Antony took Thunder Bay by Storm
By Bruce Mason, Gabriola Sounder
Monday, March 17 2008
Severe winter storms have been hammering points east recently. But there has been a bright spot in Ontario, as well - a warm ray of sunshine in the form of Antony Holland in his award-winning lead role in Tuesdays with Morrie.
Since he has been there, sharing the wealth, I have given myself permission to chuckle just a tiny bit now and then about all that snow, but I was curious about how he was making out in what appears to be a Canadian winter record.
“No storms here - this is NW Ontario,” he wrote in a return E-mail. “It’s all in the South and East. Here its sunshine and minus 18, but the forecast is for temperatures moving up.
“Out of 18 performances so far only one without standing ovation, a school matinee, and the box office has been the best of any show this season” he added, promising to send some more reviews.
“Here,” would be Thunder Bay and more precisely the Magnus Theatre where Antony was sharing centre stage with Warren Kimmel in a reprisal of the hit Vancouver Arts Club production, February 28th to March 15th.
“Audience cares for teacher in Tuesdays with Morrie,” reported the Thunder Bay Chronicle Journal. Even a sports editor of one of the local newspapers got into the act inviting his readers to “Spend an Evening with Morrie.”
The Thunder Bay Source says “Accolades for Anthony Holland,” but like the sports writer misspelling the first name; getting Holland right, however.
The theatre critic for the Source quotes adjectives used by other reviewers such as brilliant, endearing, mischievous, warm and profound, adding her own assurance that Antony’s Jesse Award last year for outstanding male role acknowledged “the excellence of his performance.”
Other comments included: “Six stars out of five,” and,“my advice is to do whatever you have to do to see this play.”
Here is a personal favourite: “Morrie was actually played by an 88 year old man who runs and owns a theatre company (in Vancouver, I believe it was) and I got to talk to him for a few minutes. He was really something special.”
By the time you read this Antony will have returned to work at his Gabriola Theatre Centre and on the Gulf Island’s first professional theatre company, which he founded. Members of the No Bells and Whistles company will be performing in Courtenay next month.
In the meantime Antony Holland will have an 88th birthday this weekend. You may want to congratulate him on his rave reviews and legions of new fans in Thunder Bay. E-mail antony85@shaw.ca. And the best birthday gift I can think of is to take out an annual membership, or two, to his Gabriola Theatre Centre.
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