British play gets new look and sound

There Goes the Bride, an English drama by Ray Cooney and John Chapman, gets a new twist by director Catherine Morrison at the Metro Theatre in Vancouver.

This is Morrison’s second time directing the play and this time she decided to add music and costumes that weren’t originally in the script.

“Besides the humour, I loved the story of one man’s transformation, and the impact it made on both his marriage and perhaps, his life,” said Morrison in her director’s notes.

The songs were classics that most people would be able to sing along to, but the songs felt out of place along with the dancing, that was awkwardly placed at times.

The British play takes place in London and focuses on mistaken identity 

There Goes the Bride takes place in London in the 1960s. On the morning of his daughter’s wedding, Timothy Westerby, played by David Wallace, gets a knock to the head. From then on, Timothy starts hallucinating about a flapper girl named Polly Perkins, played by Jill Raymond.

The play is filled with continuous cases of mistaken identity, both purposely and accidentally. Timothy’s hallucinations get worse after he gets a second knock to the head, leading him to believe he’s living in the 1920s.

The problem with the mistaken identities and hallucinations is that it made the play seem to drag on. It wasn’t until the last 10 minutes of the show that most of the problems were resolved.

Two characters steal laughs and the show

However, two of the characters, Timothy’s friend Bill Shorter and the grandfather of the bride Dr Gerald Drimmond, played by Christian Sloan and Don Glossop respectively, stole the show.

Both actors earned laughs from the small audience as they played off of Timothy’s head injury and hallucinations with punch one-liners and dry British wit.

There Goes the Bride plays Thursday to Saturday at 8 p.m. until Mar. 22 with a matinée on Mar. 16 at 2:30 p.m. Tickets are $25 for adults or $22 for seniors and students.

Reported by Lauren Collins