Prelude to a Kiss

Here's your review of Prelude to a Kiss, by Strawberry Theatre Workshop, now playing at 12th Avenue Arts, which I saw tonight.

The company had begun producing Reckless but decided late in the process that it was not the show they wanted to do.

So I asked one of the actors at the opening night reception afterward how it was to have less than three weeks to prepare for a show. He said they all just jumped in.

That full speed ahead, all-in attitude was evident from the first moment of the show. It was as if they had been doing it for weeks. Strong choices. Fully formed characters. I was sucked right in.

MJ Sieber is a lovable puppy dog as Peter. Anastasia Higham as Rita falls hard for him -- or maybe she's been waiting for him a long time -- in the opening scene, where they meet, as if by accident, at a party.

Later, as if by another accident, Rita has switched bodies with an old man. Each tries to live the other's life.

The theme of the show, based on everything I had read beforehand, was supposed to be Peter's conundrum: what happens when beauty fades. Who -- or what is it, really, that you fall in love with?

But there is a scene in act two between Rita and the old man that grabbed me harder. They talk about how they were desperate to trade places. One wanted to fast forward to the end, past all the hard parts of life. The other wanted to rewind to the beginning and re-do the good parts.

Strawberry Theater Workshop had decided they were going in the wrong direction with Reckless and to be true to themselves, they would do Prelude to a Kiss instead. So it's quite the parallel that Rita and the old man come to the same conclusion: better to be yourself.

It works.

(Photo taken from Strawshop Facebook page)

Originally published on my Facebook page on September 8, 2018.