March 20th, 2004

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The Arts
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Local Plug #2: The Wedding Pool

Several of my former classmates from the UVic theatre department are founding members of theatreSKAM, one of BC’s finest small theatre companies. Last night, I went to see their latest production here in Vancouver, The Wedding Pool.

As with all of SKAM’s productions, it was stylish and technically excellent. They’re very fine performers. Lucas Myers, who plays one of the leads, is perhaps the finest actors I’ve seen onstage under the age of 35. The play is directed with a laid-back wit by the playwright, Ami Gladstone.

SKAM’s work is always rife with theatrical (and meta-theatrical) trickery, and this play is no exception. Nearly all of the lighting is practical–coming from onstage sources that the actors control. It’s a nifty conceit, and works very well 90% of the time. Occasionally, the lighting effect can really flatten out the staging, but it’s a minor quibble.

My other quibble is about the script. Though funny, pacey and pop culture-savvy, it’s pretty light fare compared to much of SKAM’s other work. It falls victim to a certain he-said, she-said Sex in the Cityness. The audience seemed to really enjoy it, but I would’ve preferred something with a little more meat, content and theme-wise.

Regardless, it’s a decent (and brief, at 65 minutes with no intermission) night of theatre. More information about the show is here.

Comments: 3 Responses so far

Sue
March 22nd, 2004
12:09 pm

Okay, how many Stubel kids are there? I went to high school with one of them, ran into one sister at the Phoenix, and another sister showed up at my wedding dating a friend of the groom’s. Now I see Camille Stubel involved with SKAM and I gotta wonder… are there more?

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Darren
March 22nd, 2004
12:23 pm

Back at UVic, I also knew Treena Stubel, a lovely woman who had the best posture in the world.

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Ami
March 22nd, 2004
1:00 pm

Just wanted to respond to a couple of things.

There are 3 Stubel sisters: Treena, Camille, and Celine. All three perform in various capacities. There are also 2 brothers.

I thought the comments about the show were very valid. I set out to write something for the ensemble that was funny, sexy, and contemporary for them to do, in direct response to the meaty, myth-like projects that we have done in the past. I do wonder about where the meat is in this new show. Through the next stage of development it may start to reveal itself. I’m not sure where. I think it may have something to do with any / all of the following: the various versions and memory; “just because you can doesn’t mean you should”; the shirt; the lights.

And speaking of lights, at times they really really annoy me too. It’s very difficult to paint the pictures you want. That being said, I’m very happy with how some of the scenes look. The response to the lights in Toronto was so favourable that we didn’t get a chance to experiment with what happens if we use theatre instruments this time around, or perhaps most effectively, a combination of practicals and hung lights.

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