Give me a "booo," give me a "hooray," give me a deeply felt "aaah." Audience involvement is the best part of watching melodrama. At last week's performance of Peninsula Players' Black Deeds in Whitehorse at Pebbles Restaurant in Sechelt, the audience, prompted by an excellent five-course-meal and post-prandial brandies, was in fine form to boo the villain, Mr. Murky (played with gleeful iniquity by Bryan Carson), cheer the heroic Mountie (brought to life by a manly Derek Browning) and sigh over the lovely heroine, Nan (the dainty Julie Mackenzie.) Indeed, it takes a few drinks and jollification to capture the spirit of the play, written by Alice McDonald, since there is a downside to melodrama - its predictability. We know that Maud, the innkeeper with a heart of gold (Moira Scholtz), will help young Nan to recover after she is found by Monty, the Mountie, half frozen in the snow. We know that comical dance girl Lil (Marilyn Browning) will hide a guilty secret, although we didn't know that she would get some of the funniest lines in the play. We know that the evil Murky will meet his reckoning and that one of the loggers or trappers, performed delightfully by Dorothy Fraser and Bob Dall, will turn out to be (gasp!) little Nan's long lost father. Dinner theatre at Pebbles Restaurant is proving popular. The April 1 show was sold out and the small room within the larger restaurant seats only 52. It's a good deal for $38. The five-course meal involved a delicate strawberry mango salad, grilled salmon appetizer with roasted pepper sauce, lemon sorbet to cleanse the palate, beef tenderloin stroganoff with just a hint of heat in the gravy, followed by chocolate pecan pie. Take that, Dr. Atkins!
Highlights of this particular show included Browning's comical stage presence, Dorothy Fraser's rendering of "I'm a Lumberjack," Sue Carson's humorous chatter as the travelling saleswoman and the addition of music to this production. Music director Angela Johnson played an original tune on the piano to open the show, followed by parodies of old time hits.
Black Deeds in Whitehorse appeared for only six performances, but judging by the audience response, dinner theatre will be safely on the menu next year.
