Left to Right; Dawson Rutledge as Edmund, Shea O’Connor as the White Witch (from Kaleidoscope’s website)

Friday night I attended the opening night of The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, on now until December 26th at the Roxy Theatre. These much-loved books by C.S. Lewis were childhood favourites of mine. Who can forget the magical entrance into Narnia through the back of a wardrobe, and the adventures that awaited the Pevensie children, Lucy, Susan, Peter and Edmund. They have been sent away from London during the Blitz, and are staying with a kindly professor named Digory Kirke in the country. One day, as Lucy is exploring the old house, she finds herself walking through a wardrobe full of old fur coats that leads her into the magical kingdom of Narnia. She meets a faun, Mr. Tumnus, who invites her home for tea. There she learns that the kingdom is cursed by the White Witch, who keeps Narnia in perpetual winter. Lucy returns home, with only a minute having passed by.

She tells her siblings what has happened, and brother Edmund goes into Narnia himself. There, he encounters the White Witch, who lures him into treachery with Turkish Delight. He returns home, but brings his siblings back, to find that Mr. Tumnus has been taken by the White Witch. The children befriend Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who tell them that Narnia’s former leader, the great lion Aslan, is returning to defeat the witch. They go to meet Aslan, who sacrifices himself to the White Witch in order to save Edmund’s life. But he is resurrected due to the “Deeper Magic from before the Dawn of Time”, and he and his army, with the Pevensie children, defeat the White Witch. The Pevensie children sit on the four thrones of Narnia and rule for many happy years. One day, they see the lamppost in the forest and go back through the wardrobe, finding that no time has passed and they are children once again.

This 45 minute adapted version of the novel, was written for two actors by Le Clanché du Rand and premiered off-Broadway in 2011. Artistic Director of Kaleidoscope, Pat Rundell, directs a fine production here. The set is quite wonderful, featuring many doors that serve in multiple ways throughout the show. Both actors play multiple roles (of course), and were very effective in portraying these roles and shifting between them. Shea O’Connor makes Lucy very appealing, but it’s also fun to see her morph into the villainous witch. Dawson Rutledge plays Peter, Edmund, Mr. Tumnus and Aslan, and also operates the beaver puppet, so is kept very busy! He is an appealing performer, and I enjoyed his work. The show is lit well by Rebekah Johnson, with Emily Friesen doing a great job designing the set, props and costumes, Aidan Dunsmuir creating the sound design, and Alexander Brendan Ferguson giving us original compositions. Recommended. Tickets are available here: https://kaleidoscope.bc.ca/shows/lww/.

Cast of Stupid F*cking Bird: Left to Right; Eric Grace, Wendy Magahay, MJ Connelly, Melissa Blank, Nicholas Guerreiro, James Johnson, Andrea Eggenberger. Photo credit: Clayton Jevne

Last weekend, I saw Theatre Inconnu’s final show of their 2023 season, by American playwright Aaron Posner. Posner has made a career of sorts by adapting the great plays of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov. This one is based on his play The Seagull, but he has also written adaptations of Uncle Vanya (titled His Life Sucks: Or the Present Ridiculous (2015)) and Three Sisters (titled No Sisters (2017)). The play premiered in Washington, DC in 2013, and is both a comedy and an homage to this great play. Program notes by director Morgan Gadd tell me that the play has had success internationally, with more than 200 productions in many countries.

The play begins with Emma’s (Wendy Magahay) son Con presenting his ‘performance event’ featuring his girlfriend Nina (Andrea Eggenberger) in a monologue of little literary value that ends up with Con in a temper tantrum stopping the performance. We meet his uncle Sorn (Eric Grace), his aunt Mash (Melissa Blank), her friend Dev (Nicholas Guerreiro), and Emma’s younger lover Trigorin (James Johnson). Nina is drawn to Trigorin, who is famous writer, and we see a relationship begin between the two of them, despite Emma’s attempts to prevent it. The two of them run off together, leaving Con bereft and attempting suicide, but failing. Four years pass by, and we hear that Trigorin and Nina are no longer together, after Nina lost their baby daughter. Indeed, he is back with Emma and we see them celebrating Sorn’s 70th birthday. Dev and Mash are now married, although Mash is still in love with Con, and they have three children. Nina returns to talk with Con, and we witness what may be the most faithful scene from the original play, the one in which Nina claims repeatedly that she is a seagull.

Throughout the play it is not uncommon for various characters to break out of role and directly address the audience. Con asks for relationship advice as he struggles to keep Nina, and there are wonderfully bleak songs sung by Mash on her ukulele. The production features strong performances by the majority of the cast, with strong performances from Wendy Magahay, Melissa Blank, James Johnson, Eric Grace, and Nicholas Guerreiro. Andrea Eggenberger was best in her ‘I am a seagull’ scene, but was less convincing in other parts of the play. As ever, director Gadd does well staging the play on the small stage in Paul Phillips Hall, and keeps the audience laughing throughout. I found the play witty and fun, but also true in essential ways to Chekhov’s great play. Recommended. The play runs until December 16th with tickets available at https://www.theatreinconnu.com/stupid-bird.