REVIEW: Myth of the Ostrich offers high-energy and hijinks
West End Studio Theatre’s production of the Matt Murray play is anchored by strong, funny, riveting performances by its three female leads.
A trio of talented local actors are currently reprising their roles in the Canadian-penned play, Myth of the Ostrich, now being staged at West Plains United Church in Aldershot by Oakville’s West End Studio Theatre (WEST). The play follows three women of vastly different personalities and the chaos that ensues when social expectations spiral out of control and maternal protectiveness sets them at odds. With three performances remaining, the production offers high energy and hijinks to brighten the spirits as the autumn days get shorter.
Myth of the Ostrich premiered at the 2014 Toronto Fringe before being produced by the Next Stage Theatre Festival and staged at the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre and the Edmonton Fringe. The playwright behind Myth of the Ostrich is Matt Murray, who penned The Time Capsule, which readers may recall as one of Theatre Aquarius’s popular offerings last year. Originally titled Chronicles of Sarnia when it premiered at the Blyth Festival, it was reworked to focus on Hamilton and its local culture (and colourful characters) before being staged by Aquarius. He was also co-writer of Maggie (co-produced by the Charlottetown Festival), which had its premiere at Theatre Aquarius. Murray is a Dora Award-nominated author and lyricist as well as playwright, with six Ross Petty holiday pantomimes to his credit and several holiday productions for Canadian Stage besides.
What higher recommendation can a production come with than when its playwright is delighted with it? Understandably, the WEST website gives Murray’s personal review pride of place: “It was an absolute joy to experience West End Studio Theatre's production of Myth of the Ostrich. The cast delivered outstanding performances, brought to life with sharp, skillful direction.”
Directed by Yo Mustafa with stage management by Laura Moran assisted by Lawrence Hamilton, the play has also been staged in Oakville. West Plains United Church has become West End’s “west end” venue, as it were, a short drive or bus ride from downtown Hamilton and across from the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Deb Dagenais plays Holly, a single mother and freelance self-help author who is facing severe writer’s block at the prospect of her next manuscript. Already frazzled, she receives an unexpected guest in the form of the mother of her teenager’s new beau. Dagenais is a highly talented actor who has tread the boards at many of the region’s community theatres, including The Players’ Guild and Village Theatre Waterdown. She is particularly adept at playing quirky, relatable Everywoman roles. Dagenais gave a riveting performance as Sonia in Waterdown’s production of Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike in Waterdown earlier this spring.
Christine Ann Marchetti plays Pam, the tightly wound and on-edge mother of Evan, the son who has struck up a relationship with Holly’s kid Jodi. She has intercepted a letter between the teens that has her all a-flutter, and she arrives to have things out with Holly, mother to mother. Marchetti’s Pam is small ‘c’ conservative, respectable and upper middle-class, but fizzing with barely contained frustration and possibly rage. Marchetti last performed with Dundas Little Theatre this past May in Late Company in the role of Tamara. Last year, she performed at Theatre Burlington in Timepiece and Bluebirds, a breathtakingly emotional play about Canadian nurses in France during WWI.
Not for the first time, Kimberly Jonasson bursts onto the stage as a dervish of outsized personality, raunchy humour, and off-kilter charm as Cheryl, Holly’s best friend from Newfoundland. As with the other women, this is Jonasson's third time playing the character, and as usual, she lights the fuse to higher hijinks and even bigger laughs. She is the theatre equivalent of a carnival ride operator who shouts, “Scream if you want to go faster!” One of her more recent performances saw her in an equally kooky and hilarious role alongside Dagenais in Waterdown’s Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike.
The set design of Holly’s cluttered basement apartment in Toronto, the setting of the entire comedy, had me ruminating on the real-life similarities with my own Hamilton apartment. As a result, I feel torn between admiration for a set that feels very authentic and a creeping discomfort that reminds me that I should really get to my laundry.
What starts as an awkward, but welcome, distraction from Holly’s stalled writing process gains gradual momentum, becoming an ever-more strange, complicated, messy, and hilarious fever dream involving the women, the letter, a blanket fort, and some mood-altering desserts. Though at times a little too “shouty,” what makes this play work is the well-calibrated flow of dialogue and physical comedy between the three actors who clearly work well together. There was a lot of laughter and obvious enjoyment from the audience, and the cast kept everyone riveted with their energy and in wide-eyed wonderment at what possibly would come next.
Next up for West End Studio Theatre at the West Plains venue is Our Town, Dec. 3 to Dec. 13, described by Edward Albee as "the greatest American play ever written."
NEED TO KNOW
Myth of the Ostrich
Continues Oct. 23 & 24, 7:30 p.m. and Oct. 24, 2 p.m.
West Plains United Church
549 Plains Rd. W., Burlington
Tickets here
Run time: approx. 90 minutes, no intermission