Blogs HICKS ON SIX

Ever since Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf and probably back to Greek days, dysfunctional married couples have provided a rich, rich vein for playwrights of every ilk.

God of Carnage, by popular contemporary French playwright Yasmina Reza, is right up there, but mercifully in the satirical humourous vein rather than depressing nihilism.

The show, playing on the Citadel Theatre’s Shoctor Stage through April 1, 2012, is about as well-produced as this Tony award-winning play could possibly be.

The two couples are perfectly cast, with actors that Citadel audiences are either very familiar with or fast becoming so: the superbly comedic Fiona Reid cast as Veronica who is married to Michael, played byRic Reid, and Ari Cohen and Irene Poole as Alan and Annette.

The directing is in the excellent hands of Citadel Artistic Associate James MacDonald, who you’d think has to be the logical successor should the iconic Bob Baker ever decide (many years from now, we hope) to step down as Citadel Artistic Director.

The show is wonderfully constructed, starting with the layers of civility we all try to show as our best faces, rapidly unravelling into a punch-drunk let-me-tell-you-what-I-REALLY-think, about you, me, that other couple, men, women, and, by the way, our children.

Reza has the wonderful device to bring the two couples together of a school-yard dust-up between two 11 year olds, the children of each couple. Veronica and Michael’s kid got whacked in the mouth by Alain and Annette’s kid, so the couples have decided to get together to talk charmingly and wittily about their children’s misdemeanors, with of course, from Veronica’s view, her poor baby having been assaulted by a thug.

As mentioned, it’s merely a device for both couples to start peeling off their sweetness and charm, to use the kids’ dust-up as a starting point to vocalize ALL their differences with the greatest of hilarity while making some subtle social points.

You can just see the playwright cackling with glee, as she runs through her list of couple acquaintances and starts writing what she suspects is going on inside their lives, never to be revealed externally.

Veronica (Fiona Reid, hilarious as always every time she’s given a meaty comedic role) is a self-righteous liberal of the most annoying kind, who, as she gets more and more raw has the mouth of a sailor. Hubby Michael is an amiable opposite, a self-described Neandrethal who considers his wife’s save-the-world tactics a waste of time.

Alain, played beautifully by Ari Cohen is an over-the-top corporate lawyer who borders on hilarious psychopathy, who through the entire show is on his cell phone directing defensive legal tactics for a morally-corrupt wealthy pharmaceutical company. And as his layers peel off, he finds far more in common with Michael than with his resentful wife Annette (or Woof Woof).

Riaz wisely goes for the laughs, without dwelling on dysfunction or any woe-is-us, yet still quietly leaving a few things to think about after the show. And part of the fun is her dramatic licence to take each situation to the extreme.

Go. It’s a funny play of manners in the snarling 21st century, complete with abandoned hamsters, the funniest vomiting scene ever seen on a Canadian stage and the verbalizing of what so many couples think of each other and of other couples, but would NEVER say. In short, it’s a 90 minute hoot of a show, with enough intelligence and fine acting to keep your faith in live theatre alive and tingling for at least a few months!

A review of Blind Date – created by improvisational actor Rebecca Northan – playing at the Citadel Theatre on the Rice Stage through February 19, 2012.

When you think you’ve seen it all … try to imagine a 90 minute theatrical show, where one of the two actors has not seen the script, has never likely even been near a stage, has had no rehearsal and was basically selected at random out of the crowd to be the “blind date.”

The result, in the very sure hands of Calgary-based improvisational actor and comedienne Rebecca Northan, is a beguiling, delightful, funny play that’s going to dramatically change with every show.

Because at every show, the fella picked out of the audience to be her “blind date” will be a very different personality than the night before, will create in different ways, will take the story different ways.

The show’s creator and star, Rebecca earned much of her comic skills when, living in Edmonton, she was very much part of the city’s improvisational and comedy live theatre scene. Plus she’s had several hit Fringe shows. Opening night saw Fringe/Varscona/Die Nasty alumni out in force to support one of their own. Made for great atmosphere.

Blind Date has actually become a North American hit – Rebecca has been touring it to rave reviews. So much so that other improvisational actor/comediennes are testing themselves out on the role, as theatres ask for it to be included in upcoming seasons.)

Here’s Blind Date’s basic premise: Mimi (Rebecca’s character, also known as Mimi the clown) is a young French lady, staying here in Edmonton at her uncle’s apartment, while said uncle is off seeing family in the south of France.
The show starts with her waiting in a café for a blind date.

It’s a bit of a stretch, but then, so’s the whole show! Mimi wears a clown nose for a reason – the show is not meant to be literal in any shape or form. The whole idea is for Mimi to catch and run with the comedic moments as they appear.

Her blind date is chosen out of the audience, brought on stage to become the co-lead.

They converse as do any two individuals meeting for the first time and looking for connections. Mimi persuades the gentleman to come back to the apartment with her. Thanks to the magic of theatre, they then fast-forward five years by the end of the show and have just had their first baby.

At least that’s how it went on opening night. I daresay the show will go in any which way every time it’s performed through Feb. 19.

This is wonderfully funny stuff.

First off – the fella picked out of the audience, Duncan, was a rather shy and quiet 51-year-old, an elementary school principal who was attending Blind Date with his wife of 30 years.

Suddenly, he’s on stage, acting – trying to pretend to be some guy who’s arranged to meet this whacky, irresistible force of comedic nature known as Mimi – for the first time.

Before the show dives in, Mimi explains some ground rules to both Duncan and the audience.

On one side of the stage is a “time out” space, where Mimi and Duncan can go back to “reality”, and get out of character. She can explain things to Duncan, and then back they go into the play.

Duncan is allowed, during the show, to ask for a “time out” if he needs to head back to the reality check.

Meanwhile, Duncan’s wife in the audience is allowed to comment on the action, and to yell “bull shit” if she thinks Duncan isn’t quite telling the truth as Mimi quizzes him – on the theatre side of the stage – about his background.

Obviously this takes supreme comedic talent on the part of Northan’s part, to take whatever material her evening’s date presents, and spin it into comedic gold.

At the same time, her crew – two supporting actors who play the waiter, an RCMP officer, and are the stage crew, plus the lights and sound tekkies – are on the highwire as well. They have to adapt and have fun with whatever is happening on stage.

Northan has her pre-rehearsed bits – she must have hundreds – that she can steer the conversation toward, then take off in near solo comedic voyages. Or maybe she makes it all up on the spot?

The ground is so fertile because of the inherent contradictions. Some poor dude from the audience, with his wife watching, is expected to try and be a single guy looking for a little loving wherever he can find it?
This evening, Duncan was a happily married man who hasn’t even looked at another woman since marrying his wife (in the audience) three decades ago. Yet in front of her and 200 other audience members, embarrassed and at a loss for words, he is trying to remember what it was like to be single and available!

The gentle magic of the show lies in Mimi/Rebecca’s intuitive ability not to belittle or make fun of her unprepared co-lead actor. Duncan was not the least picked upon, nothing was sarcastic or belittling. If Duncan was feeling uncomfortable, Mimi would bring him over to the reality-check space, make him laugh, adjust the scenario and back they’d go.

Then again, there was a bit where Mimi heads off the stage in the apartment to “freshen up” and leaves Duncan alone, on stage, in front of those 200 people, for what seemed to be four or five minutes. Didn’t matter what he did in his uncomfortableness of those moments, it was too funny!

I can’t reveal what happens at the end – Mimi might use it again sometime in the next two weeks, and I wouldn’t want to spoil the fun.

Suffice it to say I suspect the end of the show is probably quite similar, no matter what the outcome: Mimi/Rebecca will find all the positive attributes of the fellow who has bravely “volunteered” to play the blind date, and, leaves him feeling pretty darned good about himself.

It’s a unique, creative, very funny and very poignant show. One not to be missed.

Cracked ribs?
I am so in sympathy with the mayor on this one!
It’s the most painful “minor” injury going.
I did the same thing around the same time in 2009, hurrying from my car to one of the first Christmas receptions of the year. I slipped on new ice (nobody’s fault, middle of a storm, nobody had a chance to lay down any salt or sand), whacked my side on the sidewalk curb, but kept going to the reception and had a glass of wine to dull the pain …
For the next two weeks, our mayor is going to be in serious pain every time he laughes or coughs – shooting pain in fact, zapping his entire upper body.
Even worse, he won’t be able to sleep lying down. It’s just too bloody painful to go from lying down to standing. It feels like the pointed ends of the ribs are grinding together. So you “sleep” sitting up in a chair, which is the king of discomfort. After the jolts of searing pain, sleep deprivation is the second-worst result of cracked or fractured rib.
But you can still move, so off to work you go. But any slightly wrong move, and there’s that ferocious pain.
There’s not a darned thing you can do about it in most cases, other than gobble down ibuprofen. it simply has to heal on its own.
After two to three weeks, the pain gradually subsides. But here’s the secondary rub. No exercising, skiing, indoor tennis etc for at least two months because the last thing you want to do is disturb the finally-knitting bones.
The good news is you do completely recover, but my goodness, you then walk on ice like an old, old man for fear of slipping again.
It’s not the cold or the snow that sends us fleeing in Phoenix for the winter (as if any of us besides lawyers, accountants and oil patch guys can afford that). It’s the #@$%$ ice!

With legislation pending to drop the Alberta impaired level from .07 to .05 – not official yet but it appears imminent, somebody has to speak up for the socially responsible drinker.

Dropping the impairment critical threshhold to .05, as far as I’m aware, means no second glass of wine or beer if you intend to drive after attending any social occasion.

Now this is heresy and entirely unacceptable to say, but I will say it. The socially responsible drinker can have two glasses of wine, or two bottles of beer, and safely drive home.

When innocent victims are killed by drunk drivers, the culprits are not individuals with .07 or less of alcohol in their bodies.

The culprits are usually individuals, I would suggest, who have been on massive drinking binges, who are driving at two to three times over the .07 level, who are oblivious to social responsibility.

They are usually young men. And too often, they are driving recklessly, in the wee hours of the morning. And too often, it appears, in rural areas.

I’m sorry, the hypocrisy of all this troubles me.

You lawmakers who will pass this bill … does this mean from now on, for the rest of your lives, you will never order a bottle of wine to go with your dinner for two?

At all those banquets you attend, where the waiters are happy to refill your wine glass as soon as it’s half-full … will you turn your glass upside down after one drink?

Actually, no, you’ll have to refuse ALL wine because you already had a pre-dinner glass of champagne at the reception.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with having two drinks at a cocktail party, at a pub after work with colleagues. The socially responsible drinker is able to drive home after two drinks, as we as a society have agreed with, up to this point, by pegging the point of impairment at .07.

To drop that level to .05 is not only to create a world of hypocrites, because, again, it will be widely ignored by socially responsible individuals who like TWO glasses of wine with their dinner, or who enjoy a drink OR TWO when they socialize with their friends or colleagues before they drive home … driving more carefully because they are aware they’ve had two glasses of wine or two bottles of beer.

I’m not sure “sophistication” is the right word to use, but I can’t think of another.

We – Rob Christie and Audie Lynds of Capital FM and myself – took our 61st gathering of the “Art of Conversation” on Thursday (September 29, 2011) out of Edmonton to the new Enjoy Centre in St. Albert.

Never before had we taken the monthly gathering of our friends, readers, listeners and just plain anybody who enjoys a good conversation, out of the city itself.

But the Enjoy Centre is such an attraction unto itself, with the excellent Prairie Bistro overlooking Big Lake, that we wanted our friends and acquaintances to see this beautiful new addition to the region.

The brothers Jim and Bill Hole of Hole’s Greenhouse are cut from the same visionary cloth as their much-loved and much-missed mom, the late, great Lois Hole and their quieter but equally visionary dad Ted Hole.

They envisioned a mighty step forward for the very popular greenhouse operation, long a St. Albert fixture. Why not, they thought, a healthy lifestyle-oriented shopping centre within a greenhouse?

They bought a beautiful site in the west end of St. Albert, close to major intersections, overlooking Big Lake and the provincial park named after Lois.

And carried out their vision.

The best way I can describe the Enjoy Centre is one huge, state-of-the-art greenhouse (Hole’s) with flowers and greenery everywhere. Tucked in here and there on two levels are beautiful stores completely in harmony with the surroundings … The delightful Prairie Bistro at the Big Lake end of the complex, The Water Garden Spa (with every spa treatment under the sun), Amaranth Whole Foods, Sandyview Farms Deli, the Prairie Baker, Liquid Harvest Wine + Spirits + Ales, Beautiful Home & Gift, and Hillaby’s Tools for Cooks.

The concept is quite unique. As far as Jim Hole is aware, it’s never been done before, certainly not in North America. Many greenhouses have tearooms or restaurants attached. Many greenhouses offer more than plants. But to team up unique food products, local food products, spa services, kitchen and garden related consumer goods, craft beers, fine wines and excellent but affordable dining under one giant greenhouse glass roof … it’s never been done!

Jim doesn’t talk about the cost of the Enjoy Centre. But this is a building with so much state-of-the-art environmental technology that it must have cost at least $50 million.

The Art of Conversation gathered at the Prairie Bistro, which was previously reviewed in my Weekly Dish column in the Edmonton Sun. The Prairie B offered a terrific selection of wine, Yellowhead beer on tap and delicious appetizers that were a taste of what was to be had in the restaurant itself.

If you’re wondering, the Art of Conversation is simply a gathering during the last week of each month held in an interesting lounge, restaurant and space as decided by Rob, Audie and myself.

There’s no agenda, no promotion, no marketing allowed. We even don’t like the word “networking”. Leave your career at the door and come as yourself!

It’s open to anybody, as long as you are open to engaging in a conversation with whoever is standing next to you. If you’d like to be on the notification list, feel free to reach me – Graham Hicks by Twitter #hicksonsix, Facebook, or e-mail at graham.hicks@shaw.ca.

Over five years, the Art of Conversation has taken on a life of its own, attracting at least 100 conversationalists per occasion. We have regulars, drop-ins, folks who come in groups, individuals who come alone and hopefully feel immediately welcome. All we ask is you make an effort to re-kindle the lost art of conversation!

The Enjoy Centre has its Grand Opening this Saturday, Oct. 1, 2011, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Great time to check it out.

And if you have guests in town, there’s no better place to take them. I do hope Travel Alberta has the Enjoy Centre squarely within its sights as one of the region’s major and unique tourist attractions.