BC Business
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Petula Clark takes “Downtown” to Richmond, Willy Loman returns to the Playhouse stage, and the art auction of the year. Theatre // Death of a Salesman
Arthur Miller’s seminal play about Willy Loman, a salesman with delusions of grandeur, was written more than 60 years ago, but it seems equally fresh today as it returns to the Vancouver Playhouse. It is, ultimately, not a story about a failing salesman, but rather, as author Joyce Carol Oates noted in a 1998 essay, about all of us: “Dreaming is required of us, even if our dreams are very possibly self-willed delusions. And we recognize our desperate child’s voice assuring us, like Willy Loman pep-talking himself at the edge of a lighted stage as at the edge of eternity – ‘God Almighty, [I’ll] be great yet! A star like that, magnificent, can never really fade away!’ Except, of course, it can.” Vancouver Playhouse, Feb. 12 to March 5, vancouverplayhouse.com
For most North American listeners, Petula Clark is forever associated with her peppy 1964 anthem, “Downtown,” which launched a string of U.S. Top 40 hits including “I Know a Place,” “My Love” and “Don’t Sleep in the Subway.” But for those who grew up in Britain during the Second World War, Clark is also remembered as that country’s answer to Shirley Temple: a precocious youngster whose angelic voice entertained the troops and who toured England with fellow child star Julie Andrews during the 1940s. Now 78, Clark continues to release the odd album and tours relentlessly, including this appearance at the Shrine for Faded Stars, a.k.a. the River Rock Show Theatre. Feb. 5, ticketmaster.ca
As anybody who’s run a gallery – or, indeed, anybody who’s tried to find a painting to match their sofa – knows, art ain’t cheap. That’s why fundraisers at the VAG put on a biannual auction to help underwrite the gallery’s various exhibitions and programs. This year the VAG has more than 50 works that have been donated by artists, private galleries and top collectors, including pieces by Roy Arden, Douglas Coupland, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, Fred Herzog, Myfanwy MacLeod, Marina Roy and Jeff Wall. VAG officials hope to raise $700,000 on the night – and none of the proceeds, we’re assured, are going to fund any fancy new gallery (promise). Vancouver Art Gallery, Feb. 19, vanartgallery.bc.ca