“It feels good to be back!”
So says actress Stefanie Colliar, one of the stars of White Rock Players Club’s Boeing Boeing.
She and fellow Semiahmoo Peninsula castmate Robyn Bradley say they both feel particularly fortunate to be doing live theatre again as close to home as Coast Capital Playhouse, where director Ryan Mooney’s revival of the ’60s farce is currently on the runway and warming up for takeoff on March 3.
In Boeing Boeing, Colliar is all high heels and smartly tailored red uniform as air ‘stewardess’ Gloria – a New York-based go-getter who’s set her sights on marrying a wealthy provider – while Bradley is making a fine French-accented casserole of the “gift” role of Parisian maid Berthe, known for witty asides drier than the driest martini.
The Mad Men-era period piece, English adaptation of Marc Camoletti’s 1960 original, holds the record for the most-produced French play of all time.
Berthe’s employer, Bernard (Alexander Morris) has been living the swinging ’60s dream, with three fiancées – Gloria, fiery Italian Gabriella (Kirsten Shale) and strong but endearingly romantic German Gretchen (Tegan Verheul) – in a continuing holding pattern.
The wily playboy has been able to manage their arrivals and departures at his Paris bachelor pad with all the exactness of an air-traffic controller – rigid flight schedules have kept the women from ever being in town at the same time.
All that’s about to change with the introduction of a new Boeing jet which has radically reduced flying time. Suddenly Gloria, Gabriella and Gretchen’s stopovers are starting to coincide catastrophically – to Bernard’s anguish and the jealous amazement of his old Wisconsin school chum Robert (Robert Feher), not to mention the rapidly-fraying patience of Berthe.
It’s all a recipe for some lightweight ‘look-how-far-we’ve-come’ fun, the actresses say, in keeping with other stage revivals of Boeing Boeing in recent years in which the dated plot and attitudes have, themselves, become a large part of the joke.
“I read the play back in 2009, when Surrey Little Theatre was going to be doing it,” said Bradley, who these days mostly acts in B.C.-lensed film and television (Second Chance, Diagnose Me, Untold Stories of the ER) with an annual foray into live theatre (last year it was Peninsula Productions’ Steel Magnolias).
“I thought how much fun the French maid would be, but it turned out that Surrey Little Theatre couldn’t get the rights because it was being played somewhere else. Now I’m finally doing it.”
For newlywed Colliar, Boeing Boeing represents her first chance to get back to her passion for theatre since her graduation from Douglas College in 2007.
“Life got in the way, but now I’m coming back to it,” she said. “I’ve always wanted to do something with the White Rock Players, too – I’ve known about them for a long time.”
Bradley said she is really enjoying playing Berthe’s “dry, sarcastic wit” and her ability to cope with the challenges of Bernard’s household.
“She keeps the whole ship running, really – right up to the beginning of the play it’s been running like a well-oiled machine,” she said.
But “well-oiled” could also apply to Berthe’s drinking – which is being played up for comedic effect in the current version, she admitted.
“We’ve kind of emphasized that a little more than is written,” she said.
“It’s kind of funny, because I don’t drink, but I do seem to play a lot of drinkers. What is it about me? I don’t know – but I do know the bottle has got bigger and bigger.”
Bradley said she has also been able to bring some advice on the stewardess roles to the table – her mother was an Air Canada stewardess back in the time period of the play.
“She told me that all the women had to have their hair above their collar and they were weighed regularly,” she said. “She quit because she was going to have me.”
Colliar said she has also done a lot of research into attitudes of the era for the show, not only watching Mad Men and Pan Am episodes, but also finding old airline magazine advertisements from the ’60s.
“One is about recruiting stewardesses, while the other – I think it’s actually an ad for Boeing – talks about the new jet engines and how they will give people all this extra time by shortening flying hours.
“It was a time when people got dolled-up to get on an aircraft. I’ve filed my nails round and started wearing heels and skirts every day, because you move differently.”
Both paid tribute to the built-from scratch, colour-coded ’60s costumes being created for the show by Stella Gardner – whose background is in movie costuming, including credits for the Lord of the Rings trilogy.
“Her costumes are amazing,” Colliar said. “She was adamant that they had to look new. When we put on the uniforms for the first photo shoot we were all transformed – it made me a lot more confident and sure of how to play the role. You feel that your whole manner is different.”
Boing Boeing runs March 3 to 19 at Coast Capital Playhouse, 1532 Johnston Rd.
Curtain is at 8 p.m., with 2:30 p.m. Sunday matinees on March 6 and 13 (there will also be Talk Back Thursdays March 10 and 17, which enable audience members to speak with cast and director after the performances).
Tickets are available by calling 604-536-7535, emailing boxoffice@whiterockplayers.ca or visiting www.whiterockplayers.ca
