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www.insideHALTON.com | OAKVILLE BEAVER | Wednesday, November 13, 2013 | 24 Artscene "Connected to your Community" It's all GO for this local author by Dennis Smith From left, Kevin Bryan (Freddy), Gregg Hagglund (Colonel Pickering), Peter Anderson (Henry Higgins), Valerie Harrison (Mrs. Eynsford Hill) and Cheyenne Isles (Clara) and (seated, left to right) Sarah Robbins (Eliza Doolittle) and Jennifer Hagglund (Mrs. Higgins) are ready to take the stage for Pygmalion, which opens this weekend at the Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts. | photo by Graham Paine ­ Oakville Beaver (Follow on Twitter @halton_photog) Oakville's Paul Dubal is author and publisher of Crimes Against Humanity and Dictator of Britain. | submitted photo Short on romance, long on satire Oakville Players cast itching to perform Pygmalion by Dennis Smith Special to the Beaver When The Oakville Players open Pygmalion shortly, social satire will be on the menu instead of romance. "This is quite a biting commentary on the power of social class and how one woman brought herself up from the bottom," said lead actress Sarah Robbins. The George Bernard Shaw play opens tomorrow (Thursday) at 8 p.m. Set in London, England, Pygmalion is the basis for the hit musical My Fair Lady. It's about snobbish professor Henry Higgins, who bets he can take Cockney, flower-girl Eliza Doolittle and pass her off as a lady by changing her speech. While My Fair Lady was a romance, this version of Pygmalion won't be one. "Many directors have tried to make it into a romance," said Robbins, who plays Eliza Doolittle. "But at the end of the play, she doesn't need Higgins." The graduate of the Theatre and Drama Studies program at Sheri- dan College and the University of Toronto took a course on Shaw's plays. The real driving theme of a lot of Shaw's works was the problems of women and the emergence of modern women. A lot of the heroes are modern women who are in every way equal to a man. Sarah Robbins, Oakville Players "The real driving theme of a lot of Shaw's works was the problems of women and the emergence of modern women," said Robbins. "A lot of the heroes are modern women who are in every way equal to a man." The graduate of Iroquois Ridge High School is looking forward to performing in Oakville, where she grew up. Robbins said after several weeks of rehearsals, the actors are ready to go. "A lot of us in the cast are just itching to have an audience," she said. Robbins is a first-time performer with The Oakville Players, while Kevin Bryan is taking on his first acting role as an adult. "It has been quite an interesting and definitely an exciting process," said Bryan, who plays Freddy Eynsford-Hill, a supporting character. The commentary on the social class ways in the play is conveyed through dialects, he noted. "It's quite a challenge producing the specific accents and dialects," said Bryan, who grew up in South Africa. He said there's no dialect coach, but he and a couple of English cast members have been helping the others. In a news release, director Brendan McDowell said his clear goals are to "stay true to Shaw's original ideas and show that however messy life gets, that it is important to see the humour in it all." Peter Anderson plays the other lead role of Henry Higgins. Performances run from Thursday-Sunday (Nov. 14-17), and Nov. 20-23 at The Oakville Centre for the Performing Arts, 130 Navy St. Shows start at 8 p.m., with a matinee on Sunday (Nov. 17) at 2 p.m. For tickets, call 905-815-2021 or visit www.oakvilleplayers.ca/ buy-tickets. "The story really germinated with the economic recession and the way Special to the Beaver the U.K. (United Kingdom) strugWhile some rush-hour commut- gled with so many issues related to ers read newspapers and others try it," said Dubal. sleeping, Paul Dubal is busy writing The Dictator of Britain is subthriller novels. titled Book One: The Rise To Power. "I do a lot of writing on the GO Dubal is working on a sequel to it trains from Oakville to Toronto, it's and hopes to complete a trilogy a really interesting time to be cre- eventually. ative," he said. "There's a picture in "The second one is building on my mind. It's like watching a film." this," he said. "I'm starting the story The Oakville resident has writ- six months further on." ten and self-published two books Dubal's earlier novel, Crimes as Paul Michael Dubal -- Crimes Against Humanity, is a tale about huAgainst Humanity and Dictator of man trafficking, set in Toronto and Britain. Montreal. The author is also busy with his "I was looking for a thriller type family and working as a corporate story," he said. "I looked around and officer for a downtown Toronto saw no fiction related to human trafmedia firm. So, ficking at all, it besides writing was non-fiction at home, he's and documentyping on his taries." laptop computDubal added er during the he did a lot weekday train of research to rides to and make the story from Toronto's as realistic as Union Station. possible. "That's 35 Writing is The covers of Paul Dubal's two thrillers. The to 40 minutes, his longtime books are available in paperback or ebook enough to get hobby and in format. | submitted images a few pages earlier years, he down," said made up pirate and fantasy stories Dubal. "It's amazing how it adds up to read to his children Leo, now 10, over time." and Eleanor, 16. He especially valHis latest novel, The Dictator of ues the input of his daughter, and Britain, is set in the author's native his wife Reena. England. It's about a far-right wing "In some ways, they're my greatest government sweeping to power in critics, it's really good," said Dubal. Great Britain with an explosive fiveThe family immigrated to Oakville year plan. in 2008 from Luton, England, a A political correspondent finds large town near London that's noted out and becomes a target while also for its airport. finding himself involved in a plot to For more details, visit www. overthrow the government. paulmichaeldubal.com.