Centaur's "Bus Stops" a wild ride that pulls no stops

Sometimes, the greatest of human tragedies takes place in the most ordinary, every day type of places, such as a city bus. 

And that's the focus of the latest production in the Centaur Theatre's 47th season, the English-language premiere of Theatre I.N.K.’s production of “Bus Stops”, which runs until March 27. 

The play takes place on a city bus with a group of passengers as it goes along its usual route. During this ordinary bus run, a bomb explodes, killing every passenger on the bus. This tragedy is the springboard for the group of passengers to reveal their personal stories that saw themselves end up on the bus in question and the tragedy that was the end result. We learn about their stories of hidden dreams, passion, secret love, rejection and self awareness that are told with a great deal of enthusiasm, heart and a touch of comedy. 

Marilyn Perreault's play works well in translation, and is a deep lesson in human emotions that are bared out in the most common of places; it's a tragicomedy that pulls no stops, and the wild mix of multi-media and a masterfully crafted set by Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle peels the layers of this human tragedy (not to mention the shell of the bus) into its most bare bones. And the ensemble cast (especially Annie Ranger as Rachel the waitress, who deftly supplies most of the play's comic relief), display how different looking pieces of the puzzle come together so well to provide a complete, unblemished picture of why a tragic event took place.

* * *

Jennifer Roberts (left) and France Rolland in a scene from "Bar Kapra the Squirrel Hunter"

Another interesting theatrical experience comes courtesy of he META Award-winning Scapegoat Carnivale Theatre company's latest production “Bar Kapra the Squirrel Hunter”, which is playing until March 13 at the Studio Jean-Valcourt du Conservatoire, located at 4750 Henri Julien Street.

This play about relationships, forgiveness, loyalty and change focuses on a squirrel hunter named Bar Kapra (Chip Chuipka, who was last seen in the title role of the Centaur's excellent production of "The Butcher" last fall) and his hunting companions Bat Kapra (France Rolland), who bags the squirrel corpses, and Trout, who disposes of the bagged squirrel corpses. Things seem to go fine with this squirrel hunting trio in the deep woods, until Bar and Bat have a disagreement over his method of hunting squirrels. Bar, who worries about killing too many squirrels and therefore not allowing the local squirrel population to repopulate for future hunts, shoots Bat and leaves her for dead. Trout takes Bat to her wooden shack and make sure she heals from her gunshot wound. While that is happening, Trout acts a go-between and tries to heal the rift between the two, so that they can continue on their hunting ways in the deep woods.

This venture into "theatre in the round" works really well, especially the set design by Patrice Charbonneau-Brunelle, which automatically envelopes the audience into the atmosphere of a heavily tree-laden wilderness the moment they walk into the theatre space (especially the essence of pine trees). And the trio that make up the cast work very well, especially the fast-paced repartee dialogue that is almost reminiscent of a classic comedy routine, but with a very dramatic slant to it. Kudos go to veteran Montreal actor Jennifer Roberts, who as the pixie-like Trout, steals the show, as that go-between who tries to be the voice of reason with a great deal of charm and rationality, as she daintily prances around the set delivering her lines without missing a beat.