L.A. Beat

Long standing  local theatre group Playgoers of Lethbridge has an exciting centennial season planned.

 They are holding auditions for their production of  Jonathan Sayer, Henry Lewis and  Henry Shields’s farce “ The Play That Goes Wrong.” 

“This Olivier Award-winning comedy is a hilarious hybrid of Monty Python and Sherlock Holmes. Welcome to opening night of The Murder at Haversham Manor where things are quickly going from bad to utterly disastrous. With an unconscious leading lady, a corpse that can’t play dead, and actors who trip over everything (including their lines),” according to the play’s website.

 Auditions are Oct. 18 and 19  in the Casa Community room, for the play which will be happening in Feb. 7-11 on the Yates Theatre stage.

“It’s about a theatre troupe putting on a 1920s murder mystery. But there are a lot of problems with  the cast, props and stage manager. There are a lot of mistakes. And there is a murder. So there is a dead body on stage,” said  director Elaine Jagielski.

Edmonton based playwright and actor Lianna Makuch’s new travelling production of “Barvinok” has taken a circuitous and serendipitous journey back to Lethbridge.

“It’s a celebration of Ukrainian resilience and strength,” Makuch said.

“Barvinok,” which means “periwinkle” (a flower known for it’s resilience and strength, which Makuch considered an apt metaphor for the Ukrainian people) in Ukrainian, was inspired by Makuch’s discovery of her Baba’s diary of emigrating to Canada during the Second World War, a journey which ended up in Lethbridge.

“It’s a story of resilience, but most importantly it’a a story of hope,” said Makuch, who plays Hania, the main character.

The semi-autobiographical story mirrors her own journey to the Ukraine to rediscover her homeland and Ukrainian cultural roots in 2017 and several others, during which she interviewed a lot of people including veterans and now veterans of Russia’s current war on Ukraine.

“There have been several iterations of the play,” she said, noting the play takes place in 2017, so current events haven’t  changed the text.

“But they have helped the performers better understand the stories of the Ukrainian people. And that has impacted our performances,” she said.

She returned in 2018 to work with Ukrainian theatre troupe Punctuate! Theatre, Pyretic Productions and Alberta Council  for Ukrainian Arts to conduct interviews with of Ukrainian actors, activists, veterans and diplomats, and used some of their quotes in the play.

 The play is all the more poignant as several of the people she interviewed  have since died in the war.

“ I made a lot of close personal friendships who became like a second family to me when I was in Ukraine, some of who are now living in bomb shelters and some who have died,” she said.

“I hope this play will help people to be able to better understand the Ukrainian people. It is a story of hope,” she emphasized, adding it is also has a lot of humour despite the serious subject matter.

“ That was what I found especially talking to the veterans, is their sense of humour. These are ordinary people who signed up to fight,” she said.

“ It shows the Ukrainian spirit and is more meaningful now,” she said.