Preview
THEY CAME FROM MARS…
Vertigo Mystery Theatre
Starring Anne Barrett, Elinor Holt, Trevor Rueger and Barbara Gates Wilson
Directed by Mark Bellamy
Written by David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin
Runs from April 19 to May 25
Calgary Science Centre
"It’s the silliest play ever," says Mark Bellamy, director of Vertigo Mystery Theatre’s upcoming play. "It’s a farce about bad theatre and incompetent actors."
"It’s a bunch of stupid ladies doing a bad play really poorly," adds Barbara Gates Wilson, one of the actors.
"Doesn’t that really make you want to come see it?" Bellamy says, laughing.
Bellamy and Gates Wilson are talking about They Came From Mars and Landed Outside the Farndale Avenue Church In Time for the Townswomen's Guild's Coffee Morning – and they know full well that the theatre will be packed throughout its run.
This is Vertigo's third production of a zany Farndale comedy from the British team of David McGillivray and Walter Zerlin, who have created a string of more than a dozen Farndale plays since 1976, skewering sacred cows like Shakespeare as well as not-so sacred ones like Gilbert & Sullivan, romance novels, murder mysteries and Gothic horror.
Vertigo's first two Farndales, the Farndale Murder Mystery and the Farndale Christmas Carol, drew record crowds, and demand for tickets this time around has already been hot.
Describing the appeal of the Farndale shows is not an easy task – they normally involve the fictional amateur theatre company, the Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society, putting on a play. Despite their best intentions, basically everything that can go wrong does. In They Came From Mars…, the Farndale ladies turn their sights on science fiction.
According to Vertigo artistic director John Paul Fischbach, it was the perfect choice to mark the company’s final production at the Calgary Science Centre before the big move next season to their new home below the Calgary Tower.
"It’s our final tribute to the Science Centre," Fischbach explains. "So who better to trash that joint than the Farndale ladies? Most of what they do at the Science Centre is space and astronomy, so it sets us up for lots of Science Centre kind-of jokes."
Bellamy has reassembled his cast of Farndale veterans, including Anne Barrett, Elinor Holt, Trevor Rueger, Karen Johnson Diamond and Gates Wilson. It’s an added attraction for both cast and audience.
"It’s great that we’ve done three of them and we’ve kept the same cast year after year," says Bellamy. "The audience actually know the ladies really well. These women are their friends now."
For Gates Wilson, it’s an opportunity to return to some familiar fun.
"The first time we tackled one of these scripts, we were sort of scratching our heads," she recalls. "It’s apparent what it wants to be when you read it, but getting up and making that work is the challenge. Now we’re sort of in the groove and it’s fun to do that exploration. We spend a lot of time in rehearsal on the floor laughing our heads off, making discoveries, trying things. A lot of stuff we can’t use, of course, because we’d be arrested, but rehearsals are a lot of fun."
An added attraction for Gates Wilson is the opportunity to bring her dog to work. The sixth member of the cast for They Came From Mars… is her two-year-old golden retriever, Truman. This is the second Farndale show for Truman, who will be playing Ensign Blinky the Space Dog. Specially trained for the stage by Gates Wilson, he has his own following among Farndale followers.
"Truman’s picture was in the lobby with the rest of the cast for last year’s show," says Gates Wilson, "At intermission everybody flocked out of the theatre and rushed over to the board and all gathered around the dog’s picture."
Sci-fi fans will appreciate the attention to detail by the Vertigo production team. In particular, sound designer Dave Clark has gone all out to create an authentic 1950s sci-fi sound design. In addition to his vast array of sound clips from beloved space movies and TV shows, Clark has built a Theremin, an electronic musical instrument used to create a distinctive other-worldly soundtrack for movie classics like The Day the Earth Stood Still, It Came From Outer Space and Forbidden Planet.
"It’s for anyone if you’ve ever seen or been involved in any amateur theatre at all," says Gates Wilson. "It’s those ladies trying their very hardest to do the best show they can and just everything goes wrong. People like to share in that. The audience is in on the joke and it’s such a delight to share in that feeling and that energy." |
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