Wednesday, February 7, 1986 -- North Shore News — 43

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Community Editor
Andrew McCredie

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Layne Christensen

985-2131 (118)

985-2131 (147)

CULYURAL STEREO-
TYPES abound in this weck’s
Curtain Call as we boldly
brave the perils of
Transylvanian bloediust while
singlehandedly fending off the
death of a thousand oriental
clichés,

If that sounds like f might be
leading up to a couple of cheap put-
downs, let me hasten to add that I’m
not!
Both the The Passion Of Dracula

at The Arts Club Theatre and

Mom, Dad, I'm Living With A White

Girl at The Firehall Arts Centre

are clever and funny productions.

| Of the two, I preferred Marty
Chan's play about the struggle of a
mixed race couple to deal with the
old (Chinese) world values of the
boy’s parents.

I suppose it’s not really a fair
comparison given that Chan's play
has something to say while The

_ Passion Of Dracula by Robert Hall
and David Richmond relies exclu-

* sively on style to retell a story that is

’* surely familiar to us all.
Still, a strong Arts Club cast.
under the sure-handed control of
‘North Vancouver director Jay ©

Brazeau get almost everything right

in their romp through yet another

version of Bram Stoker's 99-year-old

. classic.

. » Brazeau’s penchant for humor is
aconstant factor as most opportuni-
ties for scenery-chewing camp are
enthusiastically embraced by the
actors. :

Much of the humor is rooted in a
peculiarly English tradition of Boy's
_ Own adventure yarns or the inim-
~itable Bulldog Drummond stories.
The jokes lie in being able to
deliver lines like, “What the hell are

: you doing with my willy?” with red-
faced, upper-class anger rather than
any awareness of the schoolboy-
humored double entendre.

John Payne, a hugely under-rated
actor, delivers a perfect performance
as the thoughtlessly clichéd aristo-
crat, Lord Godalming.

Other standouts
include Lonesome
Dove star Eric
McCormack as a
restrained Count
Dracula and
Shawn
Macdonald's intel-
ligently crazy
Renfield.

The show is a
lot of fun but
might have
worked better for
me in terms of its
“passion” if the
two women’s roles
had drawn me in.

Molly Purker’s
Wilhelmina
writhes so hard in
her sexual frenzies
it was difficult to
see past the enthu-
siasm to the croti-
cism that the story
needs for its heart.

And while Annabel Kershaw has
lots of fun gait der kinky German
sexdoctor Brazeau could have
thought more carefully about what
Kershaw needs to represent when
she changes te the only vampire that
the audience actually sees.

Mind you, the tackily cheap bit of
tat she is forced to wear in her
blood-sucking incamation would
daunt the gothicly sexual sensibilities
of Stoker himself. Held over to
March 2.

I can’t leave the Arts Club with-
out acknowledging the success of
Jane Martin’s Keely and Du at The
New Revue Stage.

There is absolutely no doubt as to
where Mastin’s sympathies lic in the
abortion controversy so that debate is
a Static non-starter.

But the strength of the play has
far more to do with the structures of
power and the abuse of love and at
this level I found the script absolute-
ly riveting.

I suspect there is more to be
made of the patriarchal nature of
religion than Garrison Chrisjohn and
director Janet Wright choose to high-
light but Kelli Fox (especially),
Patricia Hamilton and David
Lovgren are ail outstanding.

[hope artistic director Bilt
Millerd’s experiment in risk-taking at
the Revue Theatre will gain the
support it deserves on the basis of
the first two productions this season.

Now, about those wily oriental
clichés and no, we haven't taken
leave of our politically correct sensi-
bilities.

Mom, Dad, I’m Living With A
White Girl uses pulp fiction stereo-
types of the Charlie Chan variety to
wittily undercut its basic inter-racial
story.

The story of Yellow Craw, er

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sorry... Claw, ultimately becomes
more than a device for humor as the
audience must ultimately ask itself
why it is laughing.

As young Mark Gee tells his
white girlfriend, “You might find the
Chinese have a sense of humor too

Kirsten Robek and a wonderfully
physical John James Hong are out-
standing in the production and N.V.
health-food maven Donna Yamamoto
has the most affecting moment in the
piay when she reveals what sacri-
fices drive her racial prejudices.

Mom, Dad, I'm Living With A
White Girl is proof how much you
can achieve with a simple story told
well.

it's quite the best thing I have
seen Donna Spencer direct in her
jong commitment to multi-cultural
programming at the Firehall.

Closer to home, Cap Theatre are
at Presentation House until Feb. 10
with Edward Bond's The Woman.

Director Steven Atkins is to be

foope ee

2. Waterworld
giants sg ie TaN

Som in

NEWS photo Paul McGrath

congratulated for what
he manages to achieve
with a huge cast of
inexperienced young
actors.

Bond's timeless
look at the nonsense
of war (“Men who go
to war are not sensi-
ble.") revisits the
ancient conflicts o
Greece and Troy with
a modem sensibility.

It’s a sprawling,
passionate play of
ideas and ironies that
requires as much com-
mitment from its audi-
ence as its actors.

Atkins wisely does
not ask his young
actors to attempt more
than they can sustain
and consequently
achieves a strong
ensemble feel.

criTIcS'
AVERAGE

MPAA
RATING

kkk PG-13

PG-13

PG

RENT 2 netses FOR 2 DAYS ony
‘ALWAYS “WoV
OPER 24 HRS.

LEFT: CAP College Theatre Society
rehearse Edward Bond’s The Woman,
running at Presentation House until
eb. 10.

Bawid Cooper
DANCERS EDMOND Kilpatrick ok and Cara
Tench are caught In .a. Gustav’ Klimt-
inepired kiss. The Kiss Project features 18
delut dance and theatre projects, each 10
minutes fong, with the common theme of a
kiss. Last yeer’s inaugural Kiss Project,
created by long-time West Vancouver
choreographer Judith Marcuse was an
huge smash. At Performance Works on

‘Granville Island to Feb. 18.

VIOLENCE COARSE
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