When, one by one, I asked my friends to come see East Side Player’s production of Tartuffe by Molière, I didn’t get one taker. Maybe they were scared off by the foreign title and powdered wigs, or were worried that Molière was too 16th-century to be entertaining.
Their loss.
Tartuffe, it turns out, is an insanely sarcastic satire that attacks just about everything you’d like to see attacked–hypocrites, government, dogma, patriarchs and, of course, the ignorant masses. The audience (mostly silver haired) got really into it, cheering as their favourite characters wandered onstage. Didn’t take long to realize why: after getting hit with the first zinger of the night, I didn’t stop laughing till the curtains fell.
Just a forewarning… My laptop got stolen and it’s kind of knocked me off kilter (it’ so posting will be a bit more sporadic and may not be quite up to snuff. Hopefully I will be able to get a new laptop shortly. Now, on to the review…
The production of Black Rider at Tarragon Theatre is an incredible, and bizarre, show. And, really, it’s hard to expect anything else from a collaboration between William S. Burrows and Tom Waits. In fact, Scott, my show-partner for this one, described it as “a hilarious nightmare. I think it’s a pretty apt description actually. If I had been in a different headspace, or a kid, I would have been terrified.
So have you ever wondered what would happen if you put an existential philosophy textbook, a handful of amphetamines and the witty banter that goes on in your head after staying up for 72 hours into a blender?
Eavesdropping on theatre-goers at Canadian Stage Company’s presentation of Frost/Nixon made me feel incredibly young. People were asking each other where they were during what would turn out to be the most-watched interview ever, and I wasn’t even a fetus yet. Full disclosure: I was born in the 80s. I wasn’t around during most of television’s big-time events: Other than September 11th, I can’t think of a single time I’ve been really moved by something on television. Sometimes I’m jealous that I wasn’t anywhere when Kennedy was shot, and that I missed out on the paranoia-fuelled days of Watergate. Reality television didn’t centre around singing back then, but was just a tacky. Frost/Nixon captures that perfectly. Continue reading Frost/Nixon – Canadian Stage Company→
If you’re not in the theatre industry then there’s a reasonable chance that you haven’t heard of the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Which, really, is kind of a shame, ‘cause it’s a pretty cool prize. They awarded this year’s prize last night.
A quick description from their website:
The Siminovitch Prize in Theatre was introduced in 2001 and dedicated to renowned scientist Lou Siminovitch and his late wife Elinore, a playwright. Sponsored by BMO Financial Group, Canada’s largest annual theatre arts award recognizes direction, playwriting and design in three-year cycles
This year it was playwriting. And the award went to Daniel MacIvor – honestly, I’m not sure I could think of a more perfect person for it to go to.
