Calla Ktause, left, and Alisa Kort in Weill Women.
Kurt Weill'^ women
Spirited is the first word that comes to my mind about Weill Women. Fun comes soon after, followed by educational (two words that I wish went together more often).
Singers Alisa Kort and Calla Krausc take the audience throu^ some of the highli^ts of composer Kurt Weill's career. He was a German Jew who was exiled fiwm his coimby during the Na2d years, not because ofhis religion but because ofhis music, explained Kort and I&ausc in one of their spoken segments. Weill's work was influenced by playwrights such as Bcrtold Brcdit and, of courec, the women in his life, who Kort and Krausc describe as strong- especially his wife, to whom he was married twice.
Accompanied wonderfully by pianist Mariya Udevcnko, Kort and Krau.se perform 15 of Weill's compositions. Their ducts are tlie most animated, and the crowd-pleasers included Tm A Stranger Here Myself," "One Touch of Venus" and "Jealousy Duct." There are more serious pieces -Kort's rendition of "Je Ne TAime Pas" and Krause's "Pirate Jenny" — and these are also powerfully performed.'
Weill's music easily stands on its own and a straight performance of it would be well received, but Weill Women is more imique than tliat The chemistry between Kort and Krausc makes the show fun. Not only do tlie two women's voices blend well musically but their spoken parts consist of a back-and-forth dialogue, with one beginning a thought and the oUier fmishing it, or wiUi cadi speaking alternate words of a sentence. Tlicy also have a couple of dance numbers and they ham it up in a few of the songs, vAth Kort as the "straight man" and Krause as Uie cut-up.
Weill Women is at Performance Works Sept. 14, 3:45 p.m., Sept. 15,2 p.m., and Sept. 16, 7:15 p.m. Tickets are $11 and $9. ARcr the Fringe, there arc plans for the show to be
performed at various venues throughout the province. Anyone who would like to have Weill Women as part of a fund-raising or other event, should call Maureen Verkaar at All Star Management, 604-731-2428.
- Cynthia Ramsay
An emotional ride
If great art should disturb you, then Three Great Journeys succeeds. A trilogy of one-person autobiographical performances, the Fringe ofiering at the Pacific Theatre consists of the actors' diverse life stories, each at turns humorous and heartfelt but every one also alarmingly open and disturbing.
All Uuiee involve flashbacks in which tlie performers play themselves, as well as various people in their lives, usually family.
In Carla Rieger's Dancing Between Worlds, the performer recounts fantasizing that her life was that of Persephone's and that her West Point Grey childhood home was Olympus.
The story revolves aroimd tlie transformation of her fatJier from a Zeus-like hero to a Hades-style villain. Not a happy transformation, to put it mildly. Only after his death does she discover the sourcxj of her fatiier's d>-sfunction: a hidden past tragically entangled with the tempestuous history of central Europe. This past caught up with her father who began a downward psydiological spiral and, eventually, unemployment and divorce changed his character for tlie worse.
Ricgcr is a master of mimicH-ing accents and her brief, beautiful forays into song suggest she should incorporate more music into her next performance.
Kate Sutherland's Hoops and Loops is the dark horse of the show. It had the potential to be the most imcomfortable subject matter, as Sutlierland opened up her life in all its failures to the audience. Her method of coping
Please see FRINGE on page 10
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