Romantic comedy opens Rosebud Theatre’s 30th anniversary season

Times Contributor  

 

Rosebud Theatre of the Arts kicked off its 30th Anniversary Season with Neil Simon’s romantic comedy, Barefoot in the Park on March 22.

After a passionate six-day honeymoon, the new Mrs. Corie Bratter (Cassia Schramm) sets up housekeeping in a tiny fifth-floor walk-up apartment, and her husband Paul (Aaron Krogman) goes back to work.

Corie wants to make house by day and make love all night. Lawyer Paul just wants to win his first case in court. Inevitably, their romance soon gets a little ragged around the edges.

Corie’s mother Ethel Banks and their neighbour, Victor Velasco, only complicate matters. Mrs. Banks (Marie Russell) manipulates for a closer relationship with her children. Velasco (David Snider) lives in the attic above Corie and Paul, and must access his apartment through their bedroom window because he hasn’t paid his rent. The Telephone Repairman (Mike Thiessen) is a straight-faced but hilarious commentator on the state of the union.

The five-storey climb to the apartment is an essential complication in this story, and I’d wondered how Rosebud would incorporate the many flights of stairs into the set. Scenic Designer Jerod Fahlman created something that works just right, making the climb comic and convincing as all the characters – except the energetic Corie and Velasco — arrive at the top gasping for breath. It inspires lines like Mrs. Banks’ “I feel like we died and went to Heaven … and we had to climb all the way up.”

Predictably, things get much worse for Paul and Corie before they get better. At one point, Paul is sleeping on the couch, fighting to cover himself with the thin pink blanket Corie has thrown at him, while snow drifts onto his head through a hole in the skylight. Paul is so frustrated – and Krogman so convincing — that I felt briefly guilty for laughing at the poor, suffering young man.

David Snider’s role of Velasco is quite a departure from his latest Rosebud roles — Matthew in Anne of Green Gables, and Mitch in Tuesdays with Morrie. He’s mastered the cross-over impressively, delivering Neil Simon’s lines in an entertaining, indefinable European accent and making us laugh ourselves silly with his physical humour.

Marie Russell as Ethel is a staid contrast to Snider’s Velasco – and just as funny. Snider and Russell as a pair are possibly even funnier than Schramm’s Corie and Krogman’s Paul – and that’s saying something. It’s no exaggeration to say we laughed all the way through this play.

To honour Rosebud Theatre’s 30th Season, the play was followed by a gala with speeches from special guests.  Rosebud board member, Janet McLean; Jason Hale, Strathmore-Brooks MLA; and  Richard Starke, Alberta Minister of Tourism, MLA for Vermilion-Lloydminster, all gave credit to “pioneer and thinker” LaVerne Erickson, who started the Rosebud theatre experience with fine arts camps in the village 40 years ago.

Rosebud’s Barefoot in the Park is a must-see this spring. You’ll laugh, cry… and gain new hope for young marriage. The play runs until May 11. Tickets include the Rosebud dinner buffet, and are available at www.rosebudtheatre.com or 1-800-267-7553.