Reviews 2014
Reviews 2014
✭✭✭✩✩
by Rebecca Perry, directed by Michael Rubinstein
Paper Plaid Productions, SpringWorks, Stratford
• Revel Caffe, May 9; Factory 163, May 13; Falstaff Centre, May 17, 2014;
• McManus Studio Theatre, London Fringe, London
June 4, 6, 7, 10, 13 & 14, 2014;
• Annex Theatre, Toronto Fringe Festival
July 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12 & 13 2014
“Black coffee
Love's a hand me down brew”
from “Black Coffee” by Sonny Burke & Paul Francis Webster
Four the past three years Stratford has been home to two theatre festivals. Everyone knows about the Stratford Shakespeare Festival, now called simply the Stratford Festival. But in 2011 non-profit arts corporation Hermione Presents created the juried multidisciplinary festival in May that takes place during previews to the other Stratford Festival but ends before that Festival’s opening week. This year from May 8-18 SpringWorks is hosting over 100 artists from 34 different companies putting on over 50 productions, workshops and art shows in Stratford and Perth County.
Some of the shows at this year’s SpringWorks I have seen before in Toronto like Dawna Wightman’s Life as a Pomegranate and Victoria Murdoch’s Dairy-Free Love. My first show of my first-ever visit to SpringWorks was Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl written and starring Rebecca Perry. It premiered in Toronto in June 2013 and has since gone on to Fringe Festivals in Winnipeg, Victoria and New York.
Confessions is really about Joanie trying to find out what she wants to do with her life and whether that conflicts with her finding Mr. Right, especially when that person enters her shop in the form of Marco, who writes her private messages to build her confidence.
The synopsis for the show mentions that there is live music, but what it doesn’t mention is that the music is the main attraction of the show. One reason Confessions barely explores its subject is that Perry so frequently breaks into song accompanied by pianist Quinton Naughton, who also provides background vocals. She opens and closes the show with “Rivers and Roads” by The Head and the Heart from 2011. “Little Miss Sunshine” by Courtney Lynn; “Cigarettes and Chocolate Milk” by Rufus Wainwright; “Black Coffee” from 1948 made famous by Sarah Vaughan, Peggy Lee and Ella Fitzgerald; and “Zing Went the Strings of My Heart” from 1934 made famous by Judy Garland all make an appearance.
Perry gives fine renditions of all these songs, the slight duskiness of her voice lending the necessary sense of hurt and longing that underlies most of them. Confessions thus proves to be stronger as a type of cabaret show about Joanie’s life as a typical twentysomething – not sure what to do after college, not sure what to do with emotions, not sure what to do with life – rather than as a narrative about coffeehouse denizens. No matter what, Perry is a plucky young woman bursting with talent. I can’t wait to see her next show.
©Christopher Hoile
Note: This review is a Stage Door exclusive.
Photos: (from top) Rebecca Perry as Joanie; Rebecca Perry. ©2013 Paper Plaid Productions.
For tickets, visit www.springworksfestival.com, www.londonfringe.ca or http://fringetoronto.com.
2014-05-18
Confessions of a Redheaded Coffeeshop Girl