by AMY BARRATT

If you need a reason to go see The Lady Smith, Black Theatre Workshop’s current offering, I’ll give you two: Jessica B. Hill and Lucinda Davis.

If the former isn’t yet on your radar, it’s because this is only her second professional show since graduating from Dawson; she was in Repercussion’s Much Ado over the summer. Now, I feel I should mention that Hill and I have met; we took a workshop together last spring, but I didn’t know what she could do as an actor until last Thursday night. Hill is absolutely natural as Holly, a young aspiring artist whose bravado thinly masks her vulnerability.

I’ve been watching Lucinda Davis’s career since I saw her in a McGill drama department show early in my reign here at the theatre desk. Although her appearances on stage have, sadly, been few and far between, she has turned up in TV projects as diverse as Seriously Weird (YTV) and Naked Josh (Showcase). She can also be seen in the new CBC show, Rumours. Like Hill, Davis has that thing, that spark that is so hard to define but that you recognize as soon as you see it in an actor. Playing best friends and roommates in Andrew Moodie’s play set in contemporary Toronto, Davis and Hill are perfectly cast.

The same cannot be said for Okiki Kendall, who doesn’t yet seem comfortable in the character of Sylvia, a mysterious figure responding to an ad for a third roommate. As the lone male in the piece, Craig Thomas makes more of an impression than he did in Centaur’s Anna in the Tropics, but this play really belongs to the women.

Overall, the production seems a little under-directed and under-rehearsed. Because all the action takes place in an open loft set, it is sometimes difficult to know whether a character is supposed to be overhearing others’ conversations or not. For instance, when Sylvia speaks to her daughter on the phone, there is no reaction from either Hill’s or Davis’s characters, even though this would be the first they’ve heard of their new roommate having a daughter. One plot element struck me as extremely implausible: who ever heard of a lesbian couple planning to get married, but not yet living together?

Despite a fantastic sound design by Troy Slocum, the blues music doesn’t seem as integrated into the play as it should be.

Extra! Extra! MECCA nominations!

For the first time ever, the Montreal English Critics Circle will be presenting the MECCAs live, on October 30 at Théàtre Ste-Catherine. Also for the first time ever, we are issuing an official list of nominees. In the past, nominees and winners have all been decided at one marathon meeting of the Circle’s ever-shifting membership. This year’s cat pack consists of: Stan Asher (Radio Centreville), myself, Neil Brouillet (Montreal.com), Jodi Essery (Hour), Matt Radz (Gazette) and Estelle Rosen (CKUT).

Hopefully, by the time this gets to print, all nominees will have been contacted by the Circle. However, if you see your name here and you haven’t heard from us, it’s because we haven’t been able to find you. Please e-mail me: amybarratt@yahoo.ca and I’ll hook you up. Admission to the awards ceremony will be free and mostly by invitation. If there are tickets left over after all the nominees have been accommodated, they will be available on the night.

The Lady Smith is at the MAI to Oct. 29. Tix: 932-1104, ext. 226

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