A play-full festival!
As part of the Tours Des Arts 2017, five internationally known actors and writers are joining together to perform in each other’s work in Sutton Playfest — a hilarious commentary of life eternal via short plays, sketches, and music.
Risky relationships, love and lust, thwarted deeds, and life on the limb, produce an evening of comic extravagance and musical madness. There’s a lot about love, about everyday egregiousness, about eccentric individuals insinuating themselves into bizarre situations.
There are tales of emergency first aid in Las Vegas; how eating mangos could be a sin; and when visiting a bank becomes a fashion statement.
Wayne Doba and Andrea Conway (aka Dik and Mitzi) are vaudeville artistes who have played circus tents all over the globe and are no strangers to the world of
bizarre. Dancers, comedians and actors, you may have seen them in Tap’n’tell their ingenuous exposée of life on the road. Or caught Andrea, in her acclaimed role as Rhonda in The Great Kooshog Lake Hollis Mccauley Fishing Derby, in Knowlton last year. Their ability to combine tap dancing with physical and frenetic humour is legendary! They’ve never played Vegas but an experience in Atlantic City created more material than they could ever need...
Marilyn Bullivant and Rick Davey are no strangers to satirical humour and witty songs. Marilyn bases her ideas on anything crazy or annoying she sees in real life. She then takes it a step further to border on farce. It’s important to end on an absurd note, she says. That goes for her songs too — which husband, musician, actor, and muse extraordinaire, Rick, arranges and turns into lyrical and comprehensible things! The couple (together with Rick’s yellow ukulele) has taken their Cabaret all over the world but remain a highlight of the season, for many, in their winter hideaway in Mexico.
When doubtful situations occur, it’s best to confront them with comedy: Gissa Israel writes from her heart, and will tell all — from a poignant teenage experience in Montreal to last winter’s sojourn in Florida which found her hanging out with a wild and wacky threesome… those personas will grace the stage. A local treasure, Gissa has been telling it like it is, in the Townships and to the rest of the universe, for time immemorial.
See Playfest at the coeur du village of Sutton.
Where: Salle Alec et Gérard Pelletier — 4c, rue Maple, Sutton
When: Thursday, July 20 and Friday, July 21 — at 8 p.m.
played by Tiernan Cornford in her professional debut while on summer break from her first year at Concordia University. Quincy Armorer, Black Theatre Workshop’s artistic director and the imperious Oberon from SITP’S silver anniversary production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, is Benedick, sparring partner for the independent and feisty Beatrice, inhabited by Holly Gauthierfrankel, returning to SITP after her debut in last year’s all-female Julius Caesar. In his fifth SITP production, Matthew Kabwe returns as Don Pedro to woo fair Hero for Claudio. Dean Patrick Fleming, former Geordie Productions artistic director, stretches his acting muscles digging into the polar opposite characters of the manipulative Don John and Verges, the straight-man sidekick to one of Shakespeare’s most hilarious fools, Dogberry, played by one of Montreal’s best actors, Chip Chuipka, who also portrays the servant Balthazar. Hero’s respected and well-to-do uncle, Leonato, has morphed into a female Leonata, played by Susan Glover, a veteran actor of impeccable comedic timing also coming on board with SITP for the first time. Anurag Choudhury, born in Oman but a Montrealer for the past six years, is both Borachio, Don John’s crafty associate, and the Friar, who devises a plan to extricate Hero from her shameful predicament. Playwright, actor, and musician, Sarah Segal-lazar, is Margaret, an unwitting partner to Borachio in Don John’s devious plan and Hero’s bawdy serving woman. Ursula, a returning soldier in this production as well as another of Don John’s entourage, is played by Cara Krisman, currently in her last year at the National Theatre School of Canada.
The decor and costumes work in unison to reflect a universe unto itself with Sabrina Miller’s romantic set inspired by Italian Renaissance gardens and Sophie El-assaad’s costumes borrowing from the joie-de-vivre fashions of post-wwii. Former SITP stage manager, Jacynthe Lalonde, designs the lighting while Troy Slocum creates the sound and original music for Shakespeare’s lyrics. Samantha Bitonti is the assistant director and Danielle Laurin stage manages.
Pocket Shakespeare: For the second year, all of the SITP communities will be able to enjoy every nuance of the Bard’s English thanks to Plank Design, who designed an application that enables francophone audiences to follow the text by reading French sub-titles on their smart phones.
Shakespeare-before-the-show: Repercussion Theatre is partnering with Geordie Productions to give young audiences fun and innovative ways to engage with Shakespeare. There are three 2hour Introduction to Shakespeare workshops available for kids and teens at a cost of $35. Participants will learn what all the “foresooths” and “wherefores” are about, experience the fun of speaking Shakespeare and meet the cast of Much Ado About Nothing. Maximum 10 per class. Register online at http://geordie.ca/gtsworkshops
· 8- to 12-year-olds: Sun., July 23 — 3:305:30pm — Westmount Park
· 13- to 17-year-olds: Sun., July 23 — 3:30-5:30pm — Westmount Park
· 11- to 17-year-olds: Fri., July 28 — 3:305:30pm — Centennial Park (Beaconsfield)
Repercussion Theatre is also teaming up with Mcgill University’s Early Modern Conversions Project to host an informative pre-show discussion on Tuesday, August 1 at 6 p.m. at the Mcgill campus site prior to that evening’s performance.
Rain Cancellations: Call 514-9312644, visit www.repercussiontheatre.com or follow Repercussion Theatre on Twitter (@Repercussionmtl) or Facebook.