A young actor bent on playing a role in a specific play achieves this end by producing and co-directing an adaptation and casts himself as the lead. No, this isn’t referring to the plot of A Midwinter’s Tale, although fans of the Kenneth Branagh movie might think so. As life imitates art, it’s actually referring to Point of You’s current production, an ironic adaptation of the aforementioned work.

In A Midwinter’s Tale Joe Harper (Johnny Blaze Leavitt) leads a band of misfit actors in his production of Hamlet. Leavitt has a similar task ahead of him to bring Midwinter’s Tale to fruition, although in this case he is aided by a first-rate cast of actors. Whereas the play depicts Joe as being dragged down by his amateur cast, Leavitt’s cast outshines him, making Leavitt look amateurish by comparison.

The characters are the usual theatre stereotypes: Henry Wakefield, the bitter hack (Chris Keating) Terry Du Bois, the raging queen (Marc Adam Smith) and Vernon Spatch, the aging child star (Fred DeReau) to name a few. Especially charming are Nina Raymond (Karron Karr), the flirtatious ingénue who adamantly refuses to wear glasses even though she can’t make an entrance without tripping over her own feet, and Carnforth Greville (Gerard J. Savoy) who has a combination of stage fright, alcoholism, and a failure complex relating to his mother. The ensemble delves into the specificity of their characters with a virtuosity that makes the characters both funny and touching. Johnny Blaze Leavitt unfortunately lacks this aplomb as the character of Joe is played with vague generalities of character.

Surprisingly enough where Leavitt lacks as an actor, he and Jeff Love excel as co-directors. The brilliance of this production lies in its attention to detail. Keep your eyes open for each minutia, for even the costumes and props (designed by Karron Karr) are imbued with exacting amounts of humor. Most memorable are Fadge’s hardhat, Nina’s promptbook, and Henry and Terry’s costumes. Even the lighting design (Jeff Love) is remarkable with blackouts that are timed with extreme comic precision.

The comedy rolls along as the play-within-the-play faces every conceivable disaster that a production might. As Joe portentously says early on to his sister, “A lot of fairy tales turn out to be nightmares.” Besides the quirky characters, Joe also faces being booked at the wrong venue, a designer that refuses to make designs, and an agent that wants pull him from the project all together. Although the characters and situations may seem clichéd to some, the humor will hit at the heart of theatre practitioners. Whether you’re a theatre person, a fan of the original film or of British humor in general there’s a little bit of something for everyone in this piece.

A Midwinter’s Tale , Based on the screenplay by Kenneth Branagh, adapted for the stage by Johnny Blaze Leavitt

The Producers Club II, 616 9^th Avenue

February 26 - March 14, 2004
Thursday - Saturday @ 8pm
Saturday & Sunday Matinees @ 2pm