Swim Team (Nowadays Theatre) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Photo from Swim Team at SummerworksSwim Team, a play by Jaber Ramezani, had it’s premier on Sunday at SummerWorks. In the program it says the play is “Inspired by real stories from the world of women’s sports in post-revolutionary Iran…”

The story follows a swimming coach who moves to a place with no water after her students drown in a swimming pool, and the three young women who want her to teach them to swim. Continue reading Swim Team (Nowadays Theatre) 2018 SummerWorks Review

A Room To Perform (Katie Lyle/Shelby Wright)/YES (Linnea Swan) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Photo of Linnea Swan by Tim Nguyen

A Room To Perform/YES, a double bill created by Katie Lyle and Shelby Wright and Linnea Swan respectively, and now playing at the 2018 SummerWorks Festival, is an interesting duo. Both pieces have to do with restrictions in dance, but one embraces the restrictions, while the other rebels against them. It’s hard to be the clinical rules-follower when the cool renegade shows up, so I feel the former show suffers a bit from the pairing, even if it holds its own.

Continue reading A Room To Perform (Katie Lyle/Shelby Wright)/YES (Linnea Swan) 2018 SummerWorks Review

the aisha of is (Sasha John Technique) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Photo of Aisha Sasha John provided by the artist

the aisha of is, presented by Sasha John Technique and performed by Aisha Sasha John at the 2018 SummerWorks Festival, is one of those performance pieces that you just have to cheerfully admit is not created for you, and that’s okay.

The only thing is, I’m not completely sure who it’s for. Primarily, it feels like hallmarks of mystifying ritual that culminate in a cathartic experience for a committed performer; a ritual that, for the most part, I was only allowed to glimpse.

Continue reading the aisha of is (Sasha John Technique) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Adrenaline (Theatre Mada) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Photo of Ahmad Meree in Adrenaline at 2018 Summerworks

On Saturday afternoon I saw 35 minutes of amazing, heartrending, theatre performed in Arabic with English subtitles. Adrenaline is produced by Theatre Mada in Kitchener, a collective of Arab theatre artists living in the Waterloo Region, and is part of SummerWorks.

I watch movies and TV with subtitles often, probably about 20% of the time. For some reason, it never occurs to me to see theatre in languages other than English or French. I guess I assume there wouldn’t be subtitles. I don’t know why I’d assume that. Continue reading Adrenaline (Theatre Mada) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Cafe Sarajevo episode 1 (bluemouth inc.) 2018 SummerWorks Review

Image of cast from Cafe Sarajevo

bluemouth inc. has brought together a unique, engaging, and thought-provoking immersive performance to the 2018 SummerWorks Festival. Café Sarajevo is a performance inspired by the 1971 televised debate between French theorist Michel Foucault and American linguist Noam Chomsky.

It takes the form of a live podcast that explores the idea of borders that divide and unite humanity. Through the use of recorded elements, virtual reality, text, audience participation, dance, and music, this experience is lively, exciting and unlike anything you’ve experienced before.

Continue reading Cafe Sarajevo episode 1 (bluemouth inc.) 2018 SummerWorks Review