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::THEATRE NEWS::
LE Newsletter - March 18, 2010
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The Sound Of War Music
Source:
www.thestar.com
(March 11, 2010)
War may be hell but it sure can produce some toe-tappingly great
tunes, especially when
you're talking about the War to End All Wars.
Soulpepper Theatre is mounting a production of
Oh What a Lovely War,
a satiric anti-war musical first produced in the U.K. in 1963 by
Joan Littlewood's influential Theatre Workshop and featuring
such enduring tunes as "It's a Long Way to Tipperary," "Pack Up
Your Troubles in Your Old Kit Bag" and "Keep the Home Fires
Burning."
"It's something that I wanted to do for a long time. I saw a
production of it when I was at theatre school in England in 1983
... and ever since, I've had a fascination with the First World
War," said Soulpepper artistic director Albert Schultz.
"The piece is actually much funnier and much more moving than I
remembered. And there's something so powerful about it still and
so relevant, particularly now that we're a nation with young men
and women losing their lives on foreign soil."
Done in the English "music hall" tradition, featuring both
comedy and music, the play features songs that Schultz said are
universally known today.
"There's so many songs that are so much a part of our culture
still, whether we've heard our grandparents sing them or we've
heard them in movies. The music is fantastic, the frame of the
music hall allows it to be very entertaining," Schultz said.
The opportunity to mount a production came with the arrival of a
new crop of members to the Soulpepper Academy, a troupe of young
artists in training who happened to be "ridiculously gifted
musically as well as being wonderful actors," Schultz said.
Among them are Gregory Prest from Pictou, N.S., who plays both
the player and the clarinet and learned to play the trombone and
tin whistle for the show.
The cast is supplemented with Soulpepper veterans like Oliver
Dennis and Michael Hanrahan.
Bruce DeMara
Just the facts
WHAT: Oh What a Lovely War
WHEN: Previews begin Thursday. Runs to April 10
WHERE: Young Centre for the Performing Arts, Distillery
District
TICKETS: $29-$64 at 416.866.8666 or youngcentre.ca |
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::LANGFIELD
ENTERTAINMENT:: ENTERTAINMENT NEWS WITH A CANADIAN TWIST::
