Leaves Viewers on The Edge of Their Seats
Typically on this blog I write about dating and relationships or just ask a spur or relationship based questions in hopes for unusual conversations. However, after stepping foot into Kensington’s own, Plaza Theatre, on Friday night I haven’t been able to get it off my mind and figured I would share it with you. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the Plaza, it has been around for over 75 years and its forte is offering a unique movie experience for viewers. Recently a company called The Fifth Reel has been playing old nostalgically driven movies every month. This month it was everyone’s favourite Jim Carey classic, Dumb & Dumber. I grew up on Dumb & Dumber. Sunday nights in my house were dedicated to dinner with family and a movie of your choosing – mine was always Dumb and & Dumber. Now I am very proud to admit I can recite almost every line. To see Dumb & Dumber in theatres was one thing I always wished for.
The flick started at 10:00 p.m. with a local Calgary band to preface the show and a secret Jim Carey movie to follow Dumb & Dumber, we were in for a double feature. We took bets on what the secret showing was going to be and I wished it to be Liar Liar, however to dismay it ended up being Batman. We were running behind getting to the show. As I hustled Travis from the truck to the theatre I couldn’t help but stop and look up at the lights, the rustic old sign that read ‘Plaza’ and the broken front window, which only now I’m thinking maybe that was on purpose – you know for ambience and all. The sign read Dumb and Dumber 10:00. I stopped took a picture, obviously for Instagram (do it for the gram!) and felt like I was taken back in time. You know like one of those movie scenes where in a moment you’ve been taken back in time and its 1976 instead of 2016. All of a sudden my earlier regular weekly feelings of anxiety and distress were erased. It was as if the Plaza magically had whisked me away on an evening adventure exempt from reality. I’m all for reality, don’t get me wrong, but sometimes after a week of full hustle it’s time to have a night without the bustle.
Walking through the front doors we were greeted by a couple of staff ready to scan our tickets, as well as a wall of muggy un-air conditioned air. But you know if it had been air-conditioned the essence wouldn’t have been the same. I love the dewy look our skin immediately acquired. I loved running an ice cold water bottle around the back of my neck and dapping my forehead with the back of my palm. I loved that beer was served in tubs in the back corner. It was beer that you would take camping, beer that wouldn’t necessarily frequent the taps of your local Craft or National pubs, beer like Lucky or PBR’s. As we walked in a smell of my grandmother’s house hung thick in the air. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it at first, but as I walked through the lobby a strong memory of my Grandma Smiley interrupted my regular brain waves. Sitting on my Grandmother’s couch in Selkirk, Manitoba eating ginger bread snaps on her less than comfortable couch, complaining about how the channels on her T.V were all static. Who knows why that memory, I can’t be sure what jogged my mind for it pop into my head, but I do know this, it was full of love.
We loaded up on popcorn, glosettes and candy bars and managed to juggle everything in our paws as we slowly came to sit down in our sets. Strategically placing our bodies in the second last row to the back of the theatre, I felt I was in the midst of my childhood memories. Sitting down to watch Dumb and Dumber in theatres, my top three favourite movies of all time, was something I had always wished for. I used to say to my Father, I just wish I could have watched this movie for the first time in theatres. Although this wasn’t my first time watching Dumb and Dumber more like my thousandth, it was as close as I was ever going to get. Although all the jokes and one liners were the same I laughed harder, I recited the lines underneath my breath and as the infamous “mock, ya, ing ya, bird ya, ya ya” came on everyone in the theatre sang along. Even Cam Neely’s cameo was met with a crowd booming, all together now, “Kick his ass Seabass!” It was perfect.
The Fifth Reel is doing something I have thought was a genius idea for a long time. For just one night let’s go back to when we were younger. To the times we fell in love with movies and choose which ones we deemed worthy enough to be called our favourite. I loved having the opportunity to watch one of my all time favourites in theatre; it was a gift. It was a nostalgic evening for one memory I will always cherish.
XOXO Witty Kitty