February 13, 2009 - 5:18am
Vancouver Island University theatre department presents two highly dramatic one-act plays for its spring production opening March 4.
Director Ross Desprez has chosen Problem Child and Featuring Loretta from award-winning playwright George F. Walker’s Suburban Motel collection.
“Walker is one of Canada’s most prolific and widely produced playwrights,” said Desprez. “His work has been performed all over the world and honored with many awards, including two Governor General’s Awards for Criminals in Love and Nothing Sacred.
“His plays are often defined by desperate characters caught in highly dramatic situations. Maclean’s Magazine describes Walker as “one of theatre’s most important voices.”
Problem Child and Featuring Loretta provide gritty acting challenges for students, Desprez added. “Both plays contain a similar message that reflect the trials and tribulations that young women trying to survive in the 21st century sometimes face.”
Problem Child is a highly charged dramatic story of a young couple who have their child taken away by social services. They struggle to get the child back by adhering to the strict constraints of what the Ministry of Social Services perceives to be decent, civilized behavior.
Featuring Loretta takes a more comic approach as it presents a young woman whose husband has been eaten by a bear, leaving her widowed and pregnant.
As she struggles with starting her life over again and finding a way to provide for herself and her child, her moral boundaries are tested when she is offered quick cash to make pornographic movies.
The two plays are described as “absurd naturalism” and come with a warning of strong language and adult subject matter.
Performance dates are March 5, 6, 7, 11, 12, 13, and 14th, at 8 pm, and March 10 at 4 pm in the Malaspina Theatre at Vancouver Island University, Nanaimo, 900 Fifth Street.
Tickets are $12 for adults and $10 for students and seniors. A silent auction for the Mike Monych scholarship fund will be hosted at the theatre during the run of this production. To reserve tickets, call the box office at 250-740-6100.
Tags: In the Community
