(never underestimate) The Power, presented by One Reed Theatre and directed by Paul Thompson, is constructed from a series of monologues/vignettes created by writer-performers, Evan Webber, Frank Cox-O’Connel and Megan Flynn. An exploration of how three different characters were effected by and perceived the August 2003 Blackout (never underestimate) The Power, is set on Toronto’s Queen Street West on the day the power went out.
In 1918 Igor Stravinsky wrote a music theatre piece "to be read, played, and danced". The libretto, which is based on a Russian folk tale, was written in French by the Swiss universalist writer C.F. Ramuz. It is a parable about a soldier on leave, who trades his fiddle to the Devil for a book that predicts the future of the economy, a moral tale of greed and punishment.
Maybe it should be called the Sixth Sense effect. For the third review in a row, I feel obligated to issue a spoiler warning for something that happens in the final reel – er last scene – that impacts on the whole work. Fortunately, there’s no bloodshed involved in the reveal that is meant to unlock meaning in this three-hander.
Ablaze: Rosa Laborde and Jayne Collins play sisters with bite
How exciting to leave a performance feeling energized and smitten, only to become embroiled in a long and animated show-inspired debate in the parking lot. Standing over the gleaming, rain spattered bulk of my mother’s car, watching for the meter maid, I couldn’t resist picking my (probably smarter) friend’s brain.
Medina Hahn contemplates whether Daniel Arnold is a dream man or a creep, photo: Stephanie Hall
Frieda has Alzheimer’s or some similar memory-impairment – her nephew, Matthew, is a drug-addicted beggar who is probably homeless – they meet every Friday in a park, or they’re supposed to but Matthew has stopped showing up or maybe never showed up (it’s not quite clear) – he makes these arrangements by phone –
Why Not Theatre’s I’m So Close It’s Not Even Funny is an exceptional piece of theatre but it’s difficult to write about as a whole because it contains so many different parts and pieces and so many different styles and ideas. The experienced company consisting of Katrina Bugaj, Troels Hagen Findsen and Ravi Jain created the piece and perform it with vigor, ease and delight.
I'm So Close It's Not Even Funny: what time is it again?
A re-telling of Ovid’s story of Tereus, Philomela and Procne, Groundwater Productions' If We Were Birds opens with Philomela (Tara Rosling) appearing from behind an overturned table. She opens her mouth and blood spills from her lips. The echo of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (which was inspired by the same source story) is unmistakable. Unlike poor Lavinia, Philomela has had her tongue sewn back in so she can tell us her tale.
When will you flee? This is the central question of Doug McKeag’s anxiety comedy, Doom 2012. This one-man show is an exploration of the catalogue of misery that awaits us if we don’t learn to read the signs. Although it references Biblical revelations, promises of rapture and Mayan calendars (from where the date 2012 originates) its main focus is on much more scientific or “rationale” predictions of doom such as global warming, peak oil and disease pathologies.
Doom 2012, more proof that people from Calgary are scary.
It has been a long standing joke among my friends that if I’m serious about getting out of this playwriting gutter, I should write a play about the First World War. Because Canadians of a certain age – the types who have season tickets to regional theatre companies – love the First World War. In response to our aging demographics, I’ve considered moving it up a notch by writing about the Second World War instead.
Through his Gracing the Stage newsletter, Steve Fisher is an institution on the Toronto performing arts scene. We’re thrilled to provide Steve’s mini-reviews on this year’s SummerWorks Festival.
We earn love through time. We’ve all experienced love at first sight or an instant connection with someone but to have a true relationship with another person you need to experience things with them; to share joy, loss, trauma, even redemption. We are creatures of experience and memory.
Pelee, don't get too close; photo: Ed Gass Donnelly
We don’t usually have spoiler warnings here at Plank but I feel obliged to provide one with this review because my problem with Raising Luke is the subject of a big reveal towards the end of the play. So, if you like to be surprised and plan to see this play, come back later.
Raising Luke, take Plank's advice, Claire and dump the MoFo; photo: Keith Barker
The “one-hander” is a standard of any theatre festival where the budget is slim and the shows are many. Any show that relies entirely on the skill of one performer requires an actor that is at once endearing, fascinating and impressive.
Rendezvous with Home, photo credit: Michael G Pierson
So, we all heard about the aborted (pun intended) great Pastor Phelps Project Protest of last week. How the real life Pastor Phelps (the subject of the Pastor Phelps Project by Ecce Homo) and his chums from the Westboro Baptist Church were going to come to Toronto and picket the SummerWorks production only to be turned back at the border.
Get out of my head! Pastor Phelps Project, Carey Wass is Fred Phelps, photo: Alistair Newton
I saw The Emergency Monologues immediately after seeing Talk Sixty to Me. I left that show, which used the words of sixty year olds in a highly mediated-form, wondering if the audience had really felt as if they’d experienced something authentic. If they had, then I wish they’d come next door with me and listened to the stories of Morgan Jones Philips.
Trust me, I'm a paramedic, really; The Emergency Monologues; photo by John Philips|
*The Play:* Marla’s Party, an offbeat domestic comedy by Darrah Teitel.
*The Panel:*
*Alison Broverman* is a Toronto-based playwright and arts reporter.
*Andrew Templeton* is a Vancouver-based playwright and accidental reviewer
Marla's Party, nothing like a family reunion to make you realize you're nuts!
*The Panel*
Alison Broverman is a playwright and arts reporter. She fears a zombie apocalypse most of all.
Ann McDougall is a playwright and storyteller. She fears nuclear fallout where everyone mutates and slowly dies, but not before they go crazy and kill each other.
Cosy Catastrophe, Vancouverites bring blood and poop jokes to Toronto.
The Panel:
Alison Broverman is a playwright and arts reporter and a superhero in her mind.
M. John Kennedy is an actor, writer and teacher, often mistaken for his secret identity.
The Play:
Flux, an in-concert reading of an operatic musical about
Scottish history and war by Margaret Sweatman. The play is almost as
confusing as the panel you are about to read.
The Show:
The Pastor Phelps Project, which, thanks to the real threats of protest by the Westboro Baptist Church, is the most notorious show at this year’s SummerWorks Festival.
The Pastor Phelps Project; Carey Wass as Fred Phelps; photo: Alistair Newton
Through his Gracing the Stage newsletter, Steve Fisher is an institution on the Toronto performing arts scene. We’re thrilled to provide Steve’s mini-reviews on this year’s SummerWorks Festival.
Through his Gracing the Stage newsletter, Steve Fisher is an institution on the Toronto performing arts scene. We’re thrilled to provide Steve’s mini-reviews on this year’s SummerWorks Festival.
