Life imitating art went over the top in Edmonton last week. 

A long time supporter of the local theatre scene, I’d been anticipating the first production of the new season, a delightful farce by Michael Frayn called Noises Off.  I’d seen this play many years ago and it was a wonderful romp.

Noises Off is about a fictional play called Nothing On.  Let’s just say that nothing goes quite right.  The play begins with the final dress rehearsal where actors still don’t know their lines and the director is losing both patience and mind.  The second act shifts to a backstage view one month later where dissention in the cast causes no end of shenanigans.  In the final act, everything has fallen apart with hilarious consequences.

Little did I know that this time, life had way more in store for the entire production. 

A few days before the play was set to open, one of the lead actors, Julien Arnold had a heart attack.  Fortunately he is recovering well by all reports but veteran actor Ashley Wright had to fly in from Toronto and jump into the part.  Then one day before opening night, actor John Kirkpatrick was called away for a family emergency. 

What to do?

James MacDonald, a director who was in rehearsal in an adjacent theatre stepped into the role of “the director” - with one day’s preparation. Yikes!

Of course all these developments had been covered in the local media and so on opening night when Bob Baker, artistic director of the Citadel Theatre and director of this play, took the stage to make a few comments, the audience was attentive.  Dead pan and entertaining, he certainly set the tone for a play about play where unexpected and unpredictable things run rampant - in the script and in real life.

So what happened?

A FABULOUS performance.  The cast rose to the occasion and provided the audience with a hugely entertaining evening.  Whatever missteps the actors may have made were indistinguishable from those in the script.   Even real-life actors who didn’t know their lines carrying scripts, seemed to fit perfectly into a play about actors who don’t know their lines or marks.

I know in the theatre the show must go on but it would have been a simple and even predictable solution for the play to have been postponed for a while so that everyone could “get it right”.  In this case, Bob Baker got it exactly right by forging ahead.

Life happens - so you can either bring your best to it - or not.  Cast and crew in this production were shining examples of what life can be if you only go with it.

Bravo.