GORE BAY—Gore Bay Theatre opened its summer season this week with two highly anticipated productions, ‘Love and Larceny,’ an evening of six humourous one-act plays and ‘Love Letters’ by A.R. Gurney, a classic heartfelt poignant comedy.
If you like an evening of humourous, entertaining and surprising theatre filled with terrific performances (and who doesn’t?), then don’t miss these highly recommended productions which have literally something for every theatrical taste and are great summer theatre fare.
‘Love and Larceny’ is best described as part romantic comedy, part “who dunnit” and part murder mystery. One word describes the production and that is surprise, but what was not surprising was the Gore Bay Theatre’s usually high level of technical standards with the set, lighting and sound.
What did provide plenty of surprises and suspense were all the twists and turns in each of the plays and the very strong performances brought to the stage by a number of new faces. You would never know that this was the first acting experience for some of the performers.
In the first play, ‘Charly,’ a romantic comedy about a couple who have been married for 30 years two veteran actors, real life husband and wife John and Carol Robertson, team up to breathe life into the imaginary husband and wife protagonists, mining the highs and lows of married life expertly.
The next play, ‘Clive,’ is a typical whodunnit, complete with a bungling detective in the Columbo tradition with a humourous and surprising twist at the end. It features two new and promising faces to the Gore Bay stage, Deborah Graham and Will Smith, whose performances are dead on.
The third and final play of act one features two younger but experienced actresses, Taylor Geertsema and Kyleen Robertson, in a play titled ‘Friends.’ The banter in this play is reminiscent of the TV series of the same name and the very strong performances of the two actors bring a humourous and contentious rendezvous onstage.
Act two opens with a very funny play called ‘Daddy,’ where John Robertson plays an overwrought father magnificently and Taylor Geertsema plays his calm and understanding daughter expertly. The fact that they are real life father and daughter makes the ending of his play very funny and poignant at the same time.
The second play of act two, ‘Ssh,’ is perhaps the most whimsical and intriguing play of the evening. A romantic comedy with a very absurd premise leading to a lovely moment of theatre. It features Tammy Robinson and again, Will Smith, both new and promising actors who both admirably meet the challenges of this unique and ironic play.
The final play of the evening, ‘Tea with Enid and Pearl,’ features two of Gore Bay Theatre’s veteran performers Lori Evans and Shannon McMullan. Their stellar performances are what we have come to expect from these two experienced actresses. Without giving away the plot, the play has twists and turns which provide both laughter and intrigue with an ending that will totally surprise you.
‘Love Letters’ opens tonight (Friday) with a dinner theatre sponsored by the Gore Bay Rotary Club. It features Jack and Betsy Clarke, one of Gore Bay’s most well known and respected couples. It is one of the most popular love stories written for the theatre.
It was a smash hit on Broadway and there is a recent revival and national tour starring Ryan O’Neal and Ali McGraw. Time Magazine said, “it was one of the four or five best America plays of the 80s,” with the Wall Street Journal declaring ‘Love Letters’ “exhilarating, funny and moving theatre.”
Luckily, area audiences won’t have to go to New York or Los Angeles to see this play. See the Recorder’s review in next week’s paper.
Love is in the air this summer, and Gore Bay Theatre is directly responsible.
Don’t miss it! Information about tickets and times is in the advertisement in this issue.
