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Feb. 10, 2006
A battlefield of love
Three romantic vignettes, two acts, one survivor.
BAILA LAZARUS
The laughs just keep on flying in the current fare at the Arts
Club Theatre on Granville Island. Norm Foster's Here on the Flight
Path provides a perfectly entertaining evening with terrific
acting, hilarious one-liners and controversial opinions that will
keep you discussing the play as you head out to the car or around
the water cooler at work.
Well-known Bard on the Beach performers Jennifer Lines and David
Mackay star in this romantic comedy, which was directed by Rachel
Ditor. Mackay plays consummate 40-something, bitter divorcé
John Cummings, living in the Aurora Terrace Apartments, a 1970s-era
building near the airport. He writes a newspaper column about his
observations of daily life and always talks about a book he's planning
to write.
Lines is brilliant in not one but three roles, playing next-door
neighbors Faye, Angel and Gwen. Each one of the women befriends
John and develops a different kind of relationship with him, before
circumstances cause her to move from the apartment. Faye is the
tough-as-nails hooker who's as cynical about relationships as John
is. She assumes every man she meets in a romantic relationship wants
a "freebie" and has been around married men enough to
know she doesn't want one. "Men are like kitchen tiles,"
she says. "You lay them right the first time, you can walk
on them for 20 years." John commiserates, since he's wallowing
in his own fresh pain from a divorce that was obviously not amicable.
"She got the house, the kids, the boat and the house by the
lake and I got anything that fell off the roof rack as she drove
away."
While often hilarious, this first interaction never seems to get
beyond superficial comedy. It had the feel of a Friends episode,
with the Arts Club audience as the laughtrack. But what could have
remained as simple sitcom material was made exceptional by the acting
and timing by the two stars. After Faye comes new neighbor Angel
Plunkett, fresh from the Prairies. Ditsy, spunky and annoyingly
positive, Angel has come to Vancouver to follow her passion for
singing, hoping to be discovered and become a star. She is as naïve
as Faye was experienced, uses lines like, "Well, aren't you
a gloomy Gus," gushes at skyscrapers and sings a screechy rendition
of "Don't Rain on My Parade" from Funny Girl whenever
she needs to cheer herself up.
Her perky attitude seems to make John even more cynical, although
he seems to find in himself enough goodwill to offer support. Like
many passionate newcomers to the city chasing a dream, Angel starts
to get hit with reality. Her one claim to fame is a stint in a musical
version of Moby Dick –Positively Ahab –
updated with rock music, in which she gets to sing, "Whale
Be Together Again." She knows she is doomed and crawls back
to her family.
The final neighbor we meet is Gwen, another divorcée, who
likes to listen to Leonard Cohen when she's depressed. She's only
ever dated or slept with her husband and she brings a buttoned-up,
librarianesque persona to the apartment. But it doesn't take long
before she decides to explore her more sexual and romantic feelings
with John. This final relationship is the most interesting of the
three because it goes beyond simple one-liners. John, at first wary
that Gwen is on the rebound, not only finds himself asking her out,
but eventually develops feelings for her. Of the three woman, she
is the one John would least like to go; but she, too, returns home
and John is back on his own, as another neighbor moves in.
OK, so Arthur Miller it ain't. But the body needs a good evening
of boisterous laughter and that's just what Here on the Flight
Path delivers. And after all, how can anyone pass up an evening
full of gems like, "Marriage is too much trouble; next time
I'm just going to find a woman I hate and buy her a house."
Here on the Flight Path runs until Feb. 25 at the Granville
Island Stage. This version was produced in association with the
Gateway Theatre in Richmond. Tickets are $25-$35.50, with discounts
for students, seniors and groups. Call Ticketmaster at 604-280-3311
or the Arts Club box office at 604-687-1644 or visit www.artsclub.com.
Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, photographer and
illustrator living in Vancouver. Her work can be seen at www.orchiddesigns.net.
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