Paradise Lost ... Is not lost in eyes of the beholder!

Paradise Lost. -playing at Theatre Saint Catherine until April 12th is closing with a pay what you can on April 12th, Easter Sunday. A small but appreciative audience was in attendance at the intimate opening night premier of the latest creation hatched from Rabbit in a Hat productions.

I am always very leery of any solo performance when the actor is credited as the director, and more often than not the credit isn't merited; however there is no egg on director-performer Paul Van Dyck in his "one man" solo performance as he offers us an early sweet for Passover and Easter week. Granted it is not for everyone, however don't be put off by the poetic origins of this multi-medium piece of performance art. The inspiration behind Van Dyke’s concept was germinated by a day at the beach on the western shores of Africa while He read John Milton's poem of the same title; -Van Dyck also adapted the text, apparently cutting it down from over 200 to 17 pages.

Featured elements are: abstract puppets of Adam and Eve, rock opera antics to the Stones, shocking text presented with multiple voices brilliantly performed, -comparable to the talents of Montreal's Rick Miller, and some amazing video projection that successfully supports and doesn't upstage the performance, all coming together with perfectly synchronized blocking and seamless scene changes.

What makes this production work is the collaboration, and we all know that theatre = collaboration, right?! The smart move here was the artist surrounding himself with like minded and equally talented and imaginative artists in their respective fields of expertise. All the elements of: computer animation (Jeremy Eliosoff) video projection (Allison Elizabeth Burns) lighting (Jody Burkholder) and puppetry (Lyne Paquette) all serendipitously come together to make for a very original production, with some astonishingly great memorable moments. Photo credit : Andrea Hausmann. Look for this production to garner some nominations at this season's MECCAS. GO C IT!