Author Archive
Review: The Trojan Women (Alumnae Theatre)
The Greek tragedy The Trojan Women revels in
chaos at the Alumnae Theatre in Toronto
It is impossible not to compare The Trojan Women at Alumnae Theatre with Nightwood Theatre’s The Penelopiad, as they are running concurrently. They are both tales from the canon of the ancient Greeks and have been written for the modern day by fantastic female Canadian writers – The Penelopiad by Margaret Atwood and The Trojan Women by Gwendolyn MacEwen.
Further similarities include an excellent use of fabric in costumes/props/set dressings to convey a myriad of things, and the inclusion of some humour into the tragic tales. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: The Penelopiad (Nightwood Theatre)
When I found out that the stage adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad was being produced in Toronto by Nightwood Theatre at Buddies in Bad Times I was very intrigued, as I had read the book and wondered how it could be staged. To be perfectly honest, I thought the book was a little didactic and was saved from being dull only by its humour. It has a clear feminist agenda, which I entirely agree with, but I want books – and plays – to entertain me, not to preach to me.
In the book Penelope, Odysseus’s wife from the classic tale by Homer, tells her story with choral interruptions from her twelve maids, who Odysseus had killed when he returned from his long journey. The story is meandering and many characters make appearances in many different settings. I thought that a stage version would have to be very theatrical, and I was correct. Read the rest of this entry »
2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Tomasso’s Party
My reactions to Tomasso’s Party, playing as part of the Next Stage Theatre Festival, are conflicted. And I feel that’s a very good thing.
It‘s an absurdist piece, which I like. Yet the genre can come with some pitfalls, such as unlikable characters who repeat themselves a lot. Hugo, played by Simon Bracken, is maddening for most of the show. He goes on and on about his crazy neuroses saying the same thing over and over, much of this in a very aggressive tone. This grated on my nerves. Yet that tension led to hilarity every time Madeleine, played by Leah Doz, told him to “shut up”. Read the rest of this entry »
2012 Next Stage Theatre Festival Review: Morro and Jasp: Go Bake Yourself
Morro & Jasp: Go Bake Yourself, produced in the Next Stage Theatre Festival, is a clown version of a cooking show. The first course is hors d’oeuvres, which is funny; the second course is comfort food, which is funnier still; the final course is a special homemade recipe which is ludicrously, laugh-a-nanosecond funny.
The performers, Amy Lee and Heather Marie Annis, are very adept at clowning. They and director/dramaturge Byron Laviolette are obviously well-versed in what a clown show entails and what makes it work. One of these aspects is the dynamic of the duo: Morro and Jasp are sisters and Morro is the younger, wilder one while Jasp is older and more practical. (Note that in clowning, “practical” can be the person who restrains their partner from doing bodily harm to themselves or others via fun but ill-advised antics; the character of Jasp is certainly not “practical” in any real-world sense.)
Review: Jackie’s Not A Real Girl (Nichola Ward)
Nichola Ward is someone whose work I greatly admire, so I was very interested when she told me that she was transforming her newest work, Jackie’s Not A Real Girl into a graphic novel. I was further intrigued when she announced she was mounting it at Buddies, as a one-woman show with images from the graphic novel projected onstage.
Jackie’s Not A Real Girl is based on the true story of a transwoman sex worker Nichola knew personally, who was first abused and then sent to a men’s prison by a spiteful and malicious police officer. The story is narrated by Sadie, another transgender woman who works in a bar and was Jackie’s friend. Sadie puts the police officer on trial and various characters pop up to give their testimony. All characters are played by Nichola, standing at the front of the stage while the graphic novel pages are projected on the back. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Crown Matrimonial (Stage Centre Productions)
Crown Matrimonial, currently being produced by Stage Centre Productions is a story about the 1936 abdication crisis, just like the recent popular film The King’s Speech, but with a very different focus. King Edward VIII, familiarly named David, was a brand new king who had not yet been crowned. He was also in love with a twice-divorced commoner, Wallis Simpson.
At the time it was considered quite scandalous and no one – not the royal family, not the government, certainly not the Church of England – would allow David to both marry Wallis and proceed with the coronation.
David insisted on marrying Wallis so he abdicated the crown and his brother Bertie became King George VI, despite the fact that that he hadn’t been trained to reign and he had a stutter that made him insecure. This is the part of the abdication crisis that The King’s Speech focuses on: Bertie’s struggle to overcome his stutter and his insecurity, which is why modern audiences connected to it. A person placed in an unpleasant situation, having to work hard to overcome the impediments in their path, is a timeless story. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: word! sound! powah! as part of the sankofa trilogy (Tarragon Theatre)
I have seen d’bi young anitafrika perform at poetry events and Pride, but had never seen a full production of one of her solo plays until I attended the sankofa trilogy at Tarragon Theatre. Actually, I attended word! sound! powah! which is one third of the trilogy. It is running in repertory with the other two shows, blood.claat and benu.
d’bi.young is a force of nature, and I’m not saying that as a casual turn of phrase. Deeply rooted in Caribbean/African spirituality, she invokes the female-gendered deities of nature during her performance so powerfully that she seems like a manifestation of a pagan goddess herself. It is deeply affecting, even for an atheist like me. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: The Test (The Company Theatre)
The Test is an English translation of a play by Swiss-German playwright Lukas Bärfuss, produced by The Company Theatre. They also produced the Danish play Festen in 2008, which I had the pleasure of seeing. Both Festen and The Test feature performances by Philip Riccio, Eric Peterson and direction by Jason Byrne and the similarities don’t end there. Both plays are tragicomedies around a dark family secret. Unlike most work with such subject matter, in these two plays the secret is revealed right at the beginning. Instead of building up to a revelation these plays start off with it and the main action are the characters dealing with their newfound knowledge.
Review: Guns & Roses (The Original Norwegian)
Guns & Roses has nothing to do with the band of the same name. The title refers to a bouquet of roses and a gun that figure in the action. This is a show about teenagers who do MDMA on the night after their Grade 11 exams. It was developed by The Original Norwegian, in association with Breakaway Addiction Services and Mixed Company Theatre and is designed for a teenage audience. Most of the run is during the daytime and they are encouraging school groups to come.
I can’t imagine my high school allowing us to see this show. But that was long ago, and in a remote small town. I think this show is great for teens, though I fear many parents and educators would balk at the language and content. Which is exactly why I think it is a good show for youth: they may actually relate.
Not all teenagers are sexually active and do drugs. But a lot of them are. At least they were in the 90’s in a small town in northern Ontario and nothing I see in the media leads me to believe things are any different here and now. Read the rest of this entry »
Review: Murder On Ossington (Pandemic Theatre)
The promo material for Pandemic Theatre’s Murder on Ossington says “Come experience a site specific performance that takes you deep into a realm only imagined until now: Your own home. Inspired loosely by the Ossington Avenue Murder.” The audience was limited to 10 people per night and the location is secret; the address to meet at was emailed to us the day before the performance.
This all sounded very intriguing, and rather like a murder mystery. This suspicion was further encouraged when we showed up and were each given an envelope that we were told not to open. The envelopes were labelled with numbers that divided us up into groups. But it isn’t really a murder mystery. When you do eventually open the envelope, you don’t find out who the killer is. You open the envelope at the end of the show and I found the contents very anticlimactic. Read the rest of this entry »