By Darryl D’Souza

Yesterday I had the pleasure of seeing Over, a very well written play at the Somewhere There Theatre (340 Dufferin St.).  The play is about, among other things, the incestuous love between Mann (played by: Eric Double), and his sister Otter (played by: Julia Nish-Lapidus).  This production of Over is the first play to be performed by the newly formed Theatre Caravel theatre company, whose co-founders are actors: Eric Double and Julia Nish-Lapidus.

Over was written about 17 years ago by Toronto based playwright/performance artist Darren O’Donnell.  This was at least the fourth staging, including one in 1994 by acclaimed playwright/filmmaker Daniel MacIvor.

The play is not a serious drama about the transgression of sexual boundaries between a brother and sister, but rather a comedy very much in the tradition of the Theatre of the Absurd.  While I admit that I didn’t laugh as often as the others in the audience, I certainly did appreciate the calibre of writing.

Continue reading Over – Theatre Caravel →

By Crystal Wood

I attended a workshop presentation of Spin, by theatre creator Evalyn Parry, it was a one-night event as part of the Hysteria Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.

Spin is a multi-disciplinary piece featuring: music, spoken-word poetry, monologues and visual projections. Made up of approximately a dozen segments, I felt the same way about Spin that I do about CDs. (A fitting analogy, I hope, as Parry is also a musician and was in fact selling her CD last night.) What I mean is that I generally don’t like every song on a CD. I love some songs, like a few, and then there are one or two that I feel should probably have been left off entirely. (My show partner, Joanne, was trying to come up with a bicycle metaphor on the way home. Something about how you can love the handlebar streamers but still find the banana seat uncomfortable? I think mine works better).

Continue reading Spin – Hysteria Festival – Buddies in Bad Times →

By John Bourke

Carmen Aguirre, the author and performer of the piece, tells the audience at the opening of the show that Blue Box, is not the real title of the show.  The real title is Blue Cunt, but she thought it would be difficult to publicise with that name.  Fair enough, you really shouldn’t say cunt in public.  It’s impolite. Blue Cunt, by the way, is apparently the female version of Blue Balls, which happens when you don’t get enough sex. I had never heard of it before this show – who says you don’t learn anything going to the theatre?

Blue “Box” is part of the 2009 Hysteria Festival at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.  It is a story pulled from Aguirre’s own life experiences.  It tells of a youth in the Chilean resistance, her two husbands, encounters with a “vision man”, making a living as an arts worker in Vancouver, and having visitations from her dead grandmother.

Continue reading HYSTERIA 2009 – Blue Box by Carmen Aguirre →

By Sam Mooney

Nightwood Theatre’s mission is to produce “essential theatre by women” , and to celebrate Nightwood Theatre’s 30th Anniversary Season they’re having a 4×4 Festival, – 4 plays directed by women.  Tonight my friend Pat and I went to see That Face, playing at The Berkeley Street Theatre, the first play in the series. 

Based on the publicity I was expecting a play about the fun in dysfunctional.  The blurb that I read said that: – That Face is a powerful and darkly comic exploration of children who become parents to their parents.” 

Continue reading That Face – Nightwood Theatre – Berkeley Street Theatre →

By Sam Mooney

Tonight I spent another evening being read to at the International Festival of Authors (IFOA).  I realized that if authors are going to stand on a stage and read, they need to have a stage presence.  That isn’t to say that any of them didn’t, rather some authors had presence in spades.

Linwood Barclay could stand on stage reading from the phone book and manage to stop at a place that would make me rush out to buy the phone book, just so that I could finish reading it.

He read from Fear the Worst.  One sentence.  A brilliant opening sentence.

And then read from his new novel that will be published in the spring.

Continue reading International Festival of Authors – Linwood Barclay, John Brady, Jennica Harper, Ian Rankin →