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Bear with me: Sun Bear @ParkTheatre

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If The Light House is an uplifting tale of survival, Sarah Richardson’s Sun Bear gives a contrasting take on this. Sarah plays Katy. We’re introduced to Katy as she runs through a list of pet office peeves with her endlessly perky coworkers, particularly about coworkers stealing her pens. It’s a hilarious opening monologue that would have you wishing you had her as a coworker to help relieve you from the boredom of petty office politics.  But something is not quite right in the perfect petty office, where people work together well. And that is her. And despite her protesting that she is fine, the pet peeves and the outbursts are becoming more frequent. As the piece progresses, maybe the problem lies in a past relationship, where Katy had to be home by a particular hour, not stay out late with office colleagues and not be drunk enough not to answer his calls. Perhaps the perky office colleagues are trying to help, and perhaps Katy is trying to reach out for help. It has simple staging

Adult themes and other tunes: Closer Than Ever @ThePheasantry


Closer Than Ever, which had a brief run at The Pheasantry last week, was a musical appreciation of the more serious works of Richard Maltby Jr and David Shire. With its provocative subject matter and jazz infused score I am hoping it won't be long before we see it return.

Closer Than Ever follows on from Maltby and Shire's earlier revue, Starting Here Starting Now. The latter had songs of innocence and wit, here the stories are more reflective about the compromises, disappointments and other charms of adult life.

Getting old, mid-life crises, sex during lunch breaks. It's all laid bare here. Many of the songs had been intended for shows (five of them were cut from the musical Baby). Others were musical ideas that Maltby had been compiling over the years. It is intriguing that many of these songs don't seemed to be performed much as cabaret standards. Given many of the songs dramatic and comic potential hopefully this revue will inspire more mining of the Malby and Shire music book.



The cast assembled worked well with the material. Wendy Carr delivered a great performance of The Bear, the Tiger, the Hamster and the Mole. This song looks at both the reproductive habits of various species and the infinite variety of metaphors used to put down women.

Emily Chesterton was witty singing Miss Byrd, a song about a woman that sings after lunchtime liaisons.

Richard Carson showed off his musicality and range singing about being an ordinary man in One of the Good Guys.

Nicholas Corre was just as memorable leading the troupe with the song about no regrets, Next Time.

When they came together the results weren't always successful. Singing together and loud made for a bit of a muddy sound a times. It was difficult to tell whether it was the sound mix or the blend of voices. The lyrics are often intricate and need a delicate delivery to support it.

Still under music direction of Nick Barstow and Doug Weekes on bass, it was a fun and enjoyable evening appreciating some adult music...

Photo credit: production photos by Richard Parnwell

⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎⭐︎


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