A lovely Christmas play to get you in the mood. Hungarian Miklos Laszlo wrote this in 1937, and it became the basis for two movies - The Shop Around the Corner, and You've Got Mail.
Oliver Dennis and Patricia Fagan play the unknowing lovers, ably supported by Michael Simpson, Joseph Zeigler and Jeff Lillico as fellow employees.
Lillico is hilarious as the apprentice - he must be older than he looks, as we've seen him in these young roles for years, but he gets funnier all the time.
Morris Panych directed and Ken Macdonald designed a lovely confection of a set.
I don't see how you can avoid using "charming" when describing this play/production/set/cast. If the store had been a chocolaterie, diabetics wouldn't have been allowed in the theatre. Actually, that's unfair. They kept it from being too sweet; there was always enough tartness left between Rosie (Patricia Fagen) and George (Oliver Dennis). As Sipos said "It sounds like a marriage".
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I doubt that any one in the audience didn't leave happier than they arrived.
This production was a surprise because Soulpepper doesn't usually do charming. Generally, the Soulpepper season has been less ponderous than usual. I wonder what happened?