Tweed

Reviewed by Paula Citron
August 24, 2011

Tweed
IANA Theatre
Written and directed by Tim Porter
Composed by Andre Morin
Featuring Nathan Carroll, Amanda Struthmann, Loretta Bailey, Shawn Hurford, Sarah Strange and Joel MacMeekin
Papermill Theatre
Aug. 18 to 27, 2011

IANA Theatre is committed to producing Canadian musicals, for both Toronto and the regions.
The musical Tweed, named after the south-eastern Ontario town, focuses on a love story between a big city girl and a small town boy set against the history of the community.

First, the positives. Writer/director Tim Porter and composer Andre Morin have produced an engaging score that covers a wide range of styles, with lyrics that lift above the banal. The young cast, for the most part, can sing and act.

The creators, have deliberately compressed 90 years of history into two years, and therein lies the weakness. The program needs a timeline for Tweed showing the events that are alluded to in the story. Historical points are vague. Toronto is referred to as York, and the telephone seems to have arrived before both the railroad and the church.

Nonetheless, there is talent here, but the history needs work.

Tweed continues at the Papermill Theatre until Aug. 27.

I’m Paula Citron, arts reviewer for THE NEW CLASSICAL 96.3 FM.