issue 3 // volume 44

The best time youll ever have
screwing your friends over

> ‘Ultimate Chicken Horse’ video game review

Lauren Kelly
Contributor

 

kekkk

Uen: Chicken Horse (2016) is
a competitive platformer where
the players themselves build the stage
as they play. Funded on Kickstarter,
Ultimate Chicken Horse allows up to four
people to play online or in local co-op.
Local co-op is a requirement for most
multiplayer games I play—growing up,
there was nothing more fun than sitting
down with friends or family to work
together or destroy each other. Ultimate
Chicken Horse delivers on both of these
fronts. Also, you play as cute animals.
There is a set starting point and goal
in each of the game’s levels, and you want
to be the first to reach the goal. Each finish

Lots of laughs promised by local

company

is worth a set amount of points, with
other points being awarded for various
endeavors. However, if the course you and
your friends have made is too easy and
you all finish it, no points are awarded

to anyone. To make things difficult, the
space between the start and finish gets
filled in by the players with stationary and
moving platforms as well as booby traps,
including spikes, crossbows, flowers that
punch you, and tennis ball launchers. If
any trap touches you, youre out for the
round, so the goal is to set traps that will
catch your friends so that you can beat
them. You can also glue items together,
creating moving deathtraps that make
the stages even more unpredictable.

The game has three modes: Party,
Creative, and Free. Party mode is the
primary game mode, as described above.
In this mode, to build the level, players
have a random assortment of five items
to choose from, which they can place

> The Royal Canadian Theatre Company fall line-up

Rebecca Peterson
Assistant Editor

 

€¢€ Tf you value your life, keep

away from the moor!”

A well-known line from one of
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s best-known
and most adapted short stories, The
Hound of the Baskervilles, the warning
promises dire consequences should
the heir to Baskerville Hall, Sir Henry
Baskerville, return to his ancestral home.
This, combined with the previous Lord
Baskerville’s murder, is what spurs super
sleuth Sherlock Holmes and his trusted
companion, Doctor Watson, into action.
It’s a straightforward, entertaining,
yet sombre mystery for the ages.

However, the Royal Canadian Theatre
Company’s production of this classic is
anything but straightforward. Or sombre.
It’s absolutely entertaining, however.

Adapted for theatre by playwrights
Steve Canny and John Nicholson,
this telling of The Hound of the
Baskervilles features—among other wild
additions—a pants-stealing fireplace,

a steamy sauna sequence, and a fast-
paced comedy style that promises to
leave the audience breathless.

The Other Press caught up
with the production last weekend
during one of their rehearsals.

“T just love the silliness of it and sort
of trying to ground a very big, ridiculous,
farcical comedic performance in some
form of reality,” said Johnathan Mason,
who plays Sir Henry Baskerville in the
show. “The struggle between those two
things is really fun, and a great challenge.”

This production is one of two
produced by the Royal Canadian
Theatre Company for this fall, the

other being a pantomime: Ellie King’s
Sinbad, the Pirate and the Dinosaur,
set to hit the stage in December.

Ellie King herself is a well-known
name in the local theatre community,
largely famous for her annual
pantomimes, which are known for sticking
closely to traditional English pantomime
stylings. A director, stage actor, and voice
actor, Ellie King immigrated to British
Columbia from England in 1982. She was
the founder and artistic director of the
Raymond Burr Performing Arts Centre
in the early 2000s, as well as the current
Royal Canadian Theatre Company.

King is famous for her personality
and dry sense of humour, as well as
her dedication to perfection in her
shows. When asked what sets the
Royal Canadian Theatre Company
apart from other companies, King
simply stated, “We are brilliant.”

After a laugh, King elaborated: “We
have an open-door policy, and we are non-
discriminatory in any area—we offer blind
casting so we will cast the person who
is right for the role ... Everything we do,
we approach with our three watchwords:
Respect, inclusiveness, and excellence,
and we apply that to everything we do”

So what does the RCTC do?

“We specialize in comedies, and we
are very good at comedies,” said King.
“We also like to scare people, but right
now we are guaranteeing comedies
for the next three, four years, because
people want them and because the
world is in a bit of a state right now.”

In regard to this show in
particular, King would like to warn
the audience to “wear something to
hold your ribs in please, and make
sure your teeth are secured tightly.”

anywhere in the level. This means no
two games will be the same, because
you'll always be building with different
items in different orders. Creative mode
allows players to choose from any item
to build the stages, and Free mode is
essentially a level creator mode, and
players can switch between designing
the level and testing it at any time.

This game is honestly one of the most
fun multiplayer experiences I’ve had ina
long time. The combination of working
to screw your friends over while planning
how you'll make it past the litany of
traps is exciting, and, unless one of your
friends is incredibly competitive, dying
in ridiculous ways can be almost as fun
as getting to the end. The more you play
the more you unlock, with new levels,
characters, and outfits popping up as you
go. You start with one simple level—a
farm—but the levels become increasingly
harder as you unlock them. The only

     

“Tt’s a very silly play ... It’s very fast-
moving, it’s very funny. For anybody who's
into theatre—like really into theatre—
watching what's happening on stage, it’s
probably the most challenging thing I’ve
ever directed in terms of just the staging.
It’s very complex, but very funny.”

King and two of the lead actors
are actually veterans of this play in
particular, as they've performed it
before as part of an equity co-op.

“This show features] an insanely
frenetic pace and utter precision in that,”
said Steven Weller, the show’s Doctor
John Watson. Weller and his co-star,
Michael Charrois (Sherlock Holmes
in the production), are reprising their
roles from their co-op production.

“Tt’s been a lot of fun,” said Charrois,
of the rehearsal process this time around.
“Tt’s been full of laughs; it’s been full of
discoveries ... It’s great to go back and
revisit the lines and the characters and
find more richness and more comedy.”

“The good thing about this [show]
too is, although it’s a spoof adaptation
of the story, it actually steers quite
close to the story itself, so you've got
all the main elements in there,” said
King. “So it’s really good for drama
students, English students as well.”

When asked if King had any advice
for theatre majors looking for a career on-
stage, the industry veteran had plenty.

“You have to be totally committed to
what youre going to do. It’s a very, very
hard life. Grow a thick skin. You will be

theatre

arts // no. 7

one I don't like playing is the final level,
which is disco-themed and has random
black bars that obscure the obstacles.
The game is also very versatile. Are
your friends good at platformers? You
can play later, tougher levels. Are you
introducing someone who hasn't played
as many similar games? The starter
levels are much simpler, while still being
fun, and there’s no big-time investment
necessary. If you have 30 minutes, you
can get a few rounds in, or you can spend
hours playing it without it feeling stale.
Lastly, no matter what type of computer
you have, you can most likely play it,
as it is available on Windows, Linux,
and Mac. If that doesn’t work for you, it
will be released on the Xbox One, PS4,
Wii U, and Nintendo Switch this fall.
It’s only $16.99 on Steam, which is a
fantastic deal for how much game time
and social time you'll get out of it.

)

Photo via The Royal Canadian Theatre Company

turned down way more times than you
will be booked. Be prepared to travel
and be prepared to do without—I hope
you like Kraft Dinner, because you're
going to be living on it a lot. Be prepared
to take chances and to take risks.”

“Learn your craft! When you go into
an audition make sure you know what the
play is about. If you can get a copy of it,
research it. If you know who the director
is and who the company is, research them
so you know what kind of things they like
and what they’re looking for in an actor.

“Make sure that you treat yourself
as a business. A lot of people don't get
that but you are your own business, you
are a sole proprietorship, so look after
that side of things too, otherwise you're
going to end up in trouble ... Just take it
seriously. It’s a serious, serious business,
although we have a great deal of fun, and
it’s a very, very tough life. So make sure
you're prepared for that. Understand
that being a star in Hollywood does not
make you an actor, but being an actor
can make you a star in Hollywood”

The Hound of the Baskervilles
opens October 5 at the Surrey Arts
Centre, and will tour throughout the
month. Sinbad, the Pirate and the
Dinosaur opens December 15 at the
Surrey Arts Centre mainstage. For more
information on upcoming performances,
check out the Royal Canadian Theatre
Company’s Facebook page, or their
website www.rctheatreco.com.