Shadow Theatre introduces love times 10

Anger the gods and you are cursed into immortality for centuries. Never dying is fun for a millennia or two, but after a while it loses its lustre.

Just ask Ephraim, a high-flying villain who plans to overthrow a king for jollies and notches all the misery he’s caused with a smile.

In Shadow Theatre’s remount of Ten Times Two: The Eternal Courtship, Ephraim just can’t resist a challenge, especially if it’s driven by lust for power or lust for women.

So when a mystery-man The Host notices that Ephraim takes a lusty liking to Constance, a medieval serving wench, he lays a bet with the immortal: win her heart and her love and the curse will vanish.

St. Albert Children’s Theatre alumnus Garett Ross, one of the capital region’s blue-chip actors plays the anti-hero.

“For him it’s a lark. He jumps into the contest because he doesn’t want to lose,” says Ross. He describes Ephraim as “clearly the worst possible definition of a bachelor. He’s an evil, murderous, disgusting pig. You see him go through the ages and it changes him and he comes out a different man.”

Constance initially rebuffs him. The action galvanizes him. What could be a one-night romp in the hay turns into a romantic chase over the centuries from 1399 to the modern era.

Throughout the epic, the couple meets every 75 years as Ephraim tries to capture his reincarnated prey in her bewildering array of different and unpredictable women.

“It’s a deeply human quest for companionship, for love and people get that. It resonates with them,” said director John Hudson.

Edmonton playwright David Belke was first inspired to write Ten Times Two after he saw a Fringe play about a ghost that visits a lost love. He was intrigued by souls that live beyond a single life, but resisted the urge to write a corny spirit-based plot. Instead he chose reincarnation as a springboard.

Belke first premiered the romantic comedy at the 1999 Edmonton Fringe Festival under Acme Productions. After discussions with Hudson and a few rewrites, it was mounted through Shadow Theatre in 2006.

The versatile Kristi Hansen portrays Constance, an actor Ross has known and shared stages with for 10 years.

“She’s such a solid, committed performer. You work harder just to keep up with her.”

Hansen will need every ounce of creative juice in her body as she embodies Constance in all her 10 forms from Paulie a pig-herder and Eleanor, a Queen’s lady-in-waiting to Simone, a Civil War spy and Prudence, a jazz swing babe.

Hudson notes, “It’s such a well-loved play. All our audiences are excited to see it again. It’s a very hopeful play. It’s very funny and it has David’s signature wit all over it.”

Ross just wants audiences to enjoy themselves.

“It’s extremely entertaining – getting to watch two people fall in love 10 times.”

Ten Times Two: The Eternal Courtship runs at the Backstage Theatre from May 4 to 22.