Category Archives: Curran Dobbs

It strikes where it doth love

Cruel Tears/Lagrimas Crueles

Blue Bridge Theatre at The Roxy

Written by Mercedes Bátiz-Benét, Directed by Brian Richmond

Show held over until May 18, 2014

Photograph by lijc Albanese

Review by Curran Dobbs 

Blue Bridge’s ambitious adaptation of Cruel Tears/Lagrimas Crueles takes the 1975 musical upon which it was based, itself a modernized loose adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello (think what West Side Story did to Romeo & Juliet) and places it on the Texan/Mexican border. Set in 1975, Juan (played by Indio Saravanja), a native Mexican trucker, falls in love with his boss’s daughter, Kathy (Alexandra Wever). As is natural for Shakespearean tragedies, death ensues, thanks to the manipulations of fellow truck driver Jack (Jacob Richmond), presumably out of bitterness from feeling underappreciated and his jealousy for being passed over for the promotion Juan received in his stead.

The atmosphere of this Tex/Mex musical is set with good use of a smoke machine (consider this a warning to those with respiratory issues) and lighting. The show opens with occasional conflict before developing a much darker tone in the second half. Cruel Tears paints a picture of 1970’s Texas, where overworked and underpaid characters attempt to scrape a living in a society where income and race prey on the minds of lower class blue-collar workers.

There were admittedly parts of the play where the pacing seemed rushed, such as Juan’s descent into jealousy and disillusionment in the second half, or the hastily resolved conflict in the first half between the lovers and Kathy’s disapproving father. This might have been a side effect of developing Othello to the musical medium. Fortunately, it does not detract much from the enjoyment of the play.

The Tejano style music was, for the most part, kept a comfortable low to moderate tempo that was easy to hear and understand. The Spanish lyrics were translated through the use of subtitles displayed on a screen above the stage— owing both to the talent of the performers and the acoustics of the venue. The band took their place on the side of the stage and acted as a modernized Greek chorus, occasionally interacting with the other characters and effectively expositing the relevant plot points to the audience. The music and dialogue made seamless transitions between English and Spanish.

The choreography was smooth, and while the trained dancers (David Ferguson and Jung Ah Chung) did not perform much, when they did, they did so impressively. The dancers also added a tongue in cheek element to the play, doubling as living props for certain objects that required an element of motion (such as truck windshield wipers or a jukebox).

Overall, Cruel Tears is a unique and lively show worth catching while it is still showing.

Curran Dobbs is a local reviewer and comedian.  

 

Cleese kept crowd engaged

By Curran Dobbs

A master of black humour and vocal critic of “mindless good taste,” British actor John Cleese was nonetheless a class act in his one-man show, “Last Time to See Before I Die” at the McPherson Playhouse recently.

The show, while continuously infused with Cleesian wit, wasn’t strictly comedic. Regaling the audience with his life story, starting with how his parents met, walking the audience through his childhood and his pre-Python days, and movie career, Cleese offered bittersweet moments as he remembered with fondness friends and family who had passed on.  When Cleese recalled David Frost,  he started to tear up, infusing the show with some pathos and creating a humanizing element that would have been absent had the show been strictly comedic (or strictly dramatic).

Admittedly, throughout the show, Cleese didn’t seem too energetic, but after all, he is 73. Nevertheless, the time flew by;  when he announced that he had kept us for about an hour and it was time for an intermission, it came as a surprise. Considering my tendency to fidget and check my watch constantly when sitting for long periods of time, I was impressed.

The second half of the show was mainly a discussion of offensive or black humour.  Cleese talked about it being passed down from his mother, and explored reactions from audience members, mainly to Fawlty Towers and A Fish Called Wanda. Cleese reported that during the test screen for A Fish Called Wanda, the three bits the audience identified as the funniest bits were also the  bits that were identified as most offensive.  He also made much more use of video clips in his second act.  Many of the clips were familiar to Cleese fans, from the previously mentioned shows as well as Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Showing the clips took some of the strain and effort out of filling up the second half while entertaining the audience. Again, I sat through the second half without checking my watch.

The show ended with a standing ovation, with members of the audience eventually clapping in rhythm to The Liberty Bell song from Monty Python’s Flying Circus. The man hasn’t lost a thing at 73 – except the usual, youth, original hair colour . . . I would certainly recommend this show for anyone who appreciates dry humour.

 

Curran Dobbs is a local reviewer and comedian.  

Irish comic adapts to local scene

Dylan Moran
Produced by Westbeth Entertainment and Mike Delamont
Farquhar Auditorium, June 30

Reviewed By Curran Dobbs

I was not sure what to expect of Dylan Moran’s show at the Farquhar Auditorium at the University of Victoria. I had never seen Moran outside of Shaun of the Dead and had never seen him do stand-up comedy. I admit I could have researched him more on Youtube but my hypothesis, valid or not, was that going in a little bit blind would help prevent establishing bias.

Moran began his set with the Canada jokes (and a few American jokes because, if you’re going to make jokes about Canada, America will enter it sooner or later). He managed to squeeze a Rob Ford joke in there. It’s a common tactic for touring comics to make with the local humour, and it wasn’t a bad thing here. He would get bigger laughs later on when the audience was warmed up.

The rest of his show was predominantly social commentary with topics ranging from science vs. religion, guns, technology, politics (left and right comparisons), pop culture, age, evolution, and gender. The overarching theme of the evening was escapism. I’m guessing he is probably aware of the irony of discussing escapism at a comedy show.

Throughout the show, Moran read the audience, asking us at one point whether we leaned more towards science or religion, getting the sense that we veered more towards the left politically and adapted his comedy to fit the audience. At one point, he mentioned that his Irish upbringing made Conservatism part of who he was, stating that if he witnessed an Irish Catholic Cardinal in an argument with a scientist, he’d instinctively side with the one not dressed like a wizard. Reading a crowd is a comedian’s job–and he did so brilliantly.

Occasionally, the jokes came too quickly for me: I was  not used to his heavy accent and missed,what he  said. Given the laughs from the rest of the audience,  others did now share my own hearing problem.

The next time Dylan Moran is in your area, I suggest you catch him. Tickets were moderately priced but affordable.

Curran Dobbs is a writer for The Derwin Blanshard Extremely Classy Sunday Evening Programme and a stand up comedian.