20 ~ North Shore News - Friday, October 27, 2000

r one great Monkey Beach written in North Van

Rocky Horr

ck ’n’ rol
From page 15

seen the show at ail. In the cult world of
RHPS, they were “virgins.”

T was also surprised [ had forgotten what a
damn fine rock ‘nN’ roll musical the show is.
Age, I guess.

Down Stage Right Productions and
Dionysus Theatre with director Mark Carter,
and North Van musical director Stephen Bulat
have put together a stage show that purrs,
growls, sizzles and ultimately explodes with a
jov that is hard to resist.

Just in case you haven't seen the movie (the
Arts Club produced the show about 20 years
ago but most will be more familiar with the
film), the “plot” is an outrageous campy take
on the Frankenstein story.

Upught, nerdy Brad and his virgin bride
Janet have car troubles on their honeymoon
night and head tor a nearby castle to use the
phone. The “master,” Dr. Frank N. Furter,
turns out to like new play things (he’s “mak-
ing” Rocky), although he quickly dres of them
(Eddie, Columbia). There's an alien twist, a
wheeichair-bound scientist and a narrator every-
one loves to hate.

Neil Minor as Frank N. Furter and Joe
Davies as the manservant Riff Raff are the only

musical

professional members of this cast. They are
excellent but most of the rest of the cast are just
as good, Heather Feeney +s the cast-off
Columbia comes close to stealing the show,
Karen Davies as the maid Magenta holds a stare
that could cut glass, and North Shore actor
Damon Calderwood offers a stellar Dr. Scott.
Another longtime North Shore actor, Barry
Duttus, was heckled constantly by the crowd —
but then he plaved the narrator and thar’s all
part of the fun.

Speaking of heckling, Janet Glasstord as The
Usherette supplies all the lines that audiences
have shouted at the film screen for years. It's a
litde annoying if you want to join in because
she steals all the good lines, but for many her
“ad libs” were hilarious.

Not everything was perfect opening night.
Voices, with the atd of West Van's Gillian
Barber were all solid to very good, but the limi-
tations of her cast’s dance experience was obvi-
ous — the role of Eddie suffering the most
obviously. And while Stephen Bulat and his
band rock with the best of then, more volume
would have had us dancing in the aisles. Most
serious were the mic problems that plagued the
show’s opening and continued intermittently.

Still, all in all, E have to say in the words of
the song: don’t dream it, see it.

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PAID RESEND,

From page 3

that didn’t involve basements
or orange shag, carpet.”

She worked from 10 p.m.
undl 2 a.m, each night,
watching the rain and the
“big black blob of Stanley
Park in the distance. Late at
night, you'd hear the lonely
sound of the jackhammer as
they fixed the bridge. So
someone was also doing a
night shift, not just you.”

She was on first name
terms with the staff at
Staples: “You know, the way
some women buy cosmetics,
that's the way I go through
stationery.”

Robinson has ao perma-
nent address to speak of,

Pronewer.

these days: she’s on the road
pretty much all the ime.

Earlier this year she was a
writer-in-residence in
Whitehorse. “Ironically
enough, it doesn’t come with
2 residence. Apartment-hunt-
ing in February in
Whitehorse, that was some-
thing.”

She followed that up with
a tour of mainland Europe
and the Greek Islands, the
Edinburgh Book Festival and
“the aboriginal tour of
Scotland” with some other
native writers from Canada.

“Everyone kept saying,
‘Se, you're from Australia!” |
kept having to explain, ‘No,
Pm not aborigine, ’'m abo-
riginal. We're actually from

Canada.”

She says being nominated
for the Giller was “Surreal.
Completely surreal. People
have been going ‘Aren’t you
thrilled?’ Yeah, 'm thrilled,
but holy crumb! [ was sitting
in my bathtub going, ‘Oh
God, I've been nominated
tor the Giller!’ and E started
erying. Then I started laugh-
ing because I was crying. It’s
a wonderful thing, but it’s
still a bit of a shock.”

Monkey Beach is out now.
The Giller Prize will be
broadcast live on Bravo
(Channel 28), at 5:30 p.m.
Thursday, Nov. 2. The
Governor General's Awards
will be presented Tuesday,
Nov, I4.

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