Passion, puppets and hanky-panky

Byron Toben

May 2012

Two major English theatre outfits, the Centaur and the Segal Centre, play leapfrog in outdoing each other with fine productions. They do this while remaining supportive of each other.

The Centaur raised the bar with last month’s enthralling Intimate Apparel, and we can look forward to two features from the Segal Centre in May.

After winning the 1975 Tony Award, Same Time, Next Year morphed into a successful movie with Alan Alda and Ellen Burstyn in 1978. The author, Canadian-born Bernard Slade, had penned such stage hits as Tribute and TV classics as The Flying Nun, The Partridge Family and Bewitched.

Same Time is directed by Diana Le Blanc. R.H. Thomson plays George, a married New Jersey accountant, and Michelle Giroux is Doris, a married Oakland housewife. They meet at a California inn in 1951, have an affair and decide to meet once a year. Over the next 24 years, they develop an emotional intimacy as their families grow and times change.

Runs till May 20. 514-739-9394.

Across the hall in the Segal Studio space, Scapegoat Carnivale presents The Heretics of Bohemia by Joseph Schragge, directed by Alison Darcy.

It features 10 local actors and even more puppets. Set on the mythical coast of Bohemia, it is a “cosmic fairy tale about a king and his mother.”

How can you go wrong with expressive actors Andreas Apergis, Dan Jeannotte, Leni Parker, Michel Perron, Falicia Shulman and Paul Van Dyke? The puppets may be more wooden.

Runs till May 19. 514-739-7944.