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Volume 51 - Issue 20 - Friday, March 23, 2001 |
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Ace up his sleeve The Beothuck Street Players are back with The Lonesome West By CHARLENE SUTTON |
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However, that's no reason not to catch a good play. The Beothuck Street Players have come together again to perform Martin McDonagh's The Lonesome West. In the play, two brothers, played by Kevin Lewis and Steve Holmes, are presented in an enduring, lifelong battle, which is both ridiculously funny and shocking. Extending the struggle to a universal audience, Lewis said: "Anybody who's involved in family disputes [can relate to] . . . stuff going on, parents and kids, brothers and sisters. I think anybody seeing this play will ask themselves: ‘Is our conflict that silly?'" The Lonesome West cast consists of four characters. Playing the oppressed and defeated of the two battling brothers, Lewis said: "I'm the brother who is always seeming to crawl out of the swimming pool after being pushed in several times, always losing the fight, whether it's physical or intellectual. Playing the defeated. Just when you think you're gonna win he pulls an ace out of his sleeve, which will just blow the audience away: It's amazing." Newcomer Steven Holmes plays the opposing brother, and is said by Lewis to be perfect for the role — perfect physically and has a wonderful voice. The local priest, Father Welsh is performed by the president of the group Mike Coady, and has a pivotal role in the story as the play revolves around the priest's demise. He isn't a repesected member of the community and no one puts value on the fact that he's a priest. The brothers provide the priest with the booze he depends on and contribute to the contempt thrust upon him, despite Father Welsh's attempts to reconcile them. Jessica Natiuk performs the role of a young girl in love with the unattainable priest. She sells alcohol around the town to raise money so she can purchase a gift for him. Many members of The Beothuck Street Players first came together in The Carol Players Theatre Troupe in Labrador City. In 1995, after working together on various productions for almost 20 years, Director/Actor Kevin Lewis renamed the prolific group after the street where Lewis lived in Labrador City: Beothuck Street. The number of group members increased from 12 participants to 25, bringing together a multitude of talented individuals with a common goal: "To put good theatre and a good piece of art on stage." Starting in 1995 with the familiar Ken Kesey's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, the Beothuck Street Players toured Newfoundland and found their first play to be a major success. Although sticking mainly to a drama script devised by American and Irish writers, the group has deviated from the norm and performed musical productions, such as Bloodbrothers in 1998. Introduced to Mark McDonagh's trilogy, the group became focussed on three plays about a fictitious town in Ireland: Leenane. Lewis says, "We fell in love with [McDonagh's] writing, and his crafting of plays is really different; its delicious language." The players performed and won the best production award in 2000 at the Newfoundland Drama Festival for the first play of the trilogy, Beauty Queen and are now skipping to the third The Lonesome West. The events and characters of the trilogy are referred to in each play, but is not a continuing storyline. The comedic conflict in The Lonesome West is reduced to childishness, but contains an underscore of seperation, which infects so many families. Lewis said a prominant characteristic of McDonagh's plays is: "The important becomes trivial and the trivial becomes very important." By treating a serious issue with a humourous approach Lewis says the Beothuck Street Players present a "journey of discovery," which allows them and us to dig and find the meaning between the lines and the characters of the play. When we refer to amateur theatre, much emphasis should be directed towards the word ‘amateur,' since it comes from the Latin word ‘amos,' to love, and as Father Welsh said: "How can we expect to have peace in the world if we can't get along with [and love] our brothers?" The Beothuck Street Players' performance of The Lonesome West takes place March 28 - April 1 at the LSPU Hall. |
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