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Fans of gripping psychological thrillers are in luck as the Classic Theatre Festival opens its annual mystery thriller, Angel Street (also known as Gaslight) starting August 17 in Perth. This story of an unsolved murder and the lethal mind games employed to protect the main suspect is considered one of the best plays of the genre, a cat-and-mouse struggle for survival that leaves audiences on the edge of their seats until the final curtain. Angel Street takes audiences back to Victorian-era London, and nights of thick fog and shadowy figures lurking in the distance. Its author, Patrick Hamilton, also penned another mystery mega-hit, Rope, which became an Alfred Hitchcock film, as well as a series of novels that in recent years have been rediscovered and acclaimed for their insights into the underbelly of London and the lives of those living on the margins. When Angel Street opened on Broadway, it catapulted its young male lead, Vincent Price, into superstardom, while also providing a plum role to Canadian-raised actor Judith Evelyn. When a British film version was made in 1940, all the negatives and prints were bought up and destroyed by MGM, which preferred to keep the story for its own star, Ingrid Bergman. Anyone familiar with the popular social media term ‘gaslighting’ – whereby manipulators intentionally set up misdeeds or falsehoods and then question the sanity of victims who challenge what is going on – will recognize why the term was inspired by this play. Written at a time when modern psychology was becoming a critical reference point in popular culture, the idea of gaslighting rapidly became a signifier of abusive relationships on both personal and political levels. Starring in this all-time classic is Jeffrey Aarles (returning after his lauded role last season as a conflicted minister in Shaw’s Candida) and Jessica Sherman, who has spent over a dozen years training and working on the UK stage. Also appearing are a trio of performers seen on stages across Canada as well as on TV and film: Sheldon Davis, Darla Biccum, and Lauren Horejda (who played the haunted target of gaslighting in last year’s I’ll Be Back Before Midnight). Before Angel Street opens, there’s still time to catch George Bernard Shaw’s wickedly satirical take on social hypocrisy, Mrs. Warren’s Profession, a story about the reveal of a family secret, the men who dance around its uncomfortable truths, and an epic mother-daughter showdown. It continues to play on the Festival mainstage until August 12. Those interested in street-level theatre can continue to enjoy the annual walking plays, with this year’s stories set during World War II. The Prisoner of Petawawa runs Wed. to Sun. at 11 am while the musical tribute to war brides, Far From Home, plays Thurs. & Fri. at 7 pm. With 16 shows per week, the Classic Theatre Festival, running until Sept. 9, offers something for everyone. Tickets are available at ticketsplease.ca or 1-877-283-1283. Continue reading

George Bernard Shaw’s legendary play about the gradual reveal of a family secret, the men who dance around its uncomfortable truths, and an epic mother-daughter showdown has sparked a good deal of introspection and discussion during the ongoing staging of Mrs. Warren’s Profession at the Classic Theatre Festival in Perth. The play, which runs until August 12 at 54 Beckwith Street East (at Harvey), is centred in the Victorian era, a time when women had no right to vote or own property, and their status was described by John Stuart Mill as akin to slavery. It is against this backdrop that characters who have made certain choices for survival are challenged to justify their positions. As the show progresses, Festival audiences have found themselves debating during intermission and after the final curtain exactly what they think about Mrs. Warren, her daughter Vivie, and the men who are part of their world. It’s exactly as Shaw would have liked it, given his penchant for a good debate and his interest in seeing changes to the vast social inequality that marked his age. Modern audiences arriving in Perth from as far away as Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, as well as U.S. destinations, are engaging with the play not only as an entertainment – it is certainly a compelling show that mixes drama and comedy – but also as a mirror held up to 2018, when sexual inequality still exists both in Canada and around the globe. Indeed, a 2015 UN Human Rights report raised concerns about “the persisting inequalities between women and men” in Canada, including the “high level of the pay gap” and its disproportionate effect on low-income women, racialized women, and Indigenous women. Out of 34 countries in the OECD, Canada had the 7th highest gender wage gap in 2014. And while there certainly have been improvements since the Victoria era, in Canada, the average amount earned by full-time working women in Canada for every dollar earned by men is 74 cents. Based on a wage gap of 31.5% in Ontario, it currently takes women an additional 14 years to earn the same pay collected by men by age 65. The Canadian Women’s Foundation notes that 80% of all lone-parent families are headed by women, while women who leave an abusive partner to raise children on their own are more than five times likely to live in poverty. “It’s against this backdrop that we can create a lens through which we view Mrs. Warren’s Profession and ask ourselves: is it her choice that we condemn, or is it the society that limits her choices to begin with that needs a closer examination,” says Matthew Behrens, the Classic Theatre Festival Associate Producer who discusses these issues during daily pre-show talks a half hour before the show. “We are witnessing very spirited discussions, and people also leave the theatre with a sense of having taken a remarkable journey, which is another part of the theatrical experience,” he says. Mrs. Warren’s Profession plays… Continue reading