S. Bear Bergman has great faith in the power of theatre to make change, and has been putting his money where his mouth is on that one for some time. A writer, performer, and lecturer, Bear works full time as an artist and cultural worker and loves to see as much live performance as possible – making this a fantastic gig for him.
Stoppard’s Arcadia Plays with Time at the Royal Alexandra Theatre
Oh, Tom Stoppard. It’s easy for me to imagine that it might be exhausting to be brilliant, to have words and connections, phrases and concepts pinging around in one’s overheated brain at all hours of the day and night. I also understand that Arcadia, currently running at the Royal Alexandria Theatre after doing quite well at The Shaw Festival in 2013, is considered one of Stoppard’s finest plays.
By timeline, it took him five years to write, and it does seem to account for five years worth of thinking. However, I would like to humbly beg – on behalf of audiences everywhere – that if a gentleman has crammed five years worth of his brilliant thoughts into a three-hour play it be given to actors who do not seem quite so very over it.
There’s a lot of theatre packed into the 90 minutes of Metropolitan Operas on stage at Toronto’s Theatre Machine
In the late 1980s, Joseph Pintauro was a darling of New York, writing queerly-inflected bitter/satiric/sardonic plays at an astonishing rate (imagine Daniel MacIvor, but without nearly as much tenderness). After a critically acclaimed book (Cold Hands) and a pair of brilliantly received plays (The Snow Orchid and Men’s Lives) he wrote Metropolitan Operas, a series of 27 short plays meant to be performed in a marathon. They were sharp, mocking and celebratory at the same time, and of-the-moment. Late 80s New York was the time of The Normal Heart juxtaposed against The Wolf of Wall Street, and Metropolitan Operas sent up those familiar characters and more. It was ambitious, uneven, and ultimately quite worthwhile – just like this Witchboy Theatre production.
BEEF explored human connections through dating on stage at Toronto’s The Box
BEEF, as the program points out, could mean the meat of a cow, prepared for cooking or an argument or disagreement. In this performance, burgers are consumed and arguments are aired, as the narrative skips back and forth in time to reveal the relationship timeline of two not-especially-likable characters and their respective quirky pals. As the show carries on, three of the four characters address the audience directly — all but the white straight-boy protagonist, whose motives apparently require no explication? — and give us some insight into how they feel about themselves and their accomplishments.
Whether for reasons of love or austerity one would be hard-pressed to say, but the Canadian Opera Company‘s 2014 presentation of Madama Butterfly (a tragic Italian opera based on a French play about American colonialism in Japan – and the human costs of it) is an item-for-item reprise of the 2009 version – the same set, costumes, and lighting. Only the players are different, which in the case of Patricia Racette as Butterfly makes the 2014 audience very very lucky, and in the case of Stefano Secco as Pinkerton…not so much. Overall, I found it quite uneven – marvelous when it was good, and clunky when it wasn’t.
The COC presents their fundraising OperaNation gala on October 16 at Toronto’s Four Seasons Centre
Kicking forward into the chill of the 21st Century is no easy feat for an opera company, even so fine and distinguished a one as the Canadian Opera Company. The twin plagues of the arts — engaging younger viewers into a lifetime of support and getting attendees to open their wallets in support — are often handled as separate problems. COC will feed two birds with one bag of seed again this year with its ever-fabulous OperaNation gala under the happy eye of COC Director Alexander Neef.
