What you’re wishing for
From the left, Paul Battle as Leon, Tilly van Keule as Justine, and Keith Ainscough as Bill rehearse the Central Alberta Theatre production of The Love List at the Memorial Centre recently,
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We are well into the computer dating age, but nothing beats the matchmaking powers of a gypsy.
That’s the rather far-fetched premise of Central Alberta Theatre’s upcoming mystical comedy, The Love List, by Norm Foster.
The three-actor play that opens on Friday at the Black Knight Inn dinner theatre is about friendship, the quest for love — and about being careful what you wish for, said director Sharon-Eve Lang.
The protagonist Bill is as nerdy as a statistician can be.
He lives in an apartment decorated in the stale avocado greens and harvest golds of the 1970s. Mercifully, all his hideous second-hand furniture is buried under mounds of newspapers and looseleaf that Bill considers research material.
His slightly hipper friend Leon figures Bill’s bachelor pad could use a woman’s touch.
While Leon is a serial cheater who can hardly sustain his own marriage, this doesn’t stop him from pushing his long-divorced friend back into the dating scene.
When quirky Bill refuses to allow a computer to influence his love life, Leon turns to an old-world matchmaker — in Foster’s words a gypsy or, in more politically-correct terms, a Roma.
The matchmaker sends Leon home with a love list of questions for Bill to fill out. The answers will help determine Bill’s ideal woman.
No sooner does Bill complete the list than his doorbell rings. Standing in the hall is an attractive woman named Justine who just happens have all of the qualities Bill is looking for.
The Love List raises the question: What do you do when someone seems too good to be true?
Lang readily admits the comedy doesn’t ask a whole lot more of its audience.
“It’s just sheer fun entertainment,” said the director.
Lang saw the play performed in Edmonton and found “it didn’t teach me anything and it didn’t make me think.
“But I walked back to my hotel and felt I’d really had a nice evening out.”
Sometimes that’s all you need, said Lang — a few belly laughs and a good meal with friends.
The bonus for any lovebirds in the audience is that The Love List’s early performances will coincide with the lead up to Valentine’s Day.
The bonus for Lang is that after going through no fewer than four different Leons (the various actors all had to bow out for different reasons), she finally found two actors who will alternate in the role — newcomer Paul Battle and Craig Scott, who was in a couple of previous CAT plays, including the last one, Outlaw.
These community actors will join CAT veteran Keith Ainscough as Bill and Tilly van Keule as Justine.
lmichelin@reddeeradvocate.com
