An Evening of One-Act Plays
November 3, 4 & 5 at 7:30 pm
November 6 at 2:00 pm
The Real Inspector Hound
A Brilliantly Funny Murder Mystery by Tom Stoppard
Theatre critics Moon and Birdboot, reviewing a murder mystery on stage, become part of the action in ways they could never have expected…
Coffee House
A Mind-Bending Comedy
by Leon Kaye
If you could stop time, anything could happen… Surprises and reversals abound in fantasy about coffee and the rest of your life.
Tantalizing theatrical treats are two-for-one at Studio Theatre’s An Evening of One Act Plays
What do philandering, ambitious and character-shifting theatre critics have in common with a time-stopping stranger’s interference in a budding coffee bar romance? Answer? Absolutely nothing! Except that both intriguing and entertaining stories and the characters that populate them, can be seen at Studio Theatre’s upcoming Evening of One Act Plays.
The Real Inspector Hound, by the multiple award-winning playwright Tom Stoppard, follows the story of two theatre critics, Moon and Birdboot, as they attend a play in London. Simultaneously, we trace the narrative arc of the two theatre critics and the narrative arc of the murder mystery play that they are assigned to review – a play-within-a-play. Throughout the course of the play, the two narratives become entangled as characters seamlessly switch roles. Soon the two stories are nearly impossible to separate.
Veteran Director David Parry takes on Stoppard’s literary farce with a dream-come-true cast. David Bird and Jamie Schoular pair up as theatre critics Moon and Birdboot whose running, but often absurdly unrelated, conversation intersperses with the murder mystery they are reviewing. Not surprising then that the genre of the play is “Theatre of the Absurd.” An OPP officer “by day,” the Perth theatre scene stalwart, Bird, says he loves working with such a strong cast and looks forward to lifting the spirits of the audience with laughter. Asked about acting and policing, Bird is philosophical: “You play a role in both.”
“Hound” gets more and more interesting as the critics’ characters reveal themselves and then are propelled, one by one, into the action of the play they are attending. Like a living domino effect, most of the characters eventually fall into new roles in this clever and hilarious satiric parody. The aptly-named Mrs. Drudge, played by the versatile Jenny Pfitzer, brings humour as a stage direction-calling Cockney maid who, at times, both acts and directs. Rounding out the cast are Chris Angel, Kristy Tait Angel, Robert DelGrande, Grey Masson and Krista Duff.
In Coffee House, by Leon Kaye, a young woman, Amy, and a young man, Dag, meet at a coffee house. They laugh, joke, tease and seem perfectly suited for one another. Then, time stops and everyone is frozen—all except Dag and a strange man, Hugh, who claims to be a messenger sent to save him from making a terrible, life-altering mistake. Hugh claims that Dag has a perfect soulmate with whom he has spent many fulfilling lifetimes, only it isn’t Amy. Surprises and reversals abound in this mind-bending fantasy about coffee and the rest of one’s life.
Lucas Tennant, Director of Coffee House, is also delighted with his cast, a trio of fine actors who are no strangers to the Studio Theatre stage. Julie Heney plays Amy, the initially reluctant object of Dag’s (Hugh McCulloch) attentions as she sits at the coffee bar minding her own business. Gradually she warms to his charms and just when it looks like he might induce her to join him at a table, in comes Hugh, played by Charles Henderson. Here is where the play takes on a surreal quality as Hugh suspends time for everyone in the coffee house except Dag and himself and reveals information to Dag that he hopes will alter the immediate course of events.
Packed into a mere 30 minutes, a perfectly ordinary scenario unexpectedly transforms into a bizarre, humorous and thought-provoking tale that also defies predictability. Tennant admits that he is attracted to plays that broach “questions about destiny and choice.” He refers to Coffee House as more than just entertaining insofar as, beyond merely enjoying the play, audiences will find ideas lingering in their minds after the actual experience.
The weekend following An Evening of One-Act Plays, The Real Inspector Hound and Coffee House will be the Studio Theatre’s entries in the annual Eastern Ontario Drama League’s One-Act Play Festival, which the Studio Theatre will proudly host the weekend of Nov. 11 to 13. This prestigious festival brings together eight community theatre groups from across Eastern Ontario to perform their best one-acts, plays between 25 minutes and one hour in length. Performances will be judged by a professional adjudicator, who will announce awards for acting, direction, costume design and more at the Awards Brunch on Sunday, November 13th. Don’t miss your chance to see great community theatre in action!
Tickets
Tickets for the EODL One-Act Play Festival are available now.
An Evening of One-Act Plays premieres at the Studio Theatre on Thursday, November 3rd, with performances Nov. 3, 4 and 5 at 7:30 pm, and a 2 pm matinees on Nov. 6.
Tickets are $22 (cash only) at the Book Nook, 60 Gore St. E, and $22 plus convenience fee at Shadowfax, 67 Foster St., (613-267-6817; shadowfax.on.ca) and Tickets Please, in the Matheson House Museum Visitor Centre, 11 Gore St. E. (485-6434; ticketsplease.ca) both of which accept in-store, phone, online and credit card purchases. Tickets are $24 at the door, and $10 at the door for students with ID. Attend opening night and save $5!
