Biting into the upper crust

>> MYC shines in After the Dance

by AMY BARRATT

We all know people like this: whose lives peaked during university; who, despite the passing of 15 years or more, are still trying to perpetuate the whirlwind of parties and drinking that characterized those years. They hang out with an ever-dwindling crowd of old cronies listening to the same songs, repeating the same jokes they liked when they were 20.

These are the characters in Terrence Rattigan's After the Dance. The fact that the play is set in the late '30s and the characters are pining for the Roaring Twenties doesn't make them any less recognizable to a modern-day audience.

Performed by the one-year-old Montreal Young Company, After the Dance is playing in repertory with Undiscovered Country, by Arthur Schnitzler, at the Saidye Bronfman Centre. And it's one of the most satisfying productions I've seen this season.

After the Dance is interesting in that it is a very early work that was virtually lost for decades. It had a well-received premiere in '39, but closed prematurely due to the start of the war. Thinking it a failure, Rattigan did not include it in his collected early plays, and it was forgotten until it was resurrected in a '92 BBC television version.

There are spots where plotting is achieved with a slightly heavy hand, but it's still a dandy play full of sparkling dialogue and is directed almost flawlessly here by MYC co-founder Chris Abraham. The action takes place in the London flat of rich, dissolute David Scott-Fowler (Robin Wilcock) and his party-girl wife Joan (Kate Hemblen).

The household also includes David's twentysomething ward, Peter Scott-Fowler (Steven McCarthy), who acts as secretary to David. David is supposedly an historian, if he could just put down the bottle long enough to pick up a pen. Peter is an earnest young man who wants nothing more than the financial independence that would allow him to marry his beloved Helen (Michelle Monteith). The domestic circle is rounded out by John Reid (Joe Cobden), one of those delightful British slackers (somehow never quite so charming without the accent) who is allowed to sponge off the Scott-Fowlers in exchange for making them laugh.

After the Dance is a delight to watch, first of all because it's so beautifully cast. One of the benefits of a company like this is that you get strong performers even in the most minor roles (those who have less to do here tend to have leads in the alternate play, which at press time, I had not yet seen). It is thrilling to watch actors like Hemblen, Cobden and McCarthy grow and change with their characters. Diana Donnelly is hilarious in the supporting role of Julia Brown.

Sets and costumes are attended to with loving care by Vincent Lefebvre and Tamara Marie Kucheran, respectively. Since I invariably mention bad acc-ents, I should in fairness say that the upper crust sounds wonderfully crisp in this production.



What makes men tick? The multi-talented Leah Vineberg (Definition, The Women's Project) interviewed guys from all walks of life in an effort to answer that big question. The result is Telegraph from Departure Bay, a documentary theatre piece with an impressive cast of locals including Andreas Apergis, Pierre Boudreau and Alex Ivanovici.

After the Dance, in rep with Undiscovered Country, to March 25, except Fridays, at the Saidye, $12-34 ,739-7944

Telegraph from Departure Bay to March 17 in the Théâtre Du Maurier of the Monument- National, $20, 871-2224