by AMY BARRATT

This time of year always makes me a little sentimental. So despite all the nasty things I’ve said over the course of the year, I’m actually looking back rather fondly on 2002: the year in theatre.

Though I managed to steer clear of most of them, just the knowledge that costly, kétaine extravaganzas were going on somewhere in the city nearly all year is enough to bring a frisson of delight. People shelled out big bucks in 2002 to go watch the death throes of the comédie musicale in such overblown horrors as Les Dix Commandements and Cindy. A wizened Robert Goulet came to town in South Pacific. Mambo Italiano continued to rule at Centaur. And enthusiastic local producers gave us The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the Who’s Tommy. Truly a weird and wonderful year.

Down on the ground, 2002 was a year of flux, with companies appearing, disappearing and transforming themselves. This seems like as good a time as any to check up on where some of those companies are, and where they may be going.

• The Montreal Young Company fell on hard times in 2002, after only two seasons in existence. There were brave words early in the year about coming back from the brink, but they have yet to be heard from as we move into ’03.

• Repercussion Theatre seemed to be teetering on the edge of the abyss last spring when they launched a massive fundraising campaign to cover losses associated with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Fans of Shakespeare in the Park came through, allowing the company to produce one play last summer, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged) to appreciative crowds in and around Montreal. They are still in recovery, but it looks like Repercussion will live to see another summer.

• Imago, a 16-year-old company that has been through many incarnations, attempted yet another comeback with a lavish production of Bryden MacDonald’s Divinity Bash/nine lives. Like their previous attempt, Tell Me About Tigers, the text was not strong enough or relevant enough to create the kind of buzz this company needs to re-establish itself on the scene.

• Black Theatre Workshop, after battling valiantly to stay in the public eye despite money problems last year, returned to the scene in November with one of their best shows in years. If a Common Man’s Guide to Loving Women is a sign of things to come, BTW is in great shape going into ’03.

• Infinitheatre had a very ambitious summer, producing two new plays by local playwrights at the Monument-National. Both Jacob Richmond’s Small Returns (co-produced with The November Company) and Trevor Ferguson’s Long, Long, Short, Long had impressive talent attached to them, but both scripts needed work. They produced Ferguson’s Beach House: Burnt Sienna out in Hudson, and co-produced (with Downward Facing Dog) Catherine Kidd’s Sea Peach last month. Oddly, infini’s big projects have failed to generate the same kind of excitement the company was generating a few years ago with offbeat no-budget shows staged in their tiny studio space.

• Teesri Duniya gave us another solid show, Noah’s Ark 747 by Yugoslav playwright Sylvija Jestrovic. Despite, or perhaps because of, its subject matter, the show failed to generate the same level of excitement and debate as did Reading Hebron the year before.

• Renegade Productions presented its third production, a streamlined, brilliantly acted Lawrence and Holloman by Morris Panych.

• A new company called Driftwood appeared on the scene with an evening of one-acts to benefit Batshaw Youth and Family Centres. This show heralded the auspicious return of Andrew Farrar and Elias Toufexis to the Montreal stage.

• Gravy Bath did some shows out in Hudson before swinging back into town like Douglas Fairbanks to save our summer with Henry. Octobre. 1970. They are currently working on a new show for February.

• Anyone home? Some companies we haven’t heard from in a while: Pumpkin, Street Scene, Alchemy, The Alternate Theatre, Travesty, Liberato, Beyond the Cubicle. If you’re still out there, drop me a line: amytheatre@aol.com

Happy New Year! •

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