Opening Night up serves tasty beef and belly laughs

Love is in the air. It is the most fragile of emotions, yet is hardy enough to survive some pretty harsh conditions. It is an emotion that fosters hope and new beginnings.

In some ways you’d never believe it from the chaos happening during Opening Night, St. Albert Theatre Troupe’s debut dinner theatre production running Feb. 11, 16 to 18 and 23 to 25.

Like any clever playwright, Norm Foster imprints his comedic script with a few surprising twists. While love reborn normally soars like a phoenix, Foster’s bird deliberately limps and waddles out of the ashes, delivering a hefty round of cackles.

Directed under the deft hand of Josh Schilds, Opening Night kicks off with Ruth Tisdale (Shirley Williams) scoring a couple of tickets to the premiere of a new play no one wants to see. It’s her 25th wedding anniversary and she wants to inject some pseudo-sophisticated culture into her life.

Ruth drags her husband Jack (Steve Palmer), a beer, bratwurst and baseball kind of guy who would rather be home watching the World Series. His idea of giving his wife a great birthday present is buying her two quarts of varnish.

Unexpected events happen the moment they enter the V.I.P. lounge. An aspiring young actor, Tom Delaney (Trevor Lawless), working as a waiter, offers them champagne. At first glance Tom appears to be your average out-of-work actor, but he has a few aces up his sleeve.

Also mingling in the lounge is Michael Craig (Kelly Aisenstat), a bitter veteran best known for his hardware commercials of the Socket Man Wrench. Michael is yesterday’s news, an over-the-hill actor. But he desperately wants to have a final go at Shakespeare.

The play’s director Richard Hyde-Finch (Mark McGarrigle) is a self-absorbed bombastic man, constantly bickering with his jealous girlfriend Cilla (Melanie Pattison). After five years, she wants a firm marital commitment. He’s still waffling.

Then there’s the conniving Libby Husniak (Kate Elliott), a busty actress more capable of flattery than learning lines. Last but not least is actor Clayton Fry (Schilds), a practiced Lothario with a silver-tongued patter.

Foster has fashioned typical stock characters, however the actors have infused them with three-dimensional qualities that engender genuine empathy for their foolish foibles.

Williams and Palmer have a delicious easygoing chemistry as the middle-aged couple, comfortable with each other, yet needing to explore new experiences.

At the other end of the spectrum are McGarrigle and Pattison, playing the sparring Richard and Cilla with such obnoxious delight. Kudos to Aisenstat for his fuddled but touching soliloquy, and to Schilds who took over the role of the wacky Clayton Fry one week ago when Ali Yusuf had to bow out.

On opening night there were a few technical glitches, and though slow to start, this two-hour production picked up the pace in the second act. As dinner theatre goes, the roast beef buffet was tasty, and if you’re at a loss for a Valentine’s Day token, this is the way to go.