter” “Come back to the 5 & Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean” Hot, dusty, small town nostalgia, you can never go home again... Wed-Sat. 8 pm. ‘till Marcn 23 986-1351 PresentaTION House THEATRE | north shore 3rd & Chestefield, NVan. w