Mainstage ’93. Theatre 8.C.'s
pick of (he best community
theatre from around the pro-
vince. To July 3 at Centennial
Theatre and other North Shore
locations. Box office: 984-4484.

AUGHTER BROUGHT
the memories flooding
back,

t had forgotten what a warm
and giving audience Theatre BC
provides for its performers.

Here is an audience who
witness with experience.

The majority have come from
the 10 regions of the province to
support, or participate with, a par-
ticular production chosen as win-
ners from their geographical area.

THEATRE REVIEW

preposterous possibility of military
service, Marion Cheever has to fail
a medical/psychological assess-
ment.

The flabby 40-year-old is sub-
jected to a humiliating medical
examination by the domineering

44 While cheering sections do exist there is
also an honest appreciation for a job
well done. 9Y

They have also come to meet
and greet old friends made over
the years at other Mainstages —
Theatre BC's version of the pro-
vincial summer games.

But they bring with them an ac-
cumulated knowledge of com-
munity theatre forged in the
ecstatic heat of past triumphs and
tempered (more usefully) in the
cooler climate of failures.

You might expect a certain par-
tisanship to manifest itself, but
while cheering sections do exist
there is also an honest apprecia-
tion for a job well done.

Sunday night saw a goodly sec-
tion of the crowd on their feet to
applaud the talents af Mike and
Cathe Busswood in Terrance
McNally’s Next (Wheelwood Pro-

. ductions, Abbotsford).

' ” MeNally’s play is an hilarious
look at the plight of the little man
caught in the unforgiving and

. dehumanizing grip of rampant
army bureaucracy. -

In order to avoid the

Sgt. Thech, in which he is reduced
to wrapping himself in the Ameti-
can flag to preserve his modesty.

“She passes him as fit for duty,
but he deliberately fails the
psycnological tests.

In the moment of his success at
outwiting an implaccable foe,
Cheever realizes that he has only
won by losing — again.

“Yam more than the sum total
of my parts. 1am something. | am
a citizen. | believe everything |
read,” he rails, before re-examin-
ing himself with brutal honesty.

if Mike Busswood did not quite
succeed in the difficult transition
to poignancy, his comic skills and
timing had the audience howling
in appreciation for much of the
early play.

There was Jaughter, too, for
Stops Along The Way by Jeffrey
Sweet (Stage North Theatre Sacie-
ty, Fort St. john).

But it came sporadically in
response to the few snappy one-
liners in this unsatisfying look at

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the end of a relationship.

However, the coke machine was
great and summed up much that is
good and bad in community
theatre. The knife-edge corners
and wood grain spoke of plywood
and the lack of resources or
budget.

Stylistically it did not belong on
a set that was using real props. But
it was a tribute to ingenuity and
hard work.

Perfectly painted, it had all the
appropriate itluminated soft drink
choices. When the cash slot took
the coin with a metallic rattle that
even sounded like the real thing,
the surprise of the audience was
palpable,

But as the soft drink can rolled
out from behind the flap at the
bottom you could hear 150 pen-
nies dropping al! over the theatre.

There had been a stagehand in-
side that plywood box for the
whole scene whose sole job was
to pusi: out a can of Sprite.

But the chuckles were stifled.
The audience knew that a little
unintended humor was no reason
to distract two hard-working ac-
tors,

The North Shore has four more
chances to join this know-
ledgeable and friendly crowd start-
ing tonight with our own North
Vancouver Community Players
production of Brian Friel’s brilliant
play Philadelphia, Here | Come,

Previously reviewed in this
space, the show comes recom-
mended.

Thursday night is the turn of
Vancouver's United Players with
Agnes Of God and Friday sees the
arrival of Vernon's Powerhouse
Theatre with Joan MacLeod’s
touchingly humorous Toronto,
Mississippi.

The festival winds up on Satur-
day, july 3 with two one-acts and .
the presentation of awards from
adjudicator Jackie Maxwell.

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jainstage °93 hosts the best in

- NEWS photo Cindy Gooden’
MIKE AND Cathe Busswood performed in Terrance: McNally’s
Next (Wheelwood Preductions, Abbotsford) at Centennial Theatre...
as part of Mainstage '93. er

JULY 1-4

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