City Hail

_: DOUG PAHL captures the vanishing faces of North Vancouver City’s older build-
. ings. His skilful oll paintings depict such familiar Lower Lonsdale landmarks as
~ Paine Hardware, the Keith Block and the Syndicate Block. Pahl, who is also a
sculptor, has been an active artist since the late ‘70s. His works are on display

2 at North Vancouver City Hall, 141 West 14th St. to Wednesday, March 20.

tism,: graft. No, it’s not The: -

Gage iv. In City Hall Al
Pacino presides over a differ-
.erx kind of family. ‘

Pacino is New York City

" mayor John Pappas, a solitary

man whose role as power
. player in the big city may have
destroyed his idealism, but not
his passion for restoring the
City to its original splendor.
Aided by his deputy
mayor Kevin Calhoun John
Cusack), the duo operate in
seamless synchrony — keep-
ing the media under control,
balancing big money and

socialist interests, and doing

the requisite glad-handing. ~

The mentor/pupil, father/
son relationship between the
two men is ultimately what this
film is about. Cusack is superb
as the polished Calhoun, with
his honey-edged Louisiana
drawl, a man struggling to keep
his balance on the fine political
line that separates right from
wrong.

After a mafia-related inci-
dent during which a cop and a
young boy are shot, Calhoun

and lawyer Maybeth Cogan
(Bridget Fonda) embark on a
somewhat unlikely quest for
the truth that puts their careers,
and their lives, in jeopardy.

But Fonda’s role as attormey

for the Detective’s Endowment
Association is disappointing.
We sympathize with her pro-
fessional struggle with boys’
club bureaucracy, but aren’t
given enough insight into her
character to see any sparks

between Cogan and Calhoun.
The greatest sparks come
from Pacino as Mayor Pappas,
a formidable force from the
podium. We suspect all along
that the major must ke corrupt
by virtue of his position, but he
is too camest in his affection
for his citizens to be unlikable.
Two production notes that
also make City Hall a good
film: the original screenplay
was written by a former
deputy mayor for Ed Koch, and
the film was largely shot in the
City Hall building, the first film
to be given permission to do so.
— By Julie Crawford

WENT back to
Hendry Hail
twice last week:

once in'spirit and
once in the flesh.
Both occasions
causing consider-
able thought on the
function of commu-
nity theatre.

Built as an Air Raid
Precautionary Post in
1942, the tiny little hall at 11th and
Hendry was the home for a succession
of community groups until North
Vancouver Community Players (NVCP)
moved in in 1972,

Since then, Hendry Hall has under-
gone a series of transformations as
NVCP has gone irom strength to
strength as one of the premiere commu-
nity theatre groups in the province.

The Players probably do not appear
as often as they deserve in this space.
Partly because they don’t need the pub-
licity and partly because [ am overly
scrupulous about not favoring a group
that has a special place in my heart.

It's funny how my memory of dig-
ging out the basement of Hendry Hall
by hand is tinted by friendships rather
than sweat |6 years after the event.

But the strength of the group's far-
flung support network is measured in sim-
ilar shared projects, Belonging to a theatre
group is only about acting for some.

Volunteering. Commitment. Shared
vision. In a practical sense there is very
little difference between community
theatre and any other sports, social, reli-
gious or recreational club. It’s part of
the fabric that binds the extended family
of society together.

These were the dominant thoughts i in
my mind last week as family and friends
gathered at. West Vancouver United Church
to celebrate Florence Goodwin’s life.

I only ever knew Florence as a NVCP
makeup person. She seemed old when |

Martin
Millerchip

plsues

Wednesday, March 6, 1996 -— ‘ North Shore News — 43

first met ‘her, eyebrow
pencil in each hand, at
Presentation House in
1979,

I subsequently aged
while, it seems to me
that Florence, even at
90, did not.

Others knew her better
and I was delighted, but
not surprised. to listen
to the story of the
diminutive teacher who
kept discipline in one-
roomed schoolhouses by arm-wrestling
the biggest boys into submissicn.

When I directed for NVCP the first
time, it was Florence who came all the
way to Nelson in order to make up a
single actor's face.

When I later put up my own money
in order to produce and direct a new
Canadian script at the.
Waterfront Theatre, ”
Florence was the only
crew member who did
not ask if she was
going to be paid.

Thank’s for your
help, Fiorence.

But life goes on
and there is a new gen-
eration of actors on stage at Hendry
Hall this week.

James Reaney's Listen To The Wind is
the perfect vehicle for a young company
to stretch its legs and gain experience.

Congratulations must go to director

: Community
at Hendry

Jennifer Wightman and NVCP for their .

commitment to developmental program-
ming in the middle of a season.
Reaney’s play is predicated on a
young boy’s struggle with a terminal ifl-
ness and his summer-long commitment,
together with family and friends, to
stage a play based on a Victorian novel.
Wightman reduces the play-within-
a-play structure to little more than an
introduction and instead presents the
life of the novel as a dream.
Wightman’s choice simplifies the

815. East Pith; ‘Narth Van"
Witten by James Reaney "

BOOS

yA WH

they

presentation and shortens what is, on
paper, a very long play.

Unfortunitely, what is lost to.a | great 2

degree is the iiense of what inthe | .
novel’s story ‘ippeals to the boy as he
struggles to keep his parents together.
_. What is left is a mixture of poetic
imagery and pure melodrama.

It's unfortunate that the term “melo-

dramatic” has pejorative overtones as

applied to acting today. At the height of .. If

its appeal, melodrama was a force that
revolutionized stage mechanics as the--

atres competed with each other to stage _

bigger and better spectacles. But it was ©
aiso a style of theatre thet lasted well over
100 years and whose influence was felt i in
films for many more. ;

Audiences are still more than willing
to buy into simpie tales of sweeping

action and massive passions. And I don’ |

think it’s because some of us still watch

soap operas.
~ Elemental good set’

against elemental evil’ ‘|f
illustrates humanity's | ~-

; Players basic struggle for’

all - |. morality and opening °°

night of Listen To The

-made a heavy invest-
“ ment in the good guys.

Much of the reason was the sweet-
ness Suzanne Taylor and Gabriel Dennis
brought to the young lovers’ innocence.

Good work too from bad guys Cory
Thorson (especially) and Nimet Babul, .
who carried much of the first act. But
the low-key approach of Wightman’s
naturalism made purple passion a more
difficult task to achieve in the second.

. Several spectacular moments in the -:
staging made me wonder what might have
been possible with all the cast on stage ali
the time — stepping in and out of roles |
and costume accessories as required.

It may not always work, but Listen To
The Wind is never less than an interesting
production and will, I am sure, prove an
important memory for some future 90-

_ year-old NVCP member.

Wind the audience had -