Ah, spring – there’s nothing like the sight of flowers blooming and the sun shining that puts us all in a good mood.
It’s also not a bad time to put on an outdoor production as Caravan Farm Theatre presents In Like a Lion in its timber-frame barn all this week (and yes, there is a roof on this venue in case of spring showers).
This is the farm’s first spring production, and is also a mother-daughter story, perfect as it happens to be Mother’s Day Sunday.
Written by Jan Derbyshire and directed by Anita Rochon, with dramaturge by Emilia Symington-Fedy, In Like a Lion speaks to the season via the Greek myth of Persephone, and how spring actually sprung.
However, this Lion doesn’t exactly roar with the heaviness of classical-based theatre – for example, Zeus wears a toga with shiny, white sneakers. Instead, it is a sweet, funny story with catchy musical numbers (written by Caravan’s artistic director Courtenay Dobbie), sung by the cast accompanied by a Greek chorus of local school children, who all do a fabulous job, and drummer/percussionist Christie Watson, who is equally impressive.
You will find yourself chuckling at some of the scenarios and one-liners and physical comedy of the actors, who are superb.
We meet Persephone (in the raven-haired and golden-voiced embodiment of Rachel Aberle) as she prepares her favourite food under the watchful eye of her mom, Demeter (the demonstrative Randi Helmers, also with a golden voice), the goddess of agriculture and the harvest.
It turns out Persephone likes her eggs hard-boiled, and so she places her ovu in a special hatch that emits steam where, poof, out pops her breakfast.
We later find out just who is boiling her eggs. In the meantime, poor Demeter is also boiling – via the hot flashes caused by menopause.
All this has the King of the Gods, and Persephone’s father, Zeus questioning how this could be happening.
“Gods don’t age! They are immortal.”
As head of the toga party, Zeus (the delightfully charismatic and expressive James Fagan Tait) soon gets a rare visit from his little “bro” Hades.
However, unlike the Greek version of the god of the underworld, this Lord of the Dead (played in doe-eyed lovable fashion by Amitai Marmorstein) is a “cupcake.” Zeus gives Hades noogies and the one thing he wants more than anything, Persephone.
When Hades makes his intentions known to Persephone, he doesn’t demand that she join him down in Hell, or steal her away, instead he asks her, make that pleads, politely. She, however, wants to be swooped and scooped, which sets up for the most exciting scene in the play.
Hearts in chest pound as loud as thundering hooves as a chariot pulling four Clydesdales, led adeptly by Zeus’ driver (actually teamster Adam Degenstein) weave in and out of the barn.
While Degenstein masters the driving, Hades is not as lucky with the swooping, or scooping, which results in a few tries – to the delight of all watching.
As you can imagine, Demeter is none too pleased about her daughter being “swooped” away, and so she stops everything from growing above ground, starving the people, until Zeus convinces her to cross the river Styx, where Hades has invited everyone for a dinner party, despite the lack of food and wine.
Although half the play takes place in the underworld, there is no fire and brimstone, just lonely souls (played by those cute kids in the Greek chorus) looking for love in all the wrong places. As one can imagine, Persephone is bored, and missing her momma, but she also helps the dead by keeping them company. Oh, and she’s hungry so when she finds a pomegranate, let’s just say trouble lurks. For those who know the Greek myth, don’t worry, it all comes up roses.
Do yourself a favour and swoop and scoop up some flowers and tickets for your mom.
In Like a Lion continues nightly tonight through Sunday at 7:30 p.m. with matinées Saturday and Sunday at 2:30 p.m. Tonight is free for moms with the purchase of a ticket. Sunday also features Caravan’s Mother’s’ Day Market from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Tickets for the show are available at the Ticket Seller, 250-549-7469 www.ticketseller.ca.
