The Victoria College Drama Society opened its 2010 season with three comedies, which ran at the Isabel Bader Theatre nightly from Jan. 14 through 16.
The evening, titled Tonight’s Special, began with David Ives’ The Philadelphia. The story took place in a New York coffee shop where two characters explained how they were stuck in two different cities, each with an accompanying state of mind. One of them was caught in “a Los Angeles” where he was carefree and happy—despite having lost his job and his wife. The other character worried about being stuck in “a Philadelphia” where he always got the opposite of what he asked for.
Each character in this play was profoundly funny, including the minor role of the waitress—her plain, monotonous attitude contrasted starkly with the Philadelphia character’s spaz-attacks. This play captured the audience’s attention with its puzzling and unique story, as well as the impressive delivery by all involved.
The next was Jonathan Rand’s Check Please. If you’ve ever gone on a successful blind date, this play will make you consider yourself lucky—in two different scenes, a guy and a girl went on separate blind dates, and both ended up matched with lunatics. The dates continued to be unpredictable, hilarious, and even hazardous. One favourite moment consisted of a girl spontaneously screaming and cheering for the Chicago Cubs in the middle of her sentence and startling her date—it turned out she had earphones in with the game commentary broadcasting the whole time.
Lead actor Alberta Robinet stole the show, giving an especially stellar performance. Her character had forgotten to take her medication, which resulted in the emergence of multiple personalities. She rambled on, switching her identity to depict different family members (and even a monkey!) having an argument. All the while, Matthew Tanner (who played her date), helplessly watched on. His physical reactions and facial expressions were amusing to watch as he discovered just how insane his date was. Even at the end, when Robinet played a mime, her character was as charming as she was silly.
Finally, there was Picasso at the Lapin Agile, a play by Steve Martin. What would have happened if Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso had met each other in a Parisian bar on October 8, 1904? This play explored the confrontations that would have occurred on this date, when both men were on the verge of revolutionary ideas. (Einstein would publish his theory of relativity in 1905, while Picasso would paint “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon” in 1907.) They debate about the 20th century and the play ends off (quite fittingly) with a visit from Elvis Presley.
Although the lengthiest play of Tonight’s Special, Picasso at the Lapin Agile was a pleasure to watch. The characters fluidly progress through the plot, while taking advantage of the interesting turns along the way. The actors who played Albert Einstein and Pablo Picasso (Stephan Ermel and Christopher Mastropietro) looked as if they could have actually been the younger versions of the geniuses. Every character had a specific role, from Gaston who constantly had to urinate, to Schmendiman, the intended representation of commercialism. Schmendiman’s random outbursts kept the audience in anticipation for the next ones to arrive.
Even though the show was over two hours in its entirety, it had no tedious moments. Not only were the plays well picked, but the acting was exceptional throughout. It was obvious that the actors gave it their all and everyone put in a strong effort to make this production such a success. It was hilarious from start to finish, and the audience left highly amused and in excellent spirits.
