Smart theatre celebrates 30 years

As Teatro La Quindicina launches its 30th anniversary season Thursday night with The Adulteress, the company is awash in accolades.

Slash and burn government funding for the arts over the last couple decades has made it a tough haul for company founder Stewart Lemoine, a playwright with more than 60 plays to his name. But audiences of every stripe can’t seem to get enough of his sophisticated, yet quirky characters, well-researched text and twisting plot lines.

Unlike the collapsed Vancouver Playhouse with its grander ambitions, Teatro has successfully cultivated a wide audience base through careful company management and developing a familiar stable of actors that seem more like friends than stage players.

“What’s great is the stability of the ticket sales. We have regular paying subscribers and a lot of what we do is supported extensively,” says Lemoine.

In addition to reintroducing old veterans, Teatro is dedicated to developing emerging talent. And that’s where Lemoine’s brand new play, The Adulteress, makes its mark. This three-hander brings back Briana Buckmaster (Witness to a Conga) co-starring with Shannon Blanchet and St. Albert Children’s Theatre instructor Eric Wigston.

Lemoine, who often tailors his roles to actors, set this production in the 1960s, around the Mad Men era.

Tensions are created when two women vie for a single room in a boarding house. In this mood piece, the sassy adulteress moves from one side of town to the other in search of lodging while a second, more poised woman of mystery also puts in a bid for the same apartment.

“I wanted to create something for Briana. She usually plays screwballs and I wanted to write something more serious,” Lemoine said. “Her character Ethel is a woman who is resilient, yet damaged. She broke up her own marriage by sleeping with her boss. It shows how office politics could help a woman get ahead or keep her down.”

All these issues are resolved at a real-time cocktail party where actors enjoy the greatest real canapĂ©s of the ’60s such as crab, devilled eggs and cheese puffs.

“It’s funny, but real food can add tension and comedy to a scene,” Lemoine said.

Lemoine, also the director, adds there are tricks to what foods actors can eat or should avoid. For instance, once he bought a bumbleberry pie for a scene.

“It turned out the actors found it hard to do a scene with raspberry seeds in their mouths,” he said.

Costume designer Leona Brausen outfits her mavens in sleek retro garb with Jeff Haslam on set design and Bobby Smale as lighting designer.

Lemoine is inviting everyone down to his party.

“We have three firecracker young actors and costumes, sets and lights that look great.”