Alzheimer That Ends Heimer – part of SummerWorks – opened last night at Factory Theatre and played to an audience about 30 years older than the typical SummerWorks audience. We have aging parents, some of them demented, and are struggling to find the ” lighter side of dementia” promised in the SummerWorks’ program blurb.
Writer Jay Teitel narrates the show which is based on his experience with his father’s Alzheimer’s. The show is billed as a musical but I think that’s a bit misleading. There’s a show within a show that has a few musical numbers but don’t expect catchy songs about dementia.
Generational Politics and Human Relations in “Entitlement”
As a writer, I might not have taken the risk that Sugith Varughese has taken with Entitlement: writing a play about writing has rarely been known to be a successful undertaking. As Vargughese’s main character Anish points out, though – in a charming scene about script structure that probably inspired half the audience to go home and download Scrivener – scripts are only ever about one thing. Entitlement, now playing at the Summerworks Festival, is about the gap between how we imagine ourselves and how others perceive us, and it’s a good exploration of the story.
Delicacy by Theatre Brouhaha opened to a packed audience on Thursday night at the Lower Ossington Theatre for SummerWorks 2013. Kat Sandler’s play began with snappy and biting dialogue, delivered so naturally by Tenille Read (Tanya) and Andy Trithardt (Mark) that I wondered if we had all imposed ourselves on a couple’s living room.
Tanya and Mark are a couple trying to spice up their marriage. They had experimented at a local swinger’s club and are hoping to rekindle the adventure with the same couple. The other couple, Len (Kaleb Alexander) and Colby (Kelly McCormack) enter the home with the confidence of well-seasoned swingers. Slowly the wild fantasy is interrupted by reality, both in a funny and shockingly harsh way.
There are lots of different reasons to pick a show to see at a theatre festival like SummerWorks. I decided to see How to Disappear Completely because I was already seeing something else at Factory Theatre on Thursday and I didn’t want to have to move from one theatre to another. (I didn’t say they were all great reasons…)
There was something about the phrasing of Birdtown and Swanville’s description of their production Family Story that drew me to it: “the youngest Milkaffer daughter tries to figure out why she’s such a loser.” Hmm. So, armed with my own slight ‘loser-ish daughter complex’ I went down to Gallery 1313 excited about what tale might be told here as part of the 2013 SummerWorks Festival. I just came back and… Guys, oh my God, guys – go see this play! For anyone with a family, hell, even if you’re a test tube baby, this production does not disappoint.
Alzheimer That Ends Heimer – part of SummerWorks – opened last night at Factory Theatre and played to an audience about 30 years older than the typical SummerWorks audience. We have aging parents, some of them demented, and are struggling to find the ” lighter side of dementia” promised in the SummerWorks’ program blurb.
