About a couple who are married but not to each other and agree to meet every year on the same date at a motel, Same Time Next Year first opened in 1975. It is a terrific play for summer stock theatre because it has only one set and two actors. It is also very dated and just the right kind of shmaltzy old time sentimental pap that seems to be targeted at the Segal’s silverback audience. I thought that when I heard the pre-show music, and I was right.

Pinocchio is one of my favourite stories and, according to my Italian speaking friend, it is a verb in that country which means you are fibbing and comes with an equally adorable gesture which starts at the nose and then moves away from the face.

Quebec’s students are on strike but thankfully no one told the folks at the Dawson Professional Theatre Program: in the final production of their season, the graduating class of 2012 not only showed up for the performance but also brought all their usual infectious enthusiasm. This time their production is Hay Fever, one of Noel Coward’s most popular plays, and it’s a surprisingly sharp and witty rendition that proves the cast is more then ready for the outside world.

Intimate Apparel at the Centaur is a truly well-crafted, well acted, and brilliantly directed. It is the story of a not too young woman who makes corsets for both upper-class women (Mrs. Van Buren) and women of the night (Mayme). Lucinda Davis shines as Esther, the creator of the intimate apparel, and in her portrayal she displays an astonishing and delightful range of emotion. She moves us when she vents her hatred for another woman’s good fortune at getting married at last, and she has us yearning with her when she touches, briefly, the forbidden shoulder of a Jewish fabric dealer who actually cares for her. Lucinda’s portrayal of the heroine is convincing and engaging. She has created a persona with whom one can empathize completely.

Vigil is an elegant farce concerning a misanthropic young man who abandons his boring job at a bank and races a thousand miles across the country to be at the bedside of his dying aunt. Marcel Jeanin was brilliant as the sociopathic nephew, using a comic time that has a fierce ruthlessness. He played the part with balletic assurance and inhabited the role with nebbish-like klutziness that was nothing short of stunning.