Entertainment for a mid-summer’s night

As I mentioned last week, the close of summer has the studios trying to tempt movie viewers into the theatre one last time before schedules get back to normal, and they’re using dependable formulae to do it.

BLOOD WORK is a case in point, with little attempt to alter the formula. Based on and quite faithful to Michael Connelly’s best-selling novel, as produced and directed by and starring a very tired-looking Clint Eastwood, this is a carefully plotted and typical police procedure film.

Eastwood is a police detective who sustains a heart attack while giving chase to a murderer. Two years later he becomes the recipient of a murdered woman’s heart. The sister of the murdered woman comes to the now retired detective and asks him to find the murderer. Reluctantly he agrees to do so and what follows is hardly surprising but not always predictable. The result is a film that is typical of Eastwood’s directorial work: it’s carefully crafted, well photographed and generally taut.

There are times when the film falters. Does one really believe that a romance is likely between a 72-year-old chronically laconic retiree and a surprisingly dull but young Hispanic woman of considerable beauty? And do the idiotic officers who have replaced the hero on the original murder case have to come across like Abbott and Costello?

BLOOD WORK still remains an entertaining piece of work, though, unlike XXX (reviewed last week), this is one film that can well translate to the small television screen. Perhaps potential viewers would be well advised to wait until it comes out on video - it will cost less and the experience will not be greatly diminished.

On the other hand, live theatre cannot be postponed, and a reminder of the Vancouver productions that have already been reviewed in this column is in order.

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At the Stanley theatre, the Arts Club is presenting a revival of its successful production of MY FAIR LADY. Now, most people will already be familiar with this show in either the film version or one of its earlier on-stage incarnations. However, one should not dismiss the opportunity to revisit it in this truly excellent production.

First of all, the show itself is a gem. A clever adaptation of Shaw’s Pygmalion, the Lerner and Loewe songs are a perfect extension of the play. At the same time, the Arts Club production does more than justice to this classic example of musical comedy.

Jennifer Lyon’s Eliza, Gerard Plunkett’s Higgins, Ken Kramer’s Pickering, Bernard Cuffling’s Dollittle, Shirley Borderick’s Mrs. Higgins and Daphne Goldrick’s Mrs. Pearce are quite impeccable - as good a cast as one is likely to find, and they are backed up by a truly talented ensemble. Acting and singing are alike outstanding.

There are minor flaws in the production. One would like to see a slightly larger chorus. One wonders why each time it is apparent from the script that Eliza is supposed to have a moist face from crying or boo-hooing, she is sitting calmly still. Some of the entrances and exits make little sense. Is Eliza’s bedroom upstairs or not? And Jennifer Lyon still doesn’t have that cockney accent down. But these are minor flaws in a production that is altogether wonderfully entertaining and fully deserving of another successful run. This is one time when the phrase “Back by popular demand” is justified. One would be a fool to miss it.

So, too, anyone who has not visited Bard on the Beach this summer is missing a golden opportunity to see outstanding productions of Cymbeline and Twelfth Night. I had the opportunity to see the latter in the Joseph Papp Public theatre production earlier this summer in New York’s Central Park. Starring Julia Stiles and Christopher Lloyd, this was distressingly disappointing. The poetry was poorly delivered, the comedy inadequately exploited, the set nonsensical (making it appear that the whole thing took place in the middle of the ocean or on a shipwreck), and the acting adequate at best.

In comparison, the Bard on the Beach production is in every point superior. It is no wonder that Bard on the Beach plays to capacity audiences and reservations are necessary. When one considers this and the fact that Cymbeline is rarely ever performed, potential theatregoers remembering that summer’s lease has all too short a date, should hasten to see both productions.