Canterbury Tales
Venue 18 FOH PRO Stage – Grindstone Venue
4 Stars
The Canterbury Tales whips the audience back to roughly 1375 in England’s Middle Ages in a spinoff of Geoffrey Chaucer’s famous tales. The setting is the stripped-down Tabard Inn, complete with wooden benches, rough-hewn cut logs big enough to sit on, a bar and plenty of metal tankards.
On this day, seven weary strangers stop for a night of rest at a welcoming tavern. Upon their arrival the friendly barkeep challenges each one to tell a tale. The winner receives a free supper.
Eager for competitive storytelling, the travelers amuse their companions with fantastical and at times unbelievable yarns of love and betrayal, lust and loss, murder and greed all told in rhyme.
As the host passes around tankards of chilled ale, the drunken Miller, the mercenary Knight, the wealthy Lady, the vain Bishop, the cuckolded Merchant and the swindling Pardoner spin their tall tales in rhyming poetry.
St. Albert Dinner Theatre actor Anne-Marie Smyth takes on the role of the Pardoner, and in her dirt-covered face and brown sack dress, she creates a character that is both creepy and mesmerizing.
While verses are recited, the actors join forces to create small playets within the play. For instance, veteran actor Martin Stout is the Knight, yet he takes on a variety of roles, including a lovestruck squire, a farmyard rooster, a drunken poisoner and a cheating student.
A great deal of thought has gone into assembling the period costumes, and a trunk strategically placed on stage is filled with surprise props that further enhance the story.
