I’ve never experienced anything quite like it in all my years of reviewing plays in White Rock.
A sudden cold snap last Friday night, combined with no discernible heat in the auditorium, meant that the cast of the current White Rock Players Club production, Neil Simon’s Fools, was working at a distinct disadvantage. It’s difficult to generate guffaws when your audience – many of them of advancing years – are bundled up in overcoats and shivering. Concentration and enjoyment suffer when you’re counting the minutes to the end of what has become an ordeal.
I’ve since been assured by members of the Players Club executive that this was an aberration which will not be repeated – which is good because I can’t think of a worse way of killing subscriptions, not to mention members of the audience.
Fools is definitely lesser Simon, more reminiscent of an extended Mel Brooks-style skit than a fully rounded play. But while it may not be the most scintillating comedy to hit the stage of the Coast Capital Playhouse, it is a laugh-worthy, if silly, script, and the cast does well by it, under the capable direction of new White Rock Players Club artistic director Ryan Mooney.
Hunter Golden plays young schoolmaster Leon Tolchinsky, who must save the village of Kulyenchikov in the Ukraine from a 200-year-old curse of ignorance and stupidity by getting his student, Sophia, object of his adoration, to retain at least one fact.
Golden has a good, disciplined stage presence and a well-modulated voice, both rare in such a young performer. This is the Earl Marriott grad’s first major role since high school, and while he shows a tendency to rush some of his comedic reactions to the schoolmaster’s frustrating plight – rather than getting full comedy value out of them – his acting shows a great deal of promise.
Melissa Paras, as love-interest Sophia, manages to bring charm to what, at first, threatens to be a one-joke role. The verbal sparring that she develops with Leon as he attempts to teach her the rudiments of mathematics (Sophie is clearly not quite as stupid as the rest of the villagers) provides a lot of the continued interest in the slim storyline.
Scott Milne, as evil Count Gregor Yousekevitch, is another young performer of promise, and has some effective moments, particularly when Gregor gives proof of his devious nature. But he’s never quite able to come up with anything in his characterization to match the visual impact of Gregor’s arrival on stage, a bizarre sight gag I won’t spoil by relating here.
Sheila Greentree and Ryan Johnson – both of whom have a natural comic touch – win their share of laughs as Sophie’s parents, scatterbrained Lenya and incompetent Dr. Zubritsky.
Even though Simon’s script doesn’t give them anywhere much to go beyond denseness and forgetfulness, the actors’ strong sense of the ridiculous makes them always entertaining to watch.
Helen Volkow as villager Yenchna, who milks cows upside down to get more cream and confuses flowers with fish, makes the most of her comedic opportunities in one of the stand-out performances in the cast.
And Ray Van Ieperen as sheep-losing shepherd Snetsky, Paul Ferancik as dopey butcher Slovitch, Clive Ramroop as far-from-efficient postman Mishkin and Martin Perrin as the officious Magistrate, are not far behind in using mobile countenances and instincts for physical humour to good advantage.
Andrea Olund and Matthew Davenport’s unitized, odd-angled set is an effective solution to the problem of changing scenes quickly, as well as suggesting the off-kilter nature of the village.
All in all, Fools is an entertaining evening, and the kind of well-produced, conscientious community show that is well worthy of support.
If none of it quite seemed to gel last Friday night, maybe it had more to with the temperature in the theatre – and the frozen faculties of the audience – than the intrinsic quality of the show.
Fools runs to April 27. Tickets are available at 604-536-7535 or online at www.whitrerockplayers.ca
