Amir Ofek

Dreamy Midsummer’s Night

The company of Bard on Beach’s production of Midsummer Night’s Dream. (photo by Tim Matheson)

The thespian delights of Shakespeare set against the glorious backdrop of mountains, sea and sky have been missed. But now, after a COVID-induced two-year hiatus, Bard on the Beach at Vanier Park is back with a bang, based on the audience buzz on opening night.

The comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream, a perennial crowd pleaser, will occupy the BMO Mainstage all season. Harlem Duet, a tale of Black life spanning three periods in American history, runs until mid-July on the smaller Howard Family Stage, with Romeo and Juliet taking over that stage in August through to September.

This is the seventh time Bard has produced A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and this rendition has “hit” written all over it. It is one cheeky dream.

Set against the backdrop of the upcoming marriage of Athenian Duke Theseus (Ian Butcher) to foreign Queen Hippolyta (Melissa Oei), three stories weave their way through a mélange of mistaken identities, unrequited love, feuding fairy royalty and would-be actors, riotously intersecting in the enchanted wood outside of Athens.

Four young lovers, Hermia (Heidi Damayo), Lysander (Olivia Hutt), Helena (Emily Dallas) and Demetrius (Christopher Allen) dash through the woods in a mad, “looking for love romp” replete with a WWE-worthy cat fight and zingy insults.

Meanwhile, in the sylvan wonderland, Fairy King Oberon (Billy Marchenski) and his queen, Titania (Kate Besworth), are in the midst of a custody battle. Oberon sends his trusty servant, the mischievous Puck (Sarah Roa), to exact revenge on his queen with a potion meant to make her fall in love with the first thing she sees when she awakes.

Finally, we meet a troupe of bumbling tradesmen who seek refuge in the forest to rehearse Pyramus and Thisbe, the play they have written in honour of the duke’s pending nuptials. It is during this rehearsal, that one of them, Bottom (Carly Street), morphs into an ass, both literally and figuratively, and becomes the love interest of Titania.

In a nod to diversity and gender fluidity, director Scott Bellis (who knows this play from top to bottom, having performed in five of Bard’s previous Midsummer productions) has cast lovers Hermia and Lysander as a lesbian couple, while two of the tradesmen, Bottom and Snug (Jewish community member Advah Soudack), are played as females.

Bellis has also incorporated some interesting staging devices. Oberon arrives on stage on stilts, towering over his subjects. Bottom makes numerous asides to the audience and takes forays up the aisles. And the Mechanicals characters, at one point, move in a shuffling turntable motion around the stage.

Street steals the show as Bottom, the know-it-all of the working class group. Although given the lead of Pyramus, she wants to play all of the parts, thinking she can act better than the others. In her quest to prove this, she gives whole new meaning to the concept of emoting. It generally works and the audience loves it, although she often upstages her castmates.

Roa provides a refreshing spin on her impish character and Soudack, although in a minor role, is hilarious as the timid lion in Pyramus and Thisbe, as is Flute (Munish Sharma) as Thisbe, the reluctant object of Pyramus’s affection. Many of the actors are making their Bard debut and it is good to see new blood in the Vancouver theatre scene.

Jewish community members are prominent behind the scenes in this production. Amir Ofek’s set, backed by two leaded glass windows framing the view of the North Shore, easily transitions from the staid royal Athenian court to the warehouse of the tradesmen to the whimsy of the Oberon realm. Mishelle Cuttler, as sound designer/composer, provides original music that complements Tara Cheyenne Friedenberg’s ethereal choreography, as performed by students from the Simon Fraser University School of Contemporary Dance. You don’t usually get to see Shakespeare with so many dance elements, which adds an interesting layer to the mix.

Christine Reimer’s costumes are a delight – earth-toned, tailored day suits and cloche hats for the women, a white bejeweled gown for Titania, frothy candy-coloured tutus for the fairies and silky evening frocks for the final scene. Gerald King’s lighting – the greens, the purples, the reds – all work in harmony with the sun as it sets behind the stage.

To escape into the Bard’s fantasy world and enjoy the dream, visit bardonthebeach.org.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

Arts Club stage opens

Among the theatre performances around town cautiously returning to live venues is the Arts Club’s production of Buffoon, a one-man play being presented at the Granville Island Stage until Dec. 6, and featuring the contributions of two members of the Jewish community, Amir Ofek and Itai Erdal.

Buffoon is the second of three works being put on by the Arts Club this fall. The play has two different actors playing the lead in separate shows at different times, and audience size in the theatre, which can seat 400 people, is limited to a maximum of 50.

“The fall theatre trio will be the first time for audiences to see fully staged and designed shows at the Arts Club since March,” remarked Ofek, the play’s set designer, when he spoke to the Independent before the opening of the play’s run Oct. 22. “Buffoon will be a real visual feast for the audience. Seating arrangements were planned. Actors can only get so close to the audience.

“The set, lighting, costume and sound design surrounding the sole performer will take the audience on a ride into the magical world of circus,” he added.

On working in the time of COVID-19, Ofek mused, “As a designer, we work at a personal level and often have animated meetings. Now, all the conversations had to be done over the phone or, in the case of a socially distanced meeting with director Lois Anderson, in a schoolyard.”

Erdal, the lighting designer, expressed his excitement at being involved with this production, while pointing out that there are unique demands posed during the pandemic. “I am used to coming and going from the theatre. We have to be very careful now. We have to wear masks and only so many people are allowed in at a given time. Working with these safety precautions during the pandemic is a challenge. Having to do it twice with two casts of one is also a challenge,” he told the Independent.

Indo-Canadian playwright Anosh Irani’s Buffoon tells the story of Felix. Born to a circus family who prefer trapezing to parenting, he quickly learns to turn life’s hard knocks into comedy. His longing for family and home is piqued at the tender age of 7, when he falls for an older woman, aged 8 – an event that inspires his journey to becoming a true buffoon.

The show is one part of a full season for both artists. Ofek is also working on Francis Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine for Vancouver Opera. That production had its digital première on Oct. 24.

“I am really happy to be busy now, at a time when theatre and live performance struggle to exist. I hope it is not a farewell burst of fireworks that signals the end of our time,” Ofek said.

Erdal, meanwhile, has recently designed two shows, B for Rumble Theatre and This Crazy Show for Company Vision Selective at the Queer Arts Festival, and is designing the Nov. 12-22 run of The Amaryllis for the Firehall Arts Centre. He has a photo exhibit at Luppolo Brewing, is writing a play, Check Point, for his company, Elbow Theatre, and is teaching an online course for the Musical Stage Company in Toronto.

Ofek and Erdal have collaborated in the past – on Florian Zeller’s The Father, at the Vancity Culture Lab in 2019, and on Joan MacLeod’s The Valley, in 2016 at the Arts Club.

The Arts Club stresses that the performance and rehearsal models for its fall trio of presentations were designed to be as safe as possible for artists, staff and audience members. All shows are being staged in adherence to safety guidelines established by the B.C. government, including the aforementioned cap of 50 patrons per show, staggered admission times and a mandatory mask policy (with the exception of patrons with respiratory or other health concerns). Each show has two rotating casts and crews, who do seven performances each week and rehearse in separate halls.

“Smaller, more intimate shows allow us to be nimbler than we would be with larger productions,” explained Peter Cathie White, the executive director of Arts Club. “This ‘bubble method’ of alternating casts and crews is a brand-new way of producing theatre for the Arts Club, and we hope it will become a model for performances to come.”

Other shows in the Arts Club fall lineup include No Child, to Nov. 8, about an underfunded high school in the Bronx; and the holiday comedy The Twelve Dates of Christmas, running Nov. 19-Jan. 3.

Besides the in-theatre experience, patrons have the option of purchasing tickets to a digital recording of each of the three productions, which is available to view for a limited time.

For more information and to purchase tickets, visit artsclub.com.

Sam Margolis has written for the Globe and Mail, the National Post, UPI and MSNBC.

From Mideast to the South

Pericles is one of the best Bard on the Beach productions this season. (photo by David Blue)

If the thought of being transported to the mystique and exotic locales of the ancient Middle East appeals to you, then you must see Pericles, which is currently playing on the Howard Family Stage at Bard on the Beach, alternating with Othello.

Director Lois Anderson takes this rarely produced play – only once before in Bard on the Beach’s 27-year history has it been performed, and scholars believe Shakespeare only wrote the second half of it – and creatively turns it into something magical, with puppets, terra cotta figurines, white-faced ghostly creatures and billowy sheets that morph from crashing waves to animals.

As you enter the tent, your breath is taken away by Jewish community member Amir Ofek’s captivating set design: soft desert hues, Corinthian columns, red and gold brocade-tasseled tapestries, woven baskets and blown glass. John Webber’s warm lighting pervades the room. The mood is reinforced by Malcolm Dow’s exquisite sound design; a melodic fusion of traditional Middle Eastern fare. Before it even begins, the play is a visual and aural treat.

Pericles is the tale of the nautical odyssey of a wandering prince, the eponymous hero Pericles of Tyre (Kamyar Pazandeh), as told through flashbacks by narrator and healer Cerimon (David Warburton) in the temple of the goddess Diana to a young woman he has saved from a brothel. As he tells her, it all began with a trip to Antioch 15 years earlier, when our hero hoped to marry the princess of that city but had to flee for his life when he learned the secret of her incestuous relationship with her father.

Pericles’ escape takes him to many ports, culminating with a shipwreck at Pentapolis. There, he wins the hand of the princess Thaisa (Sereana Malani) in a jousting competition and sets sail with his new wife, now pregnant, to reclaim his throne in Tyre. Daughter Marina (Luisa Jojic) is born on the ship and Thaisa dies in childbirth. Pericles throws his wife’s body into the sea and heads to the nearest port, Tharsus, where he leaves Marina in the care of his longtime friend, Governor Cleon (Luc Roderique), and his wife, Dionyza (Jeff Gladstone in an interesting gender-role reversal).

Fast-forward 14 years. Marina has grown into a beautiful young woman. Dionyza, jealous for her own daughter’s betrothal chances, arranges for a servant, Leonine (Kayvon Kelly), to murder Marina. However, pirates kidnap Marina before the dastardly deed can be done. She is sold to a brothel, but keeps her virtue with eloquent talk, and captures the heart of Governor Lysimachus (also played by Kelly).

In the meantime, Pericles returns to Tharsus to reunite with his daughter but is told that she is dead. I stop here so as not to spoil a very surreal ending – you will have to see it to believe it.

All of the cast, many of whom play multiple roles, are outstanding but special mention must be made of Pazandeh, who runs the gamut of emotions from victorious suitor to grieving husband and father; Jojic, who gives the right touch of innocence to Marina; Warburton, with his wizardly tricks; Gladstone as a very creepy Dionyza; and Kayla Deorksen as Bawd, the flamboyant brothel owner.

Costumer Carmen Alatorre’s costumes are spot on with flowing robes of bright, textured fabrics: earth tones to represent the land and shades of blue, the sea; the main characters are contrasted by off-white ghostly spectres.

Pericles was one of Shakespeare’s most popular plays in its time and Anderson’s rendering makes it easy to understand why. The intimate setting of the Howard Family Stage is perfect for this showcase of hope, perseverance, redemption and ultimate reconciliation. I took my 11-year-old niece to opening night and she loved it. Of the four Bard productions, this one topped the list for me and it is highly recommended.

photo in Jewish Independent - Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello — Luc Roderique and Kayla Deorksen in Othello. *(photo by David Blue)*

Playing in repertory with Pericles on the Howard Family Stage, and featuring most of the same actors, is Othello, set in 1864 Charleston during the American Civil War.

What does it take to drive an intelligent, successful, respected man into a jealous husband capable of a murderous rage? A manipulative villain named Iago – and Othello really is the story of this vile person, who brings tragedy to all unfortunate enough to cross his path.

Directed by Bob Frazer – who played Iago in Bard’s last mounting of this work – this psychosexual drama gives a new perspective to the racism inherent in the testosterone-infused military world in which black Othello (Roderique) lives.

The story revolves around Othello’s rise to power in the union army and Iago’s (Kelly) planned revenge as he is passed over by General Othello for a senior position that is given to Cassio (Gladstone). To get even, Iago plants the seeds of doubt in Othello’s mind as to the fidelity of his new wife, Desdemona (a mixed racial union), accusing her of an intimate tryst with Cassio.

Slowly, Othello is convinced – a handkerchief allegedly found in his good lady’s room the final proof – that Desdemona has been untrue and, in a moment of murderous passion, strangles her in her canopied bed. Emilia (Jojic), Iago’s wife but also Desdemona’s maid and confidante, walks into this deathly scene, tells Othello the truth of the handkerchief and outs her husband for his role in the tragedy. Othello is overcome with grief and remorse and takes his own life.

Iago is a sadistic sociopath who manipulates those around him with his ersatz sycophantic charm. Kelly is sublime in this role – you love to hate him. Tall and slender, Roderique portrays a sympathetic Othello with a quiet sense of dignity and authority that disintegrates as we watch his metamorphosis into uncontrollable and lethal rage. Deorksen is a sweet-tempered but strong-willed Desdemona. Jojic gives a heart-breaking performance as a passionate and loyal servant torn between her duty to her husband and that to her employer. Lesser roles are ably played by Malani (Bianca), Andrew Cownden (Roderigo), Ian Butcher (Gratiano) and Shaker Paleja (Montano).

Costumer Marla Gottler provides crisp navy uniforms for the Union soldiers and gorgeous Scarlett O’Hara-type frocks for the ladies. Music is pure southern comfort with banjos strumming “Dixie.” Unfortunately, the set design is a problem. The same Ofek-designed Pericles set is used, and that Middle Eastern look with its columns and arches seems out of place in a moonlight and magnolias milieu. However, the minimalist use of props – a couple of boxes here, a table there – allows the audience to focus on the powerful words that make Othello one of Shakespeare’s most eloquent works.

This production is good, but it would have been so much better had it made more use of its Civil War setting, other than just to give a perfunctory nod to the fashion and music of the time.

Othello runs to Sept. 20 and Pericles to Sept. 21. For tickets and more information on these shows – and Romeo and Juliet and The Merry Wives of Windsor – visit bardonthebeach.org.

Tova Kornfeld is a Vancouver freelance writer and lawyer.

One play, two opinions

Left to right: Andrew McNee as Francis and Martin Happer as Stanley Stubbers in One Man, Two Guvnors at the Arts Club Stanley Theatre. (photo by David Cooper)

It’s always disconcerting when sitting in a theatre listening to everyone laughing while thinking, “What’s so funny?”

That was my experience at the media opening of One Man, Two Guvnors Jan. 28. I’m thinking, therefore, that this review is going to be controversial. Judging by the audience response to the play, I was, with the dozen or so others who left at intermission, clearly in the minority.

Perhaps the problem was that reading the name of the play and about its background, and having been to British period comedies in the past, I had high expectations. I anticipated caustic wit and clever verbal jousting; instead, I was witness to very lame jokes and antiquated slapstick comedy.

Slapstick? Really?

For much of Guvnors, I felt as though I was in a studio audience watching a bad sitcom. It hearkened back to when, as a child, I watched my parents roll in laughter at the likes of Wayne and Schuster’s antics – certainly performances that would draw yawns today.

Now, just in case I’m coming across as a humorless Scrooge who wouldn’t release a guffaw unless I was on laughing gas, let me remind readers of previous reviews. I have snickered at the wit in The Philanderer, joined the multitudes who guffawed to The Producers and fell off my seat convulsing in laughter during Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. But those plays were smart. Witty.

Guvnors seems to play to the lowest common denominator of predictable, parochial humor at the level of arm-pit noises and fart jokes. The main character Francis is compared by the director to Will Ferrell. ‘Nuf said.

Now, before I continue on my rant, let me delve into the plot for some context. The play takes place in 1963 in England, starting in London where Pauline and Allan are preparing for a marriage that looks like it’s going to be thwarted: Pauline’s former fiancé, Roscoe, appears to have come back from the dead. It turns out that Roscoe is, in fact, Rachel, Roscoe’s twin sister, who must keep up the sham that Roscoe is alive until she can collect on the 6,000 pounds Pauline’s father is supposed to give him/her, at which point Rachel plans to run away to Australia with her lover Stanley, who is actually Roscoe’s murderer. Rachel and Stanley become the two “guvnors” to Francis, a poor sod who’s either starving for food or starving for love.

The story picks up in Brighton where the farce of mistaken identities really takes off. Francis, who is the consistent backbone to the plot, finds himself serving both guvnors in one hotel, trying to keep them apart, not knowing their hidden connections. In the end, there is a “happy” ending, with two avoided suicides and three marriages.

In an unusual twist, the performance is introduced by a quartet of musicians, a guitarist, a banjo player, stand-up bass and washboard – the first I’ve seen at the Stanley – that introduces the first and second acts and intersperses the play with fun tunes and singing.

As well, during the show, a few audience members are coerced to come on stage and be part of the performance. (Don’t worry, it’s all part of the act.)

At intermission, I was told by friends enjoying the performance that it is supposed to be silly. Indeed, the director’s notes state that it pays tribute to the vaudeville era of entertainment, the play itself being an adaptation of the beloved 18th-century Italian playwright Carlo Osvaldo Goldoni’s A Servant of Two Masters, which itself is based on the commedia dell’arte of the 16th century.

But so what? In a play where the comedy is predictable, does it really matter if it’s due to bad actors doing a bad job versus good actors intentionally doing a bad job? What’s the difference between a show that recreates outdated theatrics well and one that is simply outdated?

In fact, the play itself suggests there is no difference. In one conversation one character asks, “Does he smell of horses or does he smell like horses?” Suggesting the difference is that a man who smells of horses might have been riding them and, therefore, comes from good stock; whereas a man who smells like horses just smells bad.

His counterpart responds, “Well, it’s all the same in the end, isn’t it?”

Quite so.

Guvnors runs until Feb. 22 at the Stanley Theatre. The Jewish community’s multitalented Anton Lipovetsky is not only the musical director and lead-guitar player in the quartet but also has a small part in the play. Another bright community talent, Ryan Beil, plays the love-struck Allan Dangle. Israeli Vancouverite Amir Ofek designed the sets that hearken back to the Stanley’s original life as a vaudeville house.

Baila Lazarus is a freelance writer, painter and photographer. Her work can be seen at orchiddesigns.net.