Review: L’affaire de la rue de Lourcine et All That I Am

Friday night brought Vero and I to two plays in which her friends were appearing in.

The first was at the University of Ottawa campus and was entitled L’affaire de la rue de Lourcine. I was delighted to see Martin and Mario stumble into the waiting area dressed up in vintage outfits while drinking a ‘supposed’ bottle of wine. I even had the honour of having Mario lean up against me in his drunken stupor.

The was a preamble to the actual play as the two men end up waking up inside the house after a night on the town and they can’t remember what actually happened that night. Hilarity to the nth degree ensues as it is discovered that someone was killed the night before and they are trying to piece together the events of the night before in a comical fashion.

I also like how I didn’t know Martin and Mario were actually in the play when they came in through the door drunk and I thought they were just goofing around. Vero had a good laugh at that as she knew it was part of the show.

This was probably the best play I have seen so far as it had me in stitches. They spoke in an over-the-top fashion and their mannerisms were very exaggerated. Much like how I sound when I speak French. 😉

Two thumbs up for this play. Special mention goes to Veronique (the other one) for her hard work on the play! It was fantastic!

We then headed over to the Bronson Center to catch another play where our good friend Chantelle (or is that Chantal) was appearing. I had not even known that she acted so was excited to see her.

This was my first time at the Bronson Center and I wondered what type of venue it would be considering I’ve heard a few bands had played there before. Turned out to be an auditorium style venue so I thought it would be strange to have bands play there. It’s like I was back in high school.

The play was called All That I Am and was a focus on five different women throughout the ages, with a focus on religious figures (such as the wife of Simon Peter, which Chantal played). Being that it was a religious sort of event, I am making the assumption that the audience was mainly from the church that the actresses were from. Let me also point out that the crowd under 65 were severely outnumbered by the old-timers.

Chantal came out and did a wonderful monologue and it was quite funny. Then it skipped over to the next woman who was performing her monologue (the play was entirely monologues) and it kind of dragged on and before you knew it, Palmer had decided to take a little nap.

When she left the stage I figured I would see what the next woman had to say but this was an even worse experience as she had no microphone so we could barely hear her. Instead of straining my ears the whole time I decided this would be an opportune time to catch a few more Zs. I don’t think Vero minded too much considering it wasn’t our friend’s part which I was napping through!

The last two women provided an entertaining monologue which kept my interest and then Chantal came back out to wrap things up. All in all, Chantal’s part was worth the admission, plus the final two ladies. What do I know though? Everyone seemed to enjoy the entire thing, so I am blaming it on my nap.

iplaying: Bleeding Words – Mobile (Tomorrow Starts Today)