Ghost Light lights up
four nights at Victoria Hall

Westmount community theatre group Dramatis Personae presents five short plays

By Byron Toben

February 22, 2024

Dramatis Personae, Westmount’s community theatre founded by Ann Page in 1984, continued its fine track record in mid-February with five short plays directed by professional Christopher Moore guiding a cast of eleven talented amateur actors, who, like the Montreal Lyric Singers, donate their time and energy without remuneration.

The plays were preceded by a short monologue written by Mr. Moore, entitled Ode to Ghost Lights. Ghost Lights are lights, usually one-bulb floor lamps left on stage when the theatre is closed down and dark to prevent accidents such as falling from the stage. This ode was enunciated by newish member Mary Ann Farley.

Ms. Farley then performed as an usher to a line of six people waiting in Standing Room Only by Aren Houn. The standees were Dramatis Personae regulars, Jenny Chopra, Ellen Rubin, Ann Elbourne and Malcolm McRae, joined by newish members Bruna Perusello and Brian Wrench. The clever script dealt with complaints, lack of information, some chatter from a self-appointed know-it-all and a demand for refunds. This basic concept brought back to my mind the 1967 play Line by Israel Horovitz, where people joined a line just because it was there, without knowing its purpose. It was, for some time, the longest-running play in Off Off Broadway history and not only Horovitz’s first play but also the first in which Richard Dreyfuss acted.

In the next aptly titled play, May Flies by David Ives, there are two short-lived May Flies, May (Natalie Saint-Pierre) and Horace (Brian Wrench), both recent additions and, as British TV Science celebrity David Attenborough, veteran Clive Brewer. Ah, the brief lives of May Flies who only live one day and even shorter should Bull frogs inhabit their pond. I vaguely recall that Ms. Rubin also played a May Fly in another play a year or two back.

If Shakespeare were a ghost, he would, methinks, be pleased by Ghost Light, as was the sold-out audience on the night I saw it.

Mercury’s in Retrograde by Rich Orloff.  Mr. Orloff is not to be confused with Montreal’s Richard Orlove. I have followed Mr. Orloff, the king of ultra-short plays, since meeting him by chance and watching one of his many plays from a Greenwich village rooftop on a New York trip some years back. Here stalwarts Ms. Rubin and Ms. Elbourne play two visitors from the planet Mercury threatening to take over Earth when the President of the USA (Mrs. Chopra) foils them with a planned pollution of water and air so that it would not be worth the taking. Too clever by half? You decide.

Storms, Sheets and Show Tunes by Stacey Lane. Here, pompous Director Billington (Mr. Brewer) is auditioning candidates to play ghosts in a ghost play: La Donna (veteran Karen Sauder), Edwin (Mr. McRae), a girl (Ms. Farley), as well as two others (Ms. Chopra and Ms. Perussello). Much goes awry as they are unsuitable to his exacting standards – or perhaps anybody’s standards.

The Fifteen Minute Hamlet by Tom Stoppard. This short play, by a world-famous long play playwright, ended the evening. All eleven actors played the characters, including director Moore, filling in as Laertes for an ill cast member. This rapid-fire Hamlet had all the familiar quotes and was followed by an even faster encore of about three minutes.

Absolutely delightful! It brought to mind the famous Complete Works of William Shakespeare, abridged, which I recall seeing at the Gesu at an early Just For Laughs Festival.

If Shakespeare were a ghost, he would, methinks, be pleased by Ghost Light, as was the sold-out audience on the night I saw it.

Feature image: the cast of Ghost Light
Images: courtesy of Dramatis Personae

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Byron Toben, a past president of The Montreal Press Club, has been WestmountMag.ca’s theatre reviewer since July 2015. Previously, he wrote for since terminated websites Rover Arts and Charlebois Post, print weekly The Downtowner, and print monthly The Senior Times. He also is an expert consultant on U.S. work permits for Canadians.