By Nadine Moedt (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: November 14, 2012
UFV Theatre Department’s ambitious fall production of Once in a Lifetime opened on Friday night to a capacity crowd. By the evening’s end, the audience was enthusiastic in expressing its appreciation for a lively, entertaining and zany evening of theatre. Once in a Lifetime, a comedy by Moss Hart and George S. Kaufman, originally opened on Broadway in 1930. It is the story of three vaudeville actors who travel west to cash in on the revolution that was taking place – the advent of the Vitaphone, the invention that brought sound to motion pictures. Thanks to their audacity and bizarre good luck, the three end up running a school of elocution for movie stars attempting to make the transition into the new era of talkies.
This production by the UFV Theatre Department, skillfully directed by faculty member Ian Fenwick, pulls out all the stops in presenting an evening of delightful theatre, at times reminiscent of a Marx Brothers movie. The large cast of 24 (almost all of whom are students in the Theatre department) handles a dazzling array of characters: cigarette girls, rangy movie executives, bellhops and chauffeurs with ambitions of becoming movie stars, a quirky German director, waiters with ambitions of becoming scenario writers, vapid secretaries, a frustrated playwright, and so on. The play takes a lunatic turn when one of the three vaudevillians, thanks to an ingenuousness that is misinterpreted as genius, is made supervisor over all movie productions at a leading Hollywood studio. To say anymore would be to give it away, but let it be known that the final outcome is far from predictable. The cast manages to negotiate all the twists and turns of character and story with aplomb and panache. It is a lovely piece of ensemble playing.
Adding to the evening’s delight are the costumes, all designed with a sharp eye for the styles of the late 1920s. The women’s formal dresses are sumptuous. And the men are quite striking in their suits and tuxedos. The set, reflecting the early twentieth century vogue of Art Deco, is flexible enough to quickly transform from New York apartment to train compartment, to Beverly Hills hotel, to movie studio reception area, to Hollywood movie set. The scene changes are effected effortlessly by the cast while in costume. A special mention must go to the entertaining videos shown on two overhead screens. The audience was treated to a clip of Al Jolson singing “California, Here I Come,” as well as images of early Hollywood. These images, along with the music, really helped in transporting the audience back to that earlier era.
This is a one-of-a-kind production and it would be well worth your time to go see it. Although the comedy is lighthearted, there is a bite to the satire about how Hollywood goes about making movies, which makes it still relevant today. The budgets may have gotten bigger, but the egos and the ambitions have remained as grandiose as ever. There is much to laugh about and the zaniness that the director and cast have added to the script provide an evening of solid entertainment. As one member of the audience was overheard saying while leaving the theatre, “I felt like I was on acid.” That comment hints at the adventuresome spirit of this latest venture by the UFV Theatre Department.
The show runs during the week of November 18 through 25. Evening shows are on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and a matinee plays on Sunday. There is also a weekday matinee on Tuesday, November 20. For more information, contact the box office. For information and tickets call 604-795-2814 or email theatre@ufv.ca.
