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ON STAGE

he Royal Shake-
speare Company
has closed two
theatresin London’s
Barbican Centre until
q@iarch 31. The Charlot-
tetown Festival will produce
only Anne of Green Gables
this coming season. Lack of
ge funding and market slow-
© downis begmning to hinder
the professional companies.
Vancouver Island’s com-
munity theatre continues to
®iounsh despite lack ofmajor
government funding.

Thanks to local patrons, ener-
getic volunteers, and exception-
al resident talent, there is no
fear of the accumulated deficits
facing the Shaw and Stratford
Festivals.

The unique concept of three
theatres plus an outdoor space
allows the Phoenix Theatre at
the University of Victoria to
produce large cast plays with
graduate and undergraduates
students and both adventurous
and classical scripts. The Ghost
Sonata opened this past week
and continues until December

The Fantasticks, the longest
@running, off-Broadway show is
at the Isabelle Reader Theatre
in Langford until Noy. 24. This
theatre at 1026 Goldstream is
not imaccessible. It takes no
___Biore time to reach than a trip to
the Vancouver Ferry from
central Victoria. Professional
stage and musical directors and
Victona actors like Barry Gnm-
shaw grace this Stage West 10th
anniversary season.

The only live theatre venue in
the Western Communities, The
Isabelle Reader, runs under the
guidance and management of
Roger Traviss. Last year the 340
plush-seated house was open on
252 varied occasions. Asummer
festival could fill the summer
empty nights with a little com-
mand support.

Atheatrical experience, like no
other in town is a trip to the
William Head Penitentiary to
witness a production of the Wil-
liam Head On Stage (WHOS)
prisoner's theatre. Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern Are Dead,
celebrates 10 years of captive
theatre. WHOS was created by
the efforts of individual inmates

and encourages team spirit, self-
sufficiency, and financial
security. More than 14,000
people have seen two produc-
tions a year during 10 seasons.
They now rehearse five times
weekly over five weeks to stage
a show. This is the only penal
institute in Canada with a
public theatre program. A year-
round operation is a new goal.

Strindberg
modern classic
at Phoenix

Written in 1907 is the weird
and oddly wonderful, The Ghost
Sonata. August Strindberg’s
characters relate the eerie tale
of a young man’s adventures as
he pursues the girl of his
dreams. The familiar seems
strange but the strange becomes
significant.

The three-dimensional set,
designed by Mark E. Anderson,
is a gargantuan, full-face stun-
ner conceived by a true profes-
sional for the Dan George
Theatre thrust stage. It has tobe
seen to be believed.

The idealist jousts with the
realist and the latter wins.
August Strindberg, a Swedish
playwright of the expressionist
period, saw his world as being
distorted by human forces. Con-
centration was on the negative
aspects of the day and the
twisted soul of man. Expres-
sionists plays are often struc-
turally episodic with a central
idea or argument as the core
rather than related action. This
genre was in revolt against
realism.

The Ghost Sonata is a mind-
stretching test. It was originally
named The Spook Sonata.

Stage Director Giles Hogya
cast with care and came up with
several good performers, all able
to cope with the often bleak
prose. Dale McIntosh, using
Gregorian-style choral chant-
ing, created a Greek Chorus
background. Heisa clever musi-
cal director.

The play is offered without in-
termission and the time frame is
“now and always’.

Kurt Max Runte plays an
older Mr. Hummel, a character
who could have been based on
the reputedly insane
Strindberg. It is an electrifying
performance with fine attention

to detail. Many of the 13 leads
are to be commended for stylistic
portrayals. There were 14 in the
chorus in the University of Vic-
toria Department of Theatre
presentation which runs until
Dec. 1.

Ali the points that symbolist
Strindberg must have wanted
made were there, thanks to the
fine direction of Professor Giles
Hogya. For theatre with a dis-
tinct difference book tickets now.

The Fantasticks
for younger set

The Stage West Players do not
require a multi-million dollar
structure such as the opera and
dance Toronto theatre to which
Ontario Premier Bob Rae has
recently decided not to give
promised government funding.
The Isabelle Reader Theatre fits
their production needs and

Crltle-s-Cheiee:

By BARB LITTLE

audience numbers for the
present. The Langford company
is realistic and their happiness
shows.

Fifty members plus volunteers
will be celebrating the upcoming
10th season. A budget of $8,000
allows seven performances with
professional stage director,
music director and choreog-
rapher. They a hire minimum of
musicians and have open audi-
tions twice a year, which attract
some Victoria actors and
singers. Seven Brides For Seven
Brothers in their Spring offer-
ing.

The cast of nine suits the stage
for The Fantasticks which runs
through the coming weekend.

Try To Remember is a
memorable number. Kim
Greenwood and Ken Levigne
play the young lovers. Ken is no
stranger to Victoria Operaatic

Multiple theatre openings enjoying success

THE PHOENIX THEATRE ’S production of The Ghost Sonata, with
Erin Hollick Grom lef) Kur’ Max Runte and Alison Mathews,
continues at UVic until Dec. 1.

Society audiences and Kim is
making her Stage West debut on
stage. Barry Grimshaw, a Vic-
toria theatre veteran, is Henry,
the comic, and Jordan Lessick is
his sidekick. These and others
do what they can with the
lightweight material and ves-
tige set. It is not a memorable
work but rather a chamber
musical for a smaller setting.
Like Salad Days it continues as
a favorite.

Rosencrantz and

Guildenstern Are Dead

Interesting twists in the Tom
Stoppard seript give
Shakespeare’s Hamlet a new
look. The supporting actors,
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern,
who were friends of the “to be or
not to be” mad Hamlet, are now
the central figures in the plot.

The Laurel and Hardy pair
bring us to the same finale. The
two become characters looking
for a mind. A $12,000 budget, 15
actors and professional director,
Phil Wagner, made it work and
the laughs were plenty.

Stoppard made an effort to ex-
plain what happened to
Hamlet’s young friends, which
Shakespeare never managed to
do successfully. Itis a production
which had full houses but unfor-
tunately a proposed holdover
didn’t work out.

Murray Cruickshanks and
Dallas Williams turned in truly
inspired and studied pertfor-
mances in the title roles. Brad
Clark as The Player, heading
the play-within-the-play acting
troupe, was impressive. Ken
Hartle portrayed young Hamet
with finesse. Catch WHOS
spring show, not as yet decided.

The hunt for... a rent
reduced workshop coming
soon to 2 theatre near you!

The hunt is on .. .Lhe Belj7
Theatre, The New Bastion
Theatre, and Pacific Opera Vic-
toria have joined forces to find a
community minded individual
willing to donate or rent, for
minimal cost, workshop space:
In an effort to consolidate and
reduce production costs, the
three performing arts organiza-
tions are seeking a joint
workshop space for the period
from December 15 to May 31,
1991.

The workshop must be at least
3,000 square feet, and have ade-
quate lighting, power and wash-
rooms. As theatre and opera sets
can reach epic proportions, the
ceiling of the building should be
between 18 and 24 feet.

If anyone has any information
about a suitable space, please
contact Bruce Halliday at the
Belfry (885-6815).

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