Lake City Secondary School students invite the whole community to the Williams Lake campus for a fun night out with The History of Dating.
A through and through comedy, The History of Dating explores humorous takes on courtship through the ages, from the prehistoric cavemen (or cavepeople as the play observes) to the current digital age of online dating and virtual avatars. These series of funny vignette-style scenes are all strung together by the composed and refined two-time runner up lecturer of the year Professor Curio and his enthusiastic and bright colleague Professor Amorè. Together the two explore love and their own flirtatious relationship.
Nate Ives, the sole Grade 12 student in the production, stars as Curio alongside his Grade 10 co-star Noella Baerg as Amorè. Ives and Baerg together have instant and believable chemistry as Ives’ dry and measured delivery makes the perfect straight man for Baerg’s bright and bubbly funny woman.
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As the two are on stage for the entirety of the play’s hour and a half long run, they have the challenging task of being both engaged in what is happening on stage but not distracting from the action. They both play this part excellently and serve as enjoyable and fun narrators to follow throughout the production.
The rest of the 18 cast members all get to play a variety of characters from Hippies to Classical Egyptians and clearly are having fun with their roles. While the pun-heavy dialogue can often be groan-inducing, their commitment to the material and willingness to play around on stage is endearing to watch. The actors are made up of students from Grade 7 to Grade 12 from both Columneetza and the Williams Lake campuses.
The History of Dating marks the first full-length school play LCSS has held in a while and hopefully with the ongoing work of drama teacher Marilee Andres and the support of the school will not be the last.
Tickets are available now at The Open Book or at the door for the shows running from May 16-18 and May 23-24 at 7 p.m. with a matinee at 2 p.m. on May 25. Tickets are priced at $8 for adults or $10 for two, while students and seniors are $5 each.
patrick.davies@wltribune.com
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