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REVIEW: Tik Tok and Tea, plus big smiles for the audience

Click 'like' for ELATE spring production

Tik Tok & Tea, Elliot Lake Amateur Theatre Ensemble’s (ELATE) 2024 production, got off to a successful start on May 10. The evening performance consisted of two one-act plays presented at Elliot Lake Secondary School.

The first play, Between Friends, by Linda Morgan, a Lively playwright, was introduced by producer David Black as the play’s “world premiere.” He explained that the play was one of the winners of the ELATE playwriting competition in 2022 and created during the COVID period.

He said Between Friends looks at social media, which can either be seen as a “nice way to communicate, but social media can also make us narcissistic. It may not be a good thing.”

Black said the play was directed by Astrid Turner in her directorial debut.

The cast consisted of Katherine Makinson as Brittany, an X-blogger, Kim Williamson as Barbara, Brittany’s mother, Joyce Edwards as Ashley, Brittany’s friend, and Doug Gwilt as Keith, Brittany’s boyfriend.

The plot consists of Brittany trying to find an on-line presence that makes her a household name. She frequently asks viewers to click on “like”. Barbara, Brittany’s mother, can’t understand her daughter. Ashley, Brittany’s friend, often points out Brittany’s failures, and Keith, Brittany’s boyfriend, is easily distracted.

The comedy brings laughter from the audience as Brittany’s efforts keep failing, and her supposed support system, friends and family, don’t help matters. The actors played their parts well, showing great feeling and emotion, making the characters quite believable.

The second play, Tea with Roger, written by Peter Paylor and directed by Murray Finn, was another comedy. The cast consisted of Ruth MacDonald who plays Mavis, Debbie Landry, who plays Joan, Mavis’s friend, and Martin Turner as Roger, Mavis’s ex-fiancé.

The plot involves Mavis explaining to Joan why she has cancelled her upcoming marriage to Roger. “He was a cad…” she says and brings much laughter when she describes her attempts at having an intimate relationship with him. Mavis shocks her friend when describing the lengths she has gone to expose Roger’s infidelity. The play has some great one-liners that has the audience bursting with laughter. All three characters deliver their lines well: Mavis with her straight face as she tells her friend what she has been up to; Joan, who is trying to understand her friend’s outrageous behaviour; and Roger, well, he moans a lot.

ELATE’s 2024 spring production was produced by David Black; Twyla Nicholson is stage manager; Jan Boehler, assistant stage manager; Doug Robinson and Joel Haszard, lighting; and Jay Albert, sound. The spot lighting was particularly effective during Between Friends, when the audience had to be directed to which of the four characters was engaged in communication.

Musician Neil McCausland performed on guitar during intermission. A singer/songwriter that moved to the area last fall with wife Jan Boehler (assistant stage manager), said they moved up from the Niagara region to Northern Ontario because he wanted to live in an area with “less people and quieter.” He said he has been playing since he was 12, both playing the guitar and singing, and has had “a couple of CD’s produced and recorded more down south” with other bands.

McCausland is a “man about town.” Since coming to Elliot Lake, he said he is “more active now than I was down there (in Niagara region).” He has performed with the Wrinkle City Band, George’s Open Mike, Women Alive, Jewels and Gents, the Renaissance Seniors Active Living Centre, WAGS at the curling club on Wednesdays, and Dunlop Lake Lodge on Thursday nights. “So I’m busy,” he says.

“I am amazed with the talent of people up here, and since coming up here I’m countrified. I was Rock and Blues down south, but now I’m country.” McCausland will be performing during intermission on May 11 as well.

Tik Tok & Tea plays another night at Elliot Lake Secondary School on May 11, then again on May 24, 25, 31 and June 1. Tickets are on sale at Alpine Flowers and Gifts (Paris Plaza) for $20 each (cash only) and will not be sold at the door.

If you enjoy live theatre, Tik Tok & Tea will have you leaving the theatre with a smile on your face.



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