THE EXQUISITE HOUR TIMELESS PLAY WHOSE TALK TICKS ALL THE BOXES OF LOST AND LUST
Mark Clairmont | MuskokaTODAY.com
GRAVENHURST — When I was a young I was asked to keep company an immobile teen.
He was reading the Encyclopaedia Britannica; I was a know-it-all high-schooler who would have preferred more pictures.
His parents were out for dinner and in short time returned.
The intervening hours were marked mostly by silence interspersed with brief passages mind-numbing Britannica. Like Jeopardy’s Mayim Bialik in a wheelchair and me the antithesis of Mattea Roach.
Interesting time; but to a smart-ass good Samaritan unrewarding.
Or so I thought.
The Gravenhurst Opera House’s production of The Exquisite Hour reminded me of that 50-year-old story.
Jane Miller and Richard Peters — aka ‘Helen Darimont’ and ‘Zachary Teale’ — took me back to in this case 1962.
She’s a brash post-war DoorDash encyclopaedia salesperson we and he are led to believe.
Like who isn’t always selling something?
An engaging and entertaining fast-talker — and Elon Muskoka is she.
But what is she really selling?
He a Walter Mitty, a malleable man and enabled dream catcher thanks to their theatrical and playful verbal jousts about. Their words dancing between them like lubricious love birds. Their strange libidinous stage tangos wrapped literally in the words of books of knowledge.
Under the ‘H’ Exquisite is a voluminous take on the ultimate meaning of “America’s No. 1 Game Show.”
The pursuit of knowledge and what it begets you through that pursuit of happiness.
The two-handed players Miller and Peters, real-life husband and wife and veterans of the local Ops stage, tease the audience with what’s really going on on a simplistically spartan colourfully-staged ’60s art deco set designed by Tim Webb.
The double entendres buried within each other’s sentences, traded off as salacious soliloquies, beg this reviewer to ponder were the actors and characters to trade roles how would the audience view more accurate traditional sixties portrayals?
A cosmic question Edmonton playwright Stewart Lemoine no doubt wondered aloud about in penning this poignant portrayal of lost and lust.
Kelly Hamilton, the Op’s operations manager, said she and local producers (Dave Campbell director) wanted a performance that challenged theatre goers on their return to the renovated hall, while offering up light-hearted summer fare at the same time.
Exquisite is — give or take on the showtime — an hour long.
Last night it was 55 minutes of build-up that peaked in the final 10 minutes with a hilarious sketch with Darimont and Teale in a dentist’s office.
The rest was a roller-coaster, as Peters prefers plays be. Highs and lows that zoom up one side of your lobe before careening down the rails hands flailing and lungs gasping for air before ricocheting to the hilly top to gleefully top the last descent.
A timeless play, it goes like clockwork, and again brings to mind the Steve Miller Band’s Fly Like an Eagle hit with it’s enduring line: ‘Time keeps on slipping in to the future.’
Or the Chicago tune Does Anyboydy Really Know What Time It Is?
And as Carol Burnett ended her shows, I’m glad we spent this time together.
So you should. What’s an hour? You ask. Find out if it’s to be or not to be for you.
Exquisite opened Tuesday July19 and runs to July 30 with matinee and evening performances. Call the box office at 705-687-5550 for tickets or go online here to book a seat and see more of their busy summer attractions.
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