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March 6, 2009
Hold on for Holy Mo! show
Pacific Theatre puts a contemporary twist on the Book of Exodus.
TOVA KORNFELD
If you want a knee-slapping, side-splitting good laugh, you have to get down to the Pacific Theatre at West 12th Avenue and Hemlock in Vancouver to catch Holy Mo!, an irreverent take on the Book of Exodus with the stories of Kings Saul and David thrown in for some extra spice.
This funky little venue in the basement of the Chalmers Anglican Church proves that size does not matter. With only 120 seats split into two opposing banks flanking the open stage, the quality of the productions here is consistently high.
Local playwright Lucia Frangione first teased Vancouver audiences with this show 10 years ago. It went on to win the Gordon Armstrong playwriting award. Now it is back at its outrageous best, with an all female cast, three of the most talented actors who have strutted their stuff across Vancouver stages.
In this play, "All the world is a circus." The stage floor is a map of the world with a half globe angled on top to provide an elevated platform. Colorful balloons float over the whole space and a tricycle, bright red wagon and travel chest full of goodies are strategically placed around the earth's circle. As the audience wanders in, selected members are presented with pots and pans and instructed to bang them at appropriate moments in the show. The lights dim and we meet three members of a traveling circus on a world odyssey to share the story of the Exodus with all they encounter. G-d is played by the ringmaster of the circus. The other two characters play red-nosed, floppy-shoed clowns who provide musical accompaniment by a banjo, a ukulele and a kazoo. All three actors move through their multiple roles right in front of the audience by way of lighting quick costume changes.
The script is true to its biblical roots but adds a contemporary twist with references to celebrities, cellphones, ferries, current politicians and world issues. It also contains almost every Jewish cliché in the book which some might find offensive. Personally, I found them hilarious. I had to think back to my Hebrew school days to try and understand all the references to people and events.
Katharine Venour plays Follie, the ringmaster who gets to play G-d and makes it clear from the beginning that, "It's not easy being a deity. It's lonely at the top." Julia Mackey plays Guff, the mute clown, with a touching sentimentality. Erla Faye Forsyth, best known to Vancouver audiences in her role as Ma Bailey in the Arts Club production of It's a Wonderful Life, steals the show as the clown Buffoona and gets to play Moses (stutter and all), Goliath (from the top of a step ladder), Michal, Saul's daughter, and a multitude of other characters. Her flirtation as Michal with David in the bagel shop he owns and her fight with David as Goliath is worth the price of the ticket itself. The one-liners just flow from her mouth; zing, zing, zing as she kibitzes with the audience. As Moses, Forsyth gets her inspiration to take her people to the Promised Land from a burning juke box and, while waiting to cross the Red Sea, she is advised that there will be a "three sailing wait." The plague scene is an absolute hoot and almost had audience members rolling in the aisles. The fight scene between the "Heebies" and "Phyllis and the Steiners" is choreography at its finest and it is very unusual to see female actors wield swords with such panache. Morris Ertman provides the tight direction necessary to keep up the fast pace of this show.
The first act ends with the "Heebies" entering the Promised Land. The second act is all from the Book of Samuel about David, Saul, Jonathan, Goliath, Bathsheba and Solomon: the fights, the trysts, the lust, the jealousy and the emotional end. All of this plays out against a background of music from the scores of Chariots of Fire, 2001, A Space Odyssey and Mission Impossible.
At the talkback session after the show, Forsyth, in response to an audience question about what the show meant to her, stated: "It is all about Moses, who was just this regular guy who thought he was a failure and became great. During this evolution, he connected with his G-d on an intimate and emotional level. At the end, when he stands on the hilltop and watches his people walk into the Promised Land, it is a moment of pure magic."
Why should people go and see this show? Because it is funny, unconventional, provocative and will teach you about the Bible in a way you will never forget.
The show runs for two and a half hours, with evening start times at 8 p.m. and Saturday matinèes at 2 p.m. It closes March 7. Tickets are available at 605-731-5518 or on the website, pacifictheatre.org. If you can't see it this time around, keep it in mind for the future – it's a show to see.
Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer.
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