Tag Archives: play

“Women on Top” to run at UBC

Leave a reply

I’ve corresponded with Matthew Klippenstein a few times over the past few years, and found him to be an engaging, entertaining writer. Now I learn that, in addition to being an engineer at Ballard Power Systems, he’s also a playwright.

So I’m pretty disappointed that I’ll have to miss the staging of his first play… but that doesn’t mean you have to!

The details (updated – dates changed):

This is part of UBC’s Classics Week, so it’s based on an old Greek comedy (“the assemblywomen”) wherein a bunch of women disguise themselves as men, enter the Assembly (Athenian Parliament) and vote themselves absolute power. And since it’s a Greek comedy, it’s got the three C’s: a chorus, cross-dressing, and coarse humour. All fortified with three musical numbers!

Dates: Jan. 27-30 (Saturday through Tuesday)
Time: 8 p.m. (with a 3 p.m. performance on Jan 28)
Cost: $10 (I think)

Show: “Women on top”

Plot: The women of ancient Athens disguise themselves as men and vote themselves absolute power. Hilarity ensues

Where: Dettwiller Theatre, in the Dettwiller Pavilion of the UBC Hospital, just south of the main building (Google map)

Parking: Hospital parking is expensive, but there’s free parking after 6 p.m. all along Western Parkway just south of University Boulevard. (See map.)

Tickets: if you know when you can make it, I’ll pass the news along to the co-producer / booker, to keep some seats open at that show :-)

Darren Barefoot, playwright

2 Replies

Vancouver’s crown prince of blogging is writing a play… and blogging about the process:

I’m writing a play. It’s currently called Bolloxed and will–knock on wood, spin three times and throw the salt over your shoulder–premiere at the 2006 Victoria Fringe Festival, to be followed by a run at the Vancouver Fringe Festival. The folks at Theatre Tart will produce the show.

The blog’s remarkable, not just because it’s a peek over a writer’s shoulder as he works (I don’t know a single writer who’d let you do that), but because Darren is so upfront about his own fears about writing:

Why write a blog about writing and producing a play? Good question. First and foremost, writing a play scares the bejeesus out of me. If I’m Naomi Watts in The Ring, writing a play is that creepy pasty girl with the matted hair. It’s my hope that blogging about writing a play will temper this fear.

Why am I scared? It’s a confidence thing. When it comes to writing drama, I have none. Despite a degree in Theatre and Creative Writing, and having written a number of plays before, I have zero faith in my ability. Also, any small conviction I might have once had about my education and experience has been been killed by a few years off the drama-writing horse.

I’m afraid my play won’t be funny or entertaining or insightful or compelling or touching or any of the things that good plays are. I’m also afraid (don’t tell Theatre Tart) that it won’t get done, at least not to anywhere near my satisfaction.

My guess is it’ll be hilarious. And I hope be one of the first to find out when the play opens at the Vancouver Fringe.