Love, lust and loneliness are just a few of the topics covered in the missives that pass through the hands of Marie-Louise, the fiery, feisty postmistress of fictional Lovely, Ontario, in 1968. Mary-Louise sings and dances her way through the stories of a dozen of the town’s inhabitants, revealing much about her life along the way. Martha Irving is simply perfect in the role. Her gorgeous voice is well-suited to Tomson Highway’s jazzy tunes. She nails Marie-Louise’s French accent and her passionate nature. While the first half of the show grows slightly monotonous musically and stylistically—the postmistress divines the contents of a letter, sings about it, recaps it, and so on, and so on —there are plenty of surprises in the second half that will make you glad you got to know this one-of-a-kind character.
To August 28, Ship’s Company Theatre, 18 Lower Main Street,
Parrsboro, $18.30-27.90, 8pm, 254-2003
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This article appears in Aug 11-17, 2011.
