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Zoom has three plays available for immediate production
and one in development this year
Click on a play's title for information and reviews.

 

Bottom's Dream

A Man's Story
(aka Rape!)

Alf and the Kid

IN DEVELOPMENT:

"Old People Doing It"
 (Working Title)

A new work looking at the sex lives and experiences of people from 50 to 100 years-old.

'Under the Name of Sanders'


A new work based on A.A.Milne's Winnie the Pooh stories.

 

Bottom's Dream
by Alan Lovett

Nick Bottom once spent a magical night with a queen:

       He was waited on hand and foot...

       She loved him...

       Pity he doesn't remember!

It is fifteen years after the events of that midsummer's night. Nick Bottom is now a touring player - he quit weaving years ago.

Travelling from town to town with a second-rate touring company, playing his triumphant role of Pyramus, Bottom is still a really bad actor. Just recently he's been having strange dreams of asses' heads and a fairy queen - and a stage manager called Penelope.

Is he going mad. Will he be able to remember that he was for one glorious magical night a queen's consort? Will he finally succumb to Penelope's charms?

This gentle comedy from The Zoom Company is based on the experiences of a character from A Midsummer Night's Dream, but audiences will enjoy Bottom's Dream without having seen Shakespeare's great play.

 

(out of five): "Funny and mesmerizing ... Not to be missed"
                  The Edmonton Journal

"It's a lovely little piece that mixes the literate comedy of                   Shakespeare in Love with the gentle pathos of The Dresser"                   Calgary Herald

            "...one of the best shows at the Fringe" Vue Weekly

"Lovett is a likable stage presence who performs his
                 one-man show with ease and conviction." Winnipeg Free Press

          "Lovett is full value ... a gentle and charming performance."
           StarPhoenix (Saskatoon)

          "The show is a clever tribute to theatre and Shakespeare - and           a loving homage to the acting profession." Ottawa Citizen

          "Hilarious! A very very witty show, well paced and truly           amusing." O.F.F. the Record

          "Clever writing, great presentation." Review from the Edge

For full reviews, click here

You've seen Shakespeare's Bottom ...
                 ... now Alan Lovett wants to show you his!

Bottom's Dream is a one-man comedy.
Nick Bottom: Alan Lovett
Director: David Lander
Stage-Manager: Sara Peel
Costume: Val Wake   Helmet: Penelope Ann
Voices: Rinske Ginsberg, Amanda Sandwith, David Lander, Chris Gregory

Bottom's Dream had a fantastic tour to eight Canadian Fringe Theatre Festivals in 1999: sell-outs (5 out of 7) in Edmonton; third best selling show in Ottawa. The comedy also did well at the Adelaide Fringe in 2000

Robert wouldn't hurt a fly.
He's lived with violence for 50 years

You'd think he'd learn.


A Man's Story
by Alan Lovett
in collaboration with Chris Gregory


A Man's Story is about Robert, a quiet ex-teacher, living alone, whose obsession leads him to radical discoveries about who he is and what made him that way.

In a gentle and sometimes even funny fashion, the play looks at some of the reasons so many men in our society are violent. It is a very relevant play in a world where people are asking questions about issues like gun control and violence towards women.


"Hard polished theatre" Adelaide Advertiser

                      "I had expected something very difficult but I got something                       intelligent, insightful and sensitive" Canadian Broadcasting                       Corporation

"In a quiet, fluid story of two quite different men, Australian Alan                       Lovett rides the natural current between what we say and do and
                      what happens as a result. Intelligent and smart." Edmonton Journal

"A chilling reminder of how acceptable sexism can still be" Winnipeg
                    Free Press

For full reviews, click here

A Man's Story is a one-man drama.
Robert/Stand-up Comic: Alan Lovett
News reader: Elizabeth Easton
Director: Chris Gregory
Stage-Manager (Australia): Sara Peel

A Man's Story has been a huge critical hit in Australia and overseas. It toured cities in Canada and to San Francisco in 1995 and featured at the 1996 Adelaide Fringe Festival where it received 'Critics Pick of the Day' in the Adelaide Advertiser. The play was also invited to the 1996 Canberra Festival of the Contemporary Arts. It was a 'Pick of the Fringe' in Edmonton, North America's largest fringe festival, and in the top 6 in Saskatoon.

 Alf and The Kid
           by Alan Lovett

At 50 years-old, Alf finds himself on the streets; partly because of poverty but mainly because of his bad temper.

When he meets a 13 year-old street kid, Alf is sure he knows more about life than The Kid.

Well he must... Mustn't he?

 

   
Alf and The Kid is an unlikely comedy about the very serious plight of the middle-aged homeless and the anger that so often is the root cause of their problem.

 

"To steal a line from Australian writer/director/actor Alan Lovett,
                      this one-man comedy is f...king great." Winnipeg Free Press

One of the "Best of the Best" at the Edmonton Fringe. See
                      Magazine

       "...a touching little show about homelessness" Globe and Mail

                      "There are some lovely moments" Terminal City (Vancouver)

                      "Alf and The Kid is full of chuckles, but it still gets a strong point                       across" StarPhoenix

For full reviews, click here

Alf and The Kid is a one-man comedy.
Alf/The cop/The social worker/Wilf/Jilly (The Kid): Alan Lovett
Narrator: Sara Peel
Direction: Tatyana des Fontaines-Burns and Chris Gregory
Stage-Manager: Leslie Hudson
Research assistance from The Salvation Army (Gill Hostel for Homeless Men)

Alf and The Kid toured cities in Canada in 1996, receiving mainly good to excellent reviews as well as some criticism that we shouldn't do a comedy about such a serious subject. The thought that laughing with someone makes you less intimidated by them and more sympathetic has clearly never occurred to those critics.

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