by  Jude Campbell – Daily Courier

Kate De Lorme, plays “the girl” and Graham Daley plays Bill the groom in the Theatre Kelowna comedy, The Perfect Wedding, playing March 8-18.

Chasing away the mid-winter blues will come easily enough for anyone attending the comedy, Perfect Wedding.
Presented by Theatre Kelowna, this rollicking play provides the perfect antidote for the chilly days by chasing away the doldrums with a good dose of pure humour.
“There’s a lot of physical humour, with misunderstandings and miscommunication going on between everyone in the play,” explained first-time director Andrew Taylor, who added that he “bent a few ears” to bring the play to the Black Box Theatre.
“It’s along the lines of a British farce, with fun word play, doors and connecting doors, lots of places for people to hide, come and go, and pop up at inconvenient times,” he added. “It’s a situational comedy.”
The audience is dropped into the middle of a muddle in the opening scene, where the intended groom wakes up on his wedding day already inside the honeymoon suite with a distressing problem.
“The woman in bed with him is not the bride and, worse than that, he doesn’t know who she is at all,” said Graham Daley, who plays the role of Bill.
“It’s a little bit like the situation that the guys in The Hangover found themselves in,” he added.
“I’m running around frantic, like a chicken with its head cut off, trying to keep my fiance from finding this other woman, who I try to pass off as the maid.
“It’s a funny show … because of the situations that the groom, bride, bestman and bridesmaid fall into,” he said.
Theatre-goers will recognize Daley from his first-ever acting role in Honk, the Christmas production staged by TKS.
“It was quite a thrill to be on stage in Honk, I absolutely fell in love with it, so I’m excited to be in another show,” he added.
Rounding out the predominantly young cast of Perfect Wedding are Kate Delorme as the bridesmaid and the groom’s unfortunate bedmate; Joe Welton as the bestman; Ruby Bullock as the bride; Corinne Marks as the bride’s mother and Jackie Sharkey as the chambermaid.
Bullock, as the determined bride, is a newcomer to Kelowna having arrived from Fort MacMurray, noted that she was “extremely thrilled” to be part of the comedy cast, as she has been enamoured with theatre since childhood.
“Theatre, especially community theatre is a great opportunity to meet all kinds of people,” she said.
“Theatre spans all ages and gender. It’s an opportunity to have a lot of fun being somebody else for a whole evening, to see things from a different view.”
“It’s wonderful because it’s a collaborative effort from everyone involved in the production, everyone has a part to play from working on the set, to lighting, costumes and acting,” Bullock added.
More accustomed to acting in much larger venues in cities like New York and Los Angeles, Bullock said the experience of being in a more concentrated setting generates “a very personal, intimate performance.”
Theatre Kelowna mounts several performances each year, including the much anticipated Christmas show, is a staunch supporter of the popular Ozone Festival, and has been a Kelowna theatre scene staple since its inception in 1949. Many supporters have been with TKS for decades, gracing the stage for dramas, musicals and comedies.
The Perfect Wedding, which ultimately turns into a not-so-perfect event, seems to have been hijacked, happily and expertly, by the ‘young guns’ in the society.
“We’ve got a young cast, and a few are new to community theatre, director Taylor agreed.
“I’m a relatively new director, but I’ve done five other shows with KTS, and we’ve got a fantastic crew that’s meeting all the challenges,” he said.
The size of the Black Box Theatre setting is one of the inherent challenges, but Taylor added that “Brian Haigh has come to the rescue by designing an incredible set that works really well considering it’s shoehorned in there.”
All told, the show promises to deliver an evening filled with belly laughs at the hijinks on stage, and a good shellacking to the concept of the perfect marriage.

QUICKFACTS
What: Perfect Wedding, presented by Theatre Kelowna Society, with director Andrew Taylor.
When: Thursday to Sunday, March 8-11 and March 15-18, with evening shows at 7:30 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.
Where: Black Box Theatre, at the rear of the Kelowna Community Theatre.
Tickets: Available at Select Your Tickets box office at Prospera Place, 762-5050 or selectyourtickets.com.