Pageant

Pageant is the story of a small town beauty queen (played with irresistible perkiness by Kate Lavender) whose future and features are shattered by an over-reaching plastic surgeon (Marty Burt). Her boorish boyfriend (Matthew Thomas Walker) exacts revenge, and then determines that his girlfriend is no longer a prize worth fighting for. Only Trudy’s father (Brian Heighton, in a brilliantly understated performance) can see her inner beauty. Sounds straight forward, right? But in the hands of Saskatchewan playwright Daniel Macdonald, it’s like seeing the world through beveled glass; everything is slightly warped. (And I mean warped in a humorous, good way.) Inspired physical comedy and catchy dialogue makes for big laughs, but there is depth here, too. The absurdity of this play mirrors the absurdity of the value our society places on physical beauty. –Kate Watson