By Michelle Barker
Do you think you know Hamlet? Yeah, so did I until I saw Necessary Angel’s production of Hamlet at the Enwave Theatre. Continue reading Hamlet – Necessary Angel Theatre Company
Theatre Reviews
Reviews of theatre, dance, opera, comedy and festivals. Performances can be in-person or streamed remotely on the web for social-distancing.
Palace of the End- Alumnae Theatre
by Lucy Allen
If you go to see Alumnae Theatre’s Palace of the End, don’t expect to leave feeling happy. The effectively staged show will leave you more than a little devastated. Thankfully, I knew what to expect from a Judith Thompson play.
Thompson’s play is a collection of three monologues, each focusing on different aspects of the war in Iraq. The three stories, told by a pregnant soldier (Laura Vincent), a weapons expert (Christopher Kelk) and an Iraqi mother (Sochi Fried) are all based on real people, making the stories that much more haunting and potent.
The show is incredibly well put together. All actors are involved in the monologues, whether by speaking them or supporting them from the background. One of my favourite uses of this was having two of the actors be trees, swaying in the background, giving a real sense of place.
No Exit – Electric Company (presented by Nightwood)
By Michelle Barker
What do you get when you combine Sartre, video cameras, and a bellboy? The most confusing good time that you may ever have in a theatre. Continue reading No Exit – Electric Company (presented by Nightwood)
7 Stories – The Canadian Stage Company
By Trent Scherer
Returning to a role he created, Peter Anderson once again steps up to the ledge of a great production of The Canadian Stage Company’s 7 Stories.
Back in 1989, Morris Panych,the playwright, chose Anderson to play the character of ‘The Man’ for the first production of 7 Stories. Along with his set-designing partner Ken MacDonald, Panych directed the original show into winning six Jessie and 4 Dora Mavor Moore Awards.
Rocking the Cradle – Tarragon Theatre
By: Darryl D’Souza
The RCA Theatre Company’s presentation of Rocking the Cradle at Tarragon Theatre is, overall, a good piece of theatre. It wasn’t brilliant, but if you check it out, you may very well learn something profound about human existence from it.
Rocking the Cradle is freely adapted from Spanish poet/dramatist Federico Garcia Lorca’s surrealist masterpiece Yerma by Canadian poet/writer Des Walsh. The story succeeds in part because of it’s universal nature.
Walsh, a Newfounlander, has transposed it from a remote region of Spain to a remote Newfoundland fishing village. In fact, Rocking the Cradle had its first run in St. Johns earlier this year. Continue reading Rocking the Cradle – Tarragon Theatre