The play Five Alarm by Kristen Da Silva was a comedy originally set in Killaloe Ontario’s fairground. The locale in rural Ontario revelled in their annual Wayne Rose Memorial Chili Cook Off, where Killaloe residents arrived each year to compete for the best chili.
The cook off included a cash prize for the tastiest chili. However, most of the contestants in the play competed for the honour of having the best-tasting, spiciest dish of beans, sauce and beef in town. The contest’s cash prize appeared secondary for most, except for Brandon Welder’s Tucker Dell, who wanted to buy an ice cream parlour with the award money.
Directors Alison Lewis and Darlene Kowalchuk had reset the play in Saskatchewan and used place names familiar to the audience such as Horizon – a hamlet near Bengough. Five Alarm was produced for a pub night on November 29 and a dinner theatre on November 30. Five Alarm also had a matinee performance on December 1. All three presentations of Five Alarm were situated in the auditorium at the Prince of Wales Cultural and Recreation Centre.
This year, the overall deliveries, motions and annunciations of the actors in Five Alarm improved as the play continued into the second act, with less pauses and increased fluidity from the actors during the matinee enactment. The presentation on Sunday afternoon also gave viewers a chance to see the POW’s new lighting system in action.
The most determined character in the play was Ava Rose. She attempted to win the Wayne Rose Chili Cook Off for 16 years to commemorate the memory of her father and former chili expert. Ava battled against her childhood friend and rival, Connie Gardiner, in this year’s contest. However, the Five Alarm’s protagonist couldn’t track her late father's legendary recipe.
Carol Marit was particularly entertaining as Ellen Pelham, Ava’s assistant. Marit’s character had legal problems, she was overtly idealistic and worked in a petting zoo. Marit was a great actor who had been involved with Popcorn Productions for the last five years, serving in a variety of roles, such as a narcissistic starlet in Sweet Surrender and as Mother Superior in the play, Drinking Habits. Marit’s gestures, facial expressions and overall acting techniques as Ellen were both hysterical and convincing.
Jaclyn Gibson was compelling as Connie Gardiner – a self-assured, determined and vengeful contestant with a lingering grudge against her former friend and competitor, Ava Rose.
Adine Stang’s Ava Rose was the central character of Five Alarm. Stang’s role drew in a balance of sympathy and laughter from the audience. She managed to formulate a character ridden with complexities – including a capacity to philosophize about friendships, directions in life and the fundamental intricacies of chili – particularly the missing ingredients of her beloved father’s prize-winning recipe.
James Zick’s Caleb Seaton – the nervous reporter with a yen for Ava – was a competent portrayal of a man who had returned to the place of his childhood after studying journalism in Vancouver. At the end of the play, Seaton renewed his childhood romance with Ava.
Brandon Welder’s Tucker Dell laboured as Connie’s assistant in the cooking challenge. Welder provided some entertaining banter in this comical role. His lengthy disappearances to the porta potties and the follow-up excuses added much to the play’s intrinsic humour.
