2007
August 6

Calender of Events

Limited seating - Reserve early
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An evening with Mary Barry unfolds like a story: there’s a beginning, a middle, and, just when you think you’ve figured out the plot, a surprise twist. It finishes with all the loose ends tied up. The audience leaves with the satisfied feeling that the story has been well and truly told. The show has a flow to it, moving easily through blues and ballads, swing and bossa nova, all originals. There are a few covers–a blues medley of Key to the Highway/Centrepiece/Twisted or a “chanson classique”, perhaps Les Feuilles Mortes/Autumn Leaves, done in both French and English. An encore might feature a chorus or two of Danny Boy or even an Italian operatic aria O Cessate di Piagarmi. If you are lucky and the mood strikes her, Mary will bring on her puppet companion, Hanna Banana, to perform Fish and Chips with it’s deathless chorus – “greasy fingers and greasy lips”. Most of the songs, however, are Mary’s own take on the world. January, which won her a songwriting award, uses winter as a metaphor for lost love. Basse Ville chronicles the old town of Quebec City the tourists don’t see, where pover ty lurks behind the picturesque. Never Never recounts a tale of unrequited love while Another Time remembers a love that was once requited. Pourquoi c’est comme ca? is an existential question from a writer who shares a birthday with Kierkegaard, Marx, and Mohammed. Looking for a Genie in the Bottom of a Bottle counsels against “seeking the answer in the bottom of that decanter”. Over the course of an evening, Mary Barry explores life with all its joys, sorrows and absurdities. Carrying out the true task of the artist, she takes your experiences and reflects them back to you in the form of cleverly crafted, articulate songs. What remains constant is the voice and the vision; the unique art of Mary Barry.

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