Valentine's Weekend in Niagara is a busy one!

So here we are, on the cusp of another Valentine's Day, and a long holiday weekend in Ontario to boot, thanks to Dalton McGuinty's "Family Day" on Monday, and you're wondering what you can do to suprise the special someone in your life. Well, aside from the usual items like flowers, chocolate or a dinner out, how about some live theatre? There are two opportunities this weekend to explore the subject of love in its many forms and perhaps even learn something in the process.

Let's begin with a production having its final performance tonight, in fact, down at the Centre for the Arts at Brock University. Charles Mee's play Big Love is a modern adaptation of one of the oldest plays in the western world, Aeschylus' Greek tragedy, The Suppliant Women. It's being presented by the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock University and is directed by Gyllian Raby; the play opened Thursday night and the final peformance is tonight (Saturday) at 7:30 pm at the Sean O'Sullivan Theatre.

In the story there are 50 brides betrothed to their cousins; however, they do not want to be married and as a result seek asylum in a neighbouring country. It doesn't help, as they discover they will be forced to go through with the marriages anyway; they all make a pact to kill their husbands instead. All, in fact, but one of the 50 agrees to the pact. A good part of the play, being presented by the undergraduate students in the Department of Dramatic Arts at Brock, deals with the ensuing trial, where themes of love, justice and passion are all debated. I know, not the most romantic evening given some of the subject matter, but hey, you could go to the play tonight and discuss it over a long, romantic brunch together on Valentine's morning...now that could be romantic!

The second play opening this weekend (tonight in fact, following previews Thursday and Friday) is Michelle Riml's play Sexy Laundry, presented by Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects at the Sullivan-Mahoney Courthouse Theatre in downtown St. Catharines.

This was not the play originally intended for this run; Artistic Director Kelly Daniels had planned to direct her husband Ric Reid in The Woman in Black by Stephen Mallatratt. However, Ric suffered a heart attack back in the fall, so Kelly had to find something different that would not be as stressful on her husband given his condition. So, Riml's Sexy Laundry it is, directed now by Jon Osbaldeston, who was to appear with Reid in The Woman in Black. Sexy Laundry has been getting a lot of play lately, with both Showboat Festival Theatre in Port Colborne and Lighthouse Festival Theatre in Port Dover mounting the play this past summer.

The play, featuring Daniels and Reid, married in real life, of course, as Alice and Henry Lane. The couple has been married for 25 years and frankly, the flame is barely flickering now. So Alice decides a romantic getaway is in order to reignite the flame; however, convincing her set-in-his-ways husband it is such a great idea takes some doing. Sexy Laundry takes place entirely in the bedroom with both characters in their pajamas, but it never crosses the line. It is, after all, a mainstream play put on by a theatre company that prides itself on presenting quality local live theatre in downtown St. Catharines.

For Big Love, call the Brock box office for tickets: 905-688-5550, ext. 3257 or show up tonight and pick up your tickets prior to the performance. For Sexy Laundry, which runs through to the end of February, call the box office at 905-938-1222. Both plays will add some thought-provoking conversation to your Valentine's Day celebrations. Enjoy!

February 13th, 2010.