A Woman’s Love List At The Orillia Opera House
With A Woman’s Love List, now receiving its world premiere in the small, 105-seat Studio Theatre at the Orillia Opera House, Norm Foster ventures into the realm of fantasy – or is it magical realism? – and finds it filled with laughter.
Carly (Kristen Da Silva) and Megan (Laura Tremblay), two thirty-something single women, have a somewhat tenuous friendship. Carly has such a busy career as a sports journalist that she has not had a man in her life since a two-week fling with Blaze, a charismatic surfer dude she met in San Francisco, some fourteen years ago.
Megan, who owns a successful hair salon is her “jaded, miserable best friend” (Megan’s words not mine). She too lacks a man in her life, but she feels Carly’s need is greater than hers.
Fortuitously, Megan knows a certain “Aunt Beulah,” who is a shaman or maybe that should be witch. She offers a bespoke matchmaking service and for just $20, if you fill out a form listing the ten qualities you are looking for in a mate, she guarantees a match.
Megan has generously laid out twenty bucks so Carly can find the man of her dreams. With a great deal of bickering and over Carly’s sceptical resistance they come up with a list of qualities for Carly’s ideal mate.
No sooner has Megan left with a promise to drop the list off with Beulah the next day than there is a knock at Carly’s door and in walks a tall handsome man (Jamie Mac) who just happens to have the same name as her long ago fling. He seems to know everything about Carly and apparently they have been dating for quite some time.
It doesn’t take Carly long to realize that this guy possesses all the qualities she had put on her “woman’s love list” and after a night of more than competent sex she is smitten, to hell with the fact she doesn’t know who this guy is or where he came from.
When Megan returns we learn that she has neglected to pass the list on to Beulah and, seeing that Carly seems well situated, she decides to use the list for herself. She, of course, has different ideas of what constitutes an ideal mate so she erases some qualities and adds her own.
The gals quickly realize that every time something changes on the list, Blaze changes accordingly – instantly. Carly also discovers that once Blaze walks out the door he literally vanishes. He doesn’t exist!
Foster has great fun exploring the permutations and combinations of his premise in A Woman’s Love List and being a Norm Foster comedy the proceedings are peppered with some very funny lines.
At one point Carly tells of a former lover who, when they were having sex, “didn’t want to leave Canada.” He refused to go below “the forty-ninth parallel.” Later, after a night with Blaze, she confides to Megan that not only did they leave Canada they visited my old Kentucky home.
Director Jesse Collins (who also created the efficient set) has drawn terrific performances from a very talented cast. Da Silva makes Carly’s increasing hysteria very funny indeed and Tremblay does an excellent job as the jaded, miserable best friend.
Jamie Mac has the juiciest role and the biggest acting challenge. It is a joy to see him navigate the curve balls the women throw him every time they erase and replace one of his qualities.
I will not give away Foster’s very clever resolution to his magical premise save to say that I felt he might have ended it one scene earlier. A brief final scene wraps up some questions the audience might have, but it might have been more fun to let us try to answer those questions ourselves on the way home from the theatre.
A Woman’s Love List continues at the Orillia Opera House through July 28, 2025. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit the Orillia Opera House website.
For a complete index of reviews CLICK HERE.
Don’t miss another review or blog post! SUBSCRIBE HERE
