17 - Wedaesday, May 31, 1989 - North Shore News

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ELT If OUT

Singer-actress Lelani Marrell is making it

with a little help from her friends

LELANI MARRELL may look
like the girl next door.

By ELIZABETH COLLINGS
News Reporter

But her speaking voice sounds
like she smokes two packs of
Marlboroughs (sans filter) per day.

And she belts out a song like her
life depends on it.

Which is a good thing because
the 27-year-old actress from North
Vancouver makes a living from her
show-stealing performances.

“Actually, | call myself a
‘singer-actress,’ in that order,”
Marrell says, explaining her
gravitation towards the singing
side of her life.

Marrell has been in over 25
shows in her eight-year career, in-
cluding the national tour of Talk-
ing Dirty, Only in Vancouver and
Amadeus. Her most recent per-
formance, Fump Boys and Dinet-
tes, just finished playing at the Arts
Club Theatre, May 24.

But despite her talent, Marreil
says she would never have at-
tempted such heights without help
from her friends and co-workers.

First there was her drama teach-
er from Argyle Secondary, Peter
Vanderhorst. ‘He was the one
who pushed me to do what |
could.”

Then there is her agent, Mad-
dalena Acconci — the one, Mar-
tell says, who gambled on her
potential.

And, of course, the stage is also
in Marrell’s blood. Her father was
a singer, an actor — and, uh, a

Gumerologist? Marrell says her
parents chose to call her Lelani, a
Hawaiian name, because “‘it’s a
balanced name.’’

Since those early days, Marrell’s
career has followed an upward
spiral.

Her favorite and, perhaps, most
demanding, role was as Tanzi in
Trafford Tanzi, which played in
Toronto for two seasons. As Tanzi,
Marrell had to play everything
ranging from a 12-week baby to a
wrestler.

One of her more memorable
on-stage experiences was in Bur-
naby, where she played to an au-
dience of seven — witha cast of
four. ‘The hardest thing is play-
ing to a small audience,” Martell

says.

“But,” she adds, ‘‘the old
saying, ‘The show must go on,’
rings true.’

tf one could pinpoint her source
of inspiration, it would have to be
the audience. This is what keeps
Marrell on stage six nights a week.

“You've got to give 150 per
cent every time. That's the key:
you can’t fet the audience down.”

And Marrell has learned to roll
with the punches. Pump Boys was
expected to play for the duration
of the summer, but it only ran six
weeks. Marrell shrugs this off:
“That's the problem with being
self-employed — you never know
what's next.””

Marrell says to wade through
auditions and the inevitable rejec-
tions, a performer cannot indulge
in self-doubt.

“You have to believe in

River Kwai revisited

From page 16

Two splendid examples of the
power of human drama in a his-
torical context can be found ina
pair of new biographies dealing
with the experiences of prisoners
of war: William Allister’s Where
Life And Death Hold Hands and
To The River Kwai by John
Stewart.

Both men survived years of
abuse, torture, malnutrition and
disease as prisoners of the Japa-
nese during the Second World
War. Both made pilgrimages to the
sites of their internment and both,
fortunately for us, chose to write
about their earlier trials and later
observations.

Allister, now a resident of Delta,
B.C., was captured during the sur-
render of Hong Kong to the Japa-
nese on Christmas Day, 1941. Not
yet finished his military training,
the young soldier from Montreal
was ill-prepared for the vicious
fighting during the garrison’s final
days and incapable of imagining
the horrors that lay ahead.

Systematically beaten, starved
and denied adequate food, medi-
cal treatment or shelter, Allister
and thousands of other Canadians
were forced to work as slave-labor
for the Japanese.

Allister writes almost poetically at
times, delivering a sensitive if shock-
ing portrayal of the hell into which
prisoners of war were plunged.

“Marching... We were as
strange to this place as it was to
us. A new, alien wind. Salted in
the sprays of Newfoundland
coasts, blown across great plains
and mountains, from forest,

lroom, wineat field, jai!, from
millionaire estate and city slum.
Gn we came, pure, untouched,
blissfully unaware that in a few

short weeks we'd be crawling

down this same Nathan Road,

what was left of us, noses down,

tails dragging, backs bent,

wounded, weak, shoved and

kicked along like beaten dogs...’
it would get worse.

Stewart, like Allister, has a fine
command of language and an eye
for detail, bolstered By a hidden
diary he maintained at risk of
death, while he was a prisoner
laboring on the infamous Siam-
Burma railroad that inspired
Bridge On The River Kwai.

Known as the Death Railway,

the 415-km. route was constzucted ~

by 61,106 POWs (prisoners of war)
and 182,948 ‘coolies’; 150,000
died in the process and most of
the survivors would be doomed to
suffer debilitating illnesses and
premature death.

In To The River Kwai, Stewart
charts two journeys, his first as a
POW and the second as the first
ex-POW to retum to the sites of
theinfamous Japanese death camps.

By combining contemporary
impressions with past experiences,
he weaves a compelling and pow- |
erful story of almost unimaginable
horror, cruelty, Eravery and sacri-

ice.

This, unlike the largely fictional
film with which most of us are fa-
miliar, is an intimate and accurate
portrayal of what the Death
Railway prisoners went through.

Where Life and Death Hold
Hands (Stoddart/Contemporary;
245 pp.; $28.95 in hardcover) and
To The River Kwai (Bloomsbury/
Penguin; 175 pp.; $35 in hard-
cover) are eloquent testimonies to
the power of the human spirit —
and the flesh and blood reality of
history.

yourself io succeed. in auditions,
you're selling yourself, saying,
“4m,” as she gives herself an
emphatic dig, “the right person
for the job.”

Even so, Marrell confesses to
feeling vulnerable to critics and
once again points to those around
her who lend support — most
secently her husband of one year,
Peter Coombs.

“He is totally supportive. He
really pushes me to achieve my
goals,’ Marrell says.

Coombs not only knows the
“business” (read show), but ac-
cepts the crazy hours she works,
and even manages Marrell’s pet
project, her one-woman-show.

When she’s not on stage, Mar-
rellis busy renovating her new
house in Richmond with her hus-
band.

But ask her about her hobbies,
and it is clear Marrell is absorbed
in work. Her “hobbies” include
looking for new material for her
one-woman-show, playing ‘‘foo-
foo gigs” with a convention band,
and foraging for original songs
which she hopes evertually to re-
cord.

For her next act, look for Mar-
teil’s legs sticking out of a glut-
tonous plant. Yes, Marrell has

og
yy ‘

NEWS photo Hk Wakafield

LELANI MARRELL calls herself a “singer-actress, in that order.” Stage
performances have numbered over 25, including her most recent stint
in Pump Boys and Dinettes.

scheduled for late June at the Arts

landed the lead as the inimitable
Club Theatre.

Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors,

ss

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