The following review was submitted by Dan Martin, a London Central co-op student who has recently been working with London Community Players. Thanks to Connie Galera for setting up the opportunity, and of course thanks Dan!

Tina and her Mourning Dove

The premiere of Mourning Dove by Emil Sher occurred at the Palace Theatre on Wednesday January 20th. Directed by Sue Perkins, it is the story of the Ramsay family’s struggle to fix their daughter Tina (Emily Mailloux) whom, at a very young age, is deaf, mute, and stuck in a wheel chair. As Tina struggles, so do her parents and close friend, Doug Ramsay (Paul Myers), Sandra Ramsay (Maria Piccoli-Zimmermann), and Keith Martel (Andrew Jiggins). This play is an emotionally powerful masterpiece.

The set did not change at all, but because of the way the actors used the stage, it never needed to be changed. The actors used every corner to their advantage and it made the production that much better. The set pieces were awesome to look at. Everything from the Ark, to the simple cupboards, to the marionettes hung over the stage; they all served a purpose and were very nice pieces of work. The music that was used for this show definitely suited the overall mood of it, I really enjoyed it. Costumes were not all that complex but were certainly well suited to whichever scene was occurring. There were many props and most of them used in one way or another. My favourite props were the marionettes that made Tina laugh, the Dove that Keith made for Tina, and of course, Hippo’s family.

All of my favourite props above are all related to Keith. This is because each of these props had a powerful emotional or comical moment performed by Keith. First, the marionettes: the reason why I love these props so much, is because it almost brought me to tears when Keith came into the garage after the funeral and cut them down. The Dove is almost the same way. Keith made the dove for Tina for after her operation, but she never got to see it when it was finished. So when Keith cuts it down, it’s an even more intense emotional scene.

But Keith is not a sad and gloomy person. In the show he provides a lot of comic relief. Such as with the Hippos when Doug and Keith put on “Noah’s Ark” for Tina. In a previous scene, Keith says that if it was up to him, he’d say yes to all the hippos to come onto the Ark. So when Noah says, “Bring forth the hippos,” Keith brings Hippo, Hippo’s sister, Hippo’s brother, and all the way up to Hippo’s fourth cousin three times removed. That scene was one of my favourites.

The scenes where Doug and Sandra have their moments together are very powerful and emotional. The actors do an amazing job of showing how much stress is on the characters and how far they are being pushed. Doug and Sandra have been pushed to their outer limits time and time again, and the emotion just pours out when they are alone, or with one another, but not usually when Keith is around. Now although Tina is never actually seen, the actors do a phenomenal job of making you think she’s there. There’s always a wheelchair on stage that Tina is supposed to be sitting in, and the actors constantly interact with it making it seem like she is actually there.

Everyone involved in this show did a fantastic job. Thank you actors, crew, London Community Players for putting on another amazing show. I would recommend this show to anyone who doesn’t mind being emotional or likes emotional plays at all. Great job guys.