Local theatre abounds

From page 18

Name and has run almost
continuously in London for
the last seven years.

In fact, director Jim Hebb
has borrowed most of the
sound cues from the original
production since so much of
this gothic tale of suspense
depends on the audience's
imagination and suspension
of disbelief.

It's difficult to describe
much of the plot without
ruining the suspense but it
works on a couple of differ-
ent levels.

Regular readers will know
I have little patience with
whodunits that reserve infor-
mation in the name of mys-
tery and there is some of that
here. However, The Woman
in Black ultimately becomes
a challenge in ‘style and
Stagecraft as it entertains by
effect.

Arthur Kipps, a middle-
aged solicitor, hires a profes-
sional actor to help him
Testage, and thereby exor-
‘cise, a tragic event from his
past.

“As the first act unfolds we
watch Kipps struggle to learn
the business of performance

While the actor dons more
easily the garb of the

younger Kipps.
the

Meanwhile, Kipps

gt

elder plays the supporting
characters that the young
actor meets as he journeys
north and east of Crewe,
through the lonely market
town of Crythin Gifford and
across the dangerous cause-
way to the isolated home on
Eel Marsh of the late Mrs.
Drablow where he is to set-
tle hee estate - if it doesn’t
settle him first.

Set designers Jean Taylor
and Ann Booth have done a
magnificent job in trans-
forming the Shaw Theatre
into the gilded interior of an
old London Theatre.

From there, the journey
must take place in the mind
of the audience and much of
the interest in the first act
derives from the way the lay
acknowledges the craft of the
actor and how the magic of
staging works,

Hebb has done a master-
ful job of pulling together
the lights, sounds and effects
that contribute to the omi-
nous atmosphere that sup-
port actors Darien Edgeler
and Paul Kloegman.

Pace in any show is always
important but the structure
of pace in this one is the clack
that propels us inexorably
towards something horrible.

Opening night saw Act I
stopping, and hence dropping,
the build-up too many times,

p early for that’
D Eee

Ocal,

T know there are hesita-
tions built into the plot as
Kipps overcomes his stiffness
on stage and while the actor
is learning his new character,
But that makes it doubly
important that everything
else drives toward the first of
the big shocks,

However, Edgeler and
Kloegman gained confidence

No

in the second act and had the
audience in the palm of their
hands as gasps and screams
greeted each new plot devel-
opment.

Tam quite sure that by
the time you read this the
first act will have evened out
and the whole production
will take you on a very eerie
ride that is perfect for the
ghostly Halloween season.

“eee

West Vancouver resident

and Vancouver Playhouse

touchy §

Wednesday, October 23, 1996 — North Shore News — 19

artistic director is starring as
Mrs. Alving in that theatre’s
first production of the season
~~ Henrik Ibsen's Ghosts,

It’s an odd production, full
of forced stylings that neither
hang together nor justify the
1937 setting rather ‘than
Ibsen’s repressive 1880's,

Cos, herself, commands
attention but it’s not always
appropriate. It is difficult to
resolve this brassy, spatlit, cock-
hey woman with the victim ofa
loveless, abusive marriage.

gt
f
4]

feelycrap

Nutritious
Choices for

@ee

North Vancouver
Community ‘ayers and those
who enjoyed Lend Me A
Tenor last season may want to
try and catch the last few per-
formances of Hotel Paradiso
at Studio 58,

Director Robert Metcalfe
recreates his trademark two
minute version of the play for
a curtain call,

But the whole madcap
faree has his brand of physical
comedy stamped all over it,

Peak =|
Performance |

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