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Odyssey Theatre celebrates the heat of summer with The Game of Love and Chance by Pierre de Marivaux. The play, which is directed by Andy Massingham opens at Strathcona Park on Thursday July 26.

Massingham is a master of theatre. He has been a professional actor for the past 25 years and is an instructor at the Ottawa Theatre School. This summer Massingham makes his directorial debut with Odyssey Theatre, directing a classical French comedy written in 1730.

For the past year, Massingham has been ensconced in The Game of Love and Chance first as a writer adapting the script for a contemporary audience and second, as the director.

"At first I had a director's conscience, then I threw it out of the window as that was not the point. The point was the story itself," says Massingham. "It is much more of a free adaption than a retelling of the story. The comic servants are much hornier, they are much spicier and they get away with a lot more. It is a kind of ribald show and I love that angle to it."

The Game of Love and Chance is a farce where the main characters, who hail from aristocracy, swap roles with their servants in a quest to find true love. It is part of Odyssey Theatre's Under the Stars series and, in keeping with the company's theatrical trademark, four of the six characters are masked.

Odyssey Theatre is the only North American theatre company that specializes in mask performances. Massingham says when actors conquer the art of wearing the masks, they take the performance in another direction, in short, they create a theatrical illusion.

PHOTO CRED: Noreen Fagan

He explains that the masks are representational. The performers sometimes face the audience while "delivering dialogue that is really going to somebody next to them."

"As their [the actors'] faces are being presented to the audience, they start to take on characteristics  of a non-masked face," says Massingham. "The experienced mask performer creates an illusion where we actually think they are talking with each other, even though they are talking directly to the audience."

He adds, that after a while actors start to discover their eyes, mouth and the power  body language has in capturing the audience's attention.

PHOTO CRED: Noreen Fagan

Casting for the production began in winter. Massingham saw hundreds of people in the first round of auditions, before gradually whittling the cast down to six actors – his gang – who he felt would be able to perform for six weeks on an outdoor stage.

"I made sure my gang had great voices that can carry and that they are strong – they are going to be outdoors for six weeks. Luckily the Odyssey stage is quite intimate. It is nestled at the bottom of a hill so the acoustics are perfect and the actors don't have to work too hard."

Massingham says adapting the play to an outdoor setting was "beautifully challenging," but the combination of the set, masks, costumes and script makes it a perfect play to see on a summer night.

PHOTO CRED: Noreen Fagan

In his opinion, The Game of Love and Chance brings "an old story to a contemporary audience."

"The thing I enjoy about it is the central theme of a woman spurning tradition because she wishes to be on her own. She wants to be in control of her own destiny and yet there is no evil person in this show," says Massingham. "It is not a typical comedic show where there are villains and heroes, everyone in this play is a good person. Love finding its way is the theme of the story."

As the technical rehearsals wind down, final preparations wrap up and the opening night nears, Massingham says that he is breathing easily and waiting to hear people laughing as the story unfolds.

He says simply that everyone involved in the production, "is ready for an audience, I am ready. I am dying to see it."

The Game of Love and Chance by Marivaux. Strathcona Park. July 26 to August 26, 2012. For more information go to odysseytheatre.ca