Review: Odyssey Theatre's THE GIRL WITH NO HANDS at Strathcona Park

OTTAWA

By its nature, Odyssey Theatre’s Theatre Under the Stars is at the whim of the weather.  With increasingly unpredictable weather patterns and extreme heat and humidity, the opening night of The Girl With No Hands had to be postponed. On The Girl With No Hands' new opening night, the weather gods smiled upon Odyssey Theatre and provided the cast, crew, and audience with picture perfect weather.

Ottawa's Strathcona Park is beautiful and if you have extra time before the show, I encourage you to take a stroll along the park pathway. The park's multitude of birds provides a calming oasis so close to the heart of the city. If you are planning a pre-show walkabout, checking in with the desk on arrival is recommended, as many people were unaware of this requirement before entry onto the theatre site, which caused confusion (and consternation) among guests with virtual tickets.

The Girl With No Hands is inspired by The Handless Maiden, a folktale by The Brothers Grimm. In her vision of the story, writer and director Laurie Steven, wanted to create a heroine that was angry and forced to find her own path, rather than a damsel in distress that must rely on the kindness of men to save her, as is generally the case in traditional fairy tales. On the verge of desperation, the handless maiden (Erin Loretta Mackey) ventures into an imaginative world to discover her self worth, after some encouragement from a sylph (Valerie Buhagiar), a mythological air spirit. There, she finds a world of warring kingdoms, fighting over lands being battered by earthquakes caused by the mining of crozone, a valuable, but dangerous substance. Three bumbling outcasts (Scott McColloch, Chandel Gambles, Marlow Stainfield) entreaty the maiden to help them and she reluctantly agrees. Soon after, she encounters a king (Nicholas Koy Santillo) and her plans are momentarily derailed by love, but the Devil in disguise (William Beddoe) conspires with the king’s mother (Buhagiar) and an unwitting security guard (Bruce Spinney) in a plot to have the girl killed. The handless maiden realizes she must fend for herself and find a way to restore peace to the kingdom.

Read my full review here.