- Joni Mitchell: River, created by Allen MacInnis, a Playhouse Theatre Company production at Vancouver Playhouse to Oct. 30. Tickets and information: 604-873-3311.
- Elisa's Skin, by Carole Frechette, a Pi Theatre production with the Firehall Arts Centre to Oct. 16. Box office: 604-689-0926.
You don't need my opinion (as if you ever did) to decide whether to see Joni Mitchell: River.
Just ask yourself whether you like the songs and quirky stylings of Joni Mitchell. If you do, you will enjoy Allen MacInnis's staged production of 29 of her songs. The only caveat to that statement came from my partner, a big fan of early (folksier) Mitchell who angrily resented some of the (re)arrangements.
That's it, basically: Do you want a night on the town to listen to Mitchell's music? River is not an interpretation of the life and songs of Mitchell. It's not one singer "being" Joni. Just some of her songs. But judging from audience reaction during a preview performance Saturday, there are a lot of you out there waiting to applaud the works of Alberta's songstress.
Me, well, I guess I should confess that while I was at college in 1971 I had a foolproof (if shallow) method for determining girlfriend compatibility based on record collections: those who liked Pink Floyd (rare) were great; those who liked the Moody Blues were possible; and those who liked Mitchell's Blue or Ladies of the Canyon were projects for someone with more patience than I (remember, I warned you this was shallow).
Ironically, MacInnis's show uses more songs from Blue than any other album (yes, we're talking vinyl). Did they colour my view of this show? No, not really -- they just gave me time to muse on why the Playhouse Theatre Company would want to start the first season of its newly defined mandate (post Second World War writings) with entertainment, not drama.
MacInnis uses three singers: Lorretta Bailey, Rebecca Schoichet and John Mann and a four-piece band under musical director and guitarist Greg Lowe that includes Graham Boyle on drums, Thomas Colclough on piano and saxophone, and Rene Worst on bass.
The musicians, Lowe especially, are exceptionally good. Of the singers, I liked Rebecca Shoichet's voice the best and she also seemed to be having the most fun. John Mann (lead singer of Spirit of the West), looking like a refugee from the musical Rent, is the most dramatic in presentation. Lorretta Bailey is fine too and the three in harmony are sometimes spectacular.
It would be unfair of me to be any more critical about the performers based on a preview performance but, in truth, there's not much else to say.
The advertising hook for the show is something like: You haven't heard Joni Mitchell's music until you've seen it. Like many advertising slogans, it's essentially meaningless and unfortunately invites examination of the staging -- which is either uninspired in its choreography or unintentionally hilarious in its seriousness.
The true star of the show is Mitchell herself. And while I didn't come to like her self-obsessed musings on freedom versus attachment in relationships any more than I did before, I certainly came away with a bigger appreciation of her talent as a songwriter thanks to a second act that is far stronger musically than the first with songs like Sex Kills, Not to Blame and The Magdalene Laundries packing real power.
As to the musings mentioned earlier: I'd be more enthusiastic if the show had been developed locally, but MacInnis put this one together in Winnipeg two years ago. It's no Jacques Brel is Alive and Well and Living in Paris, but it plays well to Mitchell fans. And if I'd seen it where it belongs -- on a functioning Playhouse Theatre Company second stage like the Arts Club's Revue Theatre -- I wouldn't have been asking "Why are they doing this?"
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I missed Elisa's Skin when Pi Theatre first mounted it in March, 2003, so I am grateful that the company chose to remount it in Vancouver before it goes for a run in Kamloops at Western Canada Theatre Company.
It's a beautiful production with acting, directing, lighting, and design all in perfect harmony with John Murrell's translation of Carole Frechette's play.
Marie Stillin is Elisa, a woman "of a certain age" sitting outside a cafe in Brussels sharing her story with the audience directly. Except that it soon becomes apparent that "her" story has become that of others, a piece here, a piece there, like leaves falling softly in the fall.
A "small" play, but if you like subtlety in performance, perfection in production and poetry in your prose, this one's for you.
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