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Martin Millerchip
THEATRE REVIEW

No Man’s Land by Harold
Pinter. A West Coast Masterclass
Showcase ai Presentation House
directed by John Milton Branton.
Jan, 27-29 only. Admission by
donation. Info: 986-1351.

Blackadder by Ben Elton and
Richard Curtis. A production of
The Comedy Company directed
by Paul Kloezman. Al the Deep
Cove Shaw Theatre to Feb. 5.
Info: 929-5744.

THEATRICAL double-
bill of huge contrasts
this week.

The taut, intellectual conun-
drum of Pinter’s rnost complex
and challenging play and the
belly laughs of the televised
Blackadder scripts that the
Comedy Company has acdaptect
to the stage with the permission
of Rowan Atkinson.

The two North Shore produc-
tions provide extreme examples
of the role theatre might fulfill.

No Man’s Land demands that
its audience question the very
world it chooses to inhabit while
Blackadder offers theatre as
entertainment. Art or not, it is
interesting to note that almost
every remaining performance of

24 - Wednesday, January 26, 1994 — North

Blackadder is sold right out.

Na Man’s Land is partota
showcase series in which protes-
sional actors are able to explore
a text and hone their skills ina
longer than usual rehearsal peri-
od,

Public performances are part
of this process and cuflect the
company work without the com-
mitment to a “dinished” produc-
tion,

The plot of No Man's Lane is
as spare as any of Pinter’s plays.

Not unsurprising-
ly, it follows the
etfect of introducing
a stranger into an
established house-
hold. As with many
of his plays the air of
menace, even cata-
strophe, is palpable.

Who is Ped, who
holds the power and
whom might be
destroyed are ques-
tions that are gradu-
ally raised and only
partially answered,

It is possible to consider the
play as an extended allegory for
aging. Not so much physically,
but as an abdication of control to
circumstance,

As such, it is profoundly
depressing, since Pinter appears
to be saying that the freedom to
love as one chooses is the
province of youth, But, as in all
of Pinter’s plays, no matter how
improbable the premise a physi-
cal and psychological reality
must be found.

When this is rooted in English
place, and especially class, the
challenge for Canadian actors
becomes enormous.

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a ly
iB

It is a credit to directar Jahn
Milton Branton and vocal coach
Trish Allan that this cost acquits
iiscl’ so well,

Peter Brockington plays
Spooner, the stranger i this
strange land. Brockington is quite
mesineri¢ as the sardonic anc
caustic old queen.

His ability to suggest an age of
experience with a curl of his lip
ora shift of inflection is a contin-
ual lesson that less is ofa more
on stage.

66 Voice and class are likewise key to
much of the humor in the Comedy Club

production of Blackadder. 99

Lee Taylor as Hirst, the owner
of the household into which
Spooner has stumbled, is also
finely voiced. But Taylor has a
huge responsibility in this play
where appearances are every-
thing, even if the truth is some-
thing else, and | wondered on
opening night whether his Hirst
abdicated too much power too
soon or never claimed enough.

However, it is only fair to

founding

point out that a production that
valances on such a fine knife
edge as this one does, will never
be the same from night to night.

Troy Skog and John Payne
share the third carnec in this tri-
angular strupele to the death.
Payne's brutish Briggs contrasts
well with the brash veneer of
sophistication that Skop’s Foster
seems to relish,

Both actors’ voices provide
the class origins on which so
inuch of Pinter is based, although
it is harder work for
Skog.

Voice and class
are likewise key to
such of the humor
in the Comedy Club
production of
Blackadder.
Fortunately the cast
that the Comed
Club has assembled
is up to the job.

The show is as
British as a banger
and just as likely to
induce wind unless
you are willing to check your
intellect at the door.

It’s humor may occasionally
run to schoolboy sarcasm rather
than sardonic wit, but it also
manifests a redeeming self-
awareness, even innocence, that
is often irresistible. ;

Mounting a well-known televi-
sion comedy series on stage
becomes an exercise in re-creation
(and an often painfu! one at that).

Acrobatics -

TICKETS:
$8.00/student,
$10.00/aduii.

available only at the
Centennial Theatre
Box Office or call:

Rowan Atkinson is a hard act
ta fallow, bat the large section of
the audience that is tamiliar with
the series has certain precon-
ceived notions of what their
favorite characters should look
and sound like,

One might expect Paul
Klaegman and Ray Soden as
Edmond Blackadder and Baldrick
to have impossibly big trousers to
fill in turems of mimicry.

However, they accomplish it
with ease and any deviation from
the original becames academic
ina surprisingly short period of
time.

| quickly accepted the perfor-
mances on their own terms, And
very goad ones they are, too,

Of the three episodes oresent-
ed, the two from the final series
(First WorldWar) worked more
successfully,

The latter scripts had more
incident in the plotline with a
constant sense of moving forward
rather than wringing the last pos-
sible change out of a static situa-
tion. 7

They also provide a number of —
clearly defined and very funny
supporting characters, Standouts
in a strong company included
Greg Anderson’s woolly.
Melchett, Linden Banks’ rubber-
faced George and Gord Roberts’
politically-but-wonderfully incor-

-rect Flasheart.

it's an odd choice this week.
Food for the belly, or manna for

the mind.

984-4484
HOURS: Noon ~ 4:00PM
Monday ~ Saturday