by AMY BARRATT

Quick: think of the last professional show you saw. Were there more than four actors on stage? Were there more than two? If so, Stephen Pietrantoni says, it was out of the norm. Theatre companies are going into "shut-down mode," says the founder of the EMMA Now Collective. They're afraid to do anything with a larger cast because of the cost. That attitude will be the death of theatre, he warns.

There's a particular kind of excitement that you get with larger casts, says Pietrantoni, currently directing Village Theatre West's The Club. If companies want to attract new, younger audiences to theatre - and they'll have to to survive - they need to find ways to offer these bigger shows.

Set in an exclusive men's club exactly a century ago, Eve Merriam's The Club was originally produced on Broadway in the late '70s. The authentic period songs are surprisingly dirty, and the gents in all their sexist, racist, potty-mouthed glory are all played by dames.

As musicals go, The Club is small; there are eight performers on stage, including a pianist. Still, it's the largest cast ever assembled at Village Theatre. Part of EMMA Now's mandate is to "get creative in the business aspect, to show what can be done," says Pietrantoni, who is also the executive producer on the project.

The company acronym stands for Employ More Montreal Actors Now, and it's no mistake that this cast is all-female. Women, Pietrantoni says, generally have fewer opportunities in theatre. He is thrilled to be able to showcase so many talented Montreal women - Michelle Heisler, Danielle Skene and Amanda Strawn, to name a few in this show, and frankly hopes that it will have a life beyond the two weekends it is currently booked into Village Theatre.

The point of the cross-dressing is not to try to fool the audience (they will know right away that these are women) but to get them thinking about gender roles and stereotypes.

"It's a show that works on multiple levels," says Pietrantoni. "If you're looking to be entertained, it's an audience-pleaser for all ages. If you're looking for biting social satire, every line can be interpreted in several ways."

A taste of Hemlock

Very often, the task of producing new plays by young playwrights falls to the amateur and semi-professional companies. A relative newcomer on the scene, Underdog Productions is presenting its first full-scale production starting tonight, Sept. 23, at the Geordie space. Hemlock, set in a small Nova Scotia town, is by NTS playwriting graduate Stephanie Alexander. The director and several of the actors are graduates of McGill's drama and theatre program. Liz Truchanowicz has cast Jerome McCarthy and Doreen Fagan as a Baptist minister and his wife who go town to town seeking converts. The hemlock of the title refers to the evergreen tree, rather than to the poisonous herb that was the means of Socrates' forced suicide. Still, the director says, making the association with poison is not inappropriate: "All of the characters' lives in this play have been poisoned in some way."

The Club, Sept. 30–Oct. 3 and Oct. 9–10 at Village Theatre West (28 Wharf, Hudson), $15–$25, (450) 458-5361

Hemlock, Sept. 23–Oct. 3 at Geordie Space (4001 Berri) $12–$15, 733-2543

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