Review: Centaur’s Wildside Festival – Part 1

Wildside opens with four eclectic choices

By Byron Toben

The Centaur professional theatre hosts its 19th annual Wildside Festival from January 7 to 17. This is its gracious tribute to a selection of important independent productions during the preceding year.

Below are four of the selections we saw in the first two days:

Captain Aurora: A Superhero Musical rehearsal. Justine Lewis as President Aria with Cast. Image: Joseph Ste-Marie.

Captain Aurora: A Superhero Musical

This Fringe hit figured to be a Wildside selection and indeed it was. With 12 performers plus a live band of four, it is a Hollywood extravaganza in a sea of one or two person shows.

Lots of tunes by creator/director Trevor Barrette, lush orchestration by Chris Barillaro and David Terriault, and rapid choreography keep this 75-minute show moving along.

The captain herself, Eva Petris, emerges from her not so secret life as a lady named Dawn whenever Earth is threatened by domestic or alien threats.

Nadia Verrucci adds to her many credits as President Aria of the Republic of Earth and Kendall Savage doubles as both Dawn’s good sister and the evil A’aru Empress. In this musical whirl of comic book figures, Dawn’s best friend Jack also has a secret identity as The Green Zinger.

Jonathan Patterson is a villain like no other as Terrence the Terrific Tapper whose rapid- fire tap dance vibrations reduce his enemies to quivering heaps.

Jonathan Patterson is a villain like no other as Terrence the Terrific Tapper whose rapid- fire tap dance vibrations reduce his enemies to quivering heaps.

The show, of course, also has romance as Dawn passionately kisses her fiancé Ben (Zachary Creatchman) and horror when, shades of King Lear, Earth Senator Frank (Kenny Wong) has his eyes gouged out for his pains. Mr. Barrette refrained from quoting Mr. Shakespeare’s “Out vile jelly”. That would have made this camp production too campy.

All this singing and fancy footwork is festooned by clever costuming with neon trimmings.

Captain Aurora repeats on Wednesday, January 13 at 9 pm, Thursday, January 14 at 7 pm and Sunday, January 17 at 9 pm.

image: Laurence Philomene

Miss Katelyn’s Grade Threes Prepare For The Inevitable

This was the other big Fringe hit transferred to Wildside.

Talk about audience participation! The packed audience of 240 becomes the Grade Three Students of Miss Katelyn (in real life, writer /performer Elena Belyea, a recent grad of the National Theatre School’s playwrighting program) as she directs them in rise to sing O Canada, answer roll call, respond to hand, arm and vocal utterances en masse. On this last day of the school year, she feels compelled to prepare them for a possible (or probable?) school shooting.

In less deft hands, the references to Montreal, Columbine, Newtown and Oregon would be unseemly and distasteful even in experimental or avant-garde settings. However, Miss Belyea successfully walks the tightrope between topicality and grossness by blending lots of humour and her character’s own hang-ups and disappointments into the mix.

… Miss Belyea successfully walks the tightrope between topicality and grossness by blending lots of humour and her character’s own hang-ups and disappointments into the mix.

One cute gimmick — there is an off stage voice of the overly affable principal who finally makes a very brief on stage entrance. Each night, a different local theatre personality is so cast. The night I saw it, ’twas the popular Mike Payette.

Miss Katelyn’s Grade Threes Prepare For The Inevitable continues on Tuesday January 12 at 9 pm, Saturday January 16 at 9 pm and Sunday January 17 at 3 pm followed by a talk back at 4:15 pm.

David Vaughn and Pepper Fajans in Co.Venture. Image: Chris M. Green.

Co.Venture

This is again a Fringe winner, in dance, by the Brooklyn Touring Outfit. I should not be one to review dance, cuz like Georgia Brown of song fame, I got two left feet.

Anyway, a little historical background. The formalism of classical ballet became more open with Isadora Duncan in the late 19th and early 20th century. This American born free spirit ripened in Europe after many innovations influenced by nature and tragically died in 1927 at only 50 when her flowing scarf got caught in her car’s wheel spokes.

The cause was taken up by Martha Graham who, influenced by such as Stravinsky in music and Wright in architecture, dominated much of 20th century free dance. She died in 1991 at 96.

Next in line was Mercier “Merce” Cunningham, influenced by such as, in music, John Cage, and many visual artists like Rauschenberg and Warhol. He died in 2009 at 90. His famous student, Paul Taylor is still going strong at 85.

The point of all this is that, barring accidents, Dance Creativity seems to contribute to longevity.

The point of all this is that, barring accidents, Dance Creativity seems to contribute to longevity.

Co. Venture features 91 year-old David Vaughn, the archivist of the Merce Cunningham legacy, who now has restricted mobility and his friend, 31 year-old Pepper Fajans, a fine Cunningham student who became his de facto caregiver in Merce’s declining years. Mr. Fajans and Mr. Vaughn spent 6 years touring the world, Jerusalem to Moscow to Marseilles to London, as a “great adventure”.

This piece has a sort of third performer: a large piece of thin plywood, I would guess about 4 x 9 feet, that Mr. Fayjans adroitly balances by hand, leg or back.

This is one of those pieces that you really have to see in person to fully appreciate. It sounds dry in reviewing on the page, but like Georgia Brown, is “oh, so neat”.

Co.Venture continues on Sunday, January 10 at 7 pm, Wednesday, January 13 at 7 pm, Friday, January 15 at 7 pm and Saturday, January 16 at 4 pm.

Happiness ™

Image: Isaac Vallentin

Ottawa’s May Can Theatre presents Tony Adams and Cory Thibault as two overly enthusiastic hard sell salesmen of Happiness products guaranteed to make you happy. Among the products are Sleepscape™ for a happy sleep, HappyHook-up™ for meeting happy soul mates and Brealiviate™ for happy breathing.

The duo has some clever synchronization in a few routines and occasional smiley quips but the overall spine of the show seems to lack a build up, more an inventory of mildly amusing products. Somehow, amputation of a finger, beloved of mafia lore, seems out of place with the thrust of this play’s conceit, despite slowly growing dissatisfaction of the two super salesmen with each other.

One might deem the whole as a Pirandellian Two Actors in Search of a Sketch Comedy. Miss Katelyn would give them an A or Effort.

Happiness ™ continues Sunday, January 10 at 4 pm, Thursday, January 14 at 9 pm and Saturday, January 16 at 4 pm.

Two further Centaur benefits to Wildside audiences:

1. Free after hours David Bowie themed music in lobby at 10:30 pm on January 14, 15 and 16. I especially suggest the Summersett band on January 15.

2. $16 tix to two regular season shows if purchased before January 17 at the box office or by phone at 514 288-3161. The shows are On This Day running February 9 to 21 and Bus Stops running March 1 to 13.

Here’s a link to part 2 of Review: Centaur’s Wildside Festival – Part 2

Byron Toben is the immediate past-president of the Montreal Press Club.