You can watch the Scotties, the women's national curling championship, on TSN, you can watch curling at the Canada Winter Games live in Prince George or on TSN2, but there is one other local place where curling is in the spotlight.
Anyone looking for some artistic diversion, some lighthearted entertainment during all these sports around the city, some classic Canadian drama is in the house at Theatre North West. Nobody would presume that any of the provincial teams here for the Games would resort to such tactics, but one proud and religiously vexed cobbler from Spruce Corners, B.C. actually made a deal with the devil to win the Brier, but he had to compete against the rink from hell to do it, and we get to see it slide out of the hacks in The Black Bonspiel Of Wullie MacCrimmon.
This play was chosen by TNW to specifically brush up against the Canada Winter Games, and give visitors to the city an evening entertainment option that was themed on the day's events but also tells a fun story. They throw a piss-cutter of a shot and hammer the audience's funnybone on the sheet they set at their all-pro playhouse.
Just to underscore the gamesmanship of it all, there are actual curling shots thrown in this soulful game. It is theatre, these are actors, but on two occasions the scene calls for a draw to the button and there is also a takeout shot to make. The rocks slide in from the wings, but they are indeed thrown by actor Nigel McInnis who, in addition to his skills playing the hilariously guilt-hobbled Judas Iscariot, is also a curler of note over at the Prince George Golf and Curling Club.
The script calls for these shots to be made, to move the story forward, and what happens if the rock comes in heavy or hogs up we in the opening night audience will never know because McInnis nailed them all. A roar went up each time.
There are also roars of laughter. Be it the perfect Scottish brogue and slicing delivery by skip actor William Vickers (Wullie MacCrimmon), or the dasterdly dialogue by Stefano Giulianetti that gets a big "hell yeah" for his devilish performance, or the apparently stoned-on-Macbeth (think of how the Shakespearean king would have been portrayed in Bill And Ted's Excellent Adventure) played by Paul Herbert.
In the role of Reverend Pringle, Kirk Smith is a deft straight-man to Vickers's wise cracks. While Vickers has the knack for holding character in the midst of madcap characterization, Smith holds steady through the plot's serious issues. Many of those are in the clutches of town fuddy-duddy Annie Brown, played sharply by Elinor Holt. Through her we see touches of small town domestic dynamics as she and husband Pipefittin' Charlie Brown (a crafty performance by Kim Kondrashoff) thrust and parry over Sabbath curling morals.
Actors Deb Williams and Kent Allen have great draw-weight in their roles making up the rest of Wullie's rink. Zarrah Holvick deserves extra credit for rockin' the revolutionary Marie Antoinette dress on hell's rink.
The actors brought their considerable skills to the play, but audiences will also marvel at some brilliant set designs and props. The team working with director Robin Nichol brought us into Wullie's shoe repair shop, out onto a small town street and into a quaint curling club without leaving our seats. They also sent us some clever smoke signals, like a postcard from Hades.
The devil is in the details, of course. Not everything about this production hits and sticks. Even the script itself, written by the famed novelist and short-story writer W.O. Mitchell, comes in a little heavy on some points. One might think MacCrimmon a bit of an easy touch for the devil, and wish for more of an inner conflict reasoning him into a pact with Auld Clootie. But nobody's performance is anything less than enjoyable and in the case of Vickers, Giulianetti and Herbert they are worth the price of admission all by themselves, and besides, let you who are sinless cast the first stone.
