Putting some fun in dysfunction.Byline: FRED CRAFTS The Register-Guard HERE'S A LAUGH. George F. Walker's comedy "Escape From Happiness" is an attack on police brutality Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers. The term may also be used to apply to such behavior when used by prison officers. . That may not sound like a yuckfest, but the show's director, Corey Pearlstein, cracks himself up talking about it. Police brutality - or rather one woman's campaign to stop it and another's efforts to thwart her - may drive the play, but Pearlstein insists that its 10 characters fuel it. They are so extreme, so carefully drawn and so powerful, he says, that each one seems capable at any moment of taking over. These are not folks likely to be encountered in everyday transactions. They're small-time small·time or small-time adj. Informal Insignificant or unimportant; minor: a smalltime actor. small crooks, people pretending to be somebody else, sisters undermining sisters. Pearlstein loves each and every "totally dysfunctional" one of them. "If I were to make a parallel," he says, "this is a working-class telling of `The Royal Tenenbaums.' It has all of these nuanced characters, but instead it's a blue-collared family." It is also, he says, a "ferocious comedy." Written by Walker, who has been hailed as Canada's foremost playwright, "Escape From Happiness" focuses on a mother and her daughters, kicking off the Lord Leebrick Theatre's season of plays focused on families and on females. Pearlstein says he is especially enamored en·am·or tr.v. en·am·ored, en·am·or·ing, en·am·ors To inspire with love; captivate: was enamored of the beautiful dancer; were enamored with the charming island. of the way Walker satirizes the nuclear family. "Its really a story about a father and son, who are two bumbling burglars, and a father and son-in-law, who are trying to save the family but all they do throughout the entire show is cause absolute havoc and disarray in every effort they make to try to make anything happen for themselves. ``Then the three sisters and the mother are forced to clean up all the messes and take care of all this stuff." Pearlstein says he admires "Escape From Happiness" because it is "about these women basically trying to live day in and day out Adv. 1. day in and day out - without respite; "he plays chess day in and day out" all the time but feeling like the world is constantly assailing them. "One of the beautiful things in this play is the way these characters turn. And because the action is driven by women, so many times we see these really wonderful alternatives on how to handle situations, and the story turns off into directions that are just so beautiful and unusual." Kathy James LaMontagne plays the mother (Nora). Susan Tate (Elizabeth), Kim Donahey (Mary Ann) and Katie McClatchey (Gail) are the daughters. They have to deal with Achilles Massahos (Tom), Liam Drumm (Junior), Ken Hof (Mike Dixon Michael "Mike" Dixon was a fictional character played by Paul Byatt from 1990 until the end of the series in 2003. He was the eldest son of Ron and "DD" Dixon, and the brother of Tony and Jacqui. ), Angela Wright (Dian Black), Bill Reid William (Bill) Ronald Reid (January 12, 1920 – March 13, 1998) was a Canadian jeweler, sculptor and artist. He was born to a father of European descent and a mother from the Haida (one of the First Nations of the Pacific coast) in Victoria, British Columbia. (Rollie) and John Younkin (Stevie). The playwright, Walker, came to his craft by a circuitous cir·cu·i·tous adj. Being or taking a roundabout, lengthy course: took a circuitous route to avoid the accident site. route. Born and raised in Toronto's east end, he was driving a cab in that city during the early 1970s when he saw a poster for Toronto's Factory Theatre Laboratory requesting original scripts. He has been writing plays ever since. Over the past 20 years, Walker has published dozens of works. "Escape From Happiness" received a DORA Award (the Canadian equivalent of the Tony Award) for Outstanding Play of the Year in 1992. The same work has also received the Chalmers Canadian Play Award and the Governor General's Literary Award. Walker was playwright-in-residence at Toronto's Factory Theatre from 1971 to 1976 and artistic director in 1978-79. Among his works that premiered there were "Love and Anger," "Criminals in Love" and "Theatre of the Film Noir film noir (French; “dark film”) Film genre that offers dark or fatalistic interpretations of reality. The term is applied to U.S. films of the late 1940s and early '50s that often portrayed a seamy or criminal underworld and cynical characters. ." He has also been associated with Toronto Free Theatre and spent a year as playwright-in-residence at the New York Shakespeare Festival New York Shakespeare Festival is the traditional name of a sequence of shows organized by the Public Theater in New York City, most often being held at the Delacorte Theater in Central Park. For years under the guidance of Joseph Papp and George C. . ESCAPE FROM HAPPINESS WHAT: George Walker George Walker may refer to: In arts and letters:
WHEN: 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday, and Oct. 9-12, 17-19 and 24-26; 2 p.m. Oct. 13, 20 WHERE: Lord Leebrick Theatre, 540 Charnelton St. HOW MUCH: $3 to $18 ($25 for Oct. 4 gala opening), at the theater box office (465-1506) CAPTION(S): Caption goes here caption goes here. INSIDE The musical ``Godspell'' opens Friday at The Cottage Theatre in Cottage Grove Cottage Grove, village (1990 pop. 22,935), Washington co., SE Minn., near the St. Croix River; inc. 1965. There is farming (cattle, sheep, corn, and soybeans) and manufacturing (chemicals and machinery). / 5G Lord Leebrick's artistic director, Corey Pearlstein, is stepping down / 5G WAYNE EASTBURN / The Register-Guard Tom (played by Achilles Massahos) gets caught between Dian (Angela Wright) and Stevie (John Younkin) in ``Escape from Happiness,'' a play about family, police brutality and women's roles. |
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