‘Good, clean, classic theatre’

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This article was published 16/02/2011 (5389 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Romance often weaves a tangled web of emotions, complications and misunderstandings.

In Sunday Costs Five Pesos, which opens Merlyn Productions 2011 season at the Ellice Café and Theatre Feb. 16, not even a Spanish womanizer can charm his way out of it all.

“It’s one of those stories where all turns out well in the end but there’s much ado about the process,” said director John Chase, a West End resident.

The play, written by Mexican-American playwright Josephina Niggli in the 1930s, is “good, clean, classic theatre,” Chase said, including all the elements of romantic complications.

The play opens with an explosive fight between the suave, manipulative Fidel (played by Kevin Hamill) and his wife-to-be Berta, who suspects there is another woman in Fidel’s life. In protest, Fidel leaves the village, declaring never to be seen again.

Berta’s meddling friends concoct a plot to bring Fidel back, creating a false tale that Berta fell down the village well. Things go very awry with the plan, however, when the suspected woman in the love triangle appears, and mayhem ensues.

“One thing that never changes is human emotion,” Chase said. “We all love, we all fear, we all get jealous and there’s a fair amount of that going on in the script.

“It looks at the human emotions and misunderstanding that can surround a romance and lets us laugh at them.”

Preparing for the roles came with challenges, like adjusting to Spanish dialect and perfecting accents, said Hamill, a St. Vital resident.

“It was such a stretch from what we’re used to playing which makes it much more challenging and much more fun,” said Hamill, adding he brushed up on his Spanish romance novels and movies.

“One thing that John’s done for us here, he basically said to us at beginning of rehearsals, ‘These are your characters, it’s your job to create them.’

“That gave us a lot more opportunity to try out new things and made it a fun, creative process.”

The play opens the third consecutive season Merlyn has produced shows at the Ellice Café and Theatre, since moving into their Exchange District studio in 2008.

The company’s penchant for choosing classical scripts written in the first half of the 20th century makes the play perfect for a Valentine’s date, Chase said.

“Usually surrounding Valentines Day, lighter, brighter entertainment is key. We just found this play to be uproariously funny and the situations are timeless, and a hit with the crowds today.”

“It’s comedy the way it was meant to be written,” added Hamill. “If you look at a lot of contemporary shows, they…use modern phrasing, a little bit of profanity and innuendo.

“This show doesn’t do that, it’s very straightforward. We say what we want to say and it makes it a lot more fun to watch.”

Sunday Costs Five Pesos runs Feb. 16 to 19 at the Ellice Café and Theatre at 7:30 p.m. There will be a matinee show on Saturday, Feb. 19, at 2 p.m. Tickets are $10, or $7 for seniors.

Visit www.merlyn.biz or call 415-2714.

matt.preprost@canstarnews.com