Love, Lust & Lace debuted back in October with an astonishing wave of positive feedback from the audience. Now, the 2016 BFA acting class is bringing the show to Axis Theatre to raise funds for the show's performance at the Edinburgh fringe Festival.
On stage April 24 and 25, UBC’s 2016 BFA acting class, in collaboration with the Axis Theatre’s artistic director, Chris McGregor, returns the heartening stories of love and friendship for two very different sisters.
What started out as a mere class project turned into one of the greatest joys for the cast and a memorable experience for the audience. The performances are heavily improvised allowing for audience participation.
Elizabeth Willow, who portrays Columbina, conveys the story came to life from “stalk characters with set characteristics, movements and vocal types,” to characters with unique personalities and relatable experiences for the audience. The story centres on two sisters, Columbina dreaming of love and family while the naughty Smeraldina dreams of adventure and promiscuity. It tells the story of Il Capitano’s (Francis Winter) struggle to win the heart of Columbina and how Smeraldina (Selene Rose) and the girls' father Pantalone (Meegin Pye) have schemes to foil this growing relationship.
“Two different desires that anyone could have,” said Willow as she further explained how the play touches on issues of sexuality and gender, with underlying aspects of female liberation and empowerment. This Commedia dell’Arte performance is sure to keep the audience laughing from the clowned cast’s performance and “make people question on judgments and why society assigns the label naughty and nice,” said Willow. The performance ends with a Burlesque number, choreographed by Kelsey Ranshaw and Elizabeth Willow, you’re sure to enjoy.
The performance has been admitted to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for the summer of 2016 in Scotland. The April 24 and 25 performances will be held in order to fundraise for that event and to fund the cast’s planned Fringe tour across Canada, specifically in Victoria, Vancouver, Edmonton and Montreal.
“Our arts are well-renowned and very important and it’s more of getting UBC’s name out there as a theatre school,” said Willow when asked how this fundraiser and the possibility of an across Canada tour was important for UBC’s theatre department.
The fundraiser will host musical performances by DJ Laz3rd, solo act Baron Vaughn Swenson and the Car Alarm Party band, featuring Nathan Cottell. There will also be a 50/50 draw and a silent auction with awesome prizes, such as tickets to different theatre companies, art works by Canadian artists, unlimited yoga passes for a month and many more the audience can bid on.
“It’s one of those stories that is, as much as it is a comedy and ridiculous, it’s also very heartfelt,” said Willow. “People can just expect a lot of laughs and genuine enjoyment in two nights of music, theatre and arts.”
Love, Lust & Lace will be performed at UBC Theatre’s April fundraiser at Dorothy Somerset Studio April 24 and 25 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets can be purchased at the door or online at $15.