Sisterhood blossoms
in Steel Magnelias

& Stel Magnolias by Robert
Harling, produced by First
Impressions Theatre at the
Deep Cove Shaw Theatre to
May 27.

Martin Millerchip

Curtain Call
mmillerchip@nsnews.com
TRUVY’S Beauty Salon
is gossip central in
Chinquapin, La.

Truvy’s home business
supports her husband, who
hasn’t got off the couch since the TV remote
last needed new batteries, and gives her inde-
pendence and a place to welcome her special
friends every Saturday. They get hairstyles, but
they come for friendship — and the latest
news. .

Truvy’s special friends are Clairee, who has
found life (and money) after widowhood;
M’Lynn, who manages a mental health clinic
but has trouble managing her daughter to her
own satisfaction; and neighbour Ouiser, who
seems to have been in a very bad mood for 40
years.

The play begins on the day Shelby, :
M’Lynn’s daughter, is to inarry Jackson — a
Southern archetype wivose values are simple:
shoot it, stuff it or it. Shelby has come
, to have her hair done for her wedding and, of
course, is holding steadfast to her own inter-
pretation of style over the advice of M’Lynn.
Meanwhile, and hounds are a palpable
presence and Truvy’s nervous new assistant,
Annelle, is not only making coffee with the hot
‘dog water, she may or may not have a hus-

Excitement is in the air and then Shelby
passes out. You might expect Southern hyste-

a

Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Monday

(Sunday hours valid
only for May 27/00

ria, but instead there is just a
calm rallying of the troops as
the gals force Shelby to drink
juice and balance her insulin.
Shelby has diabetes — just
like playwright Harling’s sister
—— and this will become the
focus of the action as the
action moves on to some
eight months later and
Shelby’s pregnancy and, later,
motherhood.

The biggest problem in
director Greg Anderson’s pro-
duction is the layering-in of
the relationship between

Poppi Reiner’s M’Lynn and Beth Junnila’s
Shelby. This is not a criticism of either actor:
Junnila matures before our eyes (make-up artist
Dawn Metcalf deserves special mention along
with hair designer Lillian Juodis) and Reiner
delivers a moving final act that brought tears to
my eyes. But the set-up meanders all over the
place without clarifying the mother/daughter

felationship or even M’Lynn’s place as a social
worker in Chinquapin society —- despite Jerry
Allen’s other excellent costumes I found
Reiner’s twin sets contributed to setting her
apart from the other women in the play.

Shining in character roles were Laureen ©
Block as Ouiser, whose energy was a welcome
addition to a first scene Wednesday whose pace
was slowed considerably by a number of fixm-
bled lines, and Jessica Hill as Annelle with her
nervous, uncertain body language.

Set-wise, First Impressions did a pretty

job of dressing up Truvy’s beauty parlour

although the width of the Shaw Theatre’s stage
sometimes defeats the intimacy of the action.

Steel Magnolias is ultimately a play about
the true meaning of sisterhood and this pro-
duction achieves considerabie warmth without
wallowing in sentimentality. Worth secing.

Rue

For the

. ae

BETH Junnila, a Capilano College these g grad, proves she’s one strong woman
in the heartwarming play Stee!

gnolias at Deep Cove’s Shaw Theatre.

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