Private lives

Peter Eliot Weiss plays with distinction
between stage and audience in work

Hall of Mirrors, A Halhwav, Ten Bedrooms and a Finale. Capilano Col-
lege Studio Theatre R105, March 20-23. Phone 986-1917.

OOTING AROUND in someone’s journal is a
highly illicit activity. But how many of us have not
succumbed to this despicable temptation?

As we thumb through pages of
intimate scribblings we either are
aghast at the ruminations or laugh
at them, at the expense of the
journal writer.

Barbara Black
THEATRE REVIEW

In Capilano College Theatre’s
production of Hall of Mirrors, A
Hallway, Ten Bedrooms and a Fi-
nale, the audience sits like guilty
journal plunderers in the
bedrooms of characters listening in
on their most private thoughts,
witnessing their struggle for in-
dependence and identity.

The play is based on journals
kept by Cap students in the fall of
1988. Playwright Peter Eliot Weiss
compiled entries from the journals
and arranged them into 10-minute
vignettes. Then, with the usual
Weiss twist, he has the audience
move around a set of bedrooms
listening to these 12 characters
speak intimately about their prob-
lems, aspirations and fears.

A tape advises the audience to
move on when a vignette is over.
As you move through the hallway
the tape echoes lines from the vi-
gnettes. By the end of the show
you recognize these snippets —
they float around in your head like
ghost voices.

Sitting uncomfortably close to a
character, it is sometimes difficult
to focus while all the other scenes

RecCenire celebrates
twenty-five years

LONSDALE RECCENTRE turns 25
years old on Tuesday, March 26
and organizers are offering a host
of activities to encourage the
public to help celebrate the birth-
day.

The fun begins on March 22
with an adult beach party at Lans-
dale RecCentre, 123 Lonsdale
Avenue, North Vancouver from 7
p.m. to midnight.

Admission is $10 and includes
tood and entertainment. The pool
area will be decorated and people
ae invited to relax and enjoy
refreshments, dance to the steel
band miusic of Soul Survivor, and
participate in’ scheduled water
games,

Other birthday celebration activ:
ities are scheduled for the entire
family and will be ongoing to
March 20. These include: public
skates and swims at) reduced
prices: eymnastics displavs: a cel-
ebrity hockey game between the
television crew of MacGyver and
the C-FOX radio hockey team: an
art showcase, and a birthday cake
CUTnAg «Ceremony.

The public is also invited to take
a tour ot the recCentre and to stop
ata display which details ity 25-
year history.

For more information and a
schedule of events call 988-6166.

unfold simultaneously. Angry,
contused and pensive voices waft
through the curtains, clashing with
your character's. You have the
eerie feeling of being in an asylum
or of living inside several people's
heads.

But it works. It is fascinating.
Sometimes the line between reali-
ty and theatre blurs, as characters
offer you tea or ask to shake your
hand. Are you an invisible
observer or a participant?

Weiss went beyond the obvious
student profile in his choice of
journal characters.

One character, Dale, confesses
his love for money, while James, a
born-again Christian, deplores
people's shallow materialism. Paul
struggles with the secret of his
sister’s bulimia and with his
dysfunctional family, while Barb
wonders how she would cope
without family.

Bill Murdoch's sets instantly
convey aspects of each character.
Some live at home in long-
outgrown bedrooms, while others
lounge in the familiar student
squalor, complete with tacky
lamps, lawn furniture and posters.
It’s a sure sendback to your stu-
dent days.

The student actors handle the
material with sensitivity. While a
few rushed through their
monologue or lapsed into the oc-
casional mumble, overall the
characterizations were very con-
vincing. Some entertained while
others startled or saddened. |
especially enjoyed performances
from Kurt Fitzpatrick, Erin
Ferguson and Jason Bailey.

The final scene, in which actors
and audience convene ina
classroom to discuss the evening,
didn’t appeal! to me. I wasn’t in an
analytical mode and disliked hav-

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Wednesday, March 20, 1991 - North Shore News - 43

.

NEWS photo Paut McGrath

CAP THEATRE actors Brad Wattum and Sherry Pilling act out exerpts from student journals in the
innovative studio production Hail of Mirrors at Capilano College. Audience members move from
scene to scene (11 in all), listening to 10-minute vignettes in which characters reveal their private
thoughts and feelings.

March 23. Go see it and have a

the main performance.
look at yourself in the mirror.

ing the fantasy wrenched away.
The play closes on Saturday,

But it certainly didn’t detract from

ASIA MacNEL|
IN CONCERT |

¢ VICTORIA. “| VANCOUVER
| MARCH 21:& 22 I MARCH 25-29:

CASSETTES |

9,99 |

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