Sinners offers one more chance

by Betty Barton

Sinners is being held over.

With all six scheduled perfor- mances sold out after the third night, the cast and crew of "Sin- ners" are putting on an extra per- formance. Terrace audiences who have been unable to purchase tickets to this popular Terrace Little Theatre production will have one more opportunity to see it on Saturday, Dec. 1 at 8 p.m. in the McColl Playhouse.

"Sinners" playwright Norm Fos- ter spoke with actor Marianne Brorup Weston last week after three performances at the McColl Playhouse, _— Marianne says, “I really had to sweet talk Playwrights Canada for his phone number, He was really nice when I finally got to talk to him."

Foster is well on his. way to ‘becoming one of Canada’s most popular playwrights, His most recent play, The Affections of

May, closed at Theatre New

Brunswick last week to fave reviews. It will be opening in Edmonton in the spring.

Sinners, written and first pro- duced in 1983, was the most suc- cessful season opener in the his-

tory of Theatre New Brunswick, —

Foster’s home theatre company. Foster explains that Sinners is the only comedy ‘he’s ever written built on funny situations rather than funny people.

Sinners is based on a half-hour radio play in which two of the characters discuss and analyze the sequence of events depicted in the

play. A brief synopsis of the play

shows the antics that one suitor of |

& ’scarlet woman’ succumbs to in his quest for her affections, and (a rather contradictory erm) a "hilarious murder" results. Foster calls Sinners a “popular smaller community piece".

Marianne questioned Foster about her character, Diane Gillis. Foster explained that she’s the “straight man" in the play. She gullible and naive and doesn’t know what’s going on. Marianne further describes the character: "She

‘stands for everything straight- forward, upright and good, witha . little bit of Mary Tyler Moore .

thrown in. I can feel older people’s appreciation of her character. She (Diane) makes me feel real cozy and warm." Marianne goes on to describe the leading lady, the "scarlet woman" character, (Monica, played by Alison Thom- -son,) the minister’s wife, as "the vulture”.

Marianne says the two characters

don’t interact on the stage, so they’ve had to work really hard on it backstage. "We’re opposites; I'm good and she’s evil." Foster describes Peter Kramer, the leading man played by Jim Branch, as “the victim, another straight shooter." If he were going to cast the play as a movie, he would have either Richard Dryfuss or Jack Lemmon play the part.

Tickets for "Sinners" are avail- able at Erwin Jewellers in the Skeena Mall. $10 admission.

ene

Terrace Review — Wednesday, November 28, 1990 B13

Sinners, the Terrace Little Theatre’s opening production for the season, has been a sell-out and »

- one night has been added to the stage run. Local audiences will get an additional chance to enjoy

acting by Sharon Lynch and Jim Branch (above) and the rest of the cast.

Your

programme guide. to arts in _ the Northwest

The Terrace Review

IN CONCERT

"the guitar world’s new Superstar"

San Francisco Chronicle

Liona Boyd will perform at the R.E.M. Lee Theatre on Wednesday, December Sth, 8 p.m.

Tickets are available at Erwin Jewellers in the Skeena Mall and Kermodei Trading Gifts & Gallery on Keith Ave.

*presented by B.C. Fiedler Management, Toronto, Ontario

The Best from the Stacks

Reviews of books from the Terrace Public Library

by Harriett Fjaagesund

THE ANIMAL WIFE by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas

Adult fiction published by Houghton Fifflin Company

Kori isa gifted young hunter. Barely out of boyhood, he has spent his entire life with his mother’s tribe along the Fire River. Kori first meets Swift, his estranged father, who is headman and shaman of the Mammoth hunters, when Swift comes to his . mother’s village seeking a new wife.

Kori has two great desires—to be as great a hunter as his father, and to have a woman of his own. The trouble is, he is as naive about women as he is adept at hunting. Against his mother’s wishes, he returns with Swift and Pinesinger, his father’s new wife, to the village of the Mammoth hunters. Kori is unaware that Pinesinger, with whom he had a youthful tryst, is carrying his child.

The ways of his father’s people at first seem strange to Kori, but he is soon accepted into the tribe because of his great prow- ess as a hunter. But all that changes when he rashly kidnaps a strange young woman he finds swimming in a pond at the tribe’s winter grounds.

Not only does it mean another mouth to feed through the long, hard winter, but the tribe fears the woman’s people will launch an attack to reclaim her. But Kori won’t listen to reason; he is determined to keep this woman for himself, regardless of the cost.

An excellent read! Elizabeth Marshall Thomas is also the author of the international best seller, Reindeer Moon, which is set a few years previous to this novel.

A CITY OF STRANGERS by Robert Barnard Adult fiction published by Charles Scribner's Sons

Jack Phelan is the sort of man everyone loves to hate. Dirty, vulgar, lazy, selfish, and crafty as an old fox, Jack Phelan is the dregs of society all rolled up into one individual. Except for 12-year-old Michael Phelan, who seems somehow to have miraculously escaped the Phelan curse, the rest of the family isn’t much better.

For years the infamous Phelans have lived j in slovenly squalor in their council house in the run-down Belfield Grove Estate in the city of Sleate. Then Jack has a big win on the pools, and the Phelans decide to move up to a better neighbourhood.

The respectable middle-class neighbourhood of Wynton Lane is rocked to its very foundations when Jack threatens to buy one of . the imposing Victorian stone houses. The residents gather — together to come up with a plan to stop the Phelan invasion.

Short of praying for the wrath of God to strike down Jack | Phelan, it seems there is little they can do. One thing is certain though; the residents of Wynton Lane have never before known -

‘such excitement. Life gets even more exciting when someone

decides to commit murder! . This is a hard one to put down. Jack Phelan is truly unforget- * table! .