It seems to me there鈥檚 a trade-off to be made with film noir and/or 鈥渟tage noir.鈥� Audiences will forgive the fact that the characters are really just caricatures if, and only if, the presentation is sufficiently 鈥渘oir-ish鈥� 鈥� dark and shadowy, lots of smoking and drinking, gangsters, femmes so fatale that men are falling like flies (or unzipping their flies) for them, smoking guns, dead bodies and a wisecracking private dick that鈥檚 just a little bit stupid when it comes to women. The music is breathy and sexy; there鈥檚 a hot, hot trumpet wailing away somewhere in the dark.
Playwright Aaron Bushkowsky packs all of that into his adaptation of Raymond Chandler鈥檚 1940 novel Farewell, My Lovely in this Arts Club/Vertigo Theatre (Calgary) co-pro. The staging is, arguably, the star of this production.
The setting is Los Angeles, established off the top by Jamie Nesbitt鈥檚 black-and-white projection of L.A. circa 1940. From that point on, the projections keep coming. Scott Reid鈥檚 set 鈥� three slightly skewed arches 鈥� is almost austere but props (a desk, a chaise lounge, a table at the classy Belvedere Club, etcetera) are whisked on and off at top speed. Scene changes are super fast and Reid鈥檚 lighting is appropriately shadowy or focused tightly on the immediate action. Dewi Wood鈥檚 sound design is smoky, sultry and period-perfect; echoes of 鈥淢y Funny Valentine鈥� are still haunting me. Farewell, My Lovely is candy for the eye and ear.
If the staging is the star, a close runner-up is Emma Slipp 鈥� the 鈥淟ovely鈥� in the title. Yet another Studio 58 grad, Slipp makes her Arts Club debut in this show, but she already has several Jessie nominations (amongst them, Sharla in ITSAZOO鈥檚 Killer Joe) and work across Canada, the U.S., South Korea and Singapore to her credit. She鈥檚 dark-haired, dark-eyed, curvy and beautiful, and she delivers a line with just the right amount of innuendo. After saving Marlowe鈥檚 life, for example, Slipp finds herself in a tight embrace with Graham Percy (Marlowe) and says, huskily, 鈥淚 can sense your 鈥� gratitude.鈥�
Indeed, Bushkowsky, recently short-listed for the Leacock Medal for Humour, proves shamelessly masterful at working the double entendres, another defining element of film noir. Laughter and groans greeted, 鈥淓vens dicks have a bad night once in a while.鈥�
Luscious Lucia Frangione doesn鈥檛 last long in this show; her character, Jessie Florian, gets 鈥渙ffed鈥� pretty quickly. But while Frangione鈥檚 on stage, she makes a beautiful, blowsy drunk: a tangled mess of hair, a robe that threatens to fall open 鈥� or off.
Jamie Konchak鈥檚 Helen Grayle is sophisticated and wicked; Mrs. Grayle doesn鈥檛 last long, either.
Unlike James Bond, whose roots may be found in characters like Philip Marlowe and Sam Spade, Marlowe isn鈥檛 tall, dark and handsome. He鈥檚 a bit of a klutz, a hard-working private eye just trying to keep himself from getting killed. Percy, as Marlowe, is a homespun kind of fellow, a sort of guy-next-door from whom you might borrow a lawnmower. And yet Percy makes his Marlowe interesting enough that the ladies love him.
Supporting roles are well played by Anthony F. Ingram, Stephen Hair and Beau Dixon.
The upside of this production? Interesting visuals, its 鈥渘oirishness鈥� and Emma Slipp. The downside? Caricatures that we don鈥檛 care about. That鈥檚 the trade-off.
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Farewell, My Lovely is at the Arts Club Granville Island Stage until May 2. Call 604-687-1644 or go to .
