24 — Friday, August 23, 1998 — North Shore News

Bi The Last Adam by Vittorio Rossi at Presentation House to
Aug. 22.A Primavera Stage Co-Op production.

T1’S exhilarating to go to community theatre
knowing nothing about the play and come away
thoroughly impresses with not only the writing but
the standard of acting and direction.

Tleft Presentation House last
Thursday energized by the opening of
The Last Adam in a way I had not
expected some two hours earlier as I
walked into the sauna bath that passes
for a theatre in the heat of summer.

At least the temperature and humidi-
ty felt right for the dog days of s summer
in Montreal — “tomato season” for the
Italian family at the heart of Vittorio
Rossi’s excellent play.

The Leones are a two-generation
immigrant family living in Ville Emard.
Father and mother, Armando and
Rosalia, speak Italian more readily than
English, while the three children vary in their readiness to accept
assimilation into Canadian culture. The clash and blend of cul-
tures are occasionally used by Rossi for their humorous potential
and to break the anger and tension that increases as the plot
unfolds. (There was huge West Coast appreciation by the audi-
ence of middle son Salvatore’s rant about the Quebec language

: laws.)
While Ross: deals with ethaici-
ty and sexism (are all Iealian
men this rude to women), his
re to say abour the ingredients that shape. family life:
honor, respect and guilt shape not only the family’s
identity. bit everyone in it.
JOS The play’ s title refers, at one level, to Salvatore’s rwin brother
.- :, who diéd in éarly childhood. ‘The truth of that death, when
2. revealed, ‘will illuminate the educational conundrum: Ts it nature
or nurture that forms the child? — -

The production has a few weaknesses: the sez is not bad but

n mp boards, olive oil cans and tomato boxes destroy its
reality; these were a few dead’spots in the more loosely written
f ‘canco Barillaro {Armaiido) appears less confident than

CURTAIN CALL

“the rest of the cast; and the otherwise : very excellent Emilio

* Salituro (who apparently has been trying to get this play pro-

. duced for the last six months) can’t cry. It’s a basic acting axiom:
-don't do more than you are capable of sustaining, so if you can’t
“actually cry, iris better to be. nearly crying.

ae pressed with the job director Michael Vairo has done
in pulling this cast together:so well and handling the overall pace
‘and emotion of the’play — it could so easily have tipped over
‘into Italian soap opera. That it did not was in large part due to

“ Teresa Merandi, Craig- March and, especially, Danny Tamburrino

~ = who together played the offipring of this brawling, ‘fractured

family wich such strength.
ere are two performances left. It’s worth the effort.

. Seon ab a maintenance one on land
owned by the Corporation below the over-
pass on Highway 1 at Horseshoe Bay.
Wednesday, August 26, 1998
5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m.

Gleneagles Golf Course,
6190 Marine Drive, West Vancouver

- BC Ferries staff will be at the open house
to discuss plans and answer any questions.

Horseshoe Bay area residents will receive more infor-
mation in the mail during the week of August 17.
For more information, contact:

Deborah Dykes
“1g BC Ferries
~" 921-7414

BC FERRICS

we RE ae ae A aI

Where:

"Who:

Mann: Mitercrip

Together, we “relay” can make a difference.

GOLD SPORSORS
AIR CANADA ® BB warkarMontrest antec

THE cast of The Last

, Adam whip up a zesty:
..treat for the audience.
from the cookbook...
“that is Vittorio: -
 Rossi’s seript.

and we'l} t include a free Tshirt with each enti

A $20 Value!

Sun. Sept. 20, 1998 9:11-am - 12 1l'p
Ambleside Park ‘West Vancouver, B: