The Charm Offensive 
Novus Actors

Venue 12, Varscona Theatre
10329 83 Avenue

Fri. Aug. 18 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 20 – 1 p.m.
Mon. Aug. 21 – 7 p.m.
Tues. Aug. 22 – 9 p.m.
Wed. Aug. 23 – 1 p.m.
Thurs. Aug. 24 – 3 p.m.
Fri. Aug. 25 – 1 p.m.
Sun. Aug. 27 – 7 p.m.

Duration: 60 minutes

4 of 5 stars

Beneath their legal armour, it's been said that many lawyers secretly yearn to be poets and actors and writers.  But as practical under-graduate arts students in university, they opted for law school rather than the uncertainties of a bohemian life. 

Which is partially why the Stewart Lemoine-penned Charm Offensive is so much fun. By day, the cast are all engaged in the legal profession, but weeknights, weekends and during the Fringe, they are actors.

And by George, they are very good actors, certainly a much better ensemble of hobby thespians than so many other earnest amateur Fringe troupes assembled for the unjuried festival.

The back-story on this play comes from an annual show produced by the city’s legal profession, raising money for the Victoria School Arts Foundation. Every year, the Novus Actors engage a professional local director – the proceeds of the very successful fund-raiser split between the school foundation and the director’s theatre company. 

A few years back, Lemoine directed the annual Novus Actors production, and was quite taken by the troupe’s enthusiasm and actual talent.

Being Stewart Lemoine – i.e. having an uncanny ability to write unique and beautifully crafted plays that he seems to turn out every second week – Lemoine has since crafted two Fringe plays for the Novus Actors, Legally Lemoine and this year’s Charm Offensive.

Charm Offensive is a wonderful giggle – built around the exaggerated characters of a woman enamoured with her own beauty and another looking for love in all the wrong places (Stacey Grubb, Marissa Tordoff). The deadly duo are corralled into some semblance of social graces by an ethics/manners counsellor (Morgan McClelland). 

With an able supporting cast of three men – especially Ed Picard as the thief seeking dining-table manners in order to better market his ill-gained cutlery – the show culminates in a very funny dining scene where all have somehow gathered around the dinner table to improve their social skills. 

Charm Offensive is indeed a most charming show, made all the more inviting given the cast are all very good, but not professional, actors.