22 hours Ago By [email protected]
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Calgarian James Odin Wade’s Return to Empire Video is the final show in Lunchbox Theatre’s 50th anniversary season.
His comedy is about loss of friends, relationships and technology. In this case, the technology is the VHS cassettes that were the home-entertainment staple of the 1980s and 1990s. His play is set in 2003, in smal-ltown Alberta, when DVDs were taking over the home entertainment industry.
This particular Canadian Empire Video store has received hundred of VHS cassettes from an American outlet which has already switched to DVDs. It is up to employees Cass, Owen and Thomas to catalogue these cassettes for sale and rental on their evening shift. They are under pressure because they have been invited to a special screening of The Matrix Reloaded that same evening.
They will get to see the movie before anyone else in town. These three young people are movie buffs who think and speak in terms of film. Wade fills the dialogue with references to films.
It’s not essential to know the references but it certainly helps. What is more important is the relationships. Owen (John Tasker) thinks Cass (Heidi Damayo) is his best friend.
She secretly sees them as more, so she is hurt when she discovers he is dating the projectionist who has invited them to screen The Matrix Reloaded at the theatre where she works. Thomas (Greg Wilson) knows what is really going on and lords if over Owen and Cass. He also knows that Owen already has the promotion Cass is hoping to get.
For the audience, it’s a case of what will happen when the promotion and the affair are revealed. We really want to know how Cass will react to the secrets Owen has been keeping from her. It is ironic that Cass hates the 2003 British movie Love Actually because it is so hollow and predictable, yet it is a mirror of her own situation.
There are more twists to Return to Empire Video but it would be unfair to reveal them. Just know that lighting designer Lisa Floyd hasn’t fallen asleep or hit the wrong buttons. The weird lighting effects that occur occasionally are intentional and integral to the plot.
Calgarians donated more than 1,200 cassettes to Lunchbox, and set designer Hanne Loosen has put them to good use. Dozens of them are used by Damayo, Tasker and Wilson, and most of the others have become part of the walls of Loosen’s set. Wade hasn’t really given his actors much to work with character wise.
These are pretty one-note characters, but Damayo, Tasker and Wilson have fun with the caricatures they’re working with. Wilson get to be obnoxious and hungover; Damayo gets to be all bubbly and positive and Tasker gets to be moody and introspective. Director Bronwyn Steinberg gives her trio invisible customers to work with, and it adds a great deal of fun to the proceedings.
Return to Empire Video is a pleasant way to spend an hour, and the twist does add the feeling of nostalgia Wade is after. Return to Empire Video runs in the Vertigo Studio Theatre at the base of the Calgary Tower until April 13..
