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GLT's Rumors is 'funny and fun to watch'
Tuesday November 11 2008
By Ted Brown, staff writer
 
It’s amazing the trouble a few people can get themselves into by simply avoiding the truth.
Such was the case as Georgetown Little Theatre’s newest production, Rumors opened Thursday night at John Elliott Theatre.
The plot centres around four couples attending a dinner party in celebration of the fifth couple’s 10th anniversary. When the first pair arrive, they find the husband has wounded himself in the head (through his earlobe) and the wife appears to be missing.
They automatically go into ‘protect mode’ and as the other couples arrive, they keep inventing a new spin on the story to explain that one of the hosts is in his bedroom and his wife has apparently left, in the event the police drop by.
The stage is set for monstrous miscommunications and lots of laughs to boot.
Carol Beauchamp and Gary Mlravey play Chris and Ken Gorman, the first couple to arrive. They tend to portray their characters as excitable and frenetic individuals, who are prone to panicking at the drop of a hat—all the while they chip away at each other with sarcasm and criticism.
Angela Gibson ad John Wallace play the Ganz family, Claire and Lenny. Gibson plays her character with a frazzled timidness, while Wallace gives Lenny a boisterous air with lots of opinionated bravado.
Ernie and Cookie Cusack are played by John Luciani and Patricia Ball. Luciani’s character is portrayed with a somewhat quiet ineptness, while Ball plays Cookie, who comes across as a few crumbs short of a cupcake.
The Coopers, Glenn and Cassie, are played by John Gabriel and Margaret Brady. Gabriel’s character is a bit pompous and blowy, (perfect for the budding politician that he is) and Brady plays her character as a spoiled sexy vamp.
Two police officers, Officers Welch and Pudney, are played by Larry Jarvis and Lianne Ramsey.  Jarvis plays a believable cop with good dialogue, while Ramsey’s part has only a few lines.
There is no one cast member who outshines the others, but at one point, John Wallace takes the show away as his character stands in for the hapless Charlie to face the police, while the real Charlie is upstairs nursing his bullet riddled earlobe.
Wallace’s character Lennie goes into a nervous completely fabricated explanation to the police officers, to avoid suspicion. Wallace’s performance of that explanation makes the play well worth the admission alone.
The set was well appointed, giving it the look of an upscale New York townhouse, with lots of attention to detail, and great staging.
Rumors is a funny play. The cast is quite varied and (at times) predictable, but still fun to watch. The first act of Thursday’s opening saw some cast members over-acting a bit, but they settled down as the play entered the second act.
Rumors does have some profanity in the dialogue which might offend a few, but nothing worse than chef Gordon Ramsey would say on his television show, Kitchen Nightmares, and to be honest, the profanity actually adds to the humour of the play.
Rumors continues its run this week.